Christmas retail cheers way up Down Under

Christmas shopping here is likely to hit a peak on Friday with the sad lament of Australia's retail doldrums likely to be swept away this summer in a funk of Christmas spending.The National Australia Bank (NAB) has studied a slew of seasonal factors including a patchwork quilt of final pay cycles combining to make this, the last Friday before Christmas, Australia's busiest shopping day for the festive season.This Christmas NAB is expecting a peak of 8.7 million ATM, EFTPOS, debit and credit card transactions processed in a day, with a peak transaction rate of about 230 per second - almost 1 million more than last Christmas.This compares to a daily average of 5.6 million transactions processed throughout 2013, with a peak transaction rate of about 170 per second.The NAB analysis shows the holiday season is traditionally about twice as busy as the rest of the year."In previous years the week before Christmas has been the busiest for traditional retail shopping and our analysis shows that Friday 20 December is likely to be the busiest shopping day this Christmas," an NAB spokesman said in a statement."So if you've left your shopping until the last minute our advice is to get in early to beat the crowds and remember to take advantage of extended trading hours where you can."This is music to the ears of retailers, long condemned to the back of the economic bus, driven for almost a decade by a resources boom that has divided wealth between sectors and states.leave it in the freezer andkey programmer cookies to bake fresh whenever you need them during the holidays.While Aussie consumer sentiment dropped 4.8 percent in December, but despite the lag other indicators point toward a robust Christmas period for retailers.

Retail trade published its strongest result for three consecutive months to October, with Queensland and Western Australia leading the way above other Australian states.GM TECH2Australia's Bureau of Statistics (ABS) retail analysis reveals six consecutive months of positive results and this suggests consumer confidence has finally returned to the market.The Commonwealth Bank surveyed 1,000 of its customers and found Aussies are looking to spend more than 18 billion Australian dollars this Christmas, with the next few days expected to be the busiest time for retailers.Aussie consumers will spend 2.2 billion Australian dollars more in 2013 than they spent last year.Almost half expect to do their Christmas shopping this weekend, the bank's survey of 1,000 people showed.More than 7.9 billion Australian dollars is expected to be spent on Christmas gifts, over 100 million Australian dollars more than a year ago.Another 4.3 billion Australian dollars will be laid out on Christmas holidays,x431 while cash will also be splurged on entertaining and going out.Head of CBA local business banking Adam Bennett said businesses will need to do the legwork, to cash in on the cash."My advice for businesses is to ensure they have enough staff and stock to cover both pre- and post-Christmas shopping to help maximize returns over this crucial trading period," he said.