Tills are ringing: Shoppers set to spend €4bn this Christmas

Retailers are predicting a bumper spend by consumers this Christmas, which is expected to be the biggest since before the economic crash in 2008.

Consumers are hitting the streets in their droves, and splashing the cash, according to Retail Ireland, which says this will be the best-performing Christmas in seven years for shops.

Retail Ireland said it now expected core retail sales for December 2015 to reach €4.05 billion, up by 3.5 per cent over 2014.

It also predicts that Irish households will spend an average of €2,450 this December – €600 more than the average monthly spend.

When it comes to food, families across the country are set to spend almost €550 million, over €34 million more than last year.

A report by Webloyalty into Irish Christmas spending found that almost half of households will spend over €150 on their turkey, ham and all the trimmings this festive season.

"Categories such as electronics, fashion, footwear and furniture are all outperforming the market," Retail Ireland director Thomas Burke said.

Webloyalty said grocery giant Tesco is expected to have the highest footfall of all food retailers as a quarter (26 per cent) of people surveyed indicated they planned to complete their Christmas shopping there.

Cloud computing and big data company EMC, which employs more than 3,000 people in Ireland, is advising mobile users to stay alert for cybercrime when they shop online this Christmas and in the New Year sales.

"From 2013 to 2014 we saw an 80 per cent increase in fraud coming from mobile apps or web browsers, and attackers are continuing to develop new capabilities very quickly in mobile," EMC Ireland country manager Gerry Murray said.

Beauty products

He said the overall book market is expected to be up in value terms over the Christmas period versus last year. Beauty products and fragrances will lead the growth in the pharmacy sector in the run up to Christmas, with the sector expecting strong growth in the region of 4-5 per cent.

He said opportunistic cybercriminals use malware and phishing to hijack financial information for fraudulent purposes. Many will send emails that on the surface appear to be from banks, insurers or retailers, but are in fact convincingly disguised spam messages that capture private information, such as bank details.

“When it comes to buying gifts on the internet, use trusted retailers and big-name brands. Avoid sites and apps that tout suspiciously low prices and improbably quick delivery times for in-demand products,” said Murray.