Purse strings appear to be tight this Christmas Eve - as last minute-shoppers hit the stores

Today's once again taken the title as the year's busiest shopping day - but peak hour transactions are still lagging behind previous years.

More than 563-thousand transactions went through between midday and 1pm - compared to more than 607-thousand last year, and 627-thousand in 2023.

This follows earlier Worldline figures showing spending last week was also down annually - for core products like clothes and electronics.