It is estimated that Britons will be spending £5.5 billion during the sales in January.
The high street was very quiet in the run up to Christmas as people waited to spend their money on luxuries at greatly reduced prices after Christmas.
The amount of money predicted to be spent is £1.7 billion more than last year. Much of this month’s purchases will be made using vouchers, £2 billion, which were received as Christmas presents.
A survey conducted by Direct Line home insurance showed that the 2,345 surveyed would spend £40 more in the sales this year than the average spend of £85 in 2005.
Traders will be relieved to hear the outcome of this survey after fears of a slump in the retail industry.
Recent figures from retail monitor Footfall showed that the levels of shopping rocketed up by eight per cent in the last two days before Christmas. This was mainly due to the fact that many had started their sales early, but the figures were still down by 12 per cent for that week overall.
Half of the people surveyed said that they held back on their pre-Christmas spending preferring to wait for the January sales.
Many people, 2.73 million, asked friends and relatives for cash or gift vouchers as presents, preferring to buy items of their choice.
Popular purchases were clothing and shoes in particular, with one in five people looking to buy a pair. Electrical goods were the biggest area of spending with TV sets and DVD players being the most popular items.
Although spending per head had gone up, the amount did vary according to what region people lived in.
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