Stores are offering up to 70 per cent off in early sales as they look to clear stock left after train strikes cut shopper numbers by a quarter.

Cut-price deals and an end to last week’s train strikes should make today what retail experts are calling Stampede Sunday – a £3 million-a-minute spending burst.

Stores including John Lewis, Zara, Marks & Spencer, Currys and Argos are all slashing prices ahead of even bigger discounting due from Boxing Day, retail experts PwC said.

Some ten million of us are expected to go shopping today, as this is the final weekend day before Christmas without train disruption. Springboard, the retail analysts, told The Mail on Sunday that train strikes were the main reason footfall last week was down a quarter across High Streets, shopping centres and retail parks compared with 2019 – the last normal, non-Covid year.

Yesterday, High Streets had 28 per cent fewer shoppers than on the same Saturday in 2019, and even 4 per cent fewer than last year, when Omicron savaged trading.

Footfall was also down 8 per cent on last Saturday. Central London was worst hit, down 23 per cent on last week, Springboard said.

Shops now have a few days to make up lost sales – said to total £1.5 billion when also taking into account the effect of postal strikes on online sales, the Centre for Retail Research said.

Springboard’s insights director Diane Wehrle said: ‘The first half of next week is important for shops, since at the end of the week many Britons will pack up and head to where they need to go, especially with strikes planned for Friday in some areas, and more widely on Christmas Eve.

‘Shops need a good few days and they should get it. Sunday to Wednesday will be up from last week – and last year. But down on 2019. Lots of people will be out on Stampede Sunday.’

The impact of the strikes means around £750 million is set to be splashed in shops in just six hours today, a GlobalData retail study for VoucherCodes showed.

Spending will peak between 12pm and 2pm, with £180 million an hour – or £3 million a minute – set to rattle through tills. It will be the highest spending rate of the year.

It was initially projected that £970 million would be spent on Super Saturday yesterday, but spending was hit by the rail strike.

GlobalData retail analyst Joseph Robinson said: ‘The spend per hour is usually higher on Sundays due to shorter trading hours, and this Sunday even more so.

‘The impact of the Royal Mail strikes is also encouraging people to visit physical shops rather than spend online. Many will want to watch the World Cup final at 3pm, so the rush will be pushed to earlier in the day.’

Lisa Hooker, from PwC, said ‘promotional levels from mid-December were creeping up versus this time last year’. She expects shops to ‘participate in Boxing Day promotions with greater gusto than in previous years’.

She added: ‘The few who leave the Christmas shopping to the week of Christmas may grab an unexpected bargain. Retailers will be keen to not start 2023 with too much stock due to the worry that inflation will leave a credit-card hangover for shoppers.’