More than 50,000 Tauranga shoppers are estimated to be out in force today, battling crowds and car park shortages as they gather last minute Christmas presents.

Already today about 19,000 shoppers have passed through Palm Beach Plaza in Papamoa, and an estimated 28,000 will track through Bayfair Shopping Centre in Mount Maunganui before the day ends.

A full to the brim carpark at Bayfair Shopping Mall today. Photos: Bruce Barnard.

The two centres' managers are thrilled with the hefty foot traffic saying it's a great thing for the retailers and for Tauranga City as a whole.

Bayfair centre manager Steve Ellingford says the mall today is 'very good”.

'It's following on from a great yesterday. Today is tracking along probably very similar to last year Christmas eve, it's been very busy early on, but there seems to be a very good feel.”

Just less than 32,000 shoppers passed through Bayfair yesterday, and Steve expects about 28,000 will visit the mall before today ends.

On a standard Saturday during the year foot traffic is about half of that number, he says.

'The retailers are all very happy, and people seem very positive this year. December is a great month.”

Palm Beach Plaza centre manager David Hill says the plaza has been 'manic” today and yesterday.

'Yesterday and today it's like all our Christmases have come at once. Yesterday we had 22,000 people come through, and we have just clicked over 19,000 today.”

He expects about 30,000 will have shopped at the plaza today by the time doors close.

On a standard shopping day the plaza sees about half that amount, says David.

Cars line up for parks outside Bayfair.

The keen buyers are contributing to another solid week of Christmas shopping regionally and nationwide.

New Paymark figures show Western Bay shoppers spent more than $225million in the first three weeks of December – up 6.6 per cent from the $212.7m spent in the same time last year.

Nationally, Kiwis spent more than $1.3billion between December 15-21 alone. Friday, December 20 was the busiest day, with $235.6m going through the tills – up 5.7 per cent on the same day in 2012.

Paymark head of sales and marketing Paul Whiston says the figures do point to some variances.

'The annual growth rate has slowed as the month has progressed, from 8.6 per cent in the first week of December to a 6.9 per cent average over the month-to-date.

'Whether that reflects better planning this year or a reliance on the next two days will be interesting to see.

'We are also seeing the positive influence of higher tourist numbers and construction activity coming through in pre-Christmas spending.”

Paymark, which processes around three quarters of all electronic transactions in New Zealand, saw growth momentum sustained across a number of sectors including accommodation (11.9 per cent), restaurants, bars and cafes (10.4 per cent), food takeaways (10.4 per cent) and hardware / building supplies (10.1 per cent).

Clothing retailers and book shops are showing low growth or falling sales, which Paul suggests could be down to a rise in internet spending.