GLASGOW'S status as one of the top retail destinations in Britain is as strong as ever after a new survey showed shoppers splashed out almost £830million at city centre stores in just a year.

Spending was up at a time when retailers along the Style Mile get set to rake in hundreds of millions of pounds more during the Christmas rush.

Marketing chiefs reckon up to 11million shoppers will swamp the city centre and could end up spending more than £600million at the tills. Consumer information specialists, Callcredit, say shoppers bought up £829m worth of fasionwear and homewear as well as DIY and electrical productions between April 2012 and March this year.

The money was spent at shops which form the so called Golden Z of Argyle Street, Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street and includes Buchanan Galleries and St Enoch Centre.

That was £25m more than the previous financial year despite tough trading conditions and fierce competition from online traders.

It meant Glasgow city centre retained its fourth place in a national league of retail revenues behind London's Oxford Street and rival city centres of Manchester and Birmingham.

Callcredit official Chris Duley said: "Our latest retail reports highlights the opportunities and challenges faced by retail centres up and down the UK.

"Successful national and international retailers are continuing to extend their store footprint but the wider retail environment needs to be right to attract shoppers.

"The big centres can offer this. The question is can the smaller centres offer this too?"

He reckons major retail centres such as Glasgow are dominating the local area and putting pressure on neighbouring towns and smaller shopping parks.

The survey highlights Glasgow city centre's status as the most successful shopping hub in Scotland.A spokesman for the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau said: "Glasgow's super-league shopping status was confirmed in 2008 when the city was named the best place to shop in the UK outside London's West End by Experian - a position, which they expect the city to hold until at least 2018.

"The strength of our retail sector was further reinforced by independent researchers CACI in their 2011 Retail Footprint index, which confirmed Glasgow as the second largest retail destination in Britain.

"Christmas, specifically, is a crucial trading time for the city's retail industry with over 11 million people expected to visit the city's style mile over the festive period."

It's estimated that more than £2billion is splashed out by shoppers in what officials refer to as the city's Square Mile - an area which stretches from Charing Cross to the top of the High Street down to the River Clyde passed the Trongate in the east to the Broomielaw in the west.

And traders who operate within the Square Mile are gearing up for sales in the run up to Christmas of around £1.2bn with at least half of that money going into city centre cash tills.