Make your Euros count and buy Irish on Black Friday and Cyber Monday – Higgins

Fine Gael TD for Dublin Mid West, Emer Higgins, has urged people to buy Irish when making their online purchases for Christmas. The Fine Gael Spokesperson for Financial Technology (FinTech) made the call ahead of the release of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

Deputy Higgins said: “This has been a record year for online retail. Irish consumers have more than doubled their online purchases, compared with this time last year. Dubliners, in particular, have embraced online spending and increased their e-commerce activity by over 250%.

“Lockdowns have had a huge impact on our spending behaviour, and with more and more Irish companies now selling online, there is better opportunity than ever before to shop Irish, online.

“Data from Revolut shows that, during our first lockdown, for the first time ever, online sales exceeded physical sales in Dublin. That trend reduced after the easing of the first set of restrictions, but online spending has been growing again since the re-introduction of restrictions. Back in February, 30% of Irish sales were online. That figure increased to 50% by April, meaning that for every Euro spent in our local economy, a Euro was spent online. Meanwhile, physical spend in retail reduced by 16% nationally and almost 14% in Dublin.

“New online directories, like the ‘Shop Ireland’ group on Facebook, and the list of 400 Irish companies complied by The Irish Times, provide lots of local inspiration for people looking for the perfect Christmas gift. The advice to consumers is to order ahead because of the huge volume of parcels being distributed via An Post and courier companies. It has been such a tough year for businesses, and now is the opportunity for us to help them by buying Irish when we buy online.

“The changing spending patterns underline how important it is for Irish businesses to get online, and for Irish consumers to spend their Euros with Irish suppliers. Stripe released statistics showing a significant spike in the number of Irish businesses creating digital shops in May. Their data shows that 350% more grocery shops and food stores are online now when compared with before the pandemic. It also shows that the availability of healthcare items online has doubled since March.

“I advise any small and medium businesses who have not yet developed an online shop to consider this as part of their business plan. The recently expanded Trading Online Voucher Scheme is a great support for businesses considering taking the first step towards developing an online presence. Now it’s up to us as consumers to support them this Christmas”, Deputy Higgins concluded.