According to a survey by fintech firm Revolut, Irish companies secured 71% of Black Friday profits this year, certainly turning Black Friday green. A monthly report conducted by Revolut, monitoring its’ 1.5 million Irish consumers, revealed more than 50% of all Black Friday shopping took place in store showing a preference for the physical shopping experience amongst Irish consumers.
However, when it came to online shopping, foreign business secured 67% of Irish consumers sales. This contrasts to last year’s online performance where Irish websites acquired 40% of Black Friday online transactions, demonstrating a 6% decrease. Particular sectors where Irish companies dominated in online sales this year include furniture, home furnishing and toys at 68%, sportswear at 65%, and electronics at 64%. On the other hand, a majority of sales for foreign websites were attributed to books and clothing.
Although consumers are making efforts to support local businesses, it is more important than ever during the final few days before Christmas to support Guaranteed Irish businesses and prioritise the local economy. Irish consumers may feel hesitant to shop online due to concerns regarding online security and safety when it comes to personal data breaches and online transactions.
In the run up to Christmas, .IE and Guaranteed Irish encourage consumers to seek out the .ie domain to discover businesses with an Irish connection. To assuage safety concerns, a simple hack for ensuring you are safely browsing the web is to always look for websites whose address begins with a https:// (as opposed to a http). This indicates a more secure internet connection when buying online from websites which use an encrypted protocol to increase security. Guaranteed Irish and .IE are determined to see trends of online shopping through Irish websites grow.
Guaranteed Irish Gifts, GuaranteedIrishGifts.ie is a secure platform where consumers can ensure they shop locally through a .ie domain and support local Irish business. Consumers have access to 100s of locally based businesses, safe in the knowledge that Guaranteed Irish Gifts has sent you to a reliable website.
“A large shift was seen last year in Irish consumers who were really shopping with a conscience and opting to purchase locally. The numbers show this trend continuing with almost 75% of Irish companies retaining Black Friday profits and really boosting the Irish economy, given the local multiplier effect. In the final lead up to Christmas and even into the January sales, we urge Irish consumers to maintain this sentiment when shopping in-store and online.” says Bríd O Connell, CEO of Guaranteed Irish.