€250m expected to be spent on Black Friday sales with annual online spending forecast to reach €16bn
€250 million is expected to be spent on Black Friday sales this year as Irish consumers continue to spend despite a recent weakening in consumer confidence.
Despite ongoing worries over the possible negative implications Brexit could have on the Irish economy, the latest Consumer Market Monitor (CMM), shows that the economy is continuing to grow strongly with personal spending up by 3% in the first half of this year.
The latest CMM, published by the Marketing Institute of Ireland and UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, shows that the move towards online retailing is continuing unabated.
€250 million is forecast to be spent by Irish shoppers, with €100 million spent online and €150 million spent with traditional retailers, according to Marketing Professor Mary Lambkin of UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, author of the report.
Online spending is forecast to reach €16 billion this year, up 16% on 2018, with 40% of this spending being on online retailing with the balance being spent on services such as flights and mobile top-ups.
Online retail spending will account for €6.5 billion, equating to 13% out of a total €48 billion retail spend.
Chief Executive of the Marketing Institute of Ireland, Tom Trainor, said:
Whilst higher wages and improving household finances are welcome developments, Irish retailers must urgently lift their game in order to win greater shares of online spend.
Ireland's retail sector got off to a strong start in this year with sales up by 5.8% in volume and 4.2% in value year-on-year.
Momentum slowed in Q2, with volume up by 3.6% and value up 2.2% year-on-year. The third quarter has been relatively strong, up 4.2% in volume and by 1.8% in value year-on-year, according to the CMM.
This amounts to an average of 4.5% growth in volume and 2.7% growth in value for the year to the end of September which is consistent with 2018.
Household equipment continued to be the fastest growing category this year, up by 13.2% in volume and 5.9% in value in Q3, year-on-year. Sub-categories within that - electrical goods and furnishings - did exceptionally well, up by 18.0% and 6.6% respectively.
Supermarkets and other food stores also performed very well, as did pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
Department stores and the motor trade were the weakest categories in Q3, down by -6.5% and -4.5% in volume respectively.
Here is a breakdown in retail sales this year:
- Food sales up 5.2% in volume and up 4.5% in value;
- Non-specialised stores (supermarkets) up 5.6% in volume and 4.5% in value;
- Household equipment up 13.2% in volume and 5.9% in value;
- Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics up 5.6% in volume and 3.0% in value;
- Clothing, footwear & textiles up 1.4% in volume but down -0.7% in value;
- Fuel up 0.8% in volume but down by -0.5% in value;
- Bar sales up 0.6% in volume and down -0.7% in value.
- Books, newspapers and stationery down -3.1% in volume and -1.3% in value;
- Motor trades down -4.5% in volume and down -3.5% in value;
- Department stores down -6.5% in volume but down -9.5% in value.
