Shoppers are out in force as online spending takes a hit
SHOPPING in person has bounced back as people returning to offices coincided with a dramatic dip in online spending, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
City centre trade throughout the country was devastated by lockdowns but good times are in store for retailers.
‘Last week we were at 93% of 2019 levels,’ Cathy O’Donnell of retail and culture group We Are Dublin Town, told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
‘While we are still seeing Monday-to-Friday footfall trending below weekends due to the absence of office workers, the gap is narrowing,’ she added.
It is a similar story in Galway, according to Eyre Square shopping centre manager Niall Donoghue. ‘Footfall is very close to 2019 levels,’ he said.
‘There’s been a steady increase month on month since January.’
Kate O’Dwyer, co-owner with Louise Flanagan of Kalu. a popular boutique in Naas, Co. Kildare, told the MoS that their customers are delighted to be back.
‘We have been incredibly busy
‘Women are having fun getting dressed up again’
since we reopened. Women just love to come in and physically try clothes on. When people come to visit our shop, they will stay for three or maybe four hours to try on many different outfits,’ she said.
Fashion lovers are also spending more but buying slightly less said Kate as consumers opt for more eco-friendly fashion.
‘What we have noticed is that people are buying far more savvily,’ she said.
‘They will buy a really good pair of jeans for perhaps €200 to €300 instead of buying three less expensive pairs over the course of a few years.
‘And of course, women are really having fun getting dressed up again and looking for dresses or outfits that they can wear out to events or weddings or just going for nights out,’ she said.
Retailers hope the trend will continue as they work to draw people offline and through their doors.
Dublin City Centre has seen footfall surge this year with a weekly increase of 22%.
We Are Dublin Town said a weekon-week increase is a positive sign for the struggling hospitality and retail businesses which have been badly affected by the lack of footfall in the city over the past two years. The footfall figures are collected using cameras at key locations, with raw data analysed by international experts Springboard, which also monitors footfall in New York, London and Chicago.
The return to stores has seen a downturn in online shopping which surged during the pandemic. The latest figures collated by the Central Statistics Office demonstrated a decline as consumers ditch the virtual for the reality. In January 2022, only 5.8% of Irish retail sales in Ireland were online, compared to 9.7% in December 2021, and an all-time high of 15.3% in April 2020 following the first lockdown in the country on March 27, 2020.
Kate O’Dwyer said that Kalu has welcomed a host of new customers as an offshoot of upping their online game during the pandemic.
‘Before everything we didn’t really have too much of an online presence. Because of the type of shop we are, our primary focus was always instore. But naturally, during the pandemic we increased our online social media presence.
‘Now they are travelling to Kalu from all over,’ she said.
And it’s not just online clothes shopping that has dipped. Supermarkets have also seen a shift back to more traditional methods of shopping.
Shoppers are returning to stores and getting less delivered with a 15% drop in online grocery sales worth €9.4m in the last month.