Shopping Trends & Online Searches in Ireland.

Ireland’s market has experienced a great transformation in the recent five years; consumers have diversified their purchasing habits, and products have changed with dynamism in life.

Ireland’s market has experienced a great transformation in the recent five years; consumers have diversified their purchasing habits, and products have changed with dynamism in life. Consumers have accelerated the use of online shopping in the last five years. Moreover, Covid 19 has reduced store purchases forcing rapid growth of eCommerce in Ireland. The term “buy online” has drastically increased from 2018 to 2019, portraying a great use of eCommerce in shopping. Between 2018 to 2019, a sharp spike in online shopping portrays Irish people’s ability shop for products online.

The increasing number of searches for “delivery” also shows an upward trend. Since 2004, the terms show a constant increase until 2019, where it takes a steep rise. Again, this portrays how COVID-19 has affected the consumer’s purchasing by forcing substantial fractions into online purchasing. This trend is expected to continue into 2021 and beyond.

Shopping Local tops the agenda

While most Irish people can shift more into online shopping, they remain mindful of product offers, prices, and sourcing points. A decline in international retailing means that most people have to look for readily available local stores. As a result, this demystifies why the search terms “local” and “Near me” have been on a rise since 2016. The search team “local” rippled between 0 to 80 searches in total. However, since 2019, searches have rippled from approximately 20 to 100 searches explaining the direction taken by Irish people in promoting their local products. Decreased total searches for the search word “foreign” are far less than “local,” portraying Irish propensity for locally made products despite the role played by COVID-19 in disrupting global retailing.

Decreased physical travel and restriction means people have to shop in nearby or readily available retails. The search term “near me” has enjoyed a steady rise since 2016 before seeing a drop in 2018. This is followed by a steady rise between 2019 and 2020, from where it falls and rises again. Nevertheless, average searches for this term between 2019 and 2020 have doubled from the previous year. This demystifies Irish consumers’ intention to support local business and the decline in international sourcing brought by Covid 19 in the last quarter of 2020.

Price is still an ongoing consumer concern

There have been increasing concerns about product prices. There are growing concerns about consumers’ price cross-checks as consumers tend to obtain the best prices for their purchase. Between 2016 and 2020, the search terms “price” increased by 42% from 2,074 searches in 2016 to 3,577 searches in 2020. This shows that Irish consumers are likely to research product prices offered by different retailers before making a purchasing decision.

Offering extra value for loyalty remains a critical concern for retailers as consumers seem to be more grounded and willing to buy where they get better offers. The decline in the economy over years and value for money has made Irish people more concerned about the deals they find. The consumer’s expectation is becoming fluid, and thus, there is an expectation of consumers looking for offers even where they previously did not exist.

Consumers still want value for money

Economic downturns due to COVID-19 have reduced consumers’ disposable income, and hence people will look for offers as much as possible. Product coupons, discount on products, and other product offers, continue to rise attested by the rise in search terms like “promo code,” “discount code”, “discount,” “vouchers,” and “coupon.” The search term “discount” and “discount code” have seen positive growth since 2004, with steady rise recorded between 2018 to 2020.