Visa Report: eCommerce spending up by 15.4%
The latest figures in Visa's regular Irish Consumer Spending Index have revealed an overall slowdown in household expenditure, combined with a jump in eCommerce typical of Christmas shopping season
Print12 January 2017
The final month of 2016 saw overall household spending slow down further, according to Visa Europe’s latest Irish Consumer Spending Index. As is typical of the Christmas shopping season, consumer spending was up +3.6% year on year, but marginally slower than the +3.9% rise the previous month. While spending has increased continuously since the Index was established, this represents the slowest rise since its inception in September 2014.
The contrast between face-to-face spending and eCommerce continued through December, as the floudering Pound enticed shoppers to purchase from UK retailers online. eCommerce spending continued to increase at a substantial pace, +15.4% year-on-year, despite a slight easing from the record spending seen in November due to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions.
Meanwhile, face-to-face spending decreased for the third successive month, but the -0.3% year-on-year decline was only marginal and better than the November performance.
Despite the overall slowdown, December was a month of positive growth in all sectors with the exception of Clothing and Footwear, which continues to struggle, showing a decline for the fifth straight month.
Commenting on the Consumer Spend Index, David Fitzsimons, CEO Retail Excellence Ireland, said: “This data is concerning from an Irish high street perspective. Key issues influencing the downward trajectory include post-Brexit and Trump sentiment erosion, migration online to UK websites, the rise in discounting activity as sell-through rates struggle, a lack of fluidity in the Irish house market and a period of very clement weather in the run up to Christmas which impact heavily on all fashion categories.
“We have noted a significant increase in online activity,” he adds, ” especially with .co.uk websites during a period of sterling deflation. This comes alongside a 30% increase in parcel deliveries from the UK to ROI and an 80% increase by Parcel Motel.”
Related Articles
Visa Consumer Spending Index shows further spending growth →
Fans 0
Followers