Ireland's Retail Economy 2022

Most Active Trading Days

The Trading Day & Product Profile Survey (TDS) is conducted once every five years with the primary purpose of maintaining the accuracy and objectivity of the Retail Sales Index (RSI). It updates the breakdown of sales by day of the week and by business group. These data are published by the CSO for the first time here.

The results from the 2021 survey indicated that in general, there was an upward trend from the beginning of the working week towards the end of the working week and into the weekend. Friday was the most active day for shopping, followed by Saturday, while Sunday was the least active.

Few business groups do not adhere to the trend outlined above. For example, only Bars and Department Stores stand out as having more activity than average on Sundays.

Proportion of Retail Sales by Day

All business groups benefit from increased activity on Fridays, but some do not sustain this through to Saturday. Fuel and Pharmaceutical & Cosmetic Articles are busiest on Fridays, whilst Department Stores, Clothing, Footwear & Textiles, Other Retail Sales and Bars have the highest proportion of their sales on Saturdays.

Non-Specialised Stores (incl. Supermarkets), Department Stores, and Fuel providers are the most consistent business groups, as they display the lowest variability in sales throughout the week.

In some cases, a business group that is most active on one day becomes the least active on another. This can be observed with Food, Beverages & Tobacco and Bars.

Looking at results from previous surveys and taking Non-Specialised Stores as an example, in the past 20 years shopping on Sunday has become more popular, whilst shopping on Friday has become less popular. The general trend has moved slowly toward a more consistent weekly shopping pattern.

Online Retail Sales

The collection of online sales data in the Retail Sales Inquiry began in November 2018. Until 2020 and pre-pandemic, the percentage of online sales in Irish registered enterprises in Retail (All Business excluding Motor Trades and Bars) remained stable. The proportion of sales transacted online ranged from 5% to 6%. The average for 2019 was 5.5%. This tended to peak in November each year to approximately 8% for ‘Black Friday’.

In April 2020, around the time of the imposition of the first pandemic-related restrictions, the proportion of online sales transactions increased significantly to 22.7%. While the overall volume of retail sales fell in April, the closure of non-essential shops and outlets saw many consumers move online to purchase goods. As traditional outlets re-opened in June 2020, the proportion of transactions online fell back to 8.6%. Since then, the average proportion of sales transacted online in 2021 was 9.8%, and 7.0% for 2022.

The proportion of online sales in the Food Sector has remained low with an average of 1.7% in 2019, 2.5% in 2020, 2.8% in 2021 and 3.2% in 2022. In contrast, the proportion in the Clothing, Footwear & Textiles business group increased from an average of 6.1% in 2019, to 24.1% in 2020 and reached a high of 27.6% in 2021. Since COVID-19 restriction were lifted, it has decreased to 10.1% in 2022.

Debit and Credit Card payments

The majority of personal card payments in the Retail Sector were conducted using debit cards, with credit card payments making up fewer than 20% of card payments since April 2015. The amount spent using cards has increased over the years and the spikes in November and December each year are quite evident.