Irish consumers will spend €356m online on Christmas presents, with €172 spent per shopper, research from Visa Europe suggests. Data from Eumom.ie says 40pc of women will shop online.
According to Visa Europe, 9 out of 10 Irish adults plan to buy some Christmas gifts online, with men likely to spend €192 each and women to spend €162 each online.
The main reason for this was for the savings, with 85pc believing they could save 18pc by shopping online instead of the high street.
Some 74pc of respondents said shopping online is safe and secure, and 66pc said they liked the protection that paying with cards gives them as opposed to cash.
Visa Europe has said that today will be the busiest day of the year for online shopping for Europe, aligned with the US’ Cyber Monday, the Monday after the US Thanksgiving.
There could be more than 6.6 million transactions over Europe today alone, averaging at 4,500 sales every minute.
Transactions will peak at lunch hour, between 1pm and 2pm. The second peak will be at about 7pm, when employees return home after work.
As for high street shopping, due to Christmas falling on Saturday this year, Visa Europe predicts that Thursday, 23 December, will be the busiest shopping day of the year.
Eumom.ie’s data revealed that 40pc of women will shop online.
In keeping with saving money, 84pc of shoppers said they would like to receive discount codes and coupons through their mobile phones.
