Online shoppers took full advantage of extra shopping time with retailers reporting a surge in online shopping all over the country throughout ‘Toasty Thursday’ and today, “White Friday”.
As shoppers take advantage of online offers during unexpected time at home, strong online sales are expected to continue over the weekend as retailers seek to recoup revenue lost through store closures with special online offers.
“We are seeing high volumes of sales from Irish and international retailers translating into packet and parcel volumes on our data systems” said Garrett Bridgeman, An Post Managing Director of Mails and Parcels. Full-scale deliveries will resume as soon as the road conditions allow.
“We’ve just opened a new An Post Parcel hub beside our Dublin Mails Centre to improve capacity, efficiency and facilities for customers and staff.
“We’ll also be piloting a new online ordering and delivery service for small Irish retailers in Bantry, Ennis and Mullingar this month,” he added.
Irish online fashion retailer Vavavoom.com says the current weather crisis has been very good for business at a time when the winter sales have finished and Spring styles are coming on sale. “We’ve seen a 25% spike in sales since the onset of the snow,” Vavavoom managing director, Paddy King explained. “The Beast has brought lots of business”.
Holland and Barrett distribution manager for Ireland, Jonathan Heffernan reports a similar uplift in online orders to their Ballina distribution centre. “It’s a time of year when people are particularly health conscious and sales of natural medicines and wholefood stuffs would be strong anyway but there’s been a huge surge in online sales over the last two days. We’re already busy getting orders ready for despatch and delivery.”
An Post advises customers to be sure to use their full delivery details and eircode or AddressPal address when ordering online.