Irish consumers will spend 31% more on Christmas this year

The average Irish shopper will buy twenty-two Christmas presents this year, which is an increase of 31% compared to last year. On average, Irish consumers will spend 266 euros on holiday gifts. Of these gifts, twelve of them will be bought online this year.

Leaving aside the spending on holiday gifts, Irish consumers will also spend a further 270 euros on Christmas-related products, like food, cards and decorations. This is according to research that’s conducted by Imagine Marketing of behalf of eBay Ireland. Also, one of the findings of the research, combined with eBay’s own forecasting tools, indicates that one in five consumers in Ireland will use their smartphone to do their Christmas shopping while at work. About one in three Irish people (31%) wants to have jewelry of watches, as these items top their Christmas wish lists.

22 million euros spent on Cyber Monday
According to recent research done by Visa Europe Irish consumers are expected to have spent 22 million euros on Cyber Monday, which would correspond with an 17% increase from last year. “One euro in every €4 of Irish consumer spending is now on a Visa card. Over the course of the month of December alone, Irish online shoppers will ring up 7m e-commerce transactions with their Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards, bringing the total level of e-commerce spending over the four-week period to €474m.”