Internet shopping will add an extra six million Euros to the Irish economy by 2016, according to ireland-information.com.
The Amarach Consulting report, commissioned by media group UPC, found that 2.6 million Irish internet shoppers will spend 3.7 billion Euros this year through online payment transactions. This is set to rise by seven percent by 2016, reaching a predicted sum of 5.7 billion Euros.
The report also found that 70 percent of Irish people now regularly shop on the internet – spending an average of 2.6 hours online every day, with an average spend of 116 Euros per month via the internet.
Speaking of the new finding, communications minister Pat Rabbitte told independent.ie: “As a progressive knowledge economy, trading goods and services globally, we need to be better connected than most in the world and we need to embrace the opportunities the internet makes possible.”
UPC Ireland chief executive, Dana Strong, claimed that just over half of businesses surveyed were preparing to expand and hire extra staff over the next two years to deal with added business from online shopping.
She added that companies “clearly recognise the opportunity that broadband represents” and said that up to 18,000 jobs could be gained in Ireland.
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