The world of retail has been turned on its head over the last decade or so with consumers having more shopping choices than at any point in human history and being able to spend their money directly with factories in China just as easily as on the streets of their home cities, towns and villages.
The pandemic fuelled an explosion in online retail in Ireland, a State where growth had been anaemic compared with some of our nearest neighbours. Covid restrictions prompted - and in many cases forced - shops and shoppers to overcome barriers to spending and selling online faster than even the most optimistic internet advocates would have imagined in pre-Covid times.
Almost eight in 10 internet users shopped online last year according to figures from the Central Statistics Office climbing to over 90 per cent in households with young children.
And we are only really getting started.
Temu - the huge China-based marketplace that puts consumers in contact with factories as far away as it is possible to get, selling millions of products to billions of consumers is only getting its teeth into Irish shoppers while Amazon is preparing to launch a bespoke website for Ireland which will deepen its already significant footprint here.
The Irish Amazon, when it comes on stream next year, will see Irish shoppers get delivery of products faster and avoid additional customs charges that may have been incurred when buying from “third countries” such as the UK or the US.
The platform will also carry more Irish-based items and should make it easier for Irish customers to return products. It will also encourage more Irish merchants to sign up to its platform. According to Amazon’s figures, more than 1,000 small and medium-sized Irish businesses sell through Amazon, generating up to €150 million in export sales in 2022.
But while there are pluses to the growing influence of the biggest online shopping platforms, there are downsides too and consumers will need to make hard decisions in the short, medium and longer term.
A mass migration to giant online platforms will inevitably cause an existential crisis for many small and medium-sized Irish retailers, re-shaping and damaging the Irish retail landscape - both in its physical and virtual form. There will be little point in people mourning the death of Irish retail if they did nothing to support it when it was alive.
In the shorter term, online shopping has other pros and cons.
There is value to be found shopping online for sure - as anyone in love with Temu will testify - and consumers have far more rights when it comes to shopping online. They can return products for any reason whatsoever, a right that is not extended to those who spend their money is physical stores.
They do have to go to the hassle of posting the products back and incurring costs to do so but returns are not the only delivery issue we are facing.
With more people buying and selling online, the demands on delivery companies and delivery drivers have never been greater. The drivers do commendable work, sometimes under huge pressure from multinational companies, but too often their systems are found wanting.
Over recent years, the remarkable sight of parcels big and small being left on door steps and in gardens and communal areas of apartment complexes where would-be recipients are not at home to receive the delivery have become commonplace.
We have heard stories of enthusiastic dogs wolfing down clothes and expensive technology left on the street for all the world to steal. Books and art have been carefully - and sometimes not so carefully - left in wheelie bins unbeknownst to those who own them and taken away by binmen.
It is a miracle that criminals have yet to start routinely following delivery drivers and scooping up parcels left on doorsteps in order to sell them on donedeal or adverts.ie (or maybe they have).
But with carelessly delivered parcels now a feature of the retail landscape who, ultimately, is paying the price?
The bottom line is that a shopper’s contract is with the retailer. And if they pay for a product that does not arrive or is destroyed by weather after being left outside, the consumer has the right to a replacement or a refund. The retailer can then pursue the delivery company.
Or at least that is the theory. In reality, extracting money from the delivery companies can be difficult for the shops and in a dispute, it can come down to the delivery company saying “we delivered it” so tough. That can see the retailer absorbing losses into their business costs but ultimately, inevitably, that gets passed on to consumers.
Delivery problems are not the only concern when it comes to online shopping.
There is also our old friend Brexit. Many websites attractive to Irish consumers are based in Britain and once it left the EU, a whole new tax regime kicked in.
While most larger companies are fully up to speed with tax rules and take tax changes into account in the price Irish shoppers pay at the checkout online, there can still be unpleasant surprises in the shape of pre-delivery tax demands.
There is also confusion caused by companies based in other countries using websites with .ie domains. As many as one in 10 .ie domains is registered to an overseas owner, with businesses based in Britain being the most likely to seek such an address.
And then there are scams. The waves of spam calls and texts claiming people have charges due to An Post, UPS, DHL or the likes to free up delivery of a parcel are relentless, as are purchase scams that lure consumers into making payments for goods and services through an advertisement online, which then transpires to be fake or non-existent.
Scams are only going to get more advanced and the pressure the online retail universe puts on the physical one is only got to get more intense but there is no turning back now. We just need to shop carefully and be aware of the consequences of our spending decisions now and in the future.
You can contact us at OnTheMoney@irishtimes.com with personal finance questions you would like to see us address. If you missed last week’s newsletter, you can read it here.
