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THE AVERAGE IRISH consumer will spend about €227 shopping for Christmas gifts online this holiday season, new research has estimated.
Figures published by Visa Europe this morning said it expected Irish customers to spend a total of €420 million online on gifts in the run up to December 25.
Conor Langford, vice-president of Visa Ireland, said the payments company expected this Christmas to set a new record for online shopping because of continued take-up of internet shopping.
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“With Irish consumers now using a multitude of devices such as smartphones and tablets to buy from the internet, people are more comfortable than ever shopping online,” Langford said.
“In fact by 2020, we expect half of all Visa transactions to be made on a mobile device.”
The body also expects worldwide holiday shopping to peak on Monday 10 December, with €585 million spent by Visa card holders that day alone.
European Visa holders are expected to complete about 7,000 transactions every minute, as more customers opt to shop online for convenience and value.
Visa said €1 of every €8 spent in Ireland last year was spent on a Visa card, making its data a reliable barometer of trends in Irish consumer spending.
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These guys sicken me the way they insist on guaranteeing margins for themselves. Imagine a bike rental guy in the Aran Islands insisting on charging all tourists €50 per hour because ‘last year was a rainy summer’. FBD tried to hike mine but I went to Chill. The industry have the public over a barrel with the compulsory nature of their product. Its analogous to me placing a bet with a bookie, losing, and then robbing the place at gunpoint to get my money back. Yet governments around the world are afraid to stop them. Banks have the same ‘risk is not for us to suffer’ attitude.
That is all to do with Governments obsession with Corpocracy – the interest of the consumer always plays seconds fiddle to Corporations – why could shareholders not be told there had been a bad winter and dividend increases are being withheld for once – rather than effectively steal the losses
back off consumers.
You’re right Jayo….it’s on the consumer’s interest to play insurance companies off one and other….I got my renewal from FBD a few weeks ago, checked around for another quote elsewhere, which in almost ever instance was coming in quite a bit cheaper….rang them back and told them that I didn’t want to move but because it was cheaper with someone else, that I had no other option…..they end up matching the other quotes!! Happy days!!
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