IRISH CONSUMERS SPENT €4,500 a minute buying clothes online on Black Friday last year, according to new data from AIB.

This translates to a total of over 85,000 online transactions on clothes alone, which is almost one transaction a second for the whole day.

On an average day, there would be less than 20,000 online transactions for clothes.

According to AIB, the data was acquired by aggregating over one million card transactions made by Irish consumers on Black Friday.

Clothing ranked the highest in consumer spend on Black Friday 2019, followed by electronics, hardware, health and beauty products and jewellery.

€2,200 was spent a minute on electronics, which is over three times as much as would be spent on a normal day online.

The busiest time for online purchases was between 10am and 11am, while the second busiest was later between 9pm and 10pm.

During these hours, there were almost 4 transactions happening every second. 

Despite Cyber Monday being pitched as the major online shopping day, Black Friday last year managed to outstrip it regardless, with 50% more being spent online on Black Friday.

Rachel Naughton, Head of Small Medium Enterprises at AIB, has said that the upcoming Black Friday is an opportunity for businesses due to the Level 5 restrictions.

“Our data shows that consumers are spending large amounts of money online every minute of the day during Black Friday, which presents Irish businesses with a unique opportunity during this difficult period,” said Naughton.

Where possible this Black Friday we ask customers to support their local business, helping these businesses through this difficult period.

Gardaí have recently appealed for the public to remain vigilant while shopping online, and to avoid scams.