An Post: Online sales snowballing on “White Friday”

Even snow clouds can have a silver lining for someone. While Ireland’s high street shops may have suffered as people elect to stay home and out of the cold, many online retailers have done rather well out of the beastly weather.

Ireland’s postal operator An Post announced today (2 March) that retailers are “reporting a surge in online shopping all over the country throughout ‘Toasty Thursday’ and ‘White Friday'”.

An Post continued: “As shoppers take advantage of online offers during unexpected time at home, strong online sales are expected to continue over the weekend as retailers seek to recoup revenue lost through store closures with special online offers.”

The An Post statement quoted Paddy King, the managing director of Irish online fashion retailer Vavavoom.com, as saying: “We’ve seen a 25% spike in sales since the onset of the snow. The Beast has brought lots of business.”

Garrett Bridgeman, An Post Managing Director of Mails and Parcels, said this would mean extra business for the delivery sector: “We are seeing high volumes of sales from Irish and international retailers translating into packet and parcel volumes on our data systems.”

On the downside, in some areas the physical deliveries may have to wait for the weather to improve. An Post advised that: “Full-scale deliveries will resume as soon as the road conditions allow.”

An Post also used today’s statement to say that it has just opened a new Parcel hub beside its Dublin Mails Centre, and it will also be piloting a new online ordering and delivery service for small Irish retailers in Bantry, Ennis and Mullingar this month.