Some 85% of Irish consumers purchase products online regularly, according to new data on digital consumer behaviour, published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Clothing, shoes and accessories are the most popular online purchases, by 70% of internet users. However, this was down by seven percentage points compared to the previous year, the data showed.
Some 83% of women and 56% of men purchase clothes, shoes, or accessories online, with men more likely than women (27% to 21%) to buy sports goods online.
Also popular among Irish consumes are online streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, GAA+, and Sky Sports, with the use of such services rising by two percentage points, year-on-year, to 71%.
Online ordering
Irish consumers are slightly less prevalent, however, to order takeaways and ready-made food online, with 45% of consumers doing so this year, compared to 46% in 2024. The ordering of meal-kits, recipe boxes, and groceries online remained unchanged, at 14%.
As the data showed, households with children were more likely to order takeaways and ready-made food online (52%), as well as meal-kits, recipe boxes and groceries (18%).
Social media
Social media is becoming an increasingly important communication channel for Irish consumers, with 75% of internet users using WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, X, and others to communicate, up from 73% in 2024, and 71% in 2023.
Social media is also gaining traction among older consumers, with 31% of those aged 75 years or over using social networking sites to some degree, particularly older women (36%), compared to 26% of older men.
Elsewhere, more than two fifths (42%) of respondents had used Gen AI in some form – whether ChatGPT, Copilot etc – in the three months prior to the survey, with its use more prevalent among younger individuals.
The results come from the annual ICT Household Survey, which collects information from people aged 16 and over who used the internet within the three months leading up to June 2025.
As it found, internet use in Ireland remained widespread, with 95% of people using the internet during the reference period. Email was the most common online activity, at 95%, followed closely by online or mobile banking (94%), and finding information on goods and services (92%). Read more here.
