Irish Net population increases

Nearly 40 percent of Irish adults are online, according to new research from Amarach Consulting.

Internet penetration has now reached 38 percent of Irish adults, up five percent on August 2001.

This is equivalent to 1,065,000 adult users in Ireland.

The study suggests that the rate of growth in Internet use has slowed down in recent years and Amarach forecast that an additional five percent of Irish adults will go online within the next 12 months.

The consulting company also indicates that by mid-2004, almost half the adult population in Ireland will be Internet users.

The study found that the numbers of online shoppers in Ireland has fallen over the last year. An estimated 188,000 Internet users made an online purchase in the last three months compared to 238,000 at the beginning of the year.

In percentage terms, 18 percent of Irish Internet users made an online purchase compared to 24 percent at the start of 2002.

According to the report, travel services, books, CDs and tickets for events continue to be the biggest online purchases among Internet users.

Nearly half of Irish online shoppers claim that the main benefit of shopping via the Internet is the ability to shop at any time of the day or night.

Over four in ten said they could get better deals or cost-savings by shopping online, while 30 percent said that the ability to compare products and prices from different websites was a key reason to shop online.

Around three in ten Irish Internet users said they were likely to shop online in the next three months. However, not having a credit card is the main barrier to online shopping in the country, particularly among younger users.

Security concerns also continue to be a major barrier to online shopping with 66 percent of Internet users agreeing that companies are not doing enough to demonstrate the security and safety of online shopping.

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