Amazon.ie launch: What it means for Irish retailers and local businesses
Paul O'Connor at his store in Ballincollig with shoes that had been ordered on Amazon and were ready to be sent worldwide. Picture: Dan Linehan
On Tuesday, Amazon unveiled its long-awaited Irish store front, a move which the company had been building towards since it opened its first fulfilment centre in Dublin in 2022. Prior to the launch of Amazon.ie, Irish orders through the platform were fulfilled through Amazon.co.uk.
In its announcement, Amazon said it will work with Irish businesses, setting up a dedicated "Brands of Ireland" page.
It is also offering a reduced Prime membership of €6.99 a month which includes delivery on purchases as well as access to its streaming service Prime Video. A Prime subscription to Amazon.co.uk costs £8.99 (€11.26).
However, the website’s launch has received mixed reactions from retailers.
Paul O’Connor, of Paul O’Connor Shoes in Cork, has been trading on Amazon for over 12 years, starting initially with Amazon UK. He now sells his products across 16 different countries.
He said: “This weekend alone, I have generated sales in Mexico, Japan, Canada, UK, and Germany.
“I would confidently and easily say, only for Amazon, I would not exist,” he said, citing the sales he was able to generate on the platform during the pandemic.
Mr O’Connor said that he has no concern about Amazon coming in and hurting brick-and-mortar stores.
“I trade, obviously, from my brick-and-mortar store,” he said.
“I have my own website, and I trade on the Amazon platform. Of the three, Amazon is probably the most profitable of the whole lot.
"For every pair I would sell on my own website, I would sell five on Amazon at a minimum.”
He did acknowledge that there are downsides to trading on Amazon, including the fact that it is expensive and has very strict terms and regulations.
However, Tomás Kenny, of Galway-based Kenny’s Bookshop, is more concerned about the online retail giant moving into Ireland, saying: “People think about books when they think of Amazon, but obviously Amazon sells everything.
"It’s the whole retail landscape in Ireland that I’d be very worried for, because you can buy literally anything on Amazon.”
He said he can understand the appeal of buying and selling on Amazon, but “it’s going to be a really significant problem”, adding that Amazon has hurt retail stores in other countries such as the US and the UK.
A spokesperson for Retail Excellence Ireland said the launch of Amazon.ie represents “both a challenge and a reality that Irish retail must navigate”.
“Important to remember that retail in Ireland employs over 370,000 directly across the country… and when money is spent locally in shops across the country, an estimated 70% of the spend remains in the local economy,” they said.
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