Irish ecommerce shoppers are predominantly buying from overseas, according to Galway Independent. The result of this online behaviour is that Ireland's ecommerce industry is beginning to fall behind those of its geographical neighbours. Emma Sinclair, a speaker at October's Ireland's Internet Day conference, said that Irish web users were expected to “spend 487 billion Euros across Europe in 2016”, but spent as little as 9 billion Euros with Irish retailers. The problem behind this issue is that only a quarter of Irish SMEs “sell online”, leaving buyers with little choice within Ireland. The Irish politician Hildegarde Naughton said that implementing high speed broadband was a priority for the government, which she hoped would lead to “economic growth and prosperity” in the country, through increased ecommerce sales.
