As Ireland settles into 2026 the gap between traditional retail performance and online growth has never been more pronounced. Overall retail in the country has experienced modest growth of just 1.5 per cent in the past year, according to the Central Statistics Office. Yet the digital landscape tells a very different story.
Wolfgang Digital’s 2026 Online Retail Report shows that Irish ecommerce is surging ahead, recording an average year-on-year growth of 19 per cent. “Online is unarguably the primary growth engine for retail in Ireland,” said Brendan Almack, managing director at Wolfgang Digital.
The report, which analysed €520 million in ecommerce revenue, sought to go beyond the raw numbers. It provides what the company describes as “a roadmap for growth”, highlighting the strategies driving double-digit gains. Key trends include aggressive paid media campaigns, the dominance of multichannel players and the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) as a potential growth lever.
For retailers navigating Ireland’s competitive market, one message is clear: hybrid strategies are winning. Multichannel retailers, those operating both online and offline, are growing at a pace nearly five times faster than online-only competitors.
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According to the report, multichannel businesses saw average growth of 24 per cent, compared with just 5 per cent for online-only operations. They also demonstrated higher marketing efficiency, achieving a return on ad spend of 21:1, markedly above the 16:1 average for all online retailers.
“The debate between pure-play ecommerce and brick-and-mortar is effectively over,” Almack said. “An integrated approach doesn’t just drive revenue, it drives efficiency. If your digital and physical teams are still siloed, you are capping your growth.”
The data shows that a physical presence remains a significant advantage in the Irish market, particularly as global competitors such as Amazon, Temu and Shein intensify local competition. “Retailers need to think carefully about how they leverage their store presence across all marketing communications,” he added.
‘Thirty per cent of the Irish population are using Chat GPT to carry out research before making a purchase decision’
The landscape of search and discovery has shifted dramatically since 2019. Where organic search once dominated, paid media has now taken the lead. Wolfgang Digital found that paid search now contributes 36 per cent of ecommerce revenue, compared with 23 per cent from organic channels, a complete reversal from four years ago.
“There is a strong correlation between media spend and revenue growth,” the report states. Retailers growing faster than the market average increased their media investment by 46 per cent. On average, Irish ecommerce retailers are now investing 10 per cent of their online revenue into paid advertising.
“Paid search is now the single biggest contributor to ecommerce revenue,” Almack said, “and budgets must be defended and scaled.” However, he went on to caution that “the best strategies have a blended approach to paid media and organic search, ie search engine optimisation”, noting that retailers needed to work harder than ever to “grow their organic search visibility and de-risk themselves from an over-reliance on paid channels”.
AI is on the agenda of every board meeting these days, but Wolfgang Digital warns that hype and reality are not yet aligned. While AI-driven traffic grew 81-fold year-on-year, it still accounts for less than 1 per cent of total website traffic.
However, the report notes that the value of AI search may not be fully realised as website traffic just yet.
“Although the proportion of website traffic might seem low,” Almack said, “our recent research with Amárach into how shoppers are using AI search showed us that 30 per cent of the Irish population are using Chat GPT to carry out research before making a purchase decision.”
According to the report, the best step that retailers can take now is start tracking their visibility across AI search. “This has been one of the fastest growing services at Wolfgang over the last six months,” he said.
‘The debate between pure-play e-commerce and brick-and-mortar is effectively over’
Amid social commerce trends and AI experimentation, traditional channels are proving their enduring value. Email marketing, long considered a mature channel, has enjoyed record performance this year. Wolfgang Digital found that email now generates 6.4 per cent of ecommerce revenue on average. This is the first time it has surpassed 5 per cent in a decade of reporting.
Retailers outperforming the market average derive as much as 8 per cent of total revenue from email campaigns, underscoring the ongoing value of first-party customer data.
“As paid traffic dominates, maintaining a direct line to the customer via email and CRM systems is increasingly important,” Almack said. “In an era where website traffic may become harder to come by, these relationships are a critical asset for retailers.”
The 2026 report offers a window into current consumer purchase behaviour, but notes that the job of every marketer is to anticipate how this will continue to evolve. Wolfgang Digital chief executive Alan Coleman said that “in the 2000s consumer behaviour changed as people stopped using the Golden Pages and started Googling. The retailers that invested early in search advertising gobbled up market share for many years.”
Coleman sees a similar shift happening now. “Thirty per cent of Irish people are now researching purchases on Chat GPT,” Coleman said, “but I guarantee you that 30 per cent of Irish retailers are not yet investing in AI visibility. For those that do, there is an opportunity to connect with customers in an uncompetitive space.”
