- Every €10 spent on Irish products generates more than €40 of benefit to local communities
- The campaign is for Christmas and beyond encouraging people to think local when they spend throughout the year
ISME launched on 9th November its ‘Shop Local – Not Just for Christmas’ campaign, highlighting the importance of supporting Irish businesses throughout the year. ISME hopes that their members across Ireland offering business to business services, consumer products and services across the retail, hospitality and personal grooming sectors will join this initiative and avail of the opportunity to promote their business free of charge.
Every €10 spent on Irish products generates more than €40 of benefit for related businesses, which highlights the importance of shopping local to maintain employment in our communities.
As businesses face into the Christmas shopping period, ISME is encouraging consumers to not only shop locally this festive season, but to make a conscious effort to continue to support Irish businesses in 2021. Irish SMEs are currently facing significant pressure with business closures and other restrictions associated with COVID-19. This is further amplified by rising insurance costs and Brexit.
Neil McDonnell, CEO of ISME said: “It is more important than ever before to shop local, and this year we want to encourage consumers to continue to support Irish SMEs beyond the Christmas period and throughout 2021. The difficulties faced by Irish businesses since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic are very serious, and SMEs have had to make significant investments in enabling online offerings, purchasing equipment, and implementing procedures to adhere to Government guidelines, including screens, PPE and outdoor dining facilities.”
ISME is encouraging Irish consumers to think of the bigger picture when supporting Irish businesses. As well as employing local people, SMEs also carry a high percentage of locally produced goods and revenue and employment is generated in other local services and suppliers and other small firms.
Neil added: “Since March, Irish consumers have largely moved away from international online shopping, as 53%[i] estimate that they have done most of their online shopping with Irish SMEs. Buying Irish-made goods and services helps to ensure their quality, traceability, and value-for-money. Over the coming months, we are calling on Irish consumers to continue this trend and make that effort to shop locally, both online and in person.”
To find out more about the campaign and to explore the list of businesses involved in the ‘Shop Local – not just for Christmas’ campaign, please visit: https://isme.ie/shop-local and follow the campaign on Twitter at @isme_ie .
ISME have produced a poster that business can download from here and display online or at their premises.
[i] Since COVID-19, research conducted by IE Domain Registry in partnership with Digital Business Ireland has shown that Irish consumers estimate that they have done most of their online shopping with Irish SMEs (53%) versus international retailers (47%). These figures were the opposite before the coronavirus crisis (52% international compared to 48% Irish).
