New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the Covid-19 pandemic made enterprises across the country change how they do business.
The CSO's latest Information Society Statistics shows that one in ten (10%) businesses have set up a website to facilitate online sales while 18% provided a click & collect service.
Almost one in five (19%) businesses said they have seen an increase in sales through websites or apps, while one in twelve (8%) have set up a new social media account and 31% have increased their use of social media during the pandemic.
Today's figures show that 82% of enterprises in Ireland have a website or a homepage in 2021, compared to 79% of firms in 2020 and 2019.
The most common facility provided by a business on their website or homepage were links to references to their social media profiles (43%) followed by a facility to access online ordering or reservations (27%), the CSO noted.
It also said that 40% of enterprises conducted sales electronically with big enterprises having a higher proportion of firms selling electronically at 63% compared to 36% of small businesses.
Meanwhile, 54% of enterprises made purchases electronically, with 33% of enterprises receiving orders online from customers based in Ireland while 10% received orders from the EU.
The CSO figures also reveal that 59% of firms bought cloud computing services this year, an increase from 51% the previous year.
The most common type of cloud computing service was e-mail followed by office software with 47% and 43% of businesses availing of these services respectively.
