New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the outbreak of Covid-19 had a big impact on the proportion of retail sales made online.
In a new set of figures, the CSO said retail sales conducted online rose to 6.5% in December 2021 compared to 4.1% in December 2019.
But following the first lockdown in March 2020, the share of online sales increased dramatically and online sales represented 15.3% of total turnover in April 2020.
The CSO said there were similar but less dramatic increases in the share of online sales in subsequent lockdowns.
The country was placed under Level 5 restrictions for six weeks from October 21, 2020 and was again placed under Level 5 restrictions on December 31, 2020.
After these restrictions, the share of online sales rose reached 12.4% in November 2020, 11% in January 2021 and 11.8% in February 2021.
When sales of cars, car fuel sales and bars are excluded, the share of online retail sales in December 2019 was 6.6%.
This figure increased to 22.7% of total sales in April 2020 during the first lockdown.
In the subsequent lockdowns, the online share was 18.7% in November 2021, 16.1% in January 2021 and 17.6% in February 2021.
Today's figures show that in December 2019, 7.3% of clothing, footwear and textile sales were generated online.
The CSO said this jumped to 66.3% of total sales in the sector in April 2020 during the first lockdown. In the subsequent lockdowns, the online share was 67.1% in November 2020, 62.7% in January 2021 and 65.9% in February 2021.
In the final months of 2021, the online share of sales in the clothing, footwear and textiles sector was 9.6% in October, 14.7% in November and 8.8% in December.
In Department Stores, 5% of sales were generated online in December 2019.
In April 2020, this had increased to 51.1% and the subsequent lockdowns saw the online share of sales by Department Stores reach 28.8% in November 2020.
This was followed by 26.9%, 35.8% and 28.5% over the course of January, February and March 2021.
Meanwhile, in the Household Equipment sector, 8.3% of sales were generated online in December 2019. This rose to 42.6% in April 2020, followed by 20.5% in November 2020 and 15.3%, 17.7% and 16.8% in January, February and March 2021.
Online retail sales from overseas retailers or from Northern Ireland are not included in today's figures.
