Irish slow to adopt ecommerce

Lack of credit cards to blame...

Irish internet users are trailing their UK counterparts in e-tail, due largely to the fact that 63 per cent of the population do not have credit cards. Just 15 per cent of Irish internet users shopped online in the past three months, compared with about 30 per cent of UK users, according to a survey from Irish market research house Amarach Consulting. While internet penetration is expected to reach 43 per cent of the Irish adult population by 2003 a further 47 per cent of adults surveyed said they will never use the internet.