Vol. 7, Issue 3 | September 2015
Update from Ireland
By Fergal Doyle
Garden retail is mostly gearing up for Halloween and Christmas now and Autumn has turned out to be very slow with sales mainly due to a lack of momentum coming from a poor summer. Despite this the industry and country in terms of retail remains positive. Budget day in Ireland will be October the 13th and our Minister of Finance is expected to announce a budget that will keep the country on steady growth. Retail excellence Ireland are launching a new national gift card which will be sold through leading load partners like TOPAZ fuel stations and will be accepted by retail excellence members. The subsector REI – Garden Group will have a Garden Card within two Years.
REI Garden Group is planning the next phase of our Gro Mor campaign for spring 2016. The aims will be to support centres with a calendar of events in stores that the members will get behind, this will be backed up by a celeb Ambassador, travelling Road show, website and installed POS. This week I was fortunate to be invited to the European E-Commerce meeting held in Dublin. One of the key speakers was from Ireland’s and Europe’s leading low cost airline speaking about his companies digital strategy for Europe and interestingly they are remaining low cost but becoming more customer focused and concerned about their experience. His parting words of wisdom to us retailers was “Don’t let your systems back end rule your retail front end”
Fergal Doyle
Arboretum; Chairperson, REI Garden Group
