Irish retail sales rose last month with the Republic’s Central Statistics Office saying that December retail volumes were up 0.9% month on month and 3.9% compared to a year ago.

That said, excluding Motor Trades, the volume of sales rose by 0.3% on the month and by 1.8% on the year.

The value of retail sales was up by 2.1% in the month and rose by 6.9% in the 12 months since December 2022.

It’s pleasing that among the highest month-on-month volume increases were  Clothing, Footwear & Textiles (+2.1%), and Department Stores (+1.9%). That’s a contrast to Ireland’s neighbour across the Irish Sea, the UK, where December sales surprisingly went into reverse and where the fashion sector was among the losers.

Yet while fashion sales rose month on month in Ireland, on a year-on-year basis, Clothing, Footwear & Textiles dropped by 0.7% and Department Stores by a much worse 8.2%.

The stats office also said that proportion of retail sales transacted online via Irish registered companies was 5.8% in December 2023 compared with 5.7% in November 2023 and 6.3% in December 2022.

Despite that wider year-on-year drop for fashion, Bernard Nulty, Director at Falcom AM — asset managers for the key Blanchardstown Centre destination — was upbeat about the overall positive figures. He told us: “These positive movements align with what we’re seeing on the ground here at Blanchardstown. Christmas trading and footfall was robust, despite cost of living pressures – driven by gift-buying, grocery shopping, festive socialising, in-centre experiences and promotions.

“Footfall for 2023 as a whole was the highest in the centre’s history at 17 million, up 6.25% on pre-Covid highs. Full year like-for-like sales were also strong – sitting 3.2% up on 2022 and 8% up on 2019. It feels as though physical retail has really regained its purpose following the disruption of the last few years and we’re optimistic about the months ahead.

“We expect performance to continue to track positively for January and February.”

The news from Blanchardstown Centre suggests a similar pattern to that in the UK where the top destinations are winning out at the expensive of smaller malls.