BRUSSELS: Early forerunners of the digital transformation of Irish businesses could be witnessed in Michael O’Leary’s transformation of Ryanair 16 years ago from a sleepy regional airline into Europe’s biggest airline thanks to an adroit appreciation of the internet and e-commerce early on.
A more recent example could be Nightline Couriers’ creation of Parcel Motel to enable consumers all over Ireland have e-commerce purchases delivered to petrol station forecourts of their choosing all across Ireland.
However, recent figures from the IEDR reveal that 91pc of SME businesses have websites that can’t handle e-commerce transactions despite Irish consumers spending approximately €4.5bn online in 2014. Christmas 2015 will only see that amount increase with most of that going overseas.
