Amazon launches its Irish website

The news that many Irish shoppers have long been waiting for has finally arrived! 

Amazon has finally launched a dedicated Irish website, which it says will enhance the retail experience for new and existing customers. 

Ever since Amazon started selling online, Irish shoppers have had to use Amazon stores in other countries - most commonly the UK, which was the de facto Irish site for most. However the German Amazon store has also been popular, though many products often aren't available for delivery to Ireland.

But ever since the UK left the EU, and with it came the imposition of new customs duty charges and VAT costs, the calls for an Irish Amazon site grew louder. 

Work towards developing an Irish site began in 2022 when Amazon built its first Irish "fulfilment centre" in Dublin, which now employs around 500 people and stocks hundreds of thousands of products.

And now Amazon has taken a step further by launching Amazon.ie, making Ireland (with a population of just under 5.5 million) by far the smallest European country with its own Amazon store.    

What does this mean for consumers?

The launch of the new website will have several benefits for Irish users of Amazon. These include:  

• Faster delivery including more same-day delivery options 
• Easier returns 
• More Irish products to choose from and a more localised shopping experience  
• No extra currency conversion fees or customs duty charges at the checkout
• Clearer, local pricing without having to worry about extra fees and charges being tagged on
• The creation of new jobs  

According to Amazon, over 1,000 small and medium-sized Irish enterprises sell with the company already, generating over €150 million in export sales in 2022 alone. And this will hopefully grow over the coming years following the launch of Amazon.ie. 

The launch of an Irish Amazon store will also force other retailers here to up their game, particularly around delivery times, which can only be a good thing for consumers. 

We have been building towards this moment since the launch of our fulfilment centre in Dublin in 2022. It’s a huge undertaking to launch an entirely new country for Amazon. But Ireland has always been somewhere we wanted to continue growing. We’ve invested over €22bn here in the last 20 years, from customer service in Cork to our AWS businesses, our fulfilment centre and our delivery stations. The launch of the Amazon site was a natural next step.

Alison Dunn, Ireland Country Manager at Amazon

Brands of Ireland

Amazon.ie will also include a Brands of Ireland section, which is a collaboration with Enterprise Ireland. This separate store is being set up to help customers easily discover Irish products across a wide range of categories, including health and beauty, home and kitchen, fashion and sport, and to help local businesses achieve greater scale and success.

Amazon Prime 

Irish customers can now also join the Irish version of Amazon Prime, which offers free priority delivery and exclusive deals on a host of products, access to Prime Video (Amazon’s popular streaming service), Prime Gaming, and unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos, for just €6.99 a month or €69.90 if you pay annually. 

Previously, Irish subscribers had to sign up to the UK version of Prime and were charged £8.99 a month or around €11. Being charged in euro means the price won't be subject to currency fluctuations and a currency conversion fee. So this represents a nice little saving - on first glance at least.

However the Irish Amazon Prime doesn't come with Prime Reading while the size of the Irish store is a fraction of the UK one, meaning far fewer products will be available for same-day delivery. Amazon Family, which allows several family members to share the same account, also isn't available. And your purchase history won't transfer over. So you'll need to weigh up carefully whether it makes sense for you to stick with your current subscription or switch it to the Irish one, which you can do by logging into your account. 

A threat to local high streets?

While some may welcome Amazon's further commitment to Ireland, others might lament the impact it could have on local shops and high streets. 

Amazon has come in for criticism in many countries for how it treats its workers with tales of long shifts, mediocre pay, and employees being denied simple things like toilet breaks in some of its distribution and fulfilment centres.

Regardless of your views on Amazon, it's also important to remember that it isn't always the cheapest place to buy something. Although it offers super competitive prices on a multitude of products, local stores can still sometimes be better value. Buying local also means you won't have to worry about delivery delays or delivery charges either.

And of course it may still be cheaper to buy on Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de even after you've factored in delivery fees and charges. On this note, a really handy site to use for comparisons of products on Amazon is Hagglezon. This is a meta search engine for Amazon in Europe. You search for the product you want to buy and Hagglezon will tell you the country where it's cheapest.

In short, as we always say at bonkers.ie, remember to compare prices before you buy something. Even when it comes to Amazon...