‘Shops will close’ - retail trade body’s warning after slack Christmas sales

The busiest ever Black Friday period sucked up a significant proportion of conventional Christmas demand, according to Retail Excellence Ireland

Christmas shoppers on Dublin’s Grafton Street: sales nationwide are down this year, according to retailers Picture: PA

Ireland’s largest retail industry body has said that shops will close in the first quarter of 2018 as a result of disappointing Christmas trading.

Christmas 2017 trading is on a par with last year, according to Retail Excellence Ireland (REI), which described the final week of pre-Christmas trading as “less than robust”.

The busiest ever Black Friday period sucked up a significant proportion of conventional Christmas demand, according to the organisation.

In addition, ...