The Online Retail Report - 19% Growth for Retailers Online in 2025

As we settle into 2026, the divergence between general retail performance and digital has never been more stark. While the CSO reports modest retail growth of 1.5%, the online sector is surging ahead, recording an average year-on-year (YoY) growth of 19%.

Online is unarguably the primary growth engine for retail in Ireland.

Within the Wolfgang Online Retail Report 2026, we have tried to offer more than just metrics - we’re outlining a roadmap for growth. We analysed €0.52 billion in e-commerce revenue to identify exactly what is driving double-digit growth. The data reveals a landscape defined by aggressive paid media strategies, the dominance of multichannel players, and a nascent but exploding AI frontier.

Here are the critical insights every retail marketer and leader needs to know to guide their strategic decision-making this year.

1. The Multichannel Retailer 

The debate between "pure play" and "brick-and-mortar" is over; the winner is the hybrid model. Multichannel retailers are growing nearly 5 times faster than their online-only counterparts.

• The Growth Gap: Multichannel retailers saw 24% average growth compared to just 5% for online-only businesses.
• Efficiency: They also outperformed the market in marketing efficiency, achieving a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) of 21:1, significantly higher than the average of 16:1. This is calculated based on total online revenue divided by total paid media investment. 

The Takeaway: If your digital and physical teams are still siloed, you are capping your growth. The data proves that an integrated approach doesn't just drive revenue - it drives efficiency. Don’t forget, these ROAS figures are conservative for multi-channel retailers since they ignore the in-store impact of digital. This remains one of the biggest untapped opportunities for multi-channel retailers.   

There has been a surge in online competition from global beasts such as Amazon, Temu, and Shein. What we are now seeing is that having a physical presence is a competitive advantage in the Irish market. Retailers need to think carefully about how they leverage this across all of their marketing communications.  

2. Pay-to-Play….and Grow

The days of relying primarily on "free" organic traffic to drive topline revenue are way behind us. Since 2019, we have witnessed a complete reversal in the search landscape.

• The Flip: In 2019, organic search drove 35% of revenue and paid search 20%. Today, paid search dominates at 36%, while organic has slipped to 23%.

• Investment Correlates with Growth: There is a strong positive correlation (0.59) between media spend and revenue growth. In fact, retailers that grew faster than the market average increased their media investment by an average of 46%.

The Takeaway: Growth in 2026 requires investment. With paid search now the biggest single contributor to e-commerce revenue, budgets must be defended and scaled. On average, e-commerce retailers are investing 10% of their total online revenue into paid advertising. 

Big tech’s business model is funded by advertising so they were always going to continue to squeeze organic or ‘free’ traffic. That doesn’t mean that it’s not worth fighting for - a blended approach to paid and organic search is required in order to de-risk your business from an over-reliance on paid channels. 

3. The AI Reality Check: Customer Behaviour vs Website Traffic 

Artificial Intelligence is on the agenda of every board meeting right now, but the data suggests we are in the early adoption phase rather than a revolution in traffic volume.

• Explosive Growth, Small Base: We tracked an 81x increase in AI-driven traffic YoY. However, this still represents less than 1% (0.23%) of total website traffic.

• The Customer Behaviour Lag: Website data metrics need to be balanced with an understanding of how customer behaviour is beginning to change. Wolfgang’s own research with Amárach showed that 30% of the Irish population is using ChatGPT to carry out research before making a purchase decision. 

The Takeaway: Don't expect AI to suddenly become the biggest source of traffic and a key question is still whether AI research will ever manifest proportionally as website traffic. Notwithstanding this, getting to grips with how your brand is showing up in AI is crucial in 2026.  

4. The Resurgence of Email and the "Retention" Imperative

Amidst the noise of social commerce and AI, a traditional channel is having a record-breaking moment.

• Email generated 6.4% of revenue this year on average - the first time it has surpassed the 5% mark in a decade of reporting on these figures. 

• Retailers that are growing faster than the average are generating 8% of total revenue from email marketing.   

The Takeaway: First-party data continues to be a hugely valuable asset. As paid traffic dominates and we begin to enter an era of agentic commerce where website traffic could be harder to come by, having a direct relationship with a customer via a channel like email and CRM is crucial.  

5. The Value in Social 

The impact of social media continues to be under-valued when measured via last click in Google Analytics. 

• On a last click basis, social media generates 4% of online revenue
• Social media cost-per-clicks are between 28% and 48% less expensive than Google paid search.   

The importance of social media in an integrated strategy is undeniable, and its impact will span organic search, paid search and direct traffic channels. 

There are many studies, including our own, that show the correlation between social activity and brand searches, for example.

The Takeaway: The social attribution riddle may never be solved, so expanding your view of social performance beyond last click revenue is crucial to avoid under-investment in a channel capable of growing brands.  

Benchmark Your Performance

Beyond the insights above, there’s always an appetite from e-commerce professionals to benchmark their performance. With that in mind, we have summarised some key e-commerce benchmarks that should help answer some of those frequently asked questions: