THE AVERAGE SPEND in Henry Street out strips that of Grafton Street, according to a new Millward Brown’s ‘Dublin City Centre Shopping Survey’. 

On average, shoppers over the north side spend €84 versus €57 on Grafton Street.

North side

Shoppers on Henry Street pay more particularly in the €40-€100 spend brackets.

A quarter of visitors to Grafton Street spend less than €10.

The new research carried out on behalf of the National Transport Authority, shows that the average spend on a visit to Dublin city centre comes to €70.

Overall, the time when Dublin shoppers are most likely to part with their cash is during 12pm-3pm, which averages €77.

Spends over €150 are also at their highest during this period.

Weekend visitors spend more than weekday visitors (€77 versus €59). Over a quarter (26%) of weekday visitors spend less than €10, while a fifth of weekend visitors (20%) spend €51-€100.

The study also shows the spend of customers broken down by the type of vehicles that are used to travel into town.

Spends

Those travelling in by car were found to be the biggest spenders, shelling out €117 on average during a day out. They were followed by those who travelled in by rail or DART – who spent an average of €75.

Those who travelled in by bicycle and motorbikes were found to have significantly smaller spends – paying out €36 and €33 respectively.

By purpose of a visit, people coming into the centre for shopping were found to be the biggest spenders – followed by those coming in for social or recreational reasons.

Source: Millward Brown/NTA

The figures show that less than one if five shoppers heading into Dublin’s main shopping areas Grafton Street and Henry Street arrive by car.

Instead a far higher number opt to walk in or to use public transport.

Over a fifth (21%) were shown to walk into town while just under 20% of people were shown to come into town by car.

Overall it was found that public transport passenger, walkers and cyclists account for 80% of all the visitors to the city centre.

Percentage of city centre shops’ revenues analysed by how the shoppers travelled into town Source: National Transport Authority

Speaking about the results, Anne Graham, CEO of the National Transport Authority, said, “we wanted to understand the spend, motivation and travel habits of people visiting Dublin’s city centre, and to measure the impact each transport mode makes on shopping activities in the city centre – to inform our future planning strategies for the Capital City.”

The survey was carried out by questioning shoppers on Dublin’s Henry Street and Grafton Street. A total of 1,671 people were interviewed in the two Dublin shopping areas.

Additional reporting Christina Finn 

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