Last orders for your email to Santa

IT’S coming up to last orders at Ireland’s online wine shops, with most of them bringing down the metaphorical shutters in the next few days — although of course most online wine shops do also trade in physical bricks-and-mortar stores, most of which will remain open up to Christmas Eve.

These final days for orders do allow a little margin of error — for instance the delivery information on Wine Online (at www.wineonline.ie) says, “the last official day for accepting orders for delivery by Christmas is Sunday December 19...” But they go on to say that orders received after that date will be processed but may not be delivered before Christmas.

The online retailing boom (and not just the wine sector) in Ireland has been accompanied by faster and more reliable delivery systems. Apart from goods like computers (which aren’t held in stock but imported and/or assembled when your order goes in) the bulk of consumer orders from online stores seem to take two days and often less.