The tool is the first of its kind to be made available to businesses across Ireland and will be free to over 20,000 existing AIB Merchant Services customers and any new customers from today.

It comes at an important time for businesses as many reopen for the first time in months, and will provide them with valuable insights to help them attract customers, rebuild their sales and grow. The tool will analyse card activity, presenting the insights through an online platform in an easily understandable and digestible way. All information used to provide the insights is aggregated and non-identifiable.

The tool will also use non-identifiable sector data to show businesses how they compare against a group of similar businesses in the area. Users will also be able to see customer insights such as average spend, demographics and spending patterns.

Data from AIB Merchant Services shows that consumers are using cards more, with card sales up 46% in hardware stores, 35% in grocery stores, 74% in garden centres and 34% in fast food restaurants when compared to pre-pandemic* levels. With such high card usage among consumers and the shift towards spending locally, Main Street Insights can provide business owners with detailed information about how their business is performing.

Some of the insights available to businesses and how they could be used include;

• Demographic breakdown including gender, age category and general location of customers -this may help them decide on product offerings or future locations if expanding, while allowing them to create more targeted social marketing campaigns with minimal spend and maximum results. It can also be used to assess the effectiveness of any such campaigns or activities
• Breakdown of sales among new and returning customers - this may encourage them to offer incentives to new or returning customers to drive revenue.
• Overview of revenue and transactions on a monthly, weekly, daily and hourly basis - this will provide a comprehensive overview of their business and can help identify when they may need more or less staff to cover demand.
• Overview of how a business compares to a group of similar businesses in the area - this will allow them to adapt their offering or prices as required. For example they may see similar businesses do better trade at certain times or on certain days which may inform decisions about adjusting their opening hours.

Hubert O’Donoghue, General Manager AIB Merchant Services, said ‘We’re delighted to launch Main Street Insights for Irish businesses across the country, helping them manage their day to day operations and grow over the coming months as they navigate a path out of Covid. Running a business day to day is a full time job, leaving little time to gather data and customer insights. With this tool, business owners can allow AIB Merchant Services to do some of the work in the background, presenting them with easy to understand charts and graphics showing them how their business is faring in general, and against other groups of similar businesses.’’

Fergal Coburn, Chief Technology Officer, AIB, said ‘Having endured months of closure as a result of Covid-19 restrictions it’s encouraging to see so many businesses reopened and serving their customers once again. Over the coming months we all need to support these businesses in any way we can, which is what we’re doing by providing this new innovative tool to both new and existing AIB Merchant Services customers.. While owners are busy running their businesses, AIB Main Street Insights will analyse their card sales, giving them valuable insights which can help them make informed decisions and grow their operations.’