Globalisation describes how countries, businesses, and people connect through the exchange of goods, services, ideas, and technology. In the Junior Cycle exam, you need to explain how these global connections and digital advances change what consumers choose, how they spend money, and the benefits or challenges trade brings to Ireland.
What drives globalisation
Globalisation creates a single worldwide marketplace where goods and information move across borders every day. Three main changes made this happen:
- Digital technology: Smartphones, fast broadband, and retail apps connect Irish shoppers directly to international sellers.
- Modern transport: Air cargo, container ships, and motorway haulage move physical orders between continents in days.
- Open trade: Trade agreements and Ireland's EU membership remove customs barriers and tariffs on goods moving between member countries.
Irish consumers no longer depend only on local high streets. A teenager in Galway can order runners from Germany or stream entertainment made in South Korea with a few taps.
How globalisation widens consumer choice
Consumer choice means the range of goods, services, and sellers available for you to buy from. Global trade and the internet give consumers far more variety than any local shop can stock on its shelves.
- Massive variety: Shoppers can buy overseas foods, foreign fashion labels, and specialised hobby gear that no Irish firm manufactures.
- Constant access: E-commerce platforms never shut their doors, so you can browse and order products day or night.
- Instant price checks: Comparison apps let buyers compare prices across dozens of retailers in seconds.
When foreign firms like Amazon, Zara, or Shein sell directly to Irish buyers, local businesses face strong competition to keep prices fair and product quality high.
How digital trade changes consumer behaviour
Consumer behaviour describes how people act when searching for, buying, and using products. Technology has changed our everyday spending habits:
- Impulse buying: Saved card details and one-click checkouts make spending effortless, which tempts people into buying things they neither planned for nor need.
- Checking reviews: Consumers now read star ratings, video demonstrations, and customer feedback before spending their money.
- Less town footfall: Buying from home leaves local town centres with fewer shoppers, putting pressure on family-run shops.
- Social media pressure: Online influencers and viral trends create sudden demand for global brands, making young shoppers copy worldwide fashion habits.
- Surprise fees: Ordering items from websites outside the EU can lead to extra VAT, customs duty, and postal handling charges at delivery.
Benefits and challenges of international trade
Ireland operates as an open economy that trades freely with other nations. This brings clear gains alongside real difficulties.
- Benefits: Irish companies gain access to huge export markets abroad, like Kerrygold selling butter globally. Multinationals like Apple and Intel create direct jobs and pay company tax in Ireland. Consumers also get cheaper goods and wider choice.
- Challenges: Local shops struggle to match the prices of massive overseas corporations with lower production costs. Multinational employers can be footloose, meaning they might close an Irish branch and move elsewhere if costs rise. Long-distance freight also produces heavy carbon emissions and packaging waste.
Key terms
- Globalisation
- A process of international integration emerging from the interchange of world views, products, services, ideas and other aspects of culture.
- Digital technology
- A set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information.
- Consumer choice
- The range of products, services, and suppliers available for a buyer to select from.
- Consumer behaviour
- The habits, actions, and decisions people make when buying and using goods or services.
- E-commerce
- The buying and selling of goods and services over the internet.
- Export
- A good or service sold by an Irish business to a customer in another country.
- Import
- A good or service brought into Ireland from another country.
- Footloose business
- A company that is not tied to a particular location and can easily relocate its operations abroad.
Check yourself
What is the official definition of globalisation?
A process of international integration emerging from the interchange of world views, products, services, ideas and other aspects of culture.
Give one way digital technology encourages impulse buying.
Saved payment cards and one-click buying make checkout instant, giving buyers no time to reconsider.
What is meant by a footloose business?
A business not tied to one area that can move its operations to another country if costs or profits change.
State one environmental challenge caused by the globalisation of trade.
Moving goods across the world by air, sea, and road burns fossil fuels and creates high carbon emissions.