At the start of the new six-week lockdown last October, Ryan Tubridy implored listeners to his radio show to "abandon Amazon for the next few weeks" and shop locally instead of bolstering the coffers of the world's biggest online retailer. His plea prompted Pamela Laird, founder of beauty business Moxi Loves, to tweet in defence of Amazon, citing how small- and medium-sized Irish brands also sell on the platform. "I feel like I'm alone in this, because Amazon is this big giant," says Laird, a former finalist on BBC One's The Apprentice. "But the people selling on there aren't big - they are just small businesses trying to reach a mass audience. For us, it's trying to be where the customer shops. You are not going to beat them so you might as well join them."