Online Retail Scheme 2023

Today the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (DETE) has proposed a further call for Online Retail Scheme applications. This new wave of support has a total fund size of €3.4 million.

Applications for funding are invited through a public call for submission of projects.

• Call Open date: 4th April
• Call Close date: 3rd May at 12 noon
• Here is a link to the Enterprise Ireland website

What kinds of services are eligible for the Online Retail Scheme grant?

The purpose of the Online Retail Scheme is to help retailers to increase in their customer base and build a more resilient business in the domestic and global marketplace both online and offline. The scheme focused on three key areas in which retailers may be eligible to receive grant support to achieve.

Typical elements involved in developing a sophisticated and transactional online presence include:

Research:
In-depth analysis of the company’s current and potential online presence and capabilities, target audience and brand. This research should help the applicant make informed decisions about e.g. optimisation of online marketing channels, web functionality, payment systems specification, catalogue presentation, supply chain management, consolidated inventory systems, order fulfilment and consumer experience.

Strategy development:
For businesses who are new to online this might include development of a written digital strategy and a roadmap for implementation including resource and business process considerations
For those already online, strategy may involve ensuring that the company’s online presence is being fully optimised.
Consideration of omnichannel offering is important (including marketplaces and social media) for all businesses in 2023.

Implementation:
Optimising the company’s online presence to ensure domestic and international visibility and enhancing related “back end” systems (e.g. product presentation, supply chain management, systems integration to improve consumer experience etc.).
In-house Training and/or consultancy help for knowledge transfer to the team and internal project champion to maintain a robust online retail operation, for example, e-marketing, catalogue management, e-commerce systems etc.

Previous years utilising the Online Retail Scheme grant

StudioForty9 has experience of working with over 75 successful grant applicants in 2021 and 2022.

We have been able to help businesses submit and successfully implement their projects across many aspects of the scheme. 

• Ecommerce strategy development
• Internationalisation strategy development
• Custom user experience and design
• Custom EPoS / ERP Integrations
• Ecommerce growth through increased customer acquisition and customer retention
• Data driven paid social marketing
• Advanced segmentation and email workflows
• Search engine optimisation performance marketing and content planning

Who can apply for the Online Retail Scheme grant?

In order to apply for the Covid-19 Online Retail Scheme, you must be an Irish-owned retail enterprise meeting the following criteria:

• Have an existing online presence (e.g. website or social media)
• Have a physical retail store and derive the majority of company revenue from retailing products directly to individual consumers:
• Where a company provides both products and services, the applicant must provide a breakdown of sales revenue showing that products account for more than 50% of total revenue for a recent trading period, which may be up to the call close date
• Where a company has a mixture of business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) operations, the applicant must provide a breakdown of sales revenue showing that sales from B2C activities account for more than 50% of total revenue for a recent trading period, which may be up to the call close date
• Employ at least 10 employees in the Republic of Ireland on a full-time equivalent basis in the latest accounting period or has grown to this level since that date (up to the date of current call open of 4th April 2023)
• Successful applicants from previous calls are eligible to re-apply under this call if they satisfy the following conditions: have been awarded Online Retail Scheme grant before once only (second time applicants), completed the project funded and proposed a clearly different project to that undertaken under a previous approval.

Eligible expenditure and limits

The grant is calculated at a maximum of 50% of eligible expenditure of up to €50,000. The maximum grant available is up to €25,000.

The minimum project expenditure is €20,000. Applications with expenditure below €20,000 will be considered ineligible.

For full details please visit Enterprise Ireland website.

Why build your online success with StudioForty9?

StudioForty9 are experts in everything ecommerce and a recognised leader in the Irish digital sector, with an award-winning and proven track-record of delivering, maintaining and continuously improving high-performance ecommerce and omnichannel retail solutions for the Irish retail industry.

The StudioForty9 team is experienced, innovative, and committed to excellence and we count some of Ireland’s most experienced ecommerce professionals among our number.

Our experience and ability has led us to work with some of Ireland's leading household names in retail. We have helped those companies to grow their business in Ireland by capturing extra market share and serving their in store and online customers across a wider range of commercial channels as well as overseas, by opening up previously inaccessible markets and building the integrations, automated processes and workflows needed to help scale an online business for international sales.

We have a significant depth of experience to draw on and can boast of work as varied as the award winning website with Petstop to helping scale DID Electrical to tens of millions of Euro in online sales.

We are at the forefront of Irish ecommerce and ahead of the pack when it comes to implementing innovative and complex ecommerce solutions for omnichannel and international sales at scale, while also excelling at design and customer experience, and keeping right up to date with ecommerce trends and new requirements in compliance and regulations.

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