Vinny O Brien ecommerce consulting

Successful applicants will be awarded funding to support a maximum of 80% of the project eligible costs with a maximum grant of €40,000. BDO Digital have hands-on experience working with the Online Retail Scheme supporting Irish Retailers to grow their business locally and globally. This fund is business critical.

Applications for the EI Online Retail Scheme funding are invited through a public call for submission of projects.

•Call Open date: Now open

•Call Close date: Monday 28th September 2020 at 3pm.

BDO Digital can help your retail business. Utilising the EI Online Retail Scheme, you can be awarded funding up to 80% of the project eligible costs (maximum €40,000). At BDO Digital, we know how to design, develop and enhance your company's capability to use eCommerce. Our expertise and capabilities means we know how to use online an effective channel for customer acquisition, market expansion and cost efficiency goals.

Expert Webinar from BDO Digital COVID-19 Online Retail Scheme Wednesday 9 September 12 midday.

The Enterprise Ireland Online Retail Scheme has been created for Irish Retailers who wish to transform their online capability. BDO Digital will show you step-by-step how you can achieve this during this 30 minute hands-on webinar.

Our BDO Digital Online and eCommerce experts have specific, direct experience of running online businesses. During this 30 minute webinar next Wednesday 9 September, we will show you a detailed framework and process to design, develop and enhance your company's capability to use eCommerce. This BDO Digital Framework is grounded in the realities of working with retailers who have grown their business online. You will learn how to use the EI Online Retail Scheme to grow your business, reduce your workload and maximise your company’s investment in the scheme to deliver real tangible results.

Date: Wednesday 9 September 2020

Time: 12:00

Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pa36XXG8TeGfa-Wz5nNQSQ

What we can do for you.

The grant aims to support the following activities:

Developing an ecommerce strategy for your business
Developing your message and brand strategy for promotion through your website and social media channels
Audit and analyis of your existing website and develop best in class user experiences
Planning and execution of content marketing to grow your awareness in export markets
Implementation of software solutions to bring process efficiencies to your retail business.
Expert consultancy and hands-on support in the execution of the above (1-5)
Training and upskilling of your internal team in best practice digital marketing techniques

The applicant must be an Irish-owned retail enterprise that had 10 or more full-time employees on a full-time equivalent basis on or before 29 February 2020 and has the potential to sustain or create jobs, generate growth in online transactions and with an ambition to internationalise their business in future. An application must be submitted in the name of a company registered with the Companies Registration Office and incorporated in the Republic of Ireland at the time of application. The business must also:

have an existing online presence (e.g. website or social media);
have a retail store and derive the majority of company revenue from retailing products directly to individual consumers on or before 29 February 2020. 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;
must operate a business-to-consumer (B2C) model. Where a company has a mixture of B2C and 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;
must employ at least 10 employees in the Republic of Ireland (on a full-time equivalent basis on or before 29 February 2020);
previous applicants of the Online Retail Scheme who were unsuccessful will be eligible to re-apply with a modified proposal under this Call. Successful applicants in previous calls are eligible to re-apply under this call, once they have fully completed the project previously approved, fully claimed all eligible costs before this call close date and propose a clearly different project to that undertaken under previous calls.

Salary costs of a senior project champion (manager level or above) in the applicant company to work with an external service provider on this project. The costs to support the salary of the project champion must not exceed the external service provider costs. A maximum of 1 internal champion per company is eligible for salary costs;
Fees of established external service provider(s) to develop a digital strategy;
Fees of established external service provider(s) to further develop / enhance the company’s transactional website or online presence. The grant must be used to introduce additional functionality; and
Training Course fees are not eligible, however in-house training provided by an external provider to enable a company develop and maintain a robust online retail operation are eligible. This could include training for CMS, eMarketing, catalogue management, e-commerce systems, SEO, etc.