Due to unprecedented demand, a further €5.5M has been made available to the COVID-19 Online Retail Scheme. This fund will enable successful Irish-owned retailers to enhance their digital capability and to develop a more competitive online offer that will enable an increase in their customer base and build a more resilient business in the domestic and global marketplace, both online and offline.
Successful applicants will be awarded funding to support a maximum of 80% of the project eligible costs with a maximum grant of €40,000. We expect this to be a very competitive round.
When Round 1 of this funding call opened last May, abcommerce worked closely with 8 retailers on their applications and we are delighted to announce all 8 submissions were successful in securing funding.
You may be approached by 3rd parties to do an application for you. It’s important that you contact us first as we have a structured approach for working with 3rd parties to ensure that they work with your technology correctly – and we can then fit them into this structure as part of your application. This way you get the best out of their skillset.
For existing abcommerce clients, this is an excellent opportunity to further develop your digital capacity and take your existing site to the next level and transform your business. Costs that are covered under the grant include:
Salary costs of a senior project champion (manager level or above) in the applicant company to work with abcommerce Fees of abcommerce to develop a digital strategy
Fees of abcommerce to further develop/enhance the company’s transactional website or online presence. The grant must be used to introduce additional functionality
In-house training for eMarketing, catalogue management, e-commerce systems, SEO, etc.. provided by abcommerce to enable a company to develop and maintain a robust online retail operation
Applications for funding are invited through a call for submission of projects.
Call Open date: Monday 31st August 2020.
Call Close date: Monday 28th September 2020 at 3 pm.
For more info on the grant and eligible activities click here.
If you are thinking of further developing your online capabilities and bringing your online store to the next level or considering a migration to the abcommerce platform we can tailor make a solution for you and assist you in compiling your grant proposal.