Online Retail Scheme – call for retailers to apply from April 29th
Enterprise Ireland will launch the call for funding on April 29th 2020 to support retail companies to enhance their digital capability.
The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) has proposed this Scheme in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
This is a competitive fund which will be administered by Enterprise Ireland on behalf of DBEI with a total fund size of €2million.
Applicants must be an Irish-owned retail enterprise that had 10 or more employees on or before 29 February 2020, derive their primary income from an existing retail outlet/s and have an existing online presence.
The Covid-19 Online Retail Scheme is complimentary to the Online Trading Voucher provided by Local Enterprise Offices for companies with less than 10 employees.
The maximum grant available is €40,000. Successful applicants will be awarded funding to support a maximum of 80% of the project costs. The minimum grant amount payable is €10,000. Costs which successful companies will be eligible to claim for include: salary costs and external service provider fees to develop a digital strategy, enhance the company’s website or to provide in-house training.
The final date for companies to submit an application is 3.00 pm on Wednesday 27th May 2020. Full details of application process and eligibility rules are available on the EI website now with the link to the application available from 29th April: www.enterprise-ireland.com/retail
In addition to fully appraise companies of the application process and the key issues to be addressed in an application, we hosted a Webinar on Friday April 17th . The Webinar was for circa 45 minutes and I would encourage all interested parties to listen to the webinar as it deals with all practical issues to support a successful application . The webinar is accessible through the above hyperlink .
Companies can also contact us if they have any queries on the application process: retail@enterprise-ireland.com