€40,000 Grant Available for Irish Retail Businesses through the Covid-19 Online Retail Scheme

On 31st August 2020, Enterprise Ireland opened the door to applications for the Covid-19 Online Retail Scheme.

As per the Enterprise Ireland website:

“The purpose of this fund is to enable 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.”

Who Is Eligible?

Applications are limited to Irish owned retail enterprise with >10 full time employees on or before 29/02/2020 who:

•  Have an existing online presence
• Drive the majority of their revenue from selling products directly to individual customers
• Operate a B2C model
• Propose a minimum of €12,500 project spend (of which €10,000 will be covered by the grant)

For more information on some other restrictions see here.

What Does The Grant Cover?

The grant is available to cover:

• Research (e.g. technical web analytics audits, analytics insights audits (top performing channels, markets, devices, audiences), competitor audits, conversion rate audits.
• Strategy development (e.g. Development of Digital Strategy Roadmap, Value Proposition Development, SEO and Social Strategy
• Implementation (e.g. platform optimisation, conversion optimisation, search engine optimisation, systems integration)
• In-house training (e.g. CMS training, SEO training, web analytics training)

How Can I Help?

I can help you to:

1. Ensure that your web analytics data is clean, reliable and actionable so you can build out a data driven digital strategy
2. Provide actionable insights from your website in relation to product performance, traffic and revenue, traffic sources and content to inform your digital strategy
3. Identify and fix pain points in your online sales / checkout funnel to improve on-site conversion rates
4. Implement enhanced e-commerce tracking for in-depth insights for your e-commerce store including product impressions, clicks, purchases, add to carts as well as checkout funnel steps.
5. Work with your team to develop a Digital Strategy Roadmap based on identification of Target Audiences and Objectives, KPIs, Metrics, Obstacles, Solutions, Messaging, Comptetiton and Required Content for each of these audiences.
6. Develop and implement an SEO Roadmap to ensure your site attracts as much free relevant organic search traffic as possible, minimising your reliance on paid channels like Facebook and Google Ads
7. Upskill your internal teams on Google Analytics and SEO with in - house training workshops

I have put together the package below for illustrative purposes to show just how much you can get for just €5,600 if you qualify for full funding through the Covid-19 Retail Scheme.

How To Apply?

Application must be made via the Enterprise Ireland Online Application System during the Call open dates. Please note that together with the online application companies MUST provide latest statutory accounts (no more than 2 years old) directly to Enterprise Ireland before the call close date. Upon submission of the Online Application Form you will receive an email with details of where to submit these accounts.

• Call Open date: Monday 31st August 2020
• Call Close date: Monday 28th September 2020 at 3pm

If you'd like any assistance with your application or if you have any questions around how I could help you with any of the tasks I've outlined above, feel free to get in touch with me here or at [email protected]