Funding of up to €64,000 now available through latest Scheme.
Thu, 5th May, 2022
Enterprise Ireland has just announced another call for its Online Retail Scheme.
A new round of the Online Retail Scheme which supports ambitious Irish based retailers looking to grow and improve sales online and to strengthen their ecommerce capabilities, has opened today.
The Scheme is being administered by Enterprise Ireland and there is €9.3m available in this round of funding.
The purpose of this funding is to help Irish-based retailers with a pre-existing online presence to:
respond to both domestic and international consumer demand for online shopping,
strengthen small retailers in finding and retaining customers with their existing infrastructure,
protect their physical operation by enabling growth through an online marketplace and new shopping avenues,
upskill and retain existing staff or/and create new e-commerce roles.
Comparing to previous calls, this scheme has been modified in several ways, among them:
The minimum project expenditure is €20,000. Applications with expenditure below €20,000 will be considered ineligible
For first time applicants, the grant is calculated at a maximum of 80% of eligible expenditure of up to €80,000. The maximum grant available is up to €64,000.
For applicants who were awarded funding in the previous Online Retail scheme calls, the grant is calculated at a maximum of 50% of eligible expenditure of up to €80,000. The maximum grant available is up to €40,000.
The companies may apply and be granted ORS funding more than twice and there is no 3-year rolling period limitation.
Some changes in evaluation criteria and weighting (including new standalone criterion “Internal Project Champion”)
Who Can Apply?
The applicant must be an Irish based retail enterprise that has 10 or more full-time employees 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:
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)
Successful applicants from previous calls are eligible to re-apply under this call, once they have:
substantially completed the project funded,
proposed a clearly different project to that undertaken under a previous approval.
This completion criteria also applies to related companies within a group structure.
Unsuccessful but eligible applicants from previous calls will be eligible to re-apply with a modified proposal under Call 4 of the Online Retail Scheme.
Enterprise Ireland reserves the right to refuse applications from previously successful companies if it is not sufficiently clear that the project is different to that previously funded.
Key Dates:
Call Open date: Thursday 5th May 2022
Call Close date: Wednesday 1st June 2022 at 12pm (noon)
The workplan and all associated payments must be completed and grant claim submitted to Enterprise Ireland by 4th November 2022.
How to Apply:
The Scheme is a competitive offer. Submission of the project is a two-stage process, a complete application consists of an application form submitted via online portal available on Enterprise Ireland’s website and company’s Statutory Accounts which are no more than two years old submitted via email. These accounts must be received by Call close at 12 noon on 1st June 2022 in order for your application to be deemed valid. Applications in any other format will not be accepted. All sections of the application form must be completed in full. Applicants who fail to submit accounts on time or submit incomplete applications will not be processed by Enterprise Ireland.
