- Enterprise Ireland launch a call for funding on April 20 to support retail companies to enhance their digital capability.
- Alert SMEs must watch for increased risk of Covid-19 supplier and invoice scams in light of Europol warning
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
- Have a retail outlet and have an existing online presence.
The Covid-19 Online Retail Scheme is complementary 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 consultancy fees to develop a digital strategy, enhance the company’s website or to provide training.
The final date for companies to submit an application is 3.00 pm on Wednesday 20th May 2020. Full details of application process and eligibility rules will be published on the EI website shortly:
To fully appraise companies of the application process and the key issues to be addressed in an application, we are hosting a Webinar this Friday April 17th at 11.00 a.m. The Webinar will be for no more than 45 minutes and I would encourage all interested parties to participate. As we are limited to participant numbers, attendance is on a first come, first served basis. The Webinar will be recorded and available on our website afterwards. Please see the link to share and to register prior to the event : https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8504048846458333451
We are keen to support as many retail companies as possible with the available funding. We would be grateful if you could share this email with your member companies
Your member companies can also contact us if they have any queries on the application process: retail@enterprise-ireland.com
BFPI (Banking & Payments Federation Ireland) and FraudSMART, the fraud awareness initiative led by the BPFI, are alerting Irish SMEs to the increased risk of Covid-19 invoice related scams following serious warnings from Eurpol about fraudulent new supplier websites and domain names coming online. As more and more businesses move online during the current crisis, and accounts personnel work in isolation from home, Irish SMEs are being advised on how best to protect their business and accounts through a new FraudSMART advice which outlines how businesses can identify and protect themselves from these scams.
Click here for further information