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ONLINE RETAILERS IN Ireland need more support and legislative help to surmount barriers to growth here.
This is the message being relayed to Taoiseach Enda Kenny this morning as he takes part in his very first webcasted consultation meeting. He is meeting a range of companies who are interested in growing their business through online, whether in a retail capacity, promoting their products or services or reaching new consumer markets.
(The meeting can be viewed on TheJournal.ie from noon. The Taoiseach’s department is hoping tweeters will have their own conversation on the happenings under the hashtag #retailroundtable)
One of the dozen or so companies participating in today’s discussion is Adverts.ie (which is part of the same Distilled Media Group), an online marketplace for goods and services.
Gordon Stewart, the Adverts.ie spokesperson attending the meeting, said he welcomed the opportunity extended to businesses to discuss the situation with the Taioseach and to relay their experience of dealing with over 1,300 retailers currently trading on their site. The site reaches a potential audience of one million unique users a month.
Stewart said:
We hope to raise some concerns around the difficulties of getting online – primarily financial barriers, the cost of compliance and difficulties in recruiting staff – and also to highlight the huge potential to generate new business by selling online.
A range of companies will be relaying their online experiences in the meeting, according to a spokesperson from the Department of the Taoiseach. These include large players like Lifestyle Sports – which uses their site to allow users to book items online and then pick up in store – to smaller businesses like greengrocers The Happy Pear, to a west of Ireland lingerie shop The Whyte House which found a huge overseas consumer base online, to The Gutterman, which promotes its fascia and gutter installation services online.
The Department’s spokesperson told TheJournal.ie the companies selected have a diversity of experience with online trading.
She said: “The Taoiseach wants to have a conversation directly with Irish businesses themselves to see what their experience has been like to get online to trade. It’s something he has mentioned many times – job creation is a priority and he wants to have as broad a conversation as possible about this.”
While acknowledging that the government has “done a lot for small online businesses”, Adverts.ie will hope to raise awareness of some of the larger difficulties facing companies trading online. Stewart outlines the following:
Coincidentally in the past week Stripe have fully launched in Ireland, allowing merchants to accept credit card payments without the need for their own merchant ID. We believe that this really is a game-changer for both Adverts.ie and for online retail in Ireland.”
A prime example includes the recent requirement to list BER information in property advertising – we felt the consultation process was lacking and the resultant guidelines for implementation were extremely over-prescriptive. Adverts.ie has 25,000 property listings and the implementation requirements required substantial design and technical changes across multiple platforms. Changes to our sites as a result of SEPA will cost us €20k over the next two years, with little upside for us as a business with only domestic customers.
Copyright and defamation remain a grey area for sites with User Generated Content, and we believe that recent copyright legislation has muddied the waters even further. Government could help in these areas by improving consultation processes and ensuring legislation is clear and unambiguous.”
The webcast is the first livestream of such a consultation meeting. While there are no concrete plans for other webcasts from the Department, TheJournal.ie understands that today’s meeting could be a ‘test run’ for future similar outreach events.
Journal Media Ltd has shareholders – Brian and Eamonn Fallon – in common with Distilled Media Group.
Enda Kenny to take part in his first webcasted roundtable discussion>
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Postcodes!
I’d see cost of postage as a far more pressing issue,
There’s something seriously wrong when in some cases it’s cheaper to buy from UK then ireland due to postage costs from irish sellers being too high.
What about the barriers for bricks and mortar stores crippled by rates and high rents?
Exactly Enola, upwards only rents are not helping struggling businesses.
And most electronic goods can be got online from Germany at around 15% cheaper!
True WYM. I know of one retailer in Waterford with a shop who h has as much square footage as a bedroom. He has just been presented with a rate bill of €6,500. His monthly rent is €3,000. It is ludicrous.
Postage costs to and fom The North and Britain is a problem. Irish government needs to talk to British government about standardising postage costs within Ireland and Britain. This would open up the UK market for Irish online sellers
PayPal costs to receive money are also prohibitive
In fairness to him he does have at least basic knowledge of what’s involved in e-commerce. He opened our new work premises in May and was only supposed to be there for 40 mins, ended up staying over 2 hours chatting about our systems and figures etc. I’ve had other criticisms of him in the past but you can bet Cowen wouldn’t have bothered with that!
Hah, just found out we’re actually one of the featured companies. Keep an eye out for me ;)
Finally, a chance to see a lackey in real life. Our leader opens shops, whoop be de doo. What a guy!
He’s supposed to be leading the nation and he’s acting like a minor celebrity. Now we have to witness his middle aged, overpaid “advisors” try to stage manage an assault on the ‘tinternet.
Does my head in, why would anyone self start in this country?
It usually costs less to order something from the UK and it costs less to post from the UK to here, than it costs to post internally within Ireland. Alternative to An Post should be discussed.
try posting a package from usa. to ireland you pay in the states @ ireland friend gets to pay another 90 euros! ? whats up with that, i quit sending gifts to friends @ famley in ireland because of that ! catherine connell barnes high point nc usa / irish citizen cheer’s /
I know, I just go straight to Amazon to send someone far away a gift :-)
I use parcel shop for posting large items, at xmas we send a box over to england to family it is approx 80*40*50cm it costs only €34 if I used an post it would cost €100 that is a big difference. Irish companies should use these type of services before using an post it would cut their delivery cost and make them more competitive
Nationwide, Reliable, Broadband would really help matters. Otherwise we’re stuck in those shop fronts in those cities with those high rates! #Mayo #Windy-upBroadband
People dont seem to realise the damage online shopping does to a nation economy, yes its cheaper, mostly due to the fact it requires a lot less people employed in its systems, and those who are will mostly be lower paid/skilled warehouse staff, tends to be based in areas of industrial unirs with lower local rates and charges etc.
All leading to less taxes to central government and less employment increasing the strain on socual welfare systems all leading to higher taxes and services cuts on the rest of the work force.
So what do you want, to stifle online shopping, to give others jobs? Online could and has actually helped expand some businesses by allowing them to operate further afield.
Online businesses are still paying tax, they just have less overheads. Only a few weeks ago I thought the government launched an initiative to aid companies in setting up online (they will be offering assistance grants for development of websites for businesses), as they are missing more business opportunities by not being online.
I love buying stuff online, as I can get clothes I like, that otherwise would not be available in my local area, all from the comfort of my own couch.
I work for a large Irish online retailer which employees 40 people, all in Ireland, and most of us have 4th level degrees. We all pay taxes in Ireland. Tell me how our jobs here are less important than if we sold stuff over the counter instead of online.
rob i totally agree with you, i also do in line shoping in ireland and i live in thw states. i am an irish citizen , make it a grand day catherine, galway girl !
Online retail is cheaper not just because of personnel requirements.
Online retail lacks many overheads real stores have: security doesn’t need to monitor customers, fewer thefts, fewer accidentally damaged products, more efficient use of floor space, fewer locations required, location can be based on price alone not footfall etc. etc.
None of those cost-saving measures cost jobs. I find it hard to believe that online retailers actually employ significantly less staff than brick-and-mortar equivalents, when you factor in the boost in demand for logisitics they create.
Looking forward to the parodies already :)
BER Certs for property? The most useless bit of computer generated mis-information I have ever paid for. Absolute waste of money.
Online retailing brilliant! I always buy from the cheapest source and unfortunately its rarely ROI.
Just replaced the two drum bearings and seal in my washing machine. 61 euros online from Ireland, or 34 pounds from eBay UK including postage. Not hard to make a choice, saving 21 euros.
Sadly it’s like that with most goods I need.
Loads of shops and garages also sell on eBay. If businesses want to survive then they need to diversify and retrain staff. Recently I needed a new brake part (ABS) modulator. The price in UK ranged from 1300 pounds to just over 2000 pounds. Never saw any Irish adverts when googling. So I had to go UK. And I didn’t feel guilty buying the identical part at a lower price or feel sorry for the guy who must have felt his overheads were greater.
Part ordered Thursday received and fitted by me Monday night and NCT passed with flying colours first time a week later.
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