40% of Ireland’s SMEs don’t have a website and of those that do, 68% don’t sell anything. This is worrying considering people in Ireland spend on average €8.5 million a day online. Something needs to be done.
The Irish Internet Association (IIA) has devised a plan to help fill Ireland’s eCommerce gap. The IIA says its current priority is to advise SMEs on the adoption of eCommerce and is working on an eCommerce Diagnostics Tool that SMEs can use. It will also host public clinics for small businesses that want to sell online.
First, the IIA needs to know more about Ireland’s eCommerce gap.
The group is asking SMEs to take part in its research. “There’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution,” says Joan Mulvihill, CEO of the IIA. “We need Irish businesses to fill out some key data points; it should take about 13 minutes to complete, and this raw data will then be used by our expert working group to build the diagnostic tool.”
To take part in the IIA’s research, go to www.iia.ie/etail.
Mulvihill hopes the eCommerce Diagnostics Tool, once built, will be of real, tangible benefit to Irish SMEs. “eCommerce is not solved by building a website or adding a shopping cart button,” she says.
