eBay launches initiative to help Irish SMEs boost their sales

Online marketplace eBay has partnered with Enterprise Ireland and the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCOI) in an initiative that could help up to 50 small to medium-sized Irish companies increase their sales.

eBay’s Retail Expansion Programme, which was launched today in Dublin, has been designed to support local Irish businesses in reaching new domestic and global audiences, opening up opportunities with 179 million buyers across the 190 markets in which eBay operates. In 2018, there were 3.7 million listings from Irish professional sellers on eBay, 68 per cent of whom used the marketplace to export.

The new project invites selected small Irish businesses to use eBay.ie as a platform to extend their customer reach and compete on a global scale, with the support of the ecommerce giant.

A similar pilot programme in Wolverhampton in the UK generated a 41 per cent increase in sales for the companies participating.

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The programme was launched by eBay's vice president of global customer experience, Derek Allgood who said: "This is the first time that eBay has launched a national programme, but given the success of similar schemes in cities such as Wolverhampton and Akron in Ohio, we are confident that this is going to open up a global window of new and extensive opportunities for SME's right across the country. We anticipate that the economic impact from this programme will be significant and a positive contributor to the companies involved, as well as the Irish economy."

Connemara’s Rí Na Mara, a family business that uses locally-harvested seaweed for its range of natural and organic beauty products, will be among the first to avail of the programme.