Merits of Enniscorthy’s ‘digital retail village’ project called into question just weeks after its launch

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

The merits of a project which saw Wexford County Council (WCC) invest €15,000 to help create a ‘digital village’ in Enniscorthy have been called into question just weeks after its launch. Funded as a pilot initiative by WCC’s Local Enterprise Office and the Enniscorthy Municipal District (EMD), the Digital Retail Village brought ten local businesses together on a shared platform, enabling customers to purchase from multiple shops in a single transaction.

The project is designed and run by Tap Retail and allows small independent retailers to compete with large scale businesses with big online reaches.

However, just weeks after its launch in mid-December there are already concerns that it is not benefitting retailers as much as anticipated.

“How successful has it been so far?” asked Councillor Pat Kehoe at the January meeting of the EMD. “I haven’t been hearing great feedback on it. Is it proving to be value for money? If not we should just get rid of it. Could we survey the businesses involved, have a look at the figures and see how they feel about it?”

He was supported by Cllr Jackser Owens who said that, having spoken to the businesses involved, the project wasn’t working.

District manager Claire Lawless said that in order for the Digital Retail Village to flourish it needed buy-in from all those taking part.

“It really needs more promotion on the social media of the businesses involved,” she said. “We have invested a lot of money into this so it’s really up to the businesses to promote it too.”

Ms Lawless also confirmed that the launch which took place before Christmas would be followed with a more comprehensive launch in the coming weeks and that the pilot scheme would be continuing until December of this year.