‘Virtual shopping centre’ to be piloted in busy Wexford town in a bid to revive local businesses

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

Enniscorthy is to have its own “virtual shopping centre” as part of a new initiative launching later this month. Supported by funding from Wexford County Council (WCC), Tap Retail is coming to the town for a 12-month pilot project which will see ten local businesses grouped together in one online shopping platform.

At the October meeting of the Enniscorthy Municipal District (EMD) Stephen Hallahan, CEO and founder of Tap Retail, explained how the platform works.

"A customer can sign up to Tap Retail, place an order with a local business and have it delivered or click and collect,” he said. “The aim is to create a virtual shopping centre consisting of local retailers, it allows you to shop online at the butchers, greengrocers, the off license and have all your items delivered at the same time.”

Focusing on traditional, local businesses which may not have the resources to create an online store, Tap Retail also tackles what Mr Hallahan said are two of the biggest issues facing customers in modern Ireland.

“Parking and congestion are huge problems right now, some customers can’t make it into their local towns any more so this is about digitising these areas through our platform,” he said. “Each individual store gets it own individual online shop as well, but the towns that have done well have been those which mark themselves as a collective; we want to give retailers the opportunity to come together and work as one.”

For the pilot project ten businesses in Enniscorthy will be selected and they will be supported throughout by WCC. It will cover the majority of the costs with €15,000 already allocated towards the initiative. In addition to supporting local businesses, Tap Retail will also provide jobs in the town with delivery drivers recruited from within Co Wexford where possible.

As chair of the town team, Councillor Aidan Browne said he is “fully behind” the project and hoped that, if there are more than ten applications, local companies will be “given priority” over brands.

Cllr John O’Rourke was similarly supportive and said the project showed that WCC did listen to the concerns of the public despite reports to the contrary.

“We do listen and we do take on board what people say to us, Enniscorthy is moving forward and this should help quell any suggestion the town is dead on its feet,” he said. “It takes time to rebuild, though, but for anyone who might be sceptical of the work we do this shows we’re listening.”

Having worked in retail for a number of years, Cllr Trish Byrne said Tap Retail will provide an outlet for many smaller businesses in the district.

“This will be of huge help to small businesses who just have a bricks and mortar store and can't afford to create an online platform, it will allow them to compete with bigger stores and progress.”