Online shopping coup for IT firm

10CMS, a technology group with Cork origins, has developed a software package for online shopping.

Founded by three Cork IT workers it is expected to deliver sales of €800,000 in 2010 and up to €3m in 2011 as the group establishes itself in the US.

Just 16 people are employed but that will rise to 30 quickly as the group’s expansion plans start to materialise, said Fergal O’Mullane, a co-founder.

He expects the group to be in profit next year, which reflects just how quickly the business, he set up with two former school friends in 2008, has evolved. The group also has a British partner based in London.

At this stage 50 of Britain’s leading retailers have embraced the online technology and that figure is expected to double by the year end.

10CMS now claims to be the leader in this so-called “rich interactive merchandising” space.

Its client list includes: Tesco; LK Bennett; Jimmy Choo; Heal’s; A wear; Dreams; Kiddicare.com; and Anthropologie.

10CMS is optimistic of a quick breakthrough in the US. “Fashion retail” geared essentially at the female US market should offer significant opportunities as the technology gives the shopper a much better sense of the product on offer on the web, Mr O’Mullane said.