Clicks over bricks: The surge in businesses moving online

Your online offering may be the key to success in a Covid Christmas

'We closed our doors like a lot of businesses last week, and if we didn't have the website, we'd be snookered.' Ray O'Brien of Musiczone.ie now working from Deanrock business park in Togher. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

With just eight weeks to go until Christmas Day and at least five of those weeks prohibiting most outlets from opening their brick and mortar stores, many businesses across Munster may be thinking about the value of investing in their online offering, or even setting up a digital presence for the first time. 

Indeed, many have already taken the plunge. So far this year, Local Enterprise Offices have paid out in excess of 9,000 vouchers under the ‘Trading Online Voucher Scheme’, with more than 1,000 of these approved by the three LEOs in Cork city and county. This is more than seven times the amount given out last year.