David Puttnam launches web portal for local shops

Acclaimed Hollywood film maker David Puttnam is a man with a mission to bring the Irish main street to the world.

In what he is describing as “a global first”, Lord Puttnam launched eStreet — an online platform where groups of small shops in Irish towns come together to sell online. In the first phase, 11 businesses in Skibbereen will trade online on eStreet.

eStreet is a project from The Ludgate Hub, the technological hub located in Skibbereen set up to create jobs and drive innovation in rural West Cork.

The Ludgate Hub sees the portal as a way to help small town “retailers re-invent themselves” and also help combat rural disadvantage and economic decline. Irish consumers spend €3.7 billion online annually and this is a market that is predicted to grow substantially.

Speaking at the launch, Mr Puttnam, the country’s “digital champion” and a board member of Ludgate Operations, said: “The world of retail, like every part of the economy and of society, is being fundamentally transformed by the changes in consumer behavior driven by digital technology. We are really only at the beginning of this transformation as the advent of 5G mobile connections will unquestionably accelerate change on every front.”

Ludgate offers broadband connections of 1,000MB and has turned Skibbereen into a “1GB town”.

Local jeweller Jim Seymour has one of the businesses signed up to eStreet: “Up to now we were running our own site and putting money into it for no return. Sharing our resources means the cost base will be shared and we’re hoping that with the Ludgate backing, that we’ll get up to the top of Google. It will be giving us a far bigger shop window from which to sell our West Cork-made jewelry”.

Instead of retailers spending €3,000-€4,000 individually on website management, graphic design and other costs, the businesses who take part in eStreet only pay a yearly participation fee, about 25% of an individual website’s costs. If a shopper buys goods from a few eStreet shops, all goods will be shipped together.

eStreet is in partnership with An Post — other supporters include Granite Digital, Department of Communications, Climate Action & Environment and West Cork Local Enterprise Office.

Gillean Guy, eStreet initiative manager, said the portal can “easily rolled out in other towns and villages and the final product will be a ready-to-go solution for towns, community groups and chambers of commerce”.

TV3’s beauty expert Triona McCarthy said eStreet will connect Skibbereen to the global marketplace: “When I was a child, Skibbereen was like a metropolis to me! It didn’t seem like a small town at all. Now many years later, Skibbereen is still bigger than it seems.

“Places change and evolve and must move with the times and I couldn’t be more proud of how this small town thinks big, modernises, and renews all the while preserving what makes it so special, the people.”