KILCULLEN HAS ONLINE ORDERING FROM LOCAL BUSINESSES

Cllr Tracey O’Dwyer officially launched Tap Retail in Kilcullen last evening, the first town in County Kildare to offer this online order and delivery service for local businesses, writes Brian Byrne. The initiative provides a platform for local businesses to reach a wider customer base, offering a convenient online shopping experience, with all deliveries free to the customer within 3km of Kilcullen. 

The initial participating businesses in Tap Retail Kilcullen are Eurospar, CarryOut, River Cafe, Kilcullen Opticians, and D Brennan & Sons. The Diary understands several other local businesses are interested in joining the scheme.

Cllr O'Dwyer congratulated Stephen Hallahan, founder and CEO of Tap Retail, and the local participating businesses. She also acknowledged the contributions of Nichola Kennedy, Lucia Brennan, and Dawn Behan as the driving forces bringing the project to life, as well as the support from Andrew Gaynor and Local Enterprise Office Kildare.

At last night's event, the Tap Retail team gave a presentation in the Town Hall Theatre, detailing the app which can be downloaded by anyone. A key element is that items from multiple shops can be ordered for the online 'basket', with all being delivered to the customer at the same time. Several local delivery drivers have been recruited by Tap Retail, who will operate on a per delivery basis. Each business is provided with a quota of renewable delivery 'credits' as part of their annual fee for participation. 

Discussions at the local level with Kilcullen Town Promoters began about 18 months ago, and the availability of 50 per cent funding for the businesses through the Digital for Business and the Grow Digital Voucher schemes operated by LEO Kildare was key to getting it off the ground.

Stephen Hallahan says he established the concept to give local independent businesses the ability to fight back against larger online players. "This is all about levelling the business playing field and making it easier for customers, if they can't get into town, to order online from their favourite local retailer and get that stuff delivered to their house by a local person. Or they can order ahead and click and collect it themselves."

Following an initial project developed in Dublin's Foxrock area, Tap Retail is also now operating in Enniscorthy in County Wexford, and Hallahan says the initiative will be launching in another nine towns this year.

Leaflets are being distributed to the customers of participating Kilcullen businesses with details of how to download the app and order.

(Photos for the Diary by Noel Clare.)

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