News

Ecommerce explosion: online cross-border sales boom in China offers Irish exporters opportunities

Ecommerce has exploded in China – on current trends half of all of the world’s online transactions will take place in the economic power house this year. Local Chinese tech champions such as Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com dominate a rapidly-growing ecommerce ecosystem, mostly within China, according to a paper from the World Economic Forum (WEF). […]

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Adrian Weckler: ‘Beware of Black Friday ‘sales’

In five days, ‘Black Friday’ will occur. You’ll see and hear lots of ads appearing about this. Sadly, it’s a time of the year when retailers spoof a lot about price cuts with no consequence from any regulatory body. Discounts are exaggerated and recommended retail prices – ‘RRP’ – are quoted that have not been […]

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Consumer spending to reach a record €105bn – surpassing boomtime peak

Irish consumer spending is set to reach a record €105bn this year, surpassing the boomtime peak set in 2007, according to a new report. The Home Renovation Incentive (HRI), a tax relief for home improvements, is fuelling strong growth in people’s spending on their homes, according to the latest Consumer Market Monitor from the Marketing […]

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Review of expenses scheme angers accountants

One of Ireland’s top accounting representative groups has lashed out at Revenue’s review of the flat-rate expenses scheme, saying 500,000 could ultimately be affected and that some individuals could lose out on gains from the Budget. Brian Keegan, director of public policy and taxation at Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI), said changes to the scheme coming […]

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The Irish studio started with just myself…now we have 36 employees.’ Blockchain firms look to Dublin

A growing cryptocurrency ecosystem and availability of tech talent is attracting blockchain leaders, and their companies, to Ireland. Digital currency exchange Coinbase has most recently helped to expand the crypto economy here, opening an office in Dublin just last month. At the time, the firm’s UK CEO Zeeshan Feroz said that Dublin, with its diverse […]

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Startup diary: There are three rules that every startup needs to follow for sales success

Once you have users for your online product, how do you sell to them? This an important question. I often speak to aspiring founders about their ideas and the first question I always end up asking is: “Who will give you money and why?” The need to ask this question is a remarkably frequent occurrence. […]

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Fifth of employers consider quitting Dublin to beat spiralling costs

One in five employers are considering moving outside of Dublin due to rising costs, according to the latest ‘Quarterly Employment Market Monitor’ from Cpl Resources. This comes on the back of new figures from the Central Statistics Office showing that property prices continue to rise. While the median, or middle, price for a property nationwide […]

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Mum-run firms organise pop-up event to encourage shoppers to buy local this Black Friday

Five small businesses are joining forces at a two-day event to encourage consumers to buy local, and Irish, this Black Friday. Owner of online store CHAOS+HARMONY Roisin Scott is behind the ‘Indi Pop-Up Shop’, where herself and four other “hard working mamas” will set up stall and sell their wares. “I’ve been in business just […]

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Adrian Weckler: ‘Why cities bend over for tech’

Imagine Google and Facebook employing 20,000 people in Dublin. What sort of power would that bring? What effect would it have on the city, its economy, its infrastructure, its culture? If you don’t think this could happen, think again. Figures last week showed that the two companies now employ 11,000 people between them, with another […]

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One in three Irish SMEs targeted by fraud

A third of Irish small and medium businesses have been targeted by fraud in the past 12 months. The most common types of fraudulent scams encountered by SMEs are phishing emails, which seven in 10 have experienced, according to research carried out to mark National Fraud Awareness week. Other types of fraud encountered by businesses […]

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