Government Ecommerce Website Grants - What’s Available
May 7th, 2007 by 
Chris Pangburn
As with all things ‘Government’, nothing stays certain for long - there have previously been a variety of schemes aimed at encouring small to medium-sized businesses onto the Internet, to establish an eCommerce prescence in particular. In the past a company could apply for a grant for up to 50% of the website development cost of an eCommerce website, up to a maximum of £2,000. Unfortunately the provision of these grants is nowhere near as widespread, however don’t lose all hope straight away, there are still some opportunities to be had…
There are a few grants still available for ‘website development’, which according to BusinessLink are available for website projects which will improve business competitiveness, encourage growth, job creation and increased UK and international marketing. The value of the grant has also been reduced to £1,000, however this can now represent up to 70% of the total website cost, rather than the 50% previously. You also have to be located in a specific area to be allocated a grant, currently these are certain boroughs of London, Leeds or Merseyside in the UK. The Business Link website provides an interactive tool enabling you to search for available grants in your area.
In conclusion, although the days of widespread £2,000 ecommerce grants seem to have dried up there are still a few opportunities to be had for these Government ecommerce grants, as long as you live in the required location. In my experience many companies underestimate the need for online marketing of the site post-development - it would be good to see some Government grants aimed at either educating businesses as to the need for online marketing, or by providing financial grants to enable them to contract the services of online marketing specialists.
To some extent it seems that the Government has already recognised this - I receive semi-annual Business Link invitations to free ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ seminars, however these are likely to just scratch the surface of all the complexities of online marketing. Businesses also need to realise that the potential online market is HUGE, and there are still enough niches out there waiting to be tapped into, if only they could apply the necessary online marketing tools and budget.
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