MEMORY LANE HAI brings you on a pictorial stroll down memory lane.

A stroll down memory lane...

In this issue we are featuring some pages from Irish Hardware Magazine. In particular, from the June 1996 issue, 26 years ago - published by Jemma Publications for many years, it was the forerunner of The Hardware Journal.

Deputy Mary O`Rourke, TD, launched the new Hardware Association Ireland, Advanced Building Materials Manuals for the trade. Many representatives from the trade attended including then President Jimmy Donoghue from Granard.

Hardware Association Ireland also made a submission to a government white paper being prepared on training, particularly vocational training. The Association stressed to Minister Richard Bruton, TD, that the function of the white paper should be to affirm and encourage trainers, not to devalue those who have encouraged sectoral training over many decades without any state support.

There was news that debit cards are on the way and that with a moderate investment in technology there will be long-term payback in the reduction of documentation and cash handling instore and savings in time spent lodging cash. Hardware Association Ireland also produced a 10-step guide for retailers carrying cash to their bank.

The Department of Enterprise and Employment introduced the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Bill 1996. Minister Eithne Fitzgerald TD, stated that it was about protecting young people when they are moving from full-time education into the world of work.

In general trade news Corbett`s Hardware Store in Galway has been sold to an undisclosed buyer. The site was formerly a timber yard and shed buildings which were reconstructed following a fire in 1971.

New Hardware stores have recently opened in Killybegs and Ardara in Donegal. The Killybeg`s store, owned jointly by Gerard McGill and John Craig, main business will be ship`s chandlery and marine hardware. In Ardara owners Colm & Therese Campbell will be offering a comprehensive range of hardware, DIY, building materials and animal feed. construction in Tullamore. Both businesses have signalled their intention of using local suppliers where possible.

Also, in Co. Offaly a new bathroom showroom called ‘Bathroom Village’ has just been opened by one of the most successful plumbing and heating companies in the midlands Walsh Brothers of Killeigh.

Builders’ providers and hardware stores in Co. Offaly are expecting to benefit from two new hotels beginning

Please contact us with any ideas for content but don’t send any original images until we agree same.

E jim@hardwareassociation.ie T 087 6671361

AB COMMERCE SUMMIT SESSION 3: LOYALTY & RETENTION

In the third and final part of our feature of the AB Commerce Summit, which took place in Co. Laois earlier this year, we look at the final discussions of the day, which covered the final stages of the conversion funnel: Loyalty and Retention.

Paul Montwill, CEO and technical architect of AB Commerce, took to the stage to discuss the importance of using the conversion funnel to get repeat business, reminding delegates that personalisation is key to this. “In the modern retail environment, customer shopping is in-store, online and via social media”, said Paul, highlighting the omnichannel approach retailers should be making to their customer relationships.

Paul recommended merging together instore and online teams, getting them to integrate and collaborate, ensuring synchronicity with messaging.

Breige Grogan, senior eCommerce advisor at Magico, presented her five quick tips for an effective email marketing strategy:

An email in the hand is very valuable

A customer who has given consent for you to contact them in invaluable – use it, and recruit, recruit, recruit.

Make it worthwhile

Make sure the content is strong, relevant, builds relationships and drives action and sales.

Make it personal – you have the data

Use data to segment and personalise, giving you more control of what communications go to whom, and make the communication more targeted.

Nail that subject line

You want the email to be opened. Make sure the subject line is short, descriptive and compliant. Make use of emojis if they’re right for your brand, and if personalising, check your data!

Test, and test again

Send a real test to a real person – another pair of eyes to check content is ok, and don’t forget to test on mobile – make sure it renders ok.

Kerry Barnes, Partnership Manager at Klaviyo, concluded the discussion on the use of Email Marketing in customer retention and loyalty. She pointed out how effective use of data can help retailers build powerful customer segments, personalise communications, and divert attention to specific brands and topics.

Kerry reminded delegates that segmentation is also a useful way of reactivating inactive segments (contacts/customers who haven’t been engaging). She concluded by reminding delegates of the importance of email list cleaning – keeping your contact list updated.

The session was wrapped up by a Panel of Integration Partners featuring Humm, Klaviyo, Trust Pilot, Segmentify and Chatify discussing how their technology and services could help Retailers achieve Retention & Loyalty.

At the end of the event delegates were welcomed to visit the exhibition space, which was a hive of activity with stands representing Magico’s partners including Segmentify, Humm, Elavon, Trustpilot, Chatify, Celebros, AIB Merchant Services, Wave OMS and Klaviyo.

PILTOWN IS THE WINNER OF .IE DIGITAL TOWN AWARDS 2022

Piltown in Co Kilkenny has been announced as the overall winner of the 2022 .IE Digital Town Awards for its ‘Taking Charge of our Digital Future’ project. As well as taking home the overall award, Piltown was also announced as the winner of the Digital Business category winning a total prize of €19,000. Chair of the judging panel Joan Mulvihill commended Piltown’s win commenting that “The community of Piltown showed extraordinary resolve and determination in putting their town on the digital map. In total, there was a prize fund of €100,000 across seven award categories including three special awards recognising a digital changemaker, a digital rising star, and a digital local hero. Piltown’s ‘Taking Charge of our Digital Future’ entry was shortlisted in two categories (Digital Business and Digital Changemaker) for its work in building, promoting, and managing the village’s high-speed network. The judging panel commended Piltown for the manner in which the local community had fully embraced the project with landowners granting access to land and volunteers working to lay more than 6km of cables, training as fibre optic technicians and providing crucial expertise pro bono. Piltown is believed to be Ireland’s first community owned and managed FTTP ‘fibre to the premises’ network and has resulted in the creation of a local digital hub and community centre that serves 37 groups in the area. The team behind the project believe that its success could be replicated in other towns and communities through shared experience and learnings. Throughout the competition, which was launched earlier this year, the judging panel looked for digitally motivated community projects and leaders who demonstrated digital thinking to creatively problem-solve and develop innovative ideas that improve and enhance towns and communities. This year’s winners and finalists cover the full spectrum, including those who are early in their digital journey as well as established, sophisticated projects. 13 counties had one or more finalists including Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Kerry, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo. Projects were shortlisted in the categories of digital education, digital tourism, community digital as well as digital business, while three special prizes honouring individuals and communities making significant difference to the digital betterment in local towns were also awarded under the categories of digital rising star, digital changemaker and digital local hero. Now in its second year, the .IE Digital Town Awards honour local town projects and people that are using digital innovation, technologies, and digital-first thinking for the betterment of towns, citizens, and services in the community.

The Piltown Team; Minister Damien English, Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; Oonagh McCutcheon, National Director .IE Digital Town Programme; David Curtin, CEO .IE

The list of category winners and runners up includes:

Overall winner: Piltown, Taking Charge of our Digital Future

(Prize: €10,000)

Community Digital, sponsored by Western Development Commission

Winner - Crumlin: Connecting Crumlin’s Community. (Prize: €9,000) Runner up - Limerick: Tiny Little Histories. (Prize: €5,000)

Digital Education

Winner - Sligo: Online Learning Project Manager. (Prize: €9,000) Runner up - Murroe: Scoutus Interruptus: How Digital Technology Helped Keep Us Scouting Through the Time of Covid. (Prize: €5,000)

Digital Tourism, sponsored by AIB Merchant Services

Winner - Gleann Cholm Cille: Building a digital cultural infrastructure for our community. (Prize: €9,000) Runner up - Ballyvaughan: Linking the physical and digital worlds via interactive signage. (Prize: €5,000)

Digital Business, sponsored by Vodafone

Winner - Piltown: Taking Charge of our Digital Future. (Prize: €9,000) Runner up - Westport: Where no Westport business gets left behind. (Prize: €5,000)

Digital Rising Star

Winner - Cootehill: St. Patrick’s Day celebration. (Prize: €8,500)

Digital Changemaker, sponsored by Connected Hubs

Winner - Roscommon Town: Roscommon Rapid Response Team. (Prize: €8,500)

Digital Local Hero

Eoin Costello, Dún Laoghaire Town. (Prize: €3,000)

Commenting on the announcement, Oonagh McCutcheon, National Director of the .IE Digital Town Programme, said: “At .IE, we congratulate all our winners, runners up and commended entries and are delighted to be able to honour and recognise their great achievements. Our judging panel was particularly impressed by Piltown, where the entire community stepped up and took matters into their own hands with transformative results. The .IE Digital Town Awards, announced by .IE in 2021 as part of its overall .IE Digital Town programme, is part of four-year €1 million investment initiative focused on digital enhancement and digital technology adoption in Ireland’s towns.

UEL HOST OPEN RECRUITMENT EVENT AS PART OF WAREHOUSE RECRUITMENT DRIVE

Uppercross Enterprises Limited (UEL) hosted an open recruitment event on the 14th June, as part of a drive to fill a number of positions including warehouse pickers, forklift drivers, warehouse supervisors and warehouse managers. The new positions are due to the continued expansion and growth across the Uppercross Group (that includes Niko Bathrooms), who recently announced their partnership with leading industry brands Myson and Carron Bathrooms as new additions to the Group’s product range.

The event ran as an “Open Recruitment Evening” where potential candidates were invited to meet with UEL’s recruitment and management team between 4-7pm. Applicants had the option to send their CV ahead of the event, however the focus was very much put on the ‘process’ that not only facilitated walk-in applicants but ‘condensed’ the traditional recruitment steps into one evening. This resulted in successful candidates reaching the final offer stage of the recruitment process a lot earlier.

The event was supported by a heavy-hitting marketing & comms campaign that featured across press, radio and social media platforms in the build-up to the event. This proved a key factor in contributing to the hugely successful turnout of applicants on the evening.

Paul Thompson, Managing Director said “One of the biggest challenges with recruitment in the current climate is getting through the whole process quick enough to present a job offer. The recruitment evening allowed us to condense the whole process from potentially two weeks to under an hour. With such a brilliant response to our marketing campaign we are delighted to have recruited seven new team members on the night and really strong candidates for the more senior positions. In addition, we got lots of positive feedback from candidates, in particular towards the warehouse tour we organised.”

This innovation in recruitment from Uppercross Enterprises Limited fits very well with Hardware Association Ireland’s own recruitment initiative. A ‘Join Our Team’ recruitment poster is available to members, in two sizes, designed for use at a trade counter or point of sale instore. The poster is also available digitally so that members can download adding their company details in the space provided to customise the vacancy as appropriate.