{"id":9032,"date":"2015-07-10T11:48:57","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T10:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/?p=9032"},"modified":"2025-05-01T22:59:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T21:59:50","slug":"were-off-what-is-the-best-shops-in-ireland-competition-2015-is-open-for-entries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/were-off-what-is-the-best-shops-in-ireland-competition-2015-is-open-for-entries\/","title":{"rendered":"We&#8217;re off: What is the Best Shops in Ireland competition 2015 is open for entries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After the massive success of the 2014 competition, The Irish Times recently launched the 2015 Best Shops in Ireland competition. The competition is going from strength to strength and it&#8217;s now entering its fourth year.\u00a0Last year the organisers received over 27,000 nominations for 2,700 shops f<\/p>\n<p>rom across the island of Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>A significant development this year is the announcement that\u00a0the competition is being sponsored by Clover, an AIB Merchant Services product. As it so happens Big Red Cloud and Clover also made a significant development this year with the announcement that our online accounts solution and Clover&#8217;s EPOS system are now integrated. This is great news for retailers as it\u00a0dramatically cuts down on paper work and enables you to record all credit sales and immediately raise and email invoices.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cafe-Big-Red-Cloud-2015.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-9035 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cafe-Big-Red-Cloud-2015-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cafe-Big-Red-Cloud-2015-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cafe-Big-Red-Cloud-2015-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cafe-Big-Red-Cloud-2015-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cafe-Big-Red-Cloud-2015-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cafe-Big-Red-Cloud-2015-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cafe-Big-Red-Cloud-2015.jpg 1560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As we said, over 27,000 people voted in 2014 and the winner&#8217;s list is testament to the high standards in the retail sector in Ireland. A challenge for any retailer reading this is to visit any of the 2014 winner&#8217;s list below and benchmark your retail business. There is no better way to gauge what you need to do to raise your own standards so that you place your retail business on the best possible footing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Shops 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Best Boutique:<\/em> Juju, Greystones<br \/>\n<em>Best Specialist Shop:<\/em> The Pen Corner<br \/>\n<em>Best service:<\/em> 64 Wine<br \/>\n<em>Best bookshop:<\/em> Bridge Street Books, Wicklow<br \/>\n<em>Best artisan food\/greengrocer:<\/em> Ardkeen Quality Food Store<br \/>\n<em>Best cafe\/teashop:<\/em> The Cottage, Loughmore<br \/>\n<em>Best gifts\/ design\/ interiors:<\/em> Article Dublin<br \/>\n<em>Best shop window:<\/em> The Garden<br \/>\n<em>Best salon:<\/em> Dylan Bradshaw<br \/>\n<em>Best day out:<\/em> The Burren Perfumery<\/p>\n<p>Should you promote the Best Shops in Ireland\u00a0competition via your retail outlet? Yes!!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s a great way to engage with your customers.<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;ll begin to make changes to how you run your business &#8211; that&#8217;s the natural process of engaging with your customers and listening to them.<\/li>\n<li>Creates a buzz.<\/li>\n<li>Imagine the publicity if you win.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/952765-1024x239-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-22065 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/952765-1024x239-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/952765-1024x239-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/952765-1024x239-1-300x70.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/952765-1024x239-1-768x179.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Speaking from experience, here at Big Red Cloud we went through all the emotions during the Bank of Ireland\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/sponsor-for-a-day-three-lessons-for-small-businesses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sponsor for a Day<\/a> campaign. We entered the competition and then were shortlisted which in itself was a great shot in the arm for the business. Winning was a great triumph and there is no doubt that the work we did with our customers played a huge part in getting it across the line.<\/p>\n<p>Winning the\u00a02015 Best Shops in Ireland competition may be a BHAG <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Big_Hairy_Audacious_Goal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(big hairy audacious goal)<\/a> for some but it can be done. Let&#8217;s go!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the massive success of the 2014 competition, The Irish Times recently launched the 2015 Best Shops in Ireland competition&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-small-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Best Shops in Ireland competition 2015 is open for entries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Best Shops in Ireland - Great competition for small to medium retailers in Ireland.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bigredcloud.com\/en\/were-off-what-is-the-best-shops-in-ireland-competition-2015-is-open-for-entries\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We&#039;re off: What is the Best Shops in Ireland competition 2015 is open for entries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Best Shops in Ireland - 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