Gary Disley, marketing director of Eircom Business, and Sergey Letsko, co-founder of The Joy of Cha. Image by Maxwell Photography
The Joy of Cha has been named the first winner of Eircom’s monthly Digital Boost competition, giving the specialist tea shop the chance to grow its online presence and open up e-commerce opportunities.
Dara Gallagher and Sergey Letsko set up The Joy of Cha in Temple Bar, Dublin, in 2006. As well as more than 50 varieties of tea from all over the world, the shop also stocks artisan coffee from Ariosa of Ashbourne, Italian hot chocolate, homemade scones, and tea-making accessories, like teapots and strainers.
Winning a Digital Boost from Eircom means The Joy of Cha will be able to explore new ways of selling its products and promoting its brand. “Our shop is quite small, which means we can only display a fraction of the products we sell. We know with a meaningful online presence we can drive online sales and also encourage customers to visit the shop,” said Letsko.
“We have a website and social media channels set up but we aren’t using them. We want to be able to promote ourselves and also to interact with new and existing customers online, but we’re lacking the skills to bring everything together into a strong digital strategy.”
What The Joy of Cha has won is a brand new website for its business, a one-year telecoms package (including landline, broadband, mobile and teleconferencing) worth €2,500, and a strategy day where they can consult with a panel of digital and marketing experts.
Developing a strategy
Eircom launched the Digital Boost initiative in September to help SME owners increase their digital presence and maximise their online potential, and all registered businesses are automatically entered into the monthly competition.
“The passion and commitment that Sergey and his team have for their business came across very strongly in their application,” said Gary Disley, marketing director of Eircom Business and member of the Digital Boost expert panel. “The panel was really excited by the obvious entrepreneurial flair The Joy of Cha team has and an integrated e-commerce platform coupled with a strong digital marketing strategy will really enhance their business.”
