EU Funding

Funding for shop digitalization: stock, tills, a second sales channel

The annual stocktake that turns up thousands of lei in discrepancies, and the empty shelf under your best-selling product, tell the same story: the till and the stock ledger never talk to each other.

Northdan Soft is a software supplier, not a funding consultancy, and is not affiliated with any managing authority or development agency. Programme information is indicative — always check the conditions in the programme's official applicant guide.

A bricks-and-mortar shop leaks margin in very specific places: supplier orders placed from memory, prices changed on the shelf label but not in the till, sellable goods stranded in the back room because nobody can see how fast they rotate. Retail digitalization starts exactly there — inventory management wired to the point-of-sale tills, goods receipts scanned with a barcode reader, replenishment orders generated from real sales — and then extends naturally to the second channel: an online store selling from the same stock, with synchronised prices, instead of a parallel ledger that fights the shop floor. On the funding side, one thing changed this summer with a precise date. An order published in the Romanian Official Gazette no. 558 of 7 July 2026 removed the condition that activity financed through SME Eco-Tech be manufacturing, admitting trade and services; applications run to 24 September 2026 and the grant covers at most 40% of eligible costs, capped at 267,240 lei, the equivalent of CHF 50,000. Two limits matter as much as that ceiling: the line for software needed to run the business is eligible only up to 15,000 lei excluding VAT, and green equipment must account for at least 40% of total eligible costs. The Comerț (Trade) programme, the historic route from a shop to a grant, had neither an adopted budget nor a published procedure at the same date. Checked on 30 July 2026. Northdan builds the stock system and the online store as a software vendor, and supplies the technical documents the application file needs.

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How we help

One stock for the shelf and the web

The online store sells from the stock ledger's real quantities, with prices and availability synchronised automatically — no orders for products that do not exist and no duplicate records.

Replenishment driven by sales figures

The system proposes supplier orders from how fast products actually rotate, so cash sits in goods that sell rather than in dead stock on the back shelves.

A project written on shop-floor reality

The budget lists goods receipts, stocktakes, labelling and the online channel — operations an evaluator immediately recognises as a retailer's, rather than vague phrasing.

What a retailer can realistically count on for funding

SME Eco-Tech is the only nationally funded route open to a shop right now, and it is an investment programme rather than a digitalization grant. A project starts at 668,100 lei of eligible costs, of which an investment loan of at least 400,860 lei must be contracted with a partner bank, and the software line stops at 15,000 lei excluding VAT. Support takes the form of de minimis aid, capped at 300,000 euro over the last three years per single undertaking, as set out in the consolidated implementation procedure.

The Comerț (Trade) programme remains an announcement rather than a call: the 50 million lei figure quoted publicly appears as a proposed commitment appropriation in the ministry's budget, not as an approved sum, so there is no procedure, no per-beneficiary ceiling and no submission calendar. The last real session, closed in January 2024, ran on a 500,000 lei ceiling of which half was a bank loan rather than a grant.

It is not a grant, yet the EDIH channel already works: SMEs receive digital-maturity assessments and solution testing as non-financial state aid, granted on a contract basis. The applicant on the calls that finance those hubs is the hub itself, never the company receiving the service.

How we build a shop's digitalization, step by step

The order that works: stock management first — product catalogue, scanned goods receipts, the link to the point-of-sale tills, rolling stocktakes. Only then the online channel, because e-commerce launched on top of chaotic stock multiplies the chaos rather than the sales.

Each phase becomes a budget line with a price and a verifiable result, and at handover a written acceptance report showing operations demonstrated on the shop's real goods: a scanned receipt, a sale rung through the till, an online order fulfilled from the same stock. Exactly the evidence a payment claim usually asks for, per the official guides.

Three costs stay with the company even if the project is approved, because the procedure excludes them: VAT, installation and commissioning, and staff training. On a software component those are precisely the implementation costs, so they belong in the budget from the start.

Frequently asked questions

When will a new session of the Comerț programme open for shops?

There is no announced date. The allocation quoted publicly is a proposed commitment appropriation in the ministry's budget rather than an approved sum, and without an adopted budget the procedure is not published — so no ceiling, no co-financing rate and no calendar exist yet.

Can a shop apply to SME Eco-Tech after July 2026?

Trade became eligible through the order published in the Official Gazette no. 558 of 7 July 2026, except for the fields excluded by de minimis rules. The annex listing eligible activity codes is part of the consolidated procedure and must be read in its current version.

How much software fits inside the SME Eco-Tech ceiling?

Software needed to run the business is eligible up to 15,000 lei excluding VAT. The digital package also covers a website or online store, an electronic signature, IT equipment and licences, while green equipment must stay at a minimum of 40% of eligible costs.

Is e-commerce worth adding if most sales still happen in the shop?

Yes, if it is built as a second channel on the same stock ledger: quantities and prices synchronise automatically and online orders are picked from the existing warehouse. As a parallel ledger filled in by hand, it creates more trouble than turnover.