The Hampton IDA along with the assistance of the Hampton Department of Economic Development has created a E-Commerce Grant Program aimed at assisting Hampton businesses in order to optimize productivity, marketing and technology plans that will assist in retaining and growing employment, and business profitability.

The IDA will contract with various Service Providers who will provide a spectrum of e-commerce resources to help Hampton businesses assess their business needs, and will develop e-commerce solutions with an emphasis on return on investment. Where appropriate, the Service Provider will provide its proprietary applications and will customize them to the Hampton business's specific needs.

The type of assistance includes, but is not limited to the following e-commerce services:

Web Design and Development Services including custom website design, information architecture and graphic user interface planning, database driven website design and development, content management solutions, usability testing, advanced scripting and programming, custom database development, collaboration and social networking (Web 2.0), website accessibility analysis, and maintenance contracts.
Consultation Services including information technology strategic planning, ecommerce needs and marketing assessments, domain name registration assistance, hosting service needs assessments, website analytics, and website security assessments and testing tools.
Internet Marketing Services including email marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, eNewletters, blogs, RSS, Wikis.
E-Commerce Services including shopping carts, donation and membership systems, online security assessments and testing tools.

Grant Amounts

Grants to non-minority owned business shall not exceed 50% of the total project cost up to a maximum of $10,000, once every three years.
Grants to minority-owned businesses shall not exceed 60% of the total project cost up to a maximum of $10,000, once every three years.
Funding is subject to appropriation and grants are made on a first-come, first served basis.

Requirements

Grants are made on a first-come, first-served basis and are subject to funding availability.
Must be a for-profit business currently licensed in and with its principal office located within the City of Hampton.
Projects must be legal, no adult only material, ethical, and commercially viable.
Applicants must use a preapproved Certified E-Commerce Grant Service Providers.
Grants are to be used for the creation or enhancement of e-commerce sites and cannot be used for domain registration, web hosting, general maintenance services, or annual subscriptions.
Grant funds cannot be awarded for a project which has been initiated prior to the approval of a grant application.

• Procedures
• Grant Recipient Application (online)
• Grant Recipient Application (printable)