A Google-owned Irish firm is appealing to small and medium businesses to get their inventory online.
Pointy helps local retailers make what they sell in their shop visible online, and then searchable through the search engine.
It is offering the devices free to Irish retailers to build their online presence.
Ireland is the only country in the world where this is being done.
Pointy founder and general manager, Mark Cummins, told Breakfast Business this could remove a big obstacle for small businesses.
"A typical local retailer might have thousands, even tens of thousands of products in the store.
"And traditionally if they wanted to list them online, they kind of have to do that one by one.
"It's a big reason why local retailers are not selling online or visible online.
"Pointy is a device that connects to the barcode scanner in the store, and so they simply scan products with their barcode scanner and then those products will automatically be listed on Google.
"We're making this service free for Irish retailers - it's part of a commitment Google has to help local businesses recover from COVID.
Pointy founder and general manager, Mark Cummins. Picture by: Google"Hopefully we get a lot of Irish retailers online, especially as we get into recovery."
He said listing products is free-of-charge on an ongoing basis.
"The products available in the store are going to be listed in the ordinary Google search results, and that's free forever.
"There are some paid advertising services that the retailer can upgrade to if they want, but the core service listing and ongoing exposure to local consumers is free forever".
While demand for online has seen a big shift during the pandemic.
"We know that obviously demand has shifted massively due to COVID - people are doing things online that traditionally they would have maybe not done before", he said.
Irish shoppers are actively supporting local retailers, and 66% of people who shop local say they are doing so in a conscious effort to support local businesses.
Pointy was acquired by Google back in January last year.
To sign up, retailers can visit pointy.com/ireland
