Online Retailer of the Year Awards
The Online Retailer Industry Awards (ORIA) ceremony was held last Thursday, designed to show case Australia's best and most innovative online shopping retailers. The results are in, and I'm not surprised to see who received the Online Retailer of the Year Award.
It's like the logies for online shops. We all have our favorite online retail stores, mine is OO.com.au, Apple, and Jaycar to name a few, but the Online Retailer Industry Awards shows us who is considered the best by a judging panel of e-commerce heavy weights. There's a heap of categories this year, and we've detailed the winners for each category toward the end of this post.
Andy Powell, chairman of the ORIA judging panel, said there were clear themes and elements the panel were looking for, elements beyond common retail services customers have come to expect from the online retail industry in Australia.
"Looking beyond the obvious elements like use-ability, look and feel, and content quality, we have been seeking those entrants who demonstrated a sympathetic understanding of who comes to their business and why they're there, and can translate that understanding into a compelling and enriching experience", Powell said.
The awards ceremony for the ORIAs was held July the 8th & 9th at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, and the online retailer of the year title went to the ABC Shop. ORIA program director Grant Arnott, said "The ABC Shop has set an impressive standard for others in the industry, utilising a wide range of interactive content on its site, available both online and through their kiosks in ABC Shops around Australia". The ABC Shop was also named as the country's leading multichannel retailer.
There were other awards worth noting as well, Appliances Online getting the best customer experience award, Shoes of Prey being awarded best new online retailer and the most innovative online retailer award.
The other award categories are detailed below, with the winners of each category as well.
- Best Pure-Play Online Retailer: Appliances Online, www.appliancesonline.com.au
- Best Multichannel Retailer: ABC Shop, www.shop.abc.net.au
- Best New Online Retailer: Shoes of Prey, www.shoesofprey.com
- Best Use of Technology: City Beach, www.citybeach.com.au
- Most Innovative Online Retailer: Shoes of Prey, www.shoesofprey.com
- Best Online Retail Marketing Initiative: Shoes of Prey, www.shoesofprey.com
- Best Customer Experience: Appliances Online, www.appliancesonline.com.au
- Emerging Star: Scoopon, www.scoopon.com.au
- Best Site Design: Big Brown Box, www.bigbrownbox.com.au
- Industry Recognition Award: Eway, www.eway.com.au
As customers, we generally want more out of a online shopping web site these days. Gone are the days when online retailers just needed a simple add to cart button.
Today we want, 360 degree product displays, excellent product descriptions, instant product support, and social interaction from the shops. We search for product information via forums, we google the products to see competitors prices, and other resources. With that in mind, I'm not surprised the ABC Shop received the Online Retailer of the Year Award.
