Judges are this week meeting to whittle the nominations for this year’s Internet Retailing Awards down to a long list of potential winners.
The awards, now in their fourth year, recognise stars of the industry who have shone in categories from innovation and customer service to developing the digital store and international trade during 2014 and 2015.
Judges are now going through the entries and nominations and preparing the long-list for final adjudication at the beginning of September.
The final winners will be announced at the awards party, a highlight of the industry’s annual calendar, and which this year will be held on September 24 at the Mandarin Oriental, London.
Ian Jindal, editor-in-chief of Internet Retailing, said: “Longlisting the retailers who have stood out over the past year is always tough – but very interesting. By revisiting some of the stand-out innovations of the past 12 months we both learn by example and start to see how the sector might develop in the future.”
The awards list, in full
The Innovation Award, won last year by Tesco, the Mobile Award, won last year by House of Fraser, the Digital Store Award (Argos: 2014), the Customer Award (Cult Pens: 2014), the International Award (Asos: 2014), the Market Entry Award (Missguided: 2014), and the Service Retail Award (Etsy: 2014). The Brand Award is for direct brand retailers (Graze and Lego: 2014) while the International UK Launch recognises non-UK etailers or brands who have launched in this market since January 2014, and is new this year, along with the B2B Multichannel Award, and the Supplier Innovation and Startup Award. Finally, the InternetRetailing Award is given by the readers of InternetRetailing, and was won last year by Waitrose, while the Judges Award, chosen by our panel of distinguished judges, was last year claimed by Asos.
The judging panel
Robin Philips, multichannel director at Boots UK; Andy Harding, chief customer officer at House of Fraser; Tanya Lawler, vice president, UK trading, at eBay; Peter Fitzgerald, country sales director at Google UK; Alan Giles, associate fellow at the Said Business School, University of Oxford; Donna Chen, responsivel for global strategy, international online, omnichannel and digital development Walgreens Boots Alliance; Simon Forster, executive director, multichannel, marketing and supply chain, at Selfridges; Sarah Lukins, ecommerce director at LK Bennett; David Walmsley, director of multichannel development at Marks & Spencer; Jennifer Cherrington Mowat, global head of IT (marketing/ecommerce) at RS Components; Jonathan Wall, group ecommerce director at Shop Direct Group; Walter Blackwood, director group logistics at Mothercare; Tracy Stone, global sales and distribution director at GANT AB; Ian Jindal, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Internet Retailing and Emma Herrod, editor of InternetRetailing magazine.
