ABC Shop, Aunty’s web storefront, was the overall winner in Australia’s inaugural Online Retail Industry Awards.
The award ceremony was a black-tie soiree held on 9 July, the final day of the Online Retailers Conference in Sydney. James O’Loghlin, host of “New Inventors,” served as master of ceremonies.
ABC Shop scored Online Retailer of the Year award. Established in 1995, it boasts more than 20,000 products, from “Doctor Who” DVDs to “Top Gear” mini-torch rings. The site’s wide range of interactive content is available both online and through their kiosks in ABC Shop around Australia.
The site also captured the award for Best Multichannel Retailer.
Another big winner was Shoes of Prey, which walked away with three awards — Best New Online Retailer, Most Innovative Online Retailer and Best Online Marketing Initiative. Not bad for a business that, at the time of the awards, had existed for only seven months. Shoes of Prey, which allows customers to design choose elements of custom-made women’s shoes, makes extensive use of social media and YouTube.
(Shoes of Prey co-founder Michael Fox is also well known to Sydney based attendees of Anthill’s Young Entrepreneurs’ Night Out networking events).
White goods pureplay online retailer Appliances Online won two awards — Best Pureplay Retailer and Best Customer Experience. The flashy site for surf-style clothing store City Beach won for Best Use of Technology, while innovative coupon site Scoopon took home the Emerging Star award.
The Best Site Design award went to Big Brown Box, the big-box merchandise store.
The Industry Recognition Award was presented to Matt Bullock of Eway for his longtime contributions and vision in the area of online payments.
The awards, which boast the highly pronounceable acronym ORIA, reportedly enjoyed a successful debut ceremony. The folks who run the Online Retailer Conference expect to make it an annual thing.
“We believe these awards will not only serve to recognise and celebrate excellence, but challenge all retailers to elevate standards and implement best practice,” Grant Arnott, ORIA program director, said in a news release. He added that those who didn’t cart home one of the pyramid-like trophies “are already planning an assault on next year’s awards program.”
