AWARD CATEGORY
E-Commerce Initiative Award
Steve Jaggard and Zak Ireson,
directors at Further Search Marketing
FINALISTS:
MattressmanStarting life as a collection of stores in Norfolk, Mattressman has grown to become one of UK's leading suppliers of mattresses, beds and related merchandise online. Working with leading brands and storing over 8,000 products at all times, the company uses multiple offline and online sales and marketing channels and provides nationwide next-day product delivery. Mattressman was recognised as one of UK's fastest growing companies in 2009 Sunday Times Fast Track survey and has continued to evolve. When Andrew Kerry recognised the niche for mattresses online, he was way ahead of the game – a position the company strives to maintain and build upon – via its in-house IT and ecommerce team.
ServiceTick
Set-up in 2006 with a vision to develop innovative, value-generating solutions for clients seeking to maximise their investment in online and call centre channels, ServiceTick focuses on two areas of activity: customer feedback and experience and online optimisation. The Company's products, which now include the innovative SessionCam, add significant insights and efficiency improvements in finance and retail organisations with large, and often multiplatform, direct-to-consumer channels. Having become a success in the finance sector, ServiceTick is now being aimed at the retail/ecommerce sector where the management team believe it will have significant effect on sales conversion. ServiceTick's client list now includes Aviva, Standard Life, Hiscox, Lloyds and Joules among others.
Van Dal Shoes
Part of the Florida Group Ltd. - a family business which has been making shoes in Norwich since 1936, Van Dal is synonymous with high quality classic ladies footwear. The growth of ecommerce revenues to date has been impressive and the dynamic young marketing team are continually looking to innovate across new digital channels. Unlike competitors such as Clarks, the company does not have retail stores of its own, so has to rely on many independent retail stockists to promote and sell their shoes. Rather than create a threat to these stockists, Van Dal have used their ecommerce site to everyone's advantage by also promoting the bricks and mortar stockists on the site – giving the customer a choice, giving Van Dal their stepping stone to multi-channel retailing.
A brand new category this year, the eCommerce Initiative has been introduced to celebrate those businesses which have embraced the future by looking online to take their business forward.
The winner will have demonstrated how it has successfully utlised eCommerce or a transactional website of any kind to drive sales or ordering within its business during the past year.
This could be;
- a b2b or b2c bricks and mortar business which has moved into ecommerce sales
- a b2b or B2c bricks and mortar business which has used online to deliver more order or enquiries.
- an online-only business which has successfully introduced new innovation into its model over the past year
The judges will be looking at how progress has been reflected by achievements in terms of growth in online sales, orders or business enquiries, improved turnover, return on investment.
A former winner of the 'Best New Business' category, Further Search Marketing has continued its impressive growth to become a Top 25 UK Search Agency in just five years. Based in Norwich, Further specialises in making businesses more profitable online, by creating and implementing search marketing and social media strategies for local and global clients which include Expedia, Mazda, Pine Solutions, Flooring Supplies, Hughes and the Richardsons Group. The company has recently gained itself a big reputation in the eCommerce sector where it provides a complete strategy-to site-to-search-to-sale service and is one of the first leading UK agencies to offer ROI-based campaigns based on revenues, rather than simply rankings.