e-retail growth award

Transcription

IR
INTERNET
RETAILER
Inside the 2016
IR Awards
for Excellence
Profiles, financial data,
and commentary on the
51 finalists and 13 winners
of Internet Retailer’s
awards for the best
retail websites for 2016.
In online commerce,
milliseconds
mean millions.
Now is the time for better
performance insights.
See why 53 of the Top 100
Internet Retailers trust
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CONTENTS
4 JUDGES
The 2016 Internet Retailer Award Judges
2- GREETINGS
Letter from the Editor in Chief
50
AWARDS PHOTO GALLERY
The Internet Retailer 2016 Excellence Awards Nominees & Winners
6
EMERGING
RETAILER OF
THE YEAR
10
E-RETAIL GROWTH AWARD
14
WEB REDESIGN OF THE YEAR
20 E-RETAIL MARKETER OF
THE YEAR
22 BEST MARKETING VIDEO
OF THE YEAR
24 BEST PRODUCT VIDEO
OF THE YEAR
28 B2B E-COMMERCE
MARKETER OF THE YEAR
30 B2B E-COMMERCE WEBSITE
DESIGN OF THE YEAR
32
B2B E-COMMERCE PLAYER
OF THE YEAR
36 MOBILE COMMERCE AWARD
39 GLOBAL E-RETAILER OF
THE YEAR
42 OMNICHANNEL RETAILER
OF THE YEAR
45 AWARD SPONSORS
46 INTERNET RETAILER OF
THE YEAR
«1
2
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
LEARN FROM
THE BEST
T
HE PURPOSE OF THE INTERNET Retailer
Excellence Awards is to educate. We
believe companies that sell online want
to learn from their most accomplished peers. By
highlighting top performers through this annual
awards program we spotlight companies that
have excelled in key areas of online commerce.
This year we expanded the number of awards
to 13 from 10 in 2015, when we launched the
Excellence Awards. These trophies are given
out each year at a banquet during the Internet
Retailer Conference & Exhibition, or IRCE, in
Chicago.
Two of the added awards are for business-to-business e-commerce companies. These
are manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors
and retailers that sell online to other businesses,
government agencies, nonprofit organizations,
universities, school systems and other bulk buyers of merchandise. B2B e-commerce is gaining
steam, and we felt one award was insufficient
to recognize the innovation going on in this
fast-growing arena.
We also added a second video award. Instead
of just celebrating the best video of the year, as
we did last year, we gave awards this year to the
best marketing video and the best product video.
We are all watching so much video that online
sellers have realized it’s a vital part of business,
both as a form of marketing and as a way to
explain products, especially those that are
complex or unfamiliar. The two awards this year
allow us to recognize more of the innovation and
creativity going into this area of e-commerce.
In all, 51 companies were nominated for the 13
awards. They ranged from household names like
Amazon, Target, Home Depot and Nordstrom to
online startups like Green Chef, Saatva, Dollar
Shave Club and Hickies.
We received hundreds of nominations.
Narrowing the list to a handful of finalists and
then picking the winners was a four-month
process. In each category there was a panel of
judges, in most cases made up of both Internet
Retailer editors and industry analysts, consultants and online retailers. I want to thank the
judges who helped our Internet Retailer editors
evaluate the submissions, select the finalists
and pick the winners in each category. There
is so much good work going on in e-commerce
that picking the winners took a lot of discussion, and we at Internet Retailer greatly appreciate the time and careful consideration the
outside experts invested in this endeavor.
In this report we review all the finalists and
explain what the judges saw that led to them
making the short list in each category. We also
explain what led them to select the winner in
each category. As you read this report I’m confident you’ll see what I see: The pace of change
and innovation in e-commerce is not slowing
down. And there are creative minds at work at
both big companies and small, coming up with
new ways to engage consumers and business
customers via the web.
To some casual observers, including a few on
Wall Street, the e-commerce story is all about
Amazon.com Inc. But the examples in this
report make clear that many other companies
are also coming up with bright new ideas and
applying strategies in ways that are gaining
them market share.
That’s not to disparage Amazon, which was
a finalist in two categories, Global E-Retailer
of the Year and Internet Retailer of the Year.
Amazon didn’t win in either category, but I
can tell you there were judges that argued the
leading e-retailer’s case in both instances. It’s
JULY 2016 | WWW.INTERNETRETAILER.COM
a reflection of how stiff the competition is in
online selling that a majority of judges in both
cases voted for another nominee.
Wayfair Inc. won the Internet Retailer of the
Year award. That’s something of an upset in that
the other nominees in the category—Amazon,
Etsy Inc., Nike Inc. and Nordstrom Inc.—are
better known in most households.
But Wayfair, a web-only retailer that’s emerging as a top shopping destination for furniture
and home décor, is a classic e-commerce
success story, and one that holds lessons for
other e-retailers. What impresses me most about
the entrepreneurs that founded and still run
Wayfair is that they took a profitable and growing business model and changed it, convinced
they could build a much bigger business.
The company they began in 2002 as CSN
Stores rolled out one niche e-commerce site
after another selling home goods, eventually operating 250 sites with URLs like
RacksandStands.com and Strollers.com. But few
consumers knew a single company was behind
all those sites. In 2011, the company rebranded
as Wayfair, launched a single website with merchandise from all of its sites and poured money
into marketing. The result has been dramatic
growth over the last few years that has moved
Wayfair to No. 24 in the Top 500 from No. 50 four
years ago. Combine guts, brains and the power
of the web and anything is possible.
There are many similar examples of creativity
and boldness among this year’s winners. A
personal favorite is Dollar Shave Club, winner
of the Marketer of the Year award, which made
its name with snarky online videos that tweak
well-known brands. One such ad proclaims:
“The mega razor corporation’s blades are SO
expensive, you HAVE to use them for a month.”
Our judges weren’t the only ones that noticed:
A month after Dollar Shave Club won this
award it was acquired by Unilever for a reported
$1 billion.
Hickies Inc. is another creative e-retailer and
won the Website Redesign of the Year award,
despite the 3-year-old company and its product
being previously unknown to the judges who
voted on that award. They were impressed
with how well Hickies.com explained its novel
product—stretchable plastic tabs that replace
shoelaces—as well as by the modest $10,000
price tag for the redesign project.
That’s not to say big companies can’t be
innovative. I and the other judges on the B2B
Website Redesign panel were wowed by the
many features W.W. Grainger Inc., a company
that generates annual revenue of $10 billion,
added in the past year to its already impressive
Grainger.com e-commerce site. The site recognizes registered customers and shows them
their negotiated pricing without them having
to log in, no small feat given the confidential
nature of contract prices. In a sprawling
industrial facility, Grainger can recognize which
building a customer is in by the location of his
mobile device and show him the parts he needs
for equipment in that location.
There are loads more similar examples of
online sellers figuring out what their customers want and need and coming up with new
ways to deliver it. The pages ahead are full of
inspiration. Learn from these leaders, and then
nominate your own team for next year’s Internet
Retailer Excellence Awards. We’ll be taking
nominations starting in December. Best of luck.
DON DAVIS
Editor in chief, Internet Retailer
«3
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JUDGES
INTERNET RETAILER JUDGES
FAREEHA ALI
ALLISON ENRIGHT
KURT PETERS
APRIL BERTHENE
KATIE EVANS
Associate Editor, Mobile
Editor, Mobile
ZAK STAMBOR
BILL BRIGGS
KAT FAY
Research Analyst
Managing Editor,
Production & Special
Projects, Research
Editor
Senior Data Analyst
MARK BROHAN
MATT LINDNER
Vice President of Research
Associate Editor
DON DAVIS
JON LOVE
Editor-in-Chief
Associate Editor
PAUL DEMERY
TRACY MAPLE
Editor, B2B E-Commerce
Managing Editor, Digital
Content
Executive Editor
Editor, Online Marketing
NONA TEPPER
Associate Editor, B2B
FRANK TONG
Senior Editor, China
MARY WAGNER
Editorial Director,
Conferences
STEFANY ZAROBAN
Director, Research
«5
INDUSTRY JUDGES
GENE ALVAREZ
KRISHNA GUPTA
NIKKI BAIRD
LESLIE HAND
Vice President
IDC Retail Insights
Managing Partner
RSR Research
SCOTT BENFIELD
ANDY HOAR
DANIELLE SAVIN
CHARLIE COLE
MICHAEL HUGHES
LAURA SWANSON
VAL DUVERNET
JUSTIN KING
LINDA TADDONIO
LAUREN FREEDMAN
ALAN LITTMAN
ANDREA WEISS
PENNY GILLESPIE
JOLINE MCGOLDRICK
BRENDAN WITCHER
ERIC GRUNEWALD
SUCHARITA MULPURU
Managing Vice President
Gartner Inc
Managing Partner
RSR Research
Principal
Benfield Consulting
Chief Digital Officer and VP
Tumi
Senior Program Manager,
Content & Social Media Strategy
Advance Auto Parts
President
The E-tailing Group
Research Director
Gartner
CMO & VP of E-Commerce
Discount Ramps
CEO
Sortfolio
Principal Analyst
Forrester Research, Inc.
CEO
Plushbeds
Partner
B2X Partners
Founding Partner
IQAcceleration
Vice President, Research
Millward Brown Digital
Vice President and
Principal Analyst
Forrester Research, Inc
SEVAG PARSEHIAN
Senior Consultant &
Program Manager
FitForCommerce
STEVE ROWEN
Director of Digital
Strategy & Marketing
Lyons Consulting Group
Senior Consultant
FitForCommerce
Founding Partner
IQ Acceleration Inc.
Founding Partner
The O Alliance
Principal Analyst
Forrester Research, Inc.
6
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AWARDS
IR
Excellence
EMERGING RETAILER OF THE YEAR
The retailer that grew its sales most dramatically to emerge from relative obscurity to a first-time
ranking in the Internet Retailer Top 1000 of North American retail websites.
THE NOMINEES:
HARRY’S
URL: HARRYS.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2012
2015 WEB SALES: $30 MILLION
2016 RANK: 493
2015 GROWTH RATE: 400%
CEO: ANDY KATZ-MAYFIELD
COMPANY ADDRESS: 155 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS NEW YORK, NY
10013
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Harry’s is a subscription razor
blade service launched in 2013 that closely resembles Dollar Shave Club by providing and shipping shaving supplies
for less than traditional brand-name manufacturers like
Gillette. After a one-month free trial, monthly shave plans
for kits that include razors and shaving cream start at $6.
The fact that it acquired a million customers in only two
years and raised $287.1 million in funding demonstrates
that even a commodity item like razors can be reinvented
if the approach is unique enough. Harry’s, which owns its
Germany-based blade factory, allows consumers to sign
up for various kits and also sells shave kits, shave cream,
moisturizer and a razor stand separately. According to
web traffic monitor Compete, Harry’s attracted an average
of 1,337,351 unique monthly visitors in 2015, up 81.8% year
over year, not far behind Dollar Shave Club’s 1,611,298,
which was up 39.8%.
Harry’s primarily sells online but also
operates one physical location called
“Harry’s Corner Shop,” a traditional
neighborhood barbershop in New York City.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Harry’s did more than reinvent a
long-standing category when it gave consumers a new
place to shop for razors; this online venue also shattered
the price point established and firmly locked by industry
leaders for years. Replacement cartridges for most razors
are now pricey enough to be displayed behind a locked
case in most stores. While a package of six refill cartridges
of Gillette ProGlide blades runs $25.64 in most drugstores,
Harry’s shave kits cost $6 a month, giving consumers a
more affordable grooming choice.
IPSY
URL: IPSY.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2011
2016 RANK: 198
2015 GROWTH RATE: 78.57%
CEO: MARCELO CAMBEROS
COMPANY ADDRESS: 11 N. ELLSWORTH AVE., SAN MATEO, CA 94402
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Ipsy is an online subscription
service that sends a monthly “glam bag” to customers with
beauty products such as mascara, eye shadow, foundation,
skin care, and lip colors. For $10 a month customers can
tailor their selection of trial-sized beauty products and
receive discounts for buying additional goods. Co-founded
by social media celebrity Michelle Phan, members can
watch video tutorials produced by Ipsy that demonstrate
new products or beauty tips. Ipsy, which has raised $103
million in financing, says it has 1.5 million subscribers in
the U.S. and Canada and the company is planning international expansion. The “glam bags” are stuffed with free
samples and discounted products Ipsy obtain from cosmetics brands, including L’Oréal SA.
New visitors to the site take a short
three-minute survey about their skin
type, eye color and hair color, enabling
Ipsy associates to tailor the most suitable
products for the “glam bag”.
«7
uses recycled cardboard and compostable insulation when
shipping its packages to be friendlier to the environment.
Shoppers can choose which kind of meal they want based
on their dietary needs. Offerings include vegan, glutenfree, and “paleo-friendly” meals that avoid processed
foods. All meals feature detailed, step-by-step cooking
instructions complete with pictures of each step on its
website. Plans start at $10.49 for three dinners.
Green Chef raised a $15.5 million Series A
round in April 2015. Venture capital firm
New Enterprise Associates participated in
the round.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Keeping up with the myriad of
beauty products and brands could be a full-time
commitment but most working adults don’t have the
time to fully investigate the market. Ipsy claimed that
opportunity by curating monthly sample boxes that
introduce customers to new products that they might
not otherwise find. Word-of-mouth endorsements
via social media also fuel enthusiasm along with the
surprise factor that comes with the monthly package.
Millennials are particularly fond of these subscription
services because along with receiving a monthly “treat”
Ipsy is doing the investigating and groundwork they
don’t have time for.
GREEN CHEF CORP.
URL: GREENCHEF.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2014
2015 RANK: 831
CEO: MICHAEL JOSEPH
COMPANY ADDRESS: 6400 BROADWAY, UNIT 6, DENVER, CO 80221
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Online organic food delivery
retailer Green Chef launched in 2014 and has grown
quickly ever since, going from an Internet Retailerestimated $1 million in sales in 2014 to $10 million in
2015. The company’s goal is to make the meal planning
process easier and healthier for shoppers, marrying
the kinds of products you’d find in a farmer’s market
with the convenience of shopping online. Green Chef
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: In a category that is becoming
increasingly competitive with the likes of Blue Apron and
Plated, Green Chef stands out because of its commitment
to the environment and its organic offerings. Green
Chef also encourages shoppers to develop a personal
connection to its food suppliers through a section on its
website where shoppers can go to learn more about the
people and companies supplying the products that become
their dinners.
BOXED
URL: BOXED.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2013
2015 RANK: 405
CEO: CHIEH HUANG
COMPANY ADDRESS: 185 NATIONAL ROAD, EDISON, NJ 08817
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AWARDS
IR
Excellence
EMERGING RETAILER OF THE YEAR
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Boxed is the
Costco of the online world, selling
consumer products in bulk at deep
discounts. It largely began, unlike
most online retailers in North
America, with a uniquely mobile-first
approach. The company launched in
2013 as a mobile app-only business
that targeted consumers who shop
on their smartphones. The retailer
has since rolled out a desktop
shopping site that very closely
resembles its mobile experience,
with simple navigation and large,
bold imagery. The strategy succeeded
in wooing investors, as the merchant
has raised $132 million since its
founding, $100 million of that just
in January 2016. Boxed drove an
estimated $45 million in online sales
in 2015, earning it a first-time ranking
of No. 405 in the Internet Retailer
2016 Top 500 Guide
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Boxed credits
its success to its ability to mimic the
value that warehouse club retailers
like Sam’s Club and Costco deliver,
but tailored to the mobile shopper.
THE WINNER
BOXED
Accepting the Emerging E-Retailer of the Year Award for Boxed is Julia Blanter,
Head of Content and Jillian Bromley, Head of Boxed.com website
“
Judges’ comments: With online retail now more than 20 years in, coming across
a unique take on retail and e-commerce doesn’t happen very often. But Boxed is
an exception, as it has succeeded thus far in taking the Costco model—which has
earned the enduring loyalty of many Costco customers—online. It has done so in
a forward-thinking way the judges look for in selecting the Emerging Retailer of
the Year Award. Boxed knew three years ago, an eternity in online retail, that the
smartphone would soon be the device of choice for online shopping, and it had the
foresight to first perfect its mobile strategy before going after the desktop shopper.
Winner’s comments: “Our company was created out of the need to solve a very
particular problem. How can people take advantage of wholesale shopping of
everyday household items, if they have neither the means, nor the time to shop at
a traditional wholesale club? At Boxed, we save our customers time and money
shopping in bulk. With deliveries coming right to their doorstep, not having a car
is no longer a barrier. We understand that shopping patterns are changing, and
we want to be at the forefront of that trend. More than half of our orders come
through on a handheld device, and mobile commerce is only going to grow.”
—David Taft, vice president of communications
”
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AWARDS
IR
Excellence
A website that has been ranked in the Internet Retailer Top 1000 for at least two years
and which achieved the highest growth rate in the current year.
THE NOMINEES:
123STORES.COM INC.
URL: 123STORES.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2009
2015 WEB SALES: $95.24 MILLION
2015 RANK: 262
CEO: SHARAD KAJARIA, FOUNDER/CEO
COMPANY ADDRESS: 1674 BROADWAY, SUITE 802, NEW YORK, NY
10019
COMPANY BACKGROUND: 123Stores.com Inc. is the U.S.
e-commerce division of India-based IntraSoft Technologies
Ltd., which also operates a free online greeting card website
123Greetings.com. 123Stores.com—which sells a wide range
of merchandise, including home furnishings, cosmetics,
consumer electronics and luggage—is a great Second
500-to-Top 500 story. Launched in 2009 when it booked $3.4
million in web sales, the discount retailer increased its online sales by over 100% in each of the last two years. Traffic
has also increased steadily, from 1.2 million monthly visits
in 2013, to 2 million in 2014 and 2.4 million in 2015. Last
year smartphones and tablets accounted for 30% of that
traffic. 123Stores was especially busy over the Thanksgiving-through-Cyber Monday period in 2015, when sales shot
up 243% over the same period in 2014, according to founder
Sharad Kajaria. The e-retailer sold approximately one item
every seven seconds on Cyber Monday, he says.
123Stores was especially busy over the
Thanksgiving-through-Cyber Monday
period in 2015, when sales shot up 243%
over the same period in 2014.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: In September 2015, IntraSoft,
123Stores.com’s parent company, announced an integration between 123Stores.com and online marketplace
Jet.com. The company says 123Stores.com’s products
now are available in 10 online marketplaces, including
Amazon.com and eBay.com. IntraSoft raised about
$5.4 million through a sale of more than a third of its
treasury stock in June 2015 and has been using the funding
to expand its already growing e-commerce business.
NAKEDWINES.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2008
CEO: ROWAN GORMLEY
GROWTH: 106%
RANK: NO. 322
COMPANY ADDRESS: 500 FIRST ST., NAPA, CA 94559
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Web-only merchant NakedWines.
com’s unique crowdfunding business model is working.
Customers, which the retailer calls “angel investors,”
contribute at least $40 per month, which they can spend
on any wine. The company uses contributions to fund
independent winemakers selling under their own labels. In
return, investors get exclusive access and preferred pricing
of 40% to 60% off the list price of top-shelf wines. The
e-retailer jumped to the No. 322 spot in the Internet Retailer
2016 Top 500 Guide from No. 447 in last year’s edition. The
e-retailer is growing—and rapidly. In 2015, NakedWines.
NAKEDWINES.COM'S
GROWTH ($ MILLIONS)
$70M
$34M
$17M
$1.8M
2012 201320142015
com brought in $70 million in sales, up from $1.8 million in
2012. The company grew 106% in 2015—that’s 13 times faster than Wine.com, historically the top e-commerce site for
wine in the Top 500, which grew sales 8% over the same
period to an estimated $101.6 million.
NakedWines.com grew to $70 million in
sales in 2015, up from $1.8 million in 2012.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: NakedWines.com pays careful
attention to customer service. For instance, a third of the
company’s 35 customer representatives reach out to dormant customers to address issues that have kept them from
buying, seeking to encourage them to start ordering again.
Another perk for customers: Winemakers give customers
a gift bottle of wine every month they purchase a case of
their wine, which is popped straight in a customer’s online
basket ready for when they order the case.
service that also sets up the bed with the proper foundation and removes the old mattress. Saatva has a 75-day
home trial policy, charging customers only the original
delivery fee if they return merchandise. It relies on 17 factories and 116 distribution centers to fulfill its orders, and
claims to be the only online mattress company to sell both
memory foam and inner-spring mattresses. The company
recently introduced its third product line, its Zenhaven
natural latex mattresses, and says initial sales exceeded
expectations. “Based on these numbers, we are entering
a new phase of e-commerce and are poised to continue to
lead the way,” says co-founder Ricky Joshi.
SaatvaMattress.com expects web sales
to hit $180 million in 2016, an increase of
122% over 2015.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Saatva makes its bedding from ecofriendly materials and invested early in a national manufacturing and distribution operation that goes straight from
the factory to the web shopper. That e-commerce business
model and no middleman in between has put Saatva’s
growth on a fast track.
WAYFAIR LLC
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2002
CEO: NIRAJ SHAH
2015 WEB SALES: $2.04 BILLION
2015 GROWTH: 85%
RANK: NO. 24
COMPANY ADDRESS: 4 COPLEY PLACE, SUITE 7000, BOSTON,
MA 02116
SAATVA INC.
URL: SAATVAMATTRESS.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2013
2015 RANK: 300
CEO: RON RUDZIN
COMPANY ADDRESS: 8 WRIGHT ST., SUITE 108, WESTPORT, CT 06880
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Saatva is a manufacturer and online retailer of premium mattresses, and says its discounts
are up to 70% off traditional retail store prices. But the
company’s true key to success online is making bed buyers
on a budget feel like the kings and queens of the mattress
sizes they are buying online. Saatva uses eco-friendly
materials to construct its mattresses and offers a concierge
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Wayfair is making its mark in the
home goods category. For a company that’s been around
for more than a decade, its 85% growth in online sales in
2015 is impressive. In the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500
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AWARDS
IR
Excellence
Guide, Wayfair is ranked No. 24—that’s up from No. 33 in
the 2015 edition—trailing only Williams-Sonoma Inc. in
its category that grew 6.4% in 2015. The online home furnishings retailer operates e-commerce sites Wayfair.com,
Joss & Main, AllModern, Birch Lane and Dwell Studio. In
2015 it increased its active customers across all brands
to 5.4 million from 3.2 million. Its average ticket jumped
48% to $222 from $150 and its estimated conversion rate
increased 1.7% from 1.15%. The holidays gave the retailer
a record boost in 2015. During the five-day period from
Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, gross revenue from online orders increased 130% year over year.
THE WINNER
SAATVA
Accepting the E-Retail Growth Award for Saatva is Ricky Joshi,
Co-Founder and CMO
Orders placed by repeat customers jumped
92% in 2015 to 5 million orders.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Wayfair not only continues to add new
customers—770,000 new customers shopped with Wayfair
in Q4 2015—but it’s retaining them. Orders placed by repeat
customers jumped 92% for the full year to 5 million orders.
Its favorable repeat customer dynamic is in part due to its
proprietary data analytics platform that enables effective
personalization, says Colin Sebastian, e-commerce analyst
at Robert W. Baird & Co.
“
Judges’ comments: There’s nothing sleepy about the
way web-only mattress retailer Saatva.com is out to
change the way consumers buy bedding online. And the
company’s focus on selling luxury bedding to would-be
mattress buyers on a budget or looking for a great deal
is paying off in fast-growing web sales. In 2015 Saatva.
com grew web sales 200% to $81 million. Saatva.
com takes the mystery out of buying a mattress online
through extensive “how-to-buy content” that includes
videos, brand comparison tools and more than 7,000
five-star customer reviews compiled in less than three
years in business. Saatva.com also offers bed buyers
multiple ways to buy online, including mobile, and
claims to keep its marketing budget low by generating
sales primarily through word-of-mouth marketing.
Winner’s comments: “We are thrilled to be recognized
as a top e-commerce company among so many strong
and growing brands. We have stayed true to our
commitment of bringing transparency and one-of-akind customer service to the ultra-premium mattress
industry and will continue to do so. With sales
projected at $180 million this year, we are showing no
signs of slowing down and are excited to be a part of
the ever evolving internet retail industry.”
—Ron Rudzin, CEO and founder
”
14
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AWARDS
IR
Excellence
A website that shows a major improvement in its appeal, functionality and customer friendliness
and meets the future requirements of online retailing. The new design must also produce improved
results (higher average ticket, conversion rates and higher sales, lower bounce rates).
THE NOMINEES:
DJO GLOBAL
BEFORE REDESIGN
URL: BETTERBRACES.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2005
SENIOR E-COMMERCE EXECUTIVE: ALISON FRENCH
COMPANY ADDRESS: 1430 DECISION ST., VISTA, CA 92081
COMPANY BACKGROUND: BetterBraces.com is the direct-to-consumer arm of DJO Global, a global developer,
manufacturer and distributor of medical devices that
provide solutions for musculoskeletal health, vascular
health and pain management. The target audience for the
site is any individual with an injury or ailment that causes
pain. The redesigned site went live in August 2015 following 18 months of planning and six months of development.
The new design shows Better Braces has a clear and deep
understanding of its consumers’ needs, and an interactive
tool called Brace Advisor accelerated conversions. Post-redesign performance metrics include a 15% lift in overall
conversions and a 38% increase in transactions.
Revenue for BetterBraces.com has risen
40% since the redesign, driven by a
38% increase in transactions and a 33%
increase in the number of items purchased
per transaction.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: To help customers find the right product for their needs Better Braces developed Brace Advisor.
One of the objectives of the redesign was to make shopping
for a medical product online less overwhelming, especially
important given that more than 50% of the e-retailer’s
customers are over 50 years old. Brace Advisor asks a series
of questions that helps guide customers to the product
that best meets their needs. When customers interact with
Brace Advisor the conversion rate jumps up to 5.94%, 80%
higher than the e-retailer’s overall conversion rate, and
average order size increases by 40%.
AFTER REDESIGN
HICKIES INC.
URL: HICKIES.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2013
FOUNDER/CEO: GASTÓN FRYDLEWSKI
COMPANY ADDRESS: 134 NORTH 4TH STREET, #2011, BROOKLYN, NY,
11249
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Hickies Inc. faces the challenge
of educating website visitors about a product few have
encountered or question the need for. Hickies is a 3-yearold startup maker and seller of a shoelace alternative for
sneakers billed as a “responsive lacing system”—plastic
tabs that consumers set once and which then stretch and
contract as the wearer moves. The site persuasively educates consumers on what the product is, how it works and
why a consumer needs it through interactive graphics,
video and testimonials. All those elements operate fully
on mobile devices, without slowing the site down.
Before the redesign, 29% of visitors to
Hickies.com visited the “shop” pages and
viewed products. After the redesign, 49%
of sessions include product views.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: The most prominent feature of the
redesign was the restructuring of product pages. The
new design provides better visibility of a collection and
improves image placement. The redesign is compelling
consumers to explore and buy. The e-retailer cut its
bounce rate by half and the number of consumers who
click to product pages from the education-focused home
page has grown by nearly 50%.
BEFORE REDESIGN
AFTER REDESIGN
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16
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AWARDS
IR
Excellence
JACKTHREADS
URL: JACKTHREADS.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2008
2015 RANK: 209
2015 GROWTH: 30%
CEO: MARK WALKER
COMPANY ADDRESS: 855 GRANDVIEW AVE. SUITE 230, COLUMBUS,
OHIO, 43215
JackThreads is selling a full line of JackThreads-branded
apparel. Since June 2014, JackThreads has been selling a
mix of private-label goods and full-price items from about
75 brands. Prior to the shift, JackThreads was selling
discounted products from more than 1,000 brands.
JackThreads transitioned from a flash-sale
site into a full-price men’s online apparel
retailer in October 2015.
COMPANY BACKGROUND: JackThreads.com’s newly
designed website is a reflection of its updated business
model. Formerly a flash-sale site, JackThreads last year
transitioned into a full-price men’s online apparel retailer.
In October 2015 the retailer rolled out a redesigned website
and updated mobile apps that remove all aspects of its
flash-sale business model and include the sale of its
own branded line of men’s apparel. JackThreads’ new
site has an updated look and a new logo, and no longer
requires visitors to provide a user name and password to
log in. Previously, only JackThreads members who logged
into the site could navigate it. The biggest change is that
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: JackThreads added better photos and
smart merchandising that showcase the e-retailer’s ownlabel goods at a level that matches the look of other brands
sold through the site. “What we haven’t been the best at
is merchandising, and that is what we have been working
on for months and months. It’s the difference between
JackThreads being a flash-sale retailer, versus JackThreads
being a globally recognized fashion brand that guys love,”
Ben Lerer, founder and CEO of JackThreads’ former parent
company Thrillist, commented after the launch of the
redesigned site.
BEFORE REDESIGN
AFTER REDESIGN
LE CREUSET OF AMERICA INC.
URL: LECREUSET.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2011
CEO: FAYE GOODING
COMPANY ADDRESS: 114 BOB GIFFFORD BLVD., EARLY BRANCH, SC
29916
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Le Creuset is a French
manufacturer and retailer of cookware. Le Creuset knows
consumers are drawn to its colorful products, so it made
color a centerpiece of its redesign with a custom-built
feature that provides a simple way to view all products
available by color. The custom feature enables shoppers
to browse every product available in a color they select, in
addition to coordinating colors to mix and match goods.
The feature is accessible from the home page, main menu
and from a color wheel that appears at the top of each
product page for easy navigating. Following the redesign,
which rolled out in October 2015, the company saw a 10%
BEFORE REDESIGN
« 17
increase in average order value and 8% growth in revenue,
while the bounce rate fell from 41% to 22%.
Le Creuset made color a centerpiece of its
redesign with a custom-built feature that
provides a simple way to view products by
color.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Mobile compatibility was key in Le
Creuset’s website redesign. The new design offers consumers easier ways to engage with LeCreuset.com on smartphones and tablets. Instead of using traditional tabs on the
website, the site is now “finger-friendly” with scrollable
and “swipe-able” bars that allows consumers to filter by
color, material and size. After the launch of the redesign,
mobile conversion increased 27% and tablet conversion
rate increased 8%.
AFTER REDESIGN
18
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
OMAHA STEAKS INTERNATIONAL INC.
URL: OMAHASTEAKS.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1995
2015 GROWTH: 10%
2015 RANK: NO. 145
CEO: BRUCE SIMON
COMPANY ADDRESS: 11030 O ST., OMAHA, NEB., 68137
COMPANY BACKGROUND: OmahaSteaks.com is the
online division of Omaha Steaks International Inc., the
manufacturer and retailer of premium steaks, red meats
and gourmet food. Omaha Steaks began its redesign in
February 2015 with a goal of making it easier for customers
to discover and select its full assortment of products. It also
set out to boost repeat visits, lifetime value of a customer,
conversion rates and average order value. In A/B testing
against the prior design, the new website outperformed the
prior design on the following key performance metrics: 15%
more page views per visit, 9% higher cart start, 12% higher
order conversion and 0.5% higher average order value, the
company says. The redesign includes various presentations
of its products that allows customers to compare items more
easily, such as by the cut of its meats.
Post-redesign, customers thought Omaha
Steaks added new products, when in
reality they were finding products
previously buried in the left-hand menu
of the old design.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: The new navigation system makes
Omaha Steaks’ large product assortment more visible to
customers. In early testing of its new design, customers
commented that they were pleasantly surprised with the
new products Omaha Steaks now offered. In reality, the
company offered most of those products all along, but they
were buried in the old design. With the new design, customers can more easily compare products by size and cut.
New product images convey the quality of the meat, and the
combined design elements are compelling consumers to dig
more deeply into the site.
BEFORE REDESIGN
AFTER REDESIGN
THE WINNER
HICKIES
Accepting the Web Redesign of the Year Award for Hickies is Gaston Frydlewski, CEO
and Ari Cheszes, E-Commerce
“
Judges’ comments: Judges’ comments: Judges gave high marks to educational elements—videos, graphics and photos—
Hickies used to tell consumers what the product is and why they should buy it. The judging panel was unfamiliar with the
product before reviewing its nomination, and all commented that the site quickly and convincingly conveyed what the product
was and tempted them to buy it. Tellingly, Hickies.com’s conversion rate rose 37% after the redesign to 3.05% from 2.23%.
Among the finalists, Hickies also earned the highest rankings for mobile usability, including a five out of five rating for the
ease of checkout. The cost of the redesign, too, impressed judges. Among a group of nominees whose redesigns typically
cost at least $80,000—and in some cases much more—Hickies spent about $10,000 and completed the project with five
team members contributing time over about six months.
Winner’s comments: “At Hickies, website redesign is data-driven and an ongoing process. Every time the site is modified
certain KPIs are observed to measure the impact of the redesign. For Hickies the last redesign meant an increase of
conversion rate, time on site, average order value and ultimately revenue. We are very honored to be awarded the
Website Redesign of the Year award by such a prestigious institution.” —Ari Cheszes, E-commerce and customer
service manager
”
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20
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AWARDS
IR
Excellence
E-RETAIL MARKETER OF THE YEAR
The Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide® retailer which most effectively uses all forms of online marketing
(based on e-mail, paid search, SEO and social marketing metrics tracked by the Top 500 Guide®) to
achieve above-average sales growth in its merchandise category.
THE NOMINEES:
DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB
WAYFAIR INC.
URL: DOLLARSHAVECLUB.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2012
2016 RANK: 238
CEO: MICHAEL DUBIN
COMPANY ADDRESS: 13335 MAXELLA AVE., MARINA DEL REY, CA 90292
URL: WAYFAIR.COM, ALLMODERN.COM, JOSSANDMAIN.COM,
BIRCHLANE.COM, DWELLSTUDIO.COM, WAYFAIR.CO.UK,
WAYFAIR.DE, WAYFAIR.COM.AU
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2002
2015 WEB SALES: $2,040,238,000
2015 RANK: 24
CEO: NIRAJ SHAH
COMPANY ADDRESS: 4 COPLEY PLACE, SUITE 7000, BOSTON, MA
02116
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Launched in 2012, Dollar Shave
Club quickly gained traction with its humorous viral
YouTube videos starring CEO Michael Dubin promoting
the e-retailer as an alternative to big brands that sell
higher-priced razors. The company grew web sales 242%
year-over-year in 2014 to $65 million and continued to use
humorous videos to advance its growth. In August 2015
Dollar Shave Club launched a series of ads designed to
remind consumers why they use their brand-name razors
until shaving becomes painful: “The mega razor corporation’s blades are SO expensive, you HAVE to use them for a
month.” Through a series of TV commercials, social posts,
radio and billboards, Dollar Shave Club brought the crusty
old razors to life and portrayed familiar situations to expose
this consumer frustration. It was a humorous way to make
the point that the e-retailer offers a less expensive and
convenient alternative.
#RazorBurn slogans included “Your razor’s
so old its blinker has been on for 45
minutes” and “Your old razor’s so scummy
it swipes right on everything.”
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: After launching the newer commercials
“Razor Escapes” and “Jacques the Filthy Razor,” Dollar
Shave Club increased its mentions on social media by 24%
and followers by 6%, adding 320,000 followers across its
social channels in one month. By strategically utilizing
Twitter for #RazorBurn, followers engaged with tweets
31% more compared to the previous quarter, while organic
search traffic increased by 10%.
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Wayfair spent 45% more on advertising last year than it did in 2014. That was money well
spent as the web-only housewares and home furnishings
retailer grew its number of active customers to 5.4 million
from 3.2 million a year earlier, its estimated conversion
rate jumped to 1.7% from 1.15%, its average ticket soared
48% to $222 from $150 and its sales grew 85% year over
year to $2.040 billion from $1.101 billion. Wayfair also captured the top spot in Internet Retailer’s first-ever ranking
of the 50 best e-retail marketers based on an exclusive
algorithm that weighs dozens of metrics across four digital
marketing channels—email, paid search, organic search
and social media—to determine the retailers that are most
efficiently and effectively driving consumers to their sites
and apps to buy.
Wayfair captured the top spot in Internet
Retailer’s ranking of best e-retail marketers
in e-commerce.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Wayfair developed technology that
automates the process of determining what keywords it
should bid on, how much it should bid and what search ad
copy should say. The technology has helped Wayfair better
leverage paid search. That’s particularly important to Wayfair
given that the retailer is regularly adding and removing
thousands of SKUs; it drove nearly 14% of its site traffic
from paid search last year. The retailer has also developed
similar technology to improve the efficiency of its display
advertising campaigns.
THE WINNER
YOOX NET-A-PORTER
DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB
URL: NET-A-PORTER.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2000
2016 RANK: 72
CEO: FEDERICO MARCHETTI
COMPANY ADDRESS: VIA MORIMONDO 17, MILANO, ITALY 20143
COMPANY BACKGROUND: In October 2015, Yoox Group
merged with Compagnie Financiere Richemonte SA’s
Net-A-Porter forming one of the largest global fashion
online retailers. The company now operates e-commerce
fashion sites Yoox.com, Net-A-Porter.com, MrPorter.com,
TheCorner.com, ShoeScribe.com, and the OutNet.com.
In 2016, Net-A-Porter, which sells discounted women’s
designer fashion, launched its first co-branded campaign
creative with men’s apparel e-retailer Mr Porter, promoting “the ultimate luxury shopping proposition for him
and for her.” For the first time the company advertised
on TV and on movie theater screens in key markets. The
promotion included cross–shopping promotion fantasy
gifts and premium packaging. The combined efforts
brought Net-A-Porter 30% more male shoppers and Mr
Porter 20% more women over the prior year, broadening
their customer bases.
“Mobile was key to our success,
contributing almost 40% of the
company’s sales, boosted by native apps
which surged 180%” says CEO Federico
Marchetti.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Service was a key to the e-retailer’s
success, as it introduced same-day delivery in New York,
London and Hong Kong, as well as next-day service
elsewhere. Round-the-clock customer service and classy
packaging also helped. The campaign also attracted free
attention from the news media, with 383 press credits
around the world.
Accepting the E-Retail Marketer of the Year Award for Dollar
Shave Club is Lori Jackson, Director of Operations & Fulfillment
“
Judges’ comments: People like to be entertained. And
Dollar Shave Club has managed to take a product,
razors, that isn’t particularly funny or interesting, find a
funny angle and pull off a campaign with good results.
Not only is its #RazorBurns campaign creative and
well-executed, it also effectively engages consumers
by asking them to craft their own memes. The effort
demonstrates Dollar Shave Club’s understanding of
how word of mouth—or word of mouth via social
media—marketing resonates with shoppers. That
helps explain why it has been able to attract younger
consumers and get them to pay attention to its brand.
Winner’s comments: “In having a direct relationship
with our members, we have the unique ability to gather
a number of insights that allow us to serve them better.
We launched the Crusty Campaign to tap into the
insight that many guys were milking their overpriced
blades until they started to look gross. The campaign
used life-like razors of stereotypically crusty characters
to have fun and hyperbolize how gross your razor
actually becomes when you use it for too long. The
campaign translated well into the digital and social
world where we created meme-like jokes such as
‘your razor's so old it...’ with the #Razorburn.”
—Adam Weber, chief marketing officer,
Dollar Shave Club
”
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»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
BEST MARKETING VIDEO OF THE YEAR
A retail video that is well produced with high entertainment and promotional values that result
in higher sales, brand recognition and a high level of viral distribution and awareness.
THE NOMINEES:
NET-A-PORTER (Owned by Yoox Net-A-Porter Group)
MOTOROLA MOBILITY LLC
URL: NET-A-PORTER.COM; MRPORTER.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2000
2015 WEB SALES: $558 MILLION (NORTH AMERICA)
2015 RANK: 72
CEO: FREDERICO MARCHETTI
COMPANY ADDRESS: 100 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK, NY 10011
URL: MOTOROLA.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1998
2015 WEB SALES: $3.361 BILLION (WEB SALES REFLECT TOTAL SALES
FROM MOTOROLA MOBILITY’S PARENT COMPANY, LENOVO GROUP LTD.)
2015 RANK: 16
2015 GROWTH RATE: -0.56%
CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT: AYMAR DE LENCQUESAING
COMPANY ADDRESS: 222 W. MERCHANDISE MART PLAZA, SUITE 1800,
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60654
COMPANY BACKGROUND: A luxury fashion destination
online since its June 2000 launch, Net-A-Porter last year
merged with Italian apparel and accessories retailer Yoox
Group, itself an online force in luxury apparel. The combined company, Yoox Net-A-Porter Group, reported global
web sales of 1.7 billion euros in 2015 ($1.8 billion), making
it one of the world’s largest global fashion retailers. North
American web sales were $558 million in 2015, up from
$466 million a year earlier. Those gains were helped by the
retailer, which also operates Mr Porter, last year launching
its first co-branded campaign that sought to establish Mr
Porter and Net-A-Porter as the “ultimate luxury shopping
proposition for him and for her.” That campaign included
online and offline content, including the “All For Your”
video that appeared on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Net-A-Porter Group’s “All For You” video
was seen by more than 20.8 million
consumers.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: The video “All For You” serves up a
fantasy back-office scene to showcase the luxury-level
customer service offered by Net-A-Porter and Mr Porter.
Models in chiffon gowns fly through the air to gather
orders, order details flip past like signs announcing airport
arrivals, and gift-wrappers spritz tissue paper with scent–
all in the service of packing and delivering the perfect gift.
The video was seen by more than 20.8 million consumers,
which helped boost the retailer’s revenue 110% following
the video campaign.
COMPANY BACKGROUND: In 2015 Motorola used April Fools’
Day as way to showcase its flagship product, the selfie stick,
under the guise of a pretentious promotion for an artisanal
selfie stick. A hushed voice, accompanied by gentle piano
music, describes the pains that go into crafting the product. “A
selfie stick is a branch of self-expression,” the voice says, later
adding, “A selfie is only as good as its stick." The video created
an immediate stir, generating nearly 113 million media impressions within a few hours. The video ultimately attracted more
than 540,000 YouTube views and provoked reactions from
key influencers like singer and actress Demi Lovato. Based on
nearly every metric it uses to examine videos, Motorola says the
spot is one of the most successful videos it has ever produced.
Motorola Mobility’s artisanal selfie stick
video attracted more than 540,000 YouTube
views and provoked reactions from key
influencers.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: If a retailer wants to capture a consumer’s
attention with a video, the video better be entertaining. And
this well-produced video, which pokes fun at consumers’
embrace of artisanal products, was cuttingly funny and
entertaining, while at the same time driving an effective brand
message. That helped get people talking online; total selfie
stick conversations online jumped up to 60% the day the video
posted and the video was mentioned in dozens of print and
online articles, which helped boost the manufacturer’s brand
awareness.
SEARS HOLDINGS CORP.
URL: CRAFTSMAN.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1998
2015 RANK: 14
2015 GROWTH RATE: -12.50%
CEO: EDWARD LAMPERT
COMPANY ADDRESS: 3333 BEVERLY ROAD, HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL
60179
COMPANY BACKGROUND: While Sears-owned Craftsman has
been around since 1927, it hasn’t been afraid to rethink the
old ways of marketing. Last year Craftsman began rolling out
a series of weekly “Man-O-Vations” videos on social media
that put a fun, fresh spin on the types of instructional and
DIY videos consumers are accustomed to seeing on YouTube.
In the fast-paced videos, typically 60 and 90 seconds long,
Craftsman showcases the basics of an easy-to-complete project such as how to turn hammer hooks into a coat rack. The
« 23
videos have helped the brand drive engagement across social
networks and attract new followers. Within the first two
months of launching the videos, Craftsman received more
than 210,000 total views of the first nine videos on Facebook
and nearly 30,000 views on YouTube.
Within two months Craftsman’s first nine
videos attracted more than 210,000 total
views on Facebook.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: The videos are fun and fresh, while at
the same time feeling approachable because the products
don’t appear too difficult. And that’s the idea; Craftsman
aims for the projects to help consumers take items they
can find around their house and turn them into fun, useful
objects. For instance, one video transforms a golf clubs into
a marshmallow roaster and another turns a baseball into a
pencil holder.
THE WINNER
MOTOROLA MOBILITY
“
Judges’ comments: You won’t soon forget this video.
Kudos to a brand that knows how to poke fun at
itself. This video hilariously spoofs the growing rash
of brand "storytelling" videos that take themselves
too seriously. And it did so with super-high production
values. Not only was video entertaining, it also worked,
helping boost Motorola Mobility’s brand awareness
and drive sales. In fact, the video led to more than
7,000 consumers clicking directly from the video to the
retailer’s site, which helped its sales jump 221%
year over year on April Fools’ Day.
”
Accepting the Best Marketing Video of the Year Award for Motorola Mobility LLC
is Sai Konduri, Director of Performance & Test Automation
24
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AWARDS
IR
Excellence
BEST PRODUCT VIDEO OF THE YEAR
A retail video that effectively explains a product and its benefits, and that leads to
higher sales and fewer returns.
THE NOMINEES:
MUSIC & ARTS
URL: MUSICARTS.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1999
CEO: KENNETH O’BRIEN
COMPANY ADDRESS: 4626 WEDGEWOOD BLVD., FREDERICK, MD 21703
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Music & Arts opened its first store in
1952 in a house in Bethesda, Md., and the company is still in
the O’Brien family. Music & Arts expanded nationwide beginning in the 1990s through organic growth and a series of
acquisitions and mergers with other music dealers. In 2005,
Music & Arts joined with American Music to become the
largest band and orchestra instrument retailer in the United
States, the company says. In addition to its e-commerce
site, Music & Arts has more than 140 stores and 360 affiliate
locations.
Music & Arts has created a template that
has enabled it to increase video output,
though no two videos look or feel alike.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Videos attest to the notion of “seeing
is believing,” but hearing goes a long way, too. Each Music
& Arts video puts the focus on the instrument, and that
means sound at the beginning of many of them. A raspy,
jazzy saxophone, the warm resonance of cello strings—each
is brought to life using multiple senses. Expert musicians
casually and confidently guide the viewer through the key
components of each instrument, describing how they’re
made and how they differ from other models. Music & Arts
says it has been able to “templatize” each video, but no two
look or feel alike. The template process allows the retailer to
deliver the necessary information to consumers and do so
in a way that lets it increase video output. Its video department has grown and has more than 300 product videos, all
produced in-house and hosted on its YouTube page. The
page generates hundreds of views monthly.
MOBOVIDA LLC
URL: MOBOVIDA.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2001
2015 RANK: 720
CEO: EUGENE KU
COMPANY ADDRESS: 1375 S. ACACIA AVE, FULLERTON, CA 92831
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Mobovida sells such mobile
accessories as wallet cases for phones, credit card cases
and chargers directly to consumers through its website and
also through select retailers. The often multipurpose cases
come in a range of designs, colors and functions with the
aim of not being like others found online and in stores.
Mobovida says its delivery model incorporates "fast-fashion" concepts that move quickly from idea to production,
with customer feedback taken into account.
‘We want to speak to anyone viewing our
ad like their YouTube heroes talk to them
about products, movies or video games.’
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: A friendly narrator, who also is a
Mobovida employee, concisely and clearly show off the
benefits of the leather case that comes with a mirror,
credit card slots, ID window, and, oh yes, space for the
phone. The presentation is designed to emulate the
« 25
As Native Commerce says, “Each of our verticals allows
Native Commerce to create marketing and product hubs
that seamlessly function as an extension of the brand.” In
addition to its Texas headquarters, it has a studio in Los
Angeles that specializes in web series, corporate promotional films, live streaming, product demos, community
service films and more.
A video for “the sexiest shovel you’ve ever
seen” illustrates how to use all 19 features.
kind of face-to-face experience YouTube users get when
they watch vloggers (video bloggers), the retailer says.
“We wanted to emulate that interaction and speak to
anyone viewing our ad like their YouTube heroes talk to
them about any products, movies, video games, art, etc.
But of course in our case, we talk about phone cases.” A
23-second video features no people at all, just four stylized
shadow boxes with a case in each, rolling along a conveyor belt, followed by “Find Your Case” on the screen.
NATIVE COMMERCE
URL: NATIVECOMMERCE.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2012
CEO: KEREN KANG
COMPANY ADDRESS: 4330 GAINES RANCH LOOP, SUITE 120,
AUSTIN TX, 78735
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Native Commerce builds its business around content by developing media properties, such
as websites about survival skills, homesteading and makeup, along with brands like the multipurpose Titan HR-300
shovel that was featured in its nominated product video.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Consumers typically don’t lust after
a shovel, but Native Commerce piqued interest and
scored high levels of engagement with the Titan HR-300
product video by pitching the tool as a desirable object.
Joe Marshall, video narrator and founding member of
SurvivalLife.com, a blog operated by Native Commerce,
calls the Titan HR-300 “the sexiest shovel you’ve ever
seen” with its 19 tools, including a tourniquet and a
whistle. CEO Keren Kang says the shovel generated one
of the highest engagement levels Native Commerce has
seen on a mid-length video (it clocked in at 5 minutes, 45
seconds) at 61%. “That means out of the 32,000 viewers,
people watched 61% of the video. Our engagement for
videos of this length are wins at 30-40%,” she says. The
effort put into the video—shot during the day and at night
to highlight various features—paid off. The retailer sold all
2,500 units of the shovel in three days.
OFM LLC
URL: OFMINC.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1995
CEO: BLAKE ZALCBERG
COMPANY ADDRESS: 161 TRADITION TRAIL, HOLLY SPRINGS, NC 27540
COMPANY BACKGROUND: OFM LLC started in a home office
when founder Abel Zalcberg began selling chairs via catalog from vendors he had worked with previously, focusing
on fast delivery of in-stock products. Now the company
has 45 full-time employees and is run by Abel and Barbara
Zalcberg’s son, Blake. The furniture distributor operates
from a 124,000-square-foot office and warehouse in North
Carolina. OFM’s primary customers are general businesses, government offices, schools and hospitals. It does not
sell directly to consumers or other end users. The company
also sells online via Officefurniture.com, Wayfair LLC and
Office Depot Inc., as well as in catalogs. OFM contracts
with manufacturers in Mexico, Taiwan and China to design
furniture and other products.
26
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AWARDS
IR
Excellence
BEST PRODUCT VIDEO OF THE YEAR
and home decor and accessories. The retailer sells online
and through catalogs, and it operates a showroom near
Poulsbo, Wash. Thos. Baker’s West Coast roots are evident
everywhere, from the colorful, water-facing images on
many of its pages and in the words of CEO John Baker:
“When I founded Thos. Baker, I aspired to create something authentic, timeless, beautiful, sensible, coastal and
uniquely American. Something with a strong sense of
place. Our home is Bainbridge Island, Washington. We
think it perfectly reflects this passionate sense of place.”
Videos show off the details of office
furniture in ways still photos can’t.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: The OFM Marque Reception Station
video aims to illustrate the form and function of the office
furniture, with CEO Blake Zalcberg walking through its
features and benefits. Clean shots and smooth edits make
it easy to see and evaluate the products so customers
can make an informed decision. While OFM does not sell
directly to end users, the video helps OFM’s dealers to
explain and to sell the product. The original product video
in the series has been viewed more than 26,000 times on
YouTube. OFM also produced several supporting short videos for social media channels, which involve still images
made to look like a video. OFM says for years, the only way
to sell the product was for its dealers to show pictures in
the catalog or possibly arrange for a sample to be shipped.
Adding product videos that are free and readily available
to its online and bricks-and-mortar sellers has expanded
the company’s reach and helped to nearly double revenue
in the past five years, since the first video was released.
The video series for the Marque Reception Station has
made it a bestseller, especially at dealer sites that host the
video or link to it on YouTube.
THOS. BAKER LLC
URL: THOSBAKER.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2004
CEO: JOHN THOS. BAKER IV
COMPANY ADDRESS: 175 PARFITT WAY SW #N160, BAINBRIDGE
ISLAND, WA 98110
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Thos. Baker LLC, founded in 2004,
features outdoor living furnishings, game room products
‘When I founded Thos. Baker, I aspired
to create something authentic, timeless,
beautiful, sensible, coastal and uniquely
American.’
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Outdoor furniture is best experienced
on a sunny deck or patio, perhaps by water and with
refreshments. Thos. Baker recognizes that a shopper wants
to be able to see and feel it, and, when that’s not possible,
the web retailer wants to bring customers as close as possible through videos that offer close-ups of a collection and
depicts the lifestyle to which outdoor furniture lends itself.
The videos also let founder and CEO John Baker share
some family history and personality (and some footage
of his daughter) to better connect with viewers. After the
retailer started hosting the videos on its site, sales of its
core collection increased by up to 78% over the previous
year. “We feel strongly that the ability for our customers to
see and virtually ‘experience’ the furniture helped them in
making the most informed decision for what is often a very
thoughtful purchase when outfitting a home.”
« 27
THE WINNER
OFM LLC
Accepting the Best Product Video of the Year Award for OFM is Nate Ligons,
Digital Marketing Specialist
“
Judges’ comments: A well-done product video overall with great detail of the furniture’s features, including product specifications
and illustrated assembly. “The presenter has great knowledge of the product and is passionate about what he is talking about.
Length of video is perfect.” CEO Blake Zalcberg’s involvement also works. “It’s instructional and detailed without being too slick.
And then there’s a homey, meet-the-staff video too.”
Winner’s comments: “We are so honored to be recognized with this award. As a company, we have always strived to go above and
beyond to showcase our furniture in creative ways and take advantage of new technology. Our goal is to offer our customers
an experience that comes as close as possible to actually sitting down with our furniture in the store.” —Blake Zalcberg, CEO
”
28
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
B2B E-COMMERCE MARKETER OF THE YEAR
Manufacturer, wholesaler or distributor that makes the best use of a range of online marketing channels,
including social networks and blogs, to expand its reach, boost its reputation and increase website traffic
and sales.
THE NOMINEES:
DOLLAR DAYS INTERNATIONAL INC.
URL: DOLLARDAYS.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2001
CEO: MARC JOSEPH
COMPANY ADDRESS: 7575 E. REDFIELD ROAD, SUITE #201,
SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85260
Once these new nonprofits saw how they
could stretch their donated dollar to help
more people they started coming back for
more products.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: The Dollar Days Facebook page gave
away $5,000 in merchandise each month to a different
type of nonprofit, such as homeless shelters and schools.
Dollar Days let any nonprofit set up a wish list program
where nonprofits selected the items they needed and
supporters could choose items on the wish list to directly
contribute to the nonprofit. These programs were backed
up by a blog campaign, coverage in The Huffington Post,
emails tailored to nonprofits, and content shared on
Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Outbrain.
EDMUND OPTICS INC.
URL: EDMUNDOPTICS.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1999
CEO: ROBERT M. EDMUND
COMPANY ADDRESS: 101 E. GLOUCESTER PIKE, BARRINGTON, NJ 08007
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Dollar Days International, a
wholesale distributor of general merchandise, last year ran
a multipart campaign across social media and news media,
generating substantial new business from the nonprofit
organizations it was targeting. The campaign was designed
to get its existing nonprofit customers to participate in a
program that let them designate other nonprofits to receive
5% of their total purchase value in merchandise from Dollar Days. Once these new nonprofits saw how they could
stretch their donated dollars to help more people they
started coming back for more merchandise; by the end of
2015, 55% of these new customers had made purchases
at least four times. “Whereas the initial orders that drove
these customers to the site to buy had a higher marketing
cost, the subsequent orders were as profitable as our normal business,” the company says.
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Edmund Optics is a family-owned
manufacturer of lenses and other optics and imaging
products used in several industries. But with many of its
products embedded in equipment branded by other manufacturers, it built up its own brand with content on LinkedIn and other social media sites—and wound up doubling
the conversion rate on its website, EdmundOptics.com.
The company began working on reaching new customers
through social networks in early 2013, focusing on the online professional networking site LinkedIn. Edmund Optics
found that most people browsing its site were researchers at
companies looking to buy or learn—and who influence their
company’s purchasing supervisors. Edmund identified
LinkedIn as the most effective channel for engaging with its
core audience of researchers who also are potential buyers.
« 29
Lightning Labels increased web sales 22%,
the number of new online customers 37%
and the number of online orders from
existing customers 42%.
Edmund Optics lens filters
Most LinkedIn visitors on EdmundOptics.
com are in manufacturing, educational or
other industries likely to include buyers of
its products.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Using a centralized management source
for oversight of cross-channel programs, Lightning Labels
was able to target customers based on their position in the
marketing funnel, and segment messaging appropriately
to those audiences across search, display, social and
email programs. This “full funnel” effort resulted in a 37%
increase in new online customers and a 42% increase in
online orders placed annually by existing customers.
THE WINNER
CENVEO INC.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: During a two-week test period, LinkedIn
referred 38% of the visitors that arrived at EdmundOptics.com
from social media sites, and the majority of them were in
the manufacturing, educational or other business areas
mostly likely to need Edmund’s products. Edmund now has
about 3,200 followers on LinkedIn—50% more than it has on
Facebook—and finds that video is its best-performing content
type. Its exposure on LinkedIn has led to a “noticeable”
increase in traffic to its e-commerce, Edmund says.
CENVEO INC.
URL: LIGHTNINGLABELS.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2008
CEO: ROBERT G. BURTON
COMPANY ADDRESS: 200 FIRST STAMFORD PLACE, SECOND FLOOR,
STAMFORD, CT 06902
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Cenveo is a manufacturer and
distributor of printed materials used by pharmaceutical,
food and beverage, and consumer products companies. In
2015, its Lightning Labels division—which produces labels
placed on such items as wine bottles, liquid soap containers and shopping bags—produced a marketing campaign
across multiple channels. With a goal of generating sales
at a profitable return, the brand’s digital footprint marries
push media such as social, programmatic display, content
and affiliate marketing with pull tactics that include paid
and organic search marketing. This generated a 12.64%
increase in revenue year over year at a 3.15 times return on
ad spend. New programs added to the media mix in 2015,
such as affiliate marketing, delivered 636 incremental sales
for the brand, which generated over $340,000 in revenue
and a 487% return on ad spend.
Accepting the B2B E-Commerce Marketer of the Year Award for
Cenveo is AnneMarie Campbell, Director Business Development/
Shareholder and Heather Fogarty, Director Digital Marketing
“
Judges’ comments: Cenveo’s Lightning Labels division
won for its coordinated and sales-generating marketing
campaigns across multiple channels, including social
media, affiliate marketing and Internet search. It
produced year-over-year increases of 22% in online
revenue, 37% in the number of new online customers,
and 42% in online orders placed by existing customers.
Winner’s Comments: "We are extremely honored to
have been selected as this year's winner for the B2B
e-commerce marketing award. I would like to thank
our team here for the exceptional work they put in this
year. I also want to thank our customers for pushing
us to these new heights." —AnneMarie Campbell,
director of business development, Cenveo
Lightning Labels division
”
30
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
B2B E-COMMERCE WEBSITE DESIGN
OF THE YEAR
The B2B e-commerce website that most effectively guides customers to the products they
want, provides needed information, allows customers to configure products and request
price quotes, offers flexible shipping options, connects to approval and workflow systems,
and leads to higher online sales and new customer acquisition.
THE NOMINEES:
CIVICSOLAR INC.
URL: CIVICSOLAR.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2010
COMPANY PRESIDENT AND CEO: STUART RENTZ
COMPANY ADDRESS: 426 17TH STREET, SUITE 600, OAKLAND,
CA 94612
COMPANY BACKGROUND: It’s still early days for solar energy, and many consumers and builders interested in going
the solar route need information. That’s what they get
in abundance at CivicSolar.com. There are articles about
installing solar equipment on a variety of projects, an
area that answers frequently asked questions and a forum
where visitors can pose questions of their own. The site also
features solar projects from around the world with photos
and details of the installation. Product pages provide deep
detail on mechanical data and components, electrical characteristics and product datasheets. Customers can easily
get a shipping quote or apply for dealer pricing. There are
also scores of articles for installers that provide details on a
variety of projects and developments in the solar energy industry. CivicSolar also can arrange financing for customers.
The information-rich CivicSolar.com
provides photographic displays of
completed projects and lets customers
pose questions for solar experts.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Navigation on CivicSolar.com is
intuitive and product information is deep. A drop-down
menu from the Products tab shows the major categories
of solar products and faceted navigation lets buyers easily
filter results, while also displaying the number of products
available in each category. Product pages provide technical
detail that can help installers find the items they need the
first time.
FERGUSON ENTERPRISES INC.
URL: FERGUSON.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2008 (FERGUSONONLINE.COM)
2015 WEB SALES: $2 BILLION
2015 RANK: 74 IN B2B 300
CEO: FRANK W. ROACH
COMPANY ADDRESS: 12500 JEFFERSON AVE., NEWPORT NEWS, VA
23602
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Ferguson Enterprises Inc., a distributor of commercial and residential plumbing supplies,
generated $13 billion in sales in its most recent fiscal year.
After years of operating online at FergusonOnline.com,
Ferguson in 2015 developed a new site, Ferguson.com, with
e-commerce technology from Oracle. The new site shows
customers personalized product recommendations, how-to
information and articles tailored to their specialty. A big
aim was to link the site with Ferguson stores, and a unified
inventory system allows online customers to order items
for pickup at Ferguson’s 1,400 branches. Customers also
can use their mobile phones to scan bar codes on items
they need to make a wish list. “Mobile is a big deal for us,”
says Mike Brooks, vice president of e-business. “Our core
customer is in the field, so we want to give them as much
information as we can to help them do their jobs.”
‘Our core customer is in the field, so we
want to give them as much information as
we can to help them do their jobs.’
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Ferguson.com draws on lessons learned
from two sister sites owned by parent company Wolseley
plc, Build.com and Power Equipment Direct, both of which
sell to consumers as well as contractors. The redesigned
Ferguson.com offers features of a state-of-the art retail website. Contractors, interior designers, architects and retailers
can find attractive design concepts in the “Inspiration”
section of Ferguson.com. And filtered search helps find the
items that appeal to them.
« 31
ucts based on browsing and purchase history, and a new
Auto-Reorder option lets returning customers automatically
replenish consumables. Customers can also sign up for the
Rewards for Business program and receive 5% back on all
purchases. The website is based on responsive design so it
offers the same features to customers on desktops, smartphones and tablets.
Product pages features such detail as the
percentage of recycled content in a product
for buyers seeking to buy “green.”
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: The new SustainableSupply.com lets
customers serve themselves, such as by viewing open
orders, approving and tracking orders and submitting
requests to return merchandise. An auto-replenishment
feature saves customers the trouble of regularly returning
to order items they need on a regular basis. That’s especially helpful now that SustainableSupply.com offers over
1 million products, 800,000 more than it did before.
SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CO. LLC
W.W. GRAINGER INC.
URL: SUSTAINABLESUPPLY.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2009
2015 RANK: 192 IN B2B 300
CEO: BRIAN FRICANO
COMPANY ADDRESS: 11586 COLONY ROW, BROOMFIELD CO 80021
URL: GRAINGER.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1995
2015 RANK: 34 IN B2B 300
CEO: JAMES T. RYAN
COMPANY ADDRESS: 100 GRAINGER PKWY., LAKE FOREST IL 60045
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Sustainable Supply Co. LLC is
a web-only seller of environmentally friendly industrial
supplies, from building materials to paper towels. Founded
in 2009, the company overhauled its e-commerce site in December 2015, adding 800,000 products to bring its selection
to over 1 million SKUs. The new site explains what makes
each product “green.” Other new features let customers
view open orders, quotes, and credit line balances, pay
invoices, conduct order approvals, track orders and submit
return requests. New personalization features suggest prod-
COMPANY BACKGROUND: W.W. Grainger Inc., the winner of
last year’s Excellence award as B2B E-Commerce Player of
the Year, redesigned its site to add many useful features.
A returning customer can see his past purchases and
contract-specific pricing without logging in, a neat trick
given that a B2B company like Grainger has to be sure it’s
only showing confidential information to those authorized
to see it. There is a work order management feature that
minimizes rekeying as an order goes from purchase order
32
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
B2B E-COMMERCE WEBSITE DESIGN
OF THE YEAR
to completion. Grainger also enhanced its site search with
natural language capability designed to discern what a customer is looking for. “It may appear that Grainger simply built
a website, but a closer look reveals a customer experience
designed around the user,” says Geoff Robertson, Grainger’s
vice president, Global eCommerce & Innovation.
‘It may appear that Grainger simply built
a website, but a closer look reveals a
customer experience designed around
the user.’
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Grainger has been in the forefront of
making it easy for customers, many of them at construction
sites or working in large industrial plants, to use their mobile devices to order easily. When combined with beacons
that establish the customer’s location, a customer can set up
lists of frequently purchased products and identify the product needed at a particular location, such as within the boiler
room of building 121. And mobile orders can be routed to
customer procurement systems for quick approval.
THE WINNER
W.W. GRAINGER
Accepting the B2B E-Commerce Website Design of the Year Award
for Grainger is Geoff Robertson, VP of Global eCommerce &
Innovation, Scot Gillespie VP of Digital Engineering & Information
Management and Jason Brownewell VP of User Experience
“
Judges’ comments: Few business-to-business e-commerce sites match the features and utility of top retail websites, but
Grainger is the exception. In fact, Grainger has gone well beyond most retailers in introducing features designed for the complex
needs of its business customers. Its mobile technology is an example. Once the location of the customer’s mobile device is
detected Grainger can show him the items previously ordered for that location, enabling easy reordering. A customer returning
to the site can see his prior orders and pricing based on his company’s contract, all without logging in. Checkout takes just two
clicks, and the checkout flow takes into account rules and regulations relevant to that purchase. There’s much more. So much, in
fact, that, while the other nominees were impressive, the judges chose Grainger.com unanimously for this award.
Winner’s comments: “Grainger research shows that, on average, to procure a new item can take up to 132 minutes and require
45 to 55 steps. Customers need a better approach and Grainger is here to provide that. We invest in delivering personalized
and effortless customer experiences. Our product teams work to understand customer needs and marketplace trends, user
experience teams design around the user’s needs, and software development teams leverage agile principles to deliver value to
the customer as quickly as possible.
This award is important to us and we are very proud to have earned it. Our goal is to provide our customers an exceptional
digital experience. This requires anticipating their needs, listening to their comments and concerns, and finding creative solutions
to solve their problems with the right scale. It is the drive for continual improvement and increased customer satisfaction that
excites our team and keeps us operating at a high level. This award is validation that we are paying attention to the right things
with the right approach. —Geoff Robertson, vice president, Global eCommerce & Innovation
”
IR
Excellence
« 33
B2B E-COMMERCE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Manufacturer, wholesaler or distributor that most effectively uses a B2B website to increase
online sales to business customers, addressing the particular needs of its customers, and
which is considered a pioneer in business-to-business e-commerce development.
THE NOMINEES:
CDW CORP.
URL: CDW.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1995
2015 RANK: 33 (B2B E-COMMERCE 300)
CEO: THOMAS E. RICHARDS
COMPANY ADDRESS: 200 N. MILWAUKEE AVE., VERNON HILLS, IL 60061
COMPANY BACKGROUND: CDW is a distributor of about 1 million SKUs of business and industrial supplies sold through
multiple e-commerce sites to several industries. Its buyer-friendly sites propelled it to double-digit growth last year
in online sales, to more than $4.5 billion. CDW has set up its
website to cater to any and all industries, providing visitors
with only the information that matters to them, without
having to log in each time. CDW understands the need for
efficiency in today’s modern and digitized world and has
designed its website to provide it. The site’s flexibility allows
CDW to set up a test-punchout of a buyer’s procurement
software in as little as one hour. This efficiency allows buyers to shop and become more informed in a very short time.
In each experience, visitors will find insights from Industry
leaders on a variety of trending topics.
CDW’s buyer-friendly sites propelled it
to double-digit growth last year in online
sales, to more than $4.5 billion.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: The web-purchasing features CDW
offers its customers on its e-commerce site, CDW.com, has
produced annual growth of about 27% in e-procurement
sales, as customers of all types increase their purchases.
The corporate B2B segment alone is growing at about 36%
annually. CDW also produced 300 customer leads for its
e-procurement system with procurement network SAP
Ariba, and engaged 25% of the customer leads to integrate
with its e-procurement system.
GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL (subsidiary of Systemax Inc.)
URL: GLOBALINDUSTRIAL.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1998
CEO: LARRY REINHOLD
COMPANY ADDRESS: 11 HARBOR PARK DRIVE, PORT WASHINGTON, NY
11050
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Global Industrial sells a broad
range of business and industrial products. With annual
revenue over $700 million, the distributor has acquired an
average of more than 3,000 new customers each week for
the past year. Online sales grew 10% or more for the past
five years. Sales in the relatively new categories of vehicle
maintenance and medical equipment, for example, are
up this year by more than 25%. Over all categories, online
sales per SKU are up 12%. Also helping growth is the ability
of online customers to compare features and pricing of
products from multiple brands, including Global Industrial’s private-label products. Product pages allow visitors to
search for and view similar products without leaving the
page. The company’s new mobile site has helped sales reps
find and order products with customers in the field.
In 2015, it brought in 270,000 new
customers who registered online, and its
new mobile app is helping it to grow sales
across new categories.
CDW presents multiple ways to shop office supplies.
34
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
B2B E-COMMERCE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
production, maintenance and repair. It sells to a diverse
range of customers via a global network of 47 transactional
websites, including its newest Spanish-language site in
Mexico which launched in 2015. Newark.com and its other
sites integrate with the online element14 Community, a
portal that 400,000 design engineers and manufacturers
from 48 countries use to connect and collaborate.
Global Industrial provides step-by-step video instructions on how to
organize and set up office partitions.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Global Industrial developed a mobile
app called MROTrak, a vendor-managed inventory tool
integrated with its e-commerce technology platform.
Customers can use the app to scan codes of particular
products, triggering an automated online replenishment
order. The app also automatically forwards the order
to the purchaser’s superiors for approval, after which
Global Industrial fulfills the order. Customers using
the app can also check the status of their orders on
GlobalIndustrial.com.
Newark.com integrates with element14,
a resource portal for 400,000 design
engineers and manufacturers from 48
countries.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: In 2015 Premier Farnell introduced
instant e-delivery capability for software purchases. Customers can now purchase and download software licenses from the company’s diverse portfolio of engineering
software through all selling channels, including mobile,
e-commerce site, call centers and field sales reps. This
helped produce a 5% increase in both conversions and
average order values. In addition, the software products
appear online with a registered customer’s contract pricing and other account data.
PREMIER FARNELL PLC
URL: NEWARK.COM ELEMENT14.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1997
2015 RANK: 110 (B2B E-COMMERCE 300)
CEO: JOSH OPDEWEEGH
COMPANY ADDRESS: 300 S. RIVERSIDE PLAZA, SUITE 2200,
CHICAGO, IL 60606
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Premier Farnell sells complex
electronics products to engineers and other customers,
and its web sales last year accounted to more than half of
total sales of $1.5 billion. Helping to grow online sales on
websites Newark.com and element14.com is an unusual
depth of product content and the ability of customers
to share information as they decide what to purchase.
Premier Farnell specializes in high-service distribution
of technology products for electronic system design,
Product selector guides on Newark.com.
MSC INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY CO.
URL: MSCDIRECT.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1999
2015 WEB SALES: $1.44 BILLION (ESTIMATED, B2B E-COMMERCE 300) 2015 RANK: 97 (B2B E-COMMERCE 300) 2015 GROWTH RATE: 20.0%
CEO: ERIK GERSHWIND
COMPANY ADDRESS: 75 MAXESS ROAD, MELVILLE, NY 11747
of 2016, bringing its online SKU count to nearly 1 million. It’s
also using web analytics to determine which products are
most popular among customers. And it has improved site
design and web content to make it easier for customers to
land on particular product pages via Internet search, says
Steve Baruch, senior vice president and chief strategy and
marketing officer.
COMPANY BACKGROUND: MSC Industrial Supply Co. is a
veteran of e-commerce, with its first site launched more
than a decade and a half ago—a long time in Internet
years. And since that launch in 1999 MSC has continued
to innovate and improve its online purchasing features
for customers, and it has grown its Internet sales to
more than half of its total sales. MSC, a distributor
of metalworking tools and services along with other
industrial and business products, offers nearly 1 million
SKUs on its e-commerce site, MSCDirect.com. MSC has
steadily increased its Internet sales as a percentage of
total revenue, with online sales accounting for nearly
60%, or $426.3 million, in its third fiscal quarter ended
May 28, 2016.
THE WINNER
MSC INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY
MSC increased its volume of online
inventory by 65,000 SKUs in the spring
of 2016, bringing its online SKU count to
nearly 1 million.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Helping customers find whatever
they need online, MSC Industrial Supply increased its
volume of online inventory by 65,000 SKUs in the spring
Accepting the B2B E-Commerce Player of the Year Award for
MSC Industrial Supply Co. is Steve Baruch, SVP, CSO & CMO,
Charlie Bonomo, SVP & CIO and Mike Roth, Senior Director of
E-Commerce
“
Product pages on MSCDirect.com let buyers view other products
without leaving the page.
« 35
Judges’ comments: Among other things, the judges on this
panel cited MSC for its retail-like merchandise displays
and purchasing features, and for its special features
needed by business customers, such as custom pricing
and a process for getting orders approved by a buyer’s
superiors.
Winner’s comments: “We strive to create a world-class
online experience for our customers as part of our effort to
improve their operations and supply chains.”
—Steve Baruch, MSC senior vice president
overseeing e-commerce
”
36
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
MOBILE COMMERCE AWARD
The retailer showing the greatest creativity, performance and sales growth from
a mobile-specific website and/or apps.
THE NOMINEES:
THE HOME DEPOT INC.
URL: HOMEDEPOT.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2000
2015 RANK: 7
2015 GROWTH: 24.08%
CATEGORY: HARDWARE/HOME IMPROVEMENT; RETAIL CHAIN
CEO: CRAIG MENEAR
COMPANY ADDRESS: 2455 PACES FERRY ROAD ATLANTA, GA 30339
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Home Depot is an example of a
retailer using mobile to help shoppers in a wide variety of
ways—from navigating a store to using an app to find the
perfect paint color. For example, Home Depot offers store
assistance via mobile—and you don’t even need an app
to qualify for the extra help. When you visit the retailer’s
mobile site it asks permission to use your location. If you
tap OK, it will immediately identify the store closest to you.
It also shows the store hours. Next, The Home Depot will
tell you precisely where to find a product in the local store.
It even provides the store floor plan when you tap on the
orange location pin. Its main retail app enables shoppers
to search by voice or by snapping a picture of a hard-todescribe product. Another app allows consumers to see
how a paint color looks on walls by taking a picture of a
room, selecting a color in Home Depot's color catalogue
and tapping a wall to virtually paint it.
Traffic to Home Depot’s mobile app and
site has grown over 500% since 2012, and
mobile accounted for nearly 60% of its
web traffic on Black Friday 2015.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: The Home Depot realizes that mobile
success isn’t solely about a sale via a smartphone or tablet. For example, it uses mobile to help shoppers in their
shopping journeys. In Home Depot stores, consumers can
use their mobile devices to organize shopping lists, navigate the store they are in and view local deals. The Home
Depot also grew its 2015 mobile sales an estimated 40% to
reach $724 million according to the Internet Retailer 2016
Mobile 500.
GRUPO NETSHOES
URL: NETSHOES.COM.BR
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2000
2015 WEB SALES: $741,565,136
2015 RANK: 6 (LATIN AMERICA GUIDE)
2015 GROWTH: 25%
CATEGORY: SPORTING GOODS, WEB-ONLY
CEO: MARCIO KUMRUIAN
COMPANY ADDRESS: R. VERGUEIRO, 943, LIBERDADE, SAO PAULO, SP,
BRAZIL, 01504-001
COMPANY BACKGROUND: What’s better than easy mobile
shopping? Free mobile shopping. That’s what Brazil-based
Grupo Netshoes did for its shoppers. The web-only, sporting
goods company allowed its shoppers to browse two of its
brands, Netshoes and Zattini, on their smartphones without using any of their data plan. To achieve this, the retailer
worked with top Brazilian telecommunications companies,
including Vivo and Claro, to ensure free access to its mobile
sites and apps. The result of its “free mobile navigation”
project? Explosive. Shoppers to its mobile sites increased
400% year over year and mobile sales increased 241% year
over year just two weeks after the announcement. Mobile
now accounts for 55% of the retailer’s traffic and one-third
of its sales. “The focus and investments behind mobile are
contributing strong sales,” says Leonardo Dib, chief financial officer at Grupo Netshoes.
“The focus and investments behind
mobile are contributing strong sales,” says
Leonardo Dib, chief financial officer at
Grupo Netshoes.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Grupo Netshoes knows where its
shoppers are. And that’s on a pay-as-you-go smartphone.
Prepaid mobile plans account for more than 80% of the
contracts in Brazil. So while it may not seem like a big deal
to offer free mobile navigation to U.S. consumers, where
unlimited plans are more common, it’s a huge deal to
Brazilian shoppers. Every megabyte of data costs prepaid
customer money, so this strategy allows smartphone
shoppers to browse without being rushed and entice new
consumers to check out the retailer’s sites.
REVOLVE.COM
URL: REVOLVE.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2003
2015 WEB SALES: $250,125,000
2015 RANK: 136
2015 GROWTH: 25%
CATEGORY: APPAREL, WEB-ONLY
CO-FOUNDERS AND CEOS: MIKE KARANIKOLAS, MICHAEL MENTE
COMPANY ADDRESS: 16800 EDWARDS RD., CERRITOS, CA 90703
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Revolve.com, (the domain
formerly was RevolveClothing.com), is after the young
woman who wants the latest fashion—and the web-only
retailer knows she’s likely checking her smartphone for
her friends’ latest updates on social media. Revolve gets
social media—it has more than 244,000 Facebook fans
and over 157,000 followers on Instagram. And it gets
mobile: 50% of both sales and traffic at the web-only
retailer stemmed from Revolve’s mobile app and site in
2015. Revolve added Android and iPad apps to its iPhone
apps in 2015 and tested ways to drive more downloads
of its app, knowing the app is the most convenient way
to shop Revolve.com. A landing page combined with an
aggressive promotion boosted app downloads 350%.
“When we launched our Stand Up To Cancer a shoppable
video in October, an overwhelming majority of our viewers watched from their mobile and tablet devices—84%!
—which reflected how engaged our consumer customer is
on her phone,” Revolve says.
« 37
More apps and a strong social following
combined to drive Revolve’s mobile
revenue to half of sales in 2015.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Revolve put added focus on mobile
apps in 2015, adding Android and iPad apps to its iPhone
app. It also tested ways to encourage more of its customers
to download and use its app, uncovering a strategy that
dramatically increased app installs. Plus, it’s combined its
mobile initiatives with constant activity on social media
that’s netted it 244,000 Facebook fans, creating a social/
mobile strategy that suits its target demographic of young,
fashion-forward women.
SEPHORA USA INC.
URL: SEPHORA.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1999
2015 RANK: 129
2015 GROWTH: 15%
CATEGORY: HEALTH/BEAUTY; RETAIL CHAIN
CEO: CALVIN MCDONALD
COMPANY ADDRESS: FIRST MARKET TOWER, 525 MARKET STREET,
11TH FLOOR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94105
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Sephora is a pioneer in mobile
and is consistently at the forefront of testing new mobile
technology. For example, for years the retailer has tested
beacons—small sensors that track consumers' smartphones
and send personalized messages—in its stores. A recent
update to its Sephora To Go app called Virtual Artist allows
shoppers to virtually try on more than 3,000 lipstick shades.
38
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
MOBILE COMMERCE AWARD
“We hear all the time that our clients wish they could try on
every lipstick we carry to find the right shade for them,” says
Bridget Dolan, vice president of Sephora’s Innovation Lab.
It is clear that mobile is an important part of the cosmetic
retailer's digital strategy. Half of Sephora’s digital traffic
stems from smartphones and tablets, and Sephora was one
of the first to launch Apple's expedited mobile checkout
platform Apple Pay as a payment option in its app and it also
offers it in stores.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Sephora is one of a handful of mobile
retailers implementing a store mode in its app. In this mode,
a consumer can scan a product in store to read its online
ratings and reviews. She can also quickly access Beauty
Insider, Sephora’s loyalty program, to see the number of
points she has or if she has pending rewards she can use.
Also in-store, Sephora is testing sending personalized messages, such as birthday alerts, loyalty program updates and
in-store events, to consumers with the Sephora app through
Bluetooth beacon technology, Sephora says.
‘Mobile continues to be our fastest growing
channel.’ Mark Alexander, director of mobile
product management, Sephora USA Inc.
THE WINNER
SEPHORA.COM
Accepting the Mobile Commerce Award for Sephora is Mark Alexander,
Director of Mobile Product Development
“
Judges’ comments: An analysis of Sephora’s app, mobile web and omnichannel innovation, shows mobile “makes up” an
important part of the cosmetic retailer’s digital strategy. Sephora is No. 170 in Internet Retailer’s 2016 Mobile 500 Guide.
Sephora’s 2015 mobile sales totaled $73.6 million, which includes sales via smartphones, tablets and apps, according to
Internet Retailer estimates. Sales via mobile devices grew 60% year over year for Sephora and now make up 26% of Sephora’s
digital sales, according to the guide.
Winner’s comments: "Mobile continues to be our fastest-growing channel. We're really excited about what mobile can do for
online and in-store sales." —Mark Alexander, director of mobile product management, Sephora USA Inc. ”
IR
Excellence
« 39
GLOBAL E-RETAILER OF THE YEAR
A retailer that has invested heavily in online markets around the world and has produced
the highest ranking and/or growth rate in all markets compared to other global websites.
THE NOMINEES:
AMAZON.COM INC.
URL: AMAZON.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1995
2015 RANK: 1
CEO: JEFFREY BEZOS
COMPANY ADDRESS: 410 TERRY AVE. NORTH, SEATTLE, WA 98109
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Amazon.com—the No. 1 online
retailer in North America and Europe, No. 4 in Asia, and No.
5 in Latin America—is not resting on its laurels. The global
retail giant is instead expanding into new markets and
strengthening its global offerings. In October 2015 Amazon
said its Indian site, Amazon.in, led all Indian e-commerce
sites with more than 30 million visitors. Last year Amazon
China offered about 8 million products on Haiwaigou, the
imported goods section of Amazon.cn. The section caters
to Chinese shoppers seeking to purchase products from
Amazon’s U.S. site, translating product pages into Chinese
and offering local payment options like Alipay. In August
2015 Amazon introduced flash sales on Haiwaigou and such
sales grew nearly tenfold by year’s end. Amazon operates
sites in 13 countries outside the U.S. More than 10 million
products are available to ship to 75 countries.
Amazon operates sites in 13 countries outside
the U.S. More than 10 million products are
available to ship to 75 countries.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: As it has in the United States,
Amazon.com's China subsidiary is building a nationwide
network of distribution centers. What's different is that
Amazon China also employs workers who deliver the goods
to the consumer. Amazon operates 15 fulfillment centers
around China, with 800,000 square meters of warehouse
space. It is Amazon’s largest distribution network outside
the U.S., says Fang Quan, vice president in charge of the
marketplace platform for Amazon China.
WHERE
OPERATES RETAIL WEBSITES
Australia
Brazil
Canada
China
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
Spain
United Kingdom
United States
HUAWEI
URL: HUAWEI.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1998
2015 RANK: 13 (CHINA 500)
CEO: ERIC XU
COMPANY ADDRESS: HUAWEI JIDI, LONGGANG DISTRICT, SHENZHEN,
CHINA, 518000
COMPANY BACKGROUND: China’s Huawei Technologies Co.
Ltd. sold one type of smartphone online in the United States
in 2014. Now it sells five smartphones, two tablets, two
wearable devices and accessories on its e-commerce site,
GetHuawei.com. Huawei is active in social media marketing
and more than tripled its followers on Facebook to 600,000
in 2015 from 200,000 in 2014. Huawei is already the world’s
third-largest smartphone vendor in terms of 2015 market
share and it’s aiming to grow further by marketing more
heavily to U.S. consumers. More than half of Huawei‘s 2015
sales came from markets outside China and its market share
in some European countries tops 10%. However, the U.S.
40
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
GLOBAL E-RETAILER OF THE YEAR
UNIQLO
URL: UNIQLO.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2004
2015 RANK: 15 (ASIA 500) 354 (TOP 500)
CEO: TADASHI YANAI
COMPANY ADDRESS: 17F, TOWER 1, GRAND GATEWAY 66, NO.1 HONG
QIAO ROAD, XUHUI DISTRICT, YAMAGUCHI, JAPAN, 754-0894; U.S.:
546-548 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, NY 10012
market contributed just 4% to Huawei’s sales, and the
retailer wants to change that this year. Its Honor brand
smartphone is sold in more than 74 countries and is the
top smartphone brand on Amazon’s website in France.
More than half of Huawei‘s 2015 sales
came from markets outside China and its
market share in some European countries
tops 10%.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Vmall.com, a unit of telecom equipment company Huawei, sells some of its parent company’s
smartphones exclusively online. In all, 20% of Huawei
mobile phone sales come from e-commerce, including
its official website and online marketplaces. The major
product categories on Vmall.com are smartphones, tablets,
wireless products and phone accessories. It ships only
to customers in China, using two domestic carriers: SF
Express and EMS.
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Uniqlo Co. Ltd. operates its own
website in China as well as selling through Alibaba’s Tmall.
com marketplace. The merchant sells online through 18
websites, including in Japan, China, Europe and the U.S.,
and grew overall web sales by 52% in 2015. E-commerce
represents 5-10% of the global sales of Uniqlo and the Japanese fast-fashion retailer took steps in 2015 to strengthen
both online sales and ties between its websites and stores.
One of those steps was signing an agreement with consulting firm Accenture to build a global, cloud-based e-commerce platform that would connect the retailer’s stores
and websites. Another was to stop selling online in China
on JD.com, one of the country’s major e-retail sites, after a
three month-trial when it determined the site didn’t fit with
the company’s new e-commerce strategy. Uniqlo had 466
stores in China as of mid-2016.
Uniqlo sells online with dedicated websites
in Japan, China, Europe and the U.S. and
grew overall web sales by 52% in 2015.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Uniqlo in 2015 received the Internet
Retailer Newcomer of the Year award, which was awarded
to a retail website that grew its sales most dramatically to
emerge from relative obscurity to a ranking in the Internet
Retailer Top 1000. The company is a multichannel retailer
with international e-commerce sites and more than 1,700
stores in 17 countries. Uniqlo is the largest holding of
parent company Fast Retailing. The merchant’s apparel is
one of the most popular brands among Chinese shoppers,
according to a report by Alibaba.
THE WINNER
UNIQLO
Accepting the Global E-Retailer of the Year Award for Uniqlo is Tomomi Tanaka,
Area Manager of Chicago and Sylvia Suh, Store Manager
“
Judges’ comments: Uniqlo’s rich product imagery, open product pages and easy navigation carry through its 18 regional websites
around the world. Its websites’ look and functions captured the judges’ attention in the Global E-Retailer of the Year competition
much as the apparel company’s United States e-commerce site did in last year’s awards selection process for Newcomer of
the Year. Uniqlo had an inspiring online sales year in 2015 with growth topping 50%. The merchant’s stylish apparel is easily
matched by its stylish website and the combination helped Uniqlo stand out from the other nominees, leading our panel of
judges to make Uniqlo a unanimous choice.
”
« 41
42
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
OMNICHANNEL RETAILER OF THE YEAR
The retailer that does the best job of using its web and mobile assets to complement other selling
channels, such as bricks-and-mortar stores, printed catalogs and TV shopping shows.
THE NOMINEES:
BATTERIES PLUS BULBS LLC
TARGET CORP.
URL: BATTERIESPLUS.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1996
2015 RANK: 682
2015 GROWTH: 2%
CIO: MICHAEL LEHMAN
COMPANY ADDRESS: 925 WALNUT RIDGE DR. #100, HARTLAND, WI,
53029
URL: TARGET.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1999
2015 RANK: 22
2015 GROWTH: 32.9%
CEO: BRIAN CORNELL
COMPANY ADDRESS: 1000 NICOLLET MALL, MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 55403
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Batteries Plus Bulbs operates
stores in 47 states and Puerto Rico, carrying 45,000 types of
batteries, light bulbs and accessories, such as for laptops,
cars and smartphones. In 2015 it launched an internally
developed e-commerce site in July 2015 that showed current
inventory at its 700 stores and allowed consumers to buy
online and pick up in store. The new website replaced three
sites that had served consumers, businesses and national accounts. The initiative raised web sales and had the
happy effect of driving consumers into stores, many of them
franchised locations. The retail chain says online orders
increased by 500%, with more than 75% of online shoppers
coming to a store to pick up their orders.
Batteries Plus did six months of field
and market research to identify what its
franchisees desired and what shoppers and
commercial customers were asking for.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Batteries Plus Bulbs built a work
order management application in-house that immediately
alerts stores to online orders that will be picked up and
require attention. The information is channeled to stores’
point-of-sale terminals, and stores must acknowledge
and begin processing orders to maintain full use of the
registers, ensuring timely attention to buy online, pick up
in store orders. Confirming the order triggers an alert to
the customer saying that her order is ready, and customer
information is automatically loaded to the register so the
pickup process goes quickly.
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Like a lot of retail chains today,
Target Corp. is talking a big omnichannel game. But unlike
some, this mass merchant is lining up its omnichannel targets (ahem) and proceeding to knock them down. All Target
stores have offered in-store order pickup since 2013, and
the company says today 15% of the value of goods sold on
Target.com get picked up in store. About 25% of the chain’s
stores do double duty as fulfillment centers for online
orders, shipping out products from store inventory. During
the holidays those stores handled 30% of digital sales.
Today it is using 25 Los Angeles-area stores as test sites to
find ways to introduce more Target store shoppers to digital
assets. Each store has “digital service ambassadors” at the
front of the store who direct customers where and how
to pick up online orders and show off other Target digital
assets, such as its mobile apps.
“How are you going to beat Amazon? The
answer is simple. Target.com cannot beat
Amazon. Target will beat Amazon.”
Jason Goldberger, Target chief digital officer.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Target’s array of mobile apps help
consumers shop more quickly, conveniently and save
consumers money. Cartwheel, Target’s in-store mobile
couponing app, has saved shoppers $475 million since
its 2013 launch, Target says. The main Target shopping
app shows off what’s available online and in local stores,
and has interactive maps that direct shoppers exactly to
where products are in stores. Target says consumers who
shop digitally and in stores spend three times as much as
customers who shop only in Target stores.
THE NEIMAN MARCUS GROUP INC.
URL: NEIMANMARCUSGROUP.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1999
2015 RANK: 36
CEO: KAREN KATZ
COMPANY ADDRESS: 1 MARCUS SQUARE, 1618 MAIN ST., DALLAS, TX
75201
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Luxury department store Neiman
Marcus makes it easy for consumers to shop across channels, the goal of many retailers these days. The retailer
is an early adopter of omnichannel services and recently
deployed technologies that connect store operations with
customer data and online ordering. One of most innovative
is a Memory Mirror that enables shoppers to digitally compare outfits tried on in a store, and send images of those
outfits to friends on social networks. Another store-based
example: Sales associates have iPhones with a mobile app
that provides details on a customer’s shopping history. Nei-
« 43
man Marcus’s shopper-facing mobile app includes a feature
called Snap. Find. Shop. It allows a shopper to photograph
a desired product—such as a Louis Vuitton purse—from her
phone while on the go. The retailer can locate the purse in
its inventory and the shopper can buy it through the app.
Sales associates have iPhones with a
mobile app that provides details on a
customer’s shopping history.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Neiman Marcus says investments in
technology are key ingredients for e-commerce growth,
and the company’s recent efforts include a renewed focus
on personalization. Web sales accounted for 25.5% of the
company’s 2015 sales of $5.095 billion, and online sales
were up 13% vs. 2014. For the fourth quarter, Neiman
Marcus’s online sales reached $324 million, up 8.2% year
over year. Web sales represented 27.8% of all sales of
$1.167 billion during the quarter.
NORDSTROM INC.
URL: NORDSTROM.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1998
2015 RANK: 18
CO-PRESIDENTS: BLAKE, PETE AND ERIK NORDSTROM
COMPANY ADDRESS: 1617 SIXTH AVE., SEATTLE, WA 98101
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Nordstrom rolled out buy online,
pick up in store capabilities way back in 2008, when many
retail chains were still trying to figure out e-commerce. It
was one of the first department store retail chains to link
its online and store inventory systems, and was ahead of
competitors on other omnichannel technologies, as it tested
beacon technology and in-store mobile offers in 2013. Now
Nordstrom is testing curbside pickup of online orders.
Nordstrom benefits from an innovative web team and
robust e-commerce operation, thanks in part to its 2011 acquisition of then web-only fashion retailer HauteLook.com.
The retailer enables consumers to return items purchased
on HauteLook.com, and more recently on its NordstromRack.com discount site, to Nordstrom Rack stores. The
merchant says that feature drove nearly 1 million additional
trips to Nordstrom Rack stores in one year.
Nordstrom was one of the first department
store chains to link its e-commerce and
store inventory systems.
44
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
OMNICHANNEL RETAILER OF THE YEAR
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Off-price items helped contribute
to big online sales gains for upscale department store
chain Nordstrom. Nordstrom reported online sales
of $2.832 billion during fiscal 2015, up 20.2% from
$2.356 billion a year earlier. Online accounted for 19.6%
of overall sales in 2015, compared to 17.4% the prior year.
Customers continued to show strong interest in its offprice online stores NordstromRack.com and HauteLook.
Nordstrom did a combined $532 million in online sales
through those two sites, up 47.8% year over year from
$360 million.
THE WINNER
TARGET CORP.
Accepting the Omnichannel Retailer of the Year Award
for Target is Thom Lewis, VP of Site Merchandising,
Bryan Nagel, District Leader Chicago Area and
Samantha Poole, District Team Leader
“
Judges’ comments: In the five short years since Target Corp. has taken its e-commerce operations in-house (Amazon.com Inc.
ran it from 2001-2011), the discount store giant has come a long way, growing its web sales more than 21% per year for the
last five years. In the last year or two, however, it’s made some especially impressive gains in its omnichannel strategy. It has
quickly rolled out store pickup of online orders, for example, and it’s now shipping web orders from many of its stores. It’s also
one of the first among the major chains to test beacons in stores, and its Cartwheel mobile app—largely aimed at countering
showrooming— is the fifth most-popular U.S. retail app, as ranked by iOS and Android downloads for the year ended Sept. 30,
2015, according to mobile app analytics firm App Annie.
Winner’s comments: “Target is proud to be recognized for the progress we’ve made integrating stores and digital channels to
ensure that our customers—guests, as we call them—feel like they’re shopping one Target whether they’re on a desktop, a
phone or in a store. In the last few years we’ve had industry-leading growth online, and we’ve leveraged stores in new ways
to fulfill online orders. We’ve also focused on developing and enhancing our apps to provide differentiated services and value
to Target guests. We firmly believe that serving guests in a seamless way with both stores and digital is critical to Target’s
success today and into the future.” —Jason Goldberger, Chief digital officer, Target
”
« 45
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Internet Retailer would like to extend a special thanks to our event sponsors
for making the IR Excellence Awards dinner a success.
DIAMOND SPONSOR
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PLATINUM SPONSOR
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From device to doorstep, Newgistics helps retailers and brands outpace the competition like no other
service provider. To learn more, visit us at booth #421 or our website at www.newgistics.com.
PLATINUM SPONSOR
Demandware empowers retailers with the speed, agility and innovation required to accelerate the
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GOLD SPONSOR
Grainger is a business-to-business distributor of products used to maintain, repair and operate
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46
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
INTERNET RETAILER OF THE YEAR
A Top 1,000 retailer demonstrating extraordinary performance in all aspects of e-commerce
activity and on all major e-commerce metrics.
THE NOMINEES:
AMAZON
URL: AMAZON.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1995
2015 RANK: 1
CEO: JEFF BEZOS
COMPANY ADDRESS: 410 TERRY AVE. NORTH, SEATTLE, WA 98109
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Amazon.com Inc. undoubtedly
dominates online retailing in the United States, with Internet
Retailer estimating it accounts for nearly a third of all online
purchases when including sales by outside merchants on
Amazon’s marketplace. Despite its size, Amazon.com Inc.
grew faster than the broader e-commerce market last year,
increasing its North American sales by 25.3% while online
shopping grew by less than 15%. And the big e-retailer keeps
on expanding its footprint. It launched Handmade by Amazon in 2015, selling items from artists and artisans around the
world in competition with Etsy, and significantly expanded
its selection of clothing, including from its own brands.
Amazon broke into the black in 2015, registering net income
of $596 million after losing $241 million the year before. But
critics point out that its retail operation produces relatively
little profit for a company with total revenue of $107 billion—
Amazon's conversion edge
74%
13%
CONVERSION RATE OF
NON-PRIME MEMBERS
ON AMAZON
2.36%
MEDIAN CONVERSION RATE
FOR TOP 500 ONLINE RETAILERS
Sources: Millward Brown Digital,
Top500Guide.com
CONVERSION
RATE OF PRIME
MEMBERS ON
AMAZON
especially when taking into account that more than 40% of
Amazon’s 2015 operating income came from its Amazon Web
Services cloud computing unit.
Already the No. 1 e-retailer in North
America, Amazon grew its sales faster
than the e-commerce market as a whole.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: In Amazon’s case it no doubt is
Amazon Prime, the loyalty program that gives consumers
free two-day shipping and access to video content for a
$99 annual fee. U.S. membership increased 47% in 2015,
Amazon says. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners
says there were 54 million U.S. Prime members by late 2015.
And here’s the big stat: those Prime members buy 74% of
the time they visit Amazon.com, according to web analytics
firm Millward Brown Digital. That’s more than 30 times
higher than the median conversion rate for web merchants
in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
ETSY
URL: ETSY.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2005
2015 RANK: 23
CEO: CHAD DICKERSON
COMPANY ADDRESS: 56 WASHINGTON ST., SUITE 512, BROOKLYN, NY
11201
COMPANY BACKGROUND: When Etsy celebrated its tenth
anniversary in June 2005 it could boast of attracting 1.4
million active sellers of arts and crafts and 20.8 million
active buyers. “In an age when drones, self-driving cars,
and virtual reality headsets are threatening to erase
every opportunity to interact with another person, we're
celebrating the personal bonds forged by our community,”
chairman and CEO Chad Dickerson said at the time. It
was an apt statement, because Etsy has grown into a big
business—sales were up 24% to nearly $2.4 billion in 2015
following 43% growth the year before—without abandoning
its original premise of providing a global sales venue for
individual artisans who otherwise would be limited to
selling their wares at craft shows and boutiques. Not all
agree Etsy remains true to its vision—some have complained
that Etsy lets craftspeople sell manufactured versions of
their designs. But many would point to Etsy as a great
example of how the Internet has changed both selling and
buying, opening markets for artisans whose handcrafted
products would have had a limited reach in the past.
Etsy as a great example of how the Internet
has changed both selling and buying, opening
markets for artisans whose handcrafted
products would have had a limited reach in
the past.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: While Etsy is associated with arts and
crafts, its online marketplace is firmly rooted in the latest
technology. Etsy allows shoppers to sign in using social
network credentials and it’s invested heavily in mobile.
Etsy’s mobile app has been downloaded 32 million times
and, thanks to the improvements to its site, its rating in the
Apple App Store in 2015 improved to 4.5 stars from 2.5 stars a
year earlier. Mobile now accounts for 43% of sales and 60%
of traffic.
NIKE INC.
URL: NIKE.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 1999
2015 WEB SALES: $1 BILLION
2015 RANK: 47
CEO: MARK PARKER
COMPANY ADDRESS: 1 BOWERMAN DRIVE, BEAVERTON, OR 97005
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Nike Inc. pioneered online apparel
and shoe customization in 2000 with the first-of-its kind
NikeID sneaker customization tool, and it’s stepped up its
innovations in recent years. Two big priorities have been
to better connect its stores with its online inventory and
improving its mobile apps and websites. Nike has been
equipping store associates with mobile devices so they can
order shoes and apparel if a customer doesn’t find what
she wants in the store. All orders placed in store ship to
the consumer’s home for free. Store associates can log a
customer into her Nike Plus account so she gets points
for store purchases, and Nike Plus members who buy in
« 47
store also get free returns. Nike is also expanding its
international web sales, creating new e-commerce
sites around the world, with an emphasis on reaching
mobile consumers. “Our math says there’s going to be
4 billion people with a smartphone and disposable
income in the area where there is a Nike store in our
demographic in 2020,” says Christiana Shi, president of
direct to consumer. Nike has grown its online sales by
at least 30% the last three years and projects web sales
will grow from $1 billion to $7 billion by 2020, when it
would represent a third of the company’s sales.
‘Our math says there’s going to be 4 billion
people with a smartphone and disposable
income in the area where there is a Nike
store in our demographic in 2020.’
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Marketing to athletes based on their
sport. Nike targets each customer segment in a unique way
online, offering separate mobile apps and social media
pages for Nike Running, Nike Soccer or Nike Training. This
strategy allows Nike to tailor products and content to the
needs of each individual consumer.
NORDSTROM INC.
URL: NORDSTROM.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2001
2015 RANK: 18
CEO: BLAKE, PETE AND ERIK NORDSTROM
COMPANY ADDRESS: 1617 SIXTH AVE., SEATTLE, WA 98101
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Nordstrom is posh, but it’s not
staid. The department store chain has acquired e-commerce expertise by investing in such web-only innovators
as Hautelook, Bonobos and Wantful, and bringing into
its stores the shoes of Australian e-retailer Shoes of Prey.
Nordstrom used its acquisition of HauteLook to provide
the template for NordstromRack.com, the e-commerce
site of its discount brand, and the two sites share a single
shopping cart. Nordstrom introduced a mobile website in
2009 and its first mobile app in 2011. Innovations last year
include letting a consumer personalize the home page she
sees on the retailer’s mobile site. Customers also can order
online for curbside pickup, notifying the store by phone or
text when she will arrive. She parks in a designated spot
and an employee brings her order to her car. Those innovations are a product of Nordstrom’s steady investments
in e-commerce, which have been growing by 35%
a year for the past five years. And that’s produced
48
»
AWARDS
IR
Excellence
INTERNET RETAILER OF THE YEAR
impressive web sales growth: Nordstrom, No. 19 in the
2016 Top 500 Guide, grew its online sales 20% in its most
recent fiscal year and 28.1% the prior year.
Customers can order online for curbside
pickup, notifying the store by text or phone
when they will arrive so employees can
bring orders to their cars.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Just as it was early to recognize the importance of e-commerce, Nordstrom also jumped into mobile
commerce early. The retailer ranks No. 48 in the 2016 Mobile
500, which ranks global retailers by their sales to consumers
using smartphones and tablets. Among its innovations last
year were a text-to-buy program called TextStyle that lets consumers buy a promoted product via text and a text program
that notifies consumers of specials when they’re near a store.
WAYFAIR INC.
URL: WAYFAIR.COM
YEAR LAUNCHED: 2002
2015 RANK: 24
CEO: NIRAJ SHAH
COMPANY ADDRESS: 4 COPLEY PLACE, SUITE 7000, BOSTON, MA
02116
COMPANY BACKGROUND: Wayfair is on a roll. The webonly retailer of furniture and home furnishings grew web
sales 85% in 2015 after a 63% increase a year earlier. The
roots of that dramatic growth go back to 2011 when the
company, previously called CSN Stores, rebranded as
Wayfair and made the merchandise from its 250 niche
sites—such as RacksandStands.com and Strollers.com—
available at a single site, Wayfair.com. It backed it up with
aggressive marketing, fueled by $357 million in private
equity funding and the $319 million it raised in its October
2014 IPO. Besides marketing, the company has set up
new customer service centers, dramatically increasing its
headcount in the process, and a photo studio to produce
better product imagery. It has not had to add distribution
centers because it has suppliers fulfill orders to customers.
That model made CSN profitable for its first nine years,
but the company’s heavy spending has moved it into the
red in recent years. Nonetheless, CEO Niraj Shah says the
rapid growth and relatively small losses convince him to
keep investing.
Major investments in marketing have driven
dramatic growth for Wayfair, 63% in 2014 and
85% in 2015.
ONE KEY TO SUCCESS: Wayfair doesn’t compete directly
with Amazon. “Amazon excels when you know what you
want and can type it into a search box,” says Wayfair CEO
Niraj Shah. “But we’re in a category where people don’t
want the same things as everyone else, and they don’t
necessarily know what to put in a search box. It’s visual,
you know it when you see it.” Wayfair has created a series
of websites with a massive selection of home furnishings to
give consumers plenty of choices.
Wayfair's dramatic sales growth
SALES IN MILLIONS
$2,040
$1,102
$592
$765
2012 201320142015
Source: Top500Guide.com. Compound annual
growth: 51%
THE WINNER
WAYFAIR
Accepting the Internet Retailer of the Year Award for Wayfair is Jane Carpenter, Director of Public Relations
“
Judges’ Comments: Wayfair has become the category-killer in online home furnishings. Its outsize growth, more than doubling
sales in the last two years, has turned Wayfair into a household name among homeowners and interior designers. Heavy
spend on marketing, including developing its own search marketing technology, has dramatically raised Wayfair’s profile. One
indicator of that: Wayfair was named the Best Digital Marketer in E-Commerce this year by the editors of Internet Retailer,
based on its prowess in paid and natural search, email and social media marketing. But Wayfair doesn’t just seek to attract
customers; it wants to keep them. An example of that commitment was its decision to accept returns of items purchased from
its Joss & Main daily-deal sites. Most such deal sites don’t take returns, but Wayfair decided that it was more important to
keep customers happy than to maximize short-term profits. That’s the way to build an online franchise that can deliver longterm results.
Winner’s Comments: “It's a tremendous honor for Wayfair to be recognized as Internet Retailer of the Year for 2016. This
outstanding award is a testament to our team's unwavering commitment to building the world's best and most comprehensive
retail destination for everything home spanning all categories of goods including furnishings and décor, kitchen items and home
improvement. From day one, we have focused on technology and innovation to deliver on our promise of unparalleled selection
and exceptional service. We look forward to continuing to delight our customers with new possibilities in e-commerce as we
transform the way people shop for their homes.” —Niraj Shah, CEO, co-founder and co-chairman, Wayfair Inc.
”
50
»
PHOTOS
2016 IR AWARDS
PHOTO GALLERY
BEFORE THE AWARDS
The second annual Internet Retailer Excellence
Awards were handed out June 8, 2016, at a banquet
at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place hotel
during IRCE. Prizes were awarded in 13 categories,
including Internet Retailer of the Year and B2B
E-Commerce Player of the Year.
DURING THE AWARDS
Landon Borup, Norton Shopping Guarantee
Sales from Diamond sponsor, Symantec,
announces the finalists for the 2016 Internet
Retailer of the Year Award: Amazon, Etsy, Nike,
Nordstrom, and Wayfair. Congratulations to
Wayfair, which was selected as the winner in
this award category, the top honor of the night.
AFTER THE AWARDS
Congratulations to Grainger, which accepted the
award for B2B E-Commerce Website Design of
the Year.
(Front, from left to right) David Rebman,
John Pehler, Sandy Kirkby, Bill Gillespie
(Back, from left to right) Brian Paik, Geoffrey
Robertson, Scot Gillespie, Jason Brownewell,
Laura Lewandowski, Sumit Rishi, Zach Perry,
Graham Thorsen, Mike Starkey, Leo Koszulinski
Congratulations
UNIQLO, Global
E-Retailer of the Year!
As an international brand, UNIQLO powers consumer experiences
across geographies with the Demandware Commerce Cloud.
The Demandware Commerce Cloud is scalable, secure and ready to run digital commerce operations
across the world. It allows retailers to manage local languages, currencies, customs, products, preferences
and other geo-specific aspects from a central platform. Get into new markets fast with native commerce
experiences that engage and inspire consumers, no matter where they are.
demandware.com

e-retail growth award

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