Ecommerce Awards: Why They Don't Work & What You Can Do About It

Ecommerce Awards: Why They Don't Work & What You Can Do About It

Ecommerce Awards are the ultimate accolade for ecommerce businesses. They recognize innovation, creativity, and ingenuity. Any business selling goods or services on e-commerce platform can join the competition. It's a global competition, meaning you will be competing with a thousand other ecommerce businesses worldwide.

Yes, you need the recognition and your company to win the award, but you are not sure if you will succeed. Think of all the investment in terms of money and time, which you could have spent on other issues containing your ecommerce business like creating ads, marketing your brand, improving the shopping experience, etc. 

Winning will be an outstanding achievement for your business, but all is not lost if you lose if you lose. Whether you get to win or not, here are the top benefits of entering the ecommerce awards competition. 

Free PR and marketing
Being a nominee in the ecommerce awards can help grow your business immensely. The world will know about your business without you having to advertise it. Free PR and marketing improve brand awareness and promotes your business to new customers. 

Excellent feeling for the employees
Staff morale goes up once their company has been nominated to participate in ecommerce awards. Take every step of the journey with them; if you win, celebrate together; if you dont win, atleast you have managed to be a nominee, which doesnt come about easily. 

Helps in recruiting
Once the word is out there that your business is competing, many talents get interested in associating themself with your brand. You can take advantage of the situation and hire the best talents in ecommerce. It will be of great help to your business. 

Benchmark with others in the industry
You get a rare opportunity to interact with other people running the same business as you. You get to compare and learn a lot from them, which could be very valuable for your busines, even much more helpful than winning the award. 

You get to know areas to improve.
If you lose it, you will get to know how the evaluation is broken down and where to improve in your business. 

Why do brands fear applying for ecommerce awards?

Most brands fear applying for e-commerce because of the following reasons:

Fear of losing
If a business enters into a competition and they dont win, it doesnt mean that they aren't the best. Instead, most brands would not try and lose; they choose not to compete altogether. 

Nobody knows who lost.
You get fame once you are nominated, but the result is what matters. Consumers are generally more interested in the winner; they dont care about who lost and won't even want to know who. 

Cost associated
The entry cost can be huge, and no guaranteed cash prize. Most brands look at it as a waste of money that can be used elsewhere in the business.

Are Retail Awards Worth It?

Retail awards acknowledge companies and campaigns modernizing retail towards the digital age. The program honors retailers who have best worked towards changing consumer habits by tailoring experiences, closing the gap between the physical and digital worlds, and producing excellent campaigns. 

Being nominated and eventually winning cannot be overstated. It takes the business to a whole new level of growth, providing the company with more potential for success, offering a large client base, and building its brand awareness. There are a lot of other positive factors that come with retail awards that a business can't afford to brush off. 

Retail awards categories
Retail awards fall under several categories; some of the classes are: 

Factors to consider before joining an industry award

It can be hard to know precisely which award is worth your time and efforts. The following factors will guide you in deciding whether to participate in a competition or not.

Merit-based
An award should be merit-based, not pay-for-play awards, which are less valuable and won't be of great benefit to your business. Merit awards are competitive with more prestige, organic coverage, bragging rights and make you feel very accomplished. 

Past winners
Check how the past winners are doing, how successful they've become, and how the award helped them out. It would be useless to join an award where the past winners are no longer in business; it would be demotivating.

Award reputation
Check the award you're about to get into. If the prize won't help your business, it's better to forget about it.

Its relevance to the company
Do an ego check and determine if the award will be necessary to your company or you. Ensure the customers will respect the prize, and prospects will get to know about your business. Finally, check if the award will excite your team because it's teamwork that will make you win at the end of it all. 

How many people know about the award
If no one is talking about it or few people in your industry are talking about it, it may not be worth it. Even if you win, it will be hard to prove its relevance or value to your business. An excellent award should be what everyone is talking about, not just in your industry but all over. 

Conclusion

Ecommerce awards are vital for our business, but there can only be one winner. To be in a better place, all you can do is take advantage of the fact that you have been nominated for the awards and get as much as you can from it. You don't have to win to benefit significantly from being part of the e-commerce award program. Retail awards are just as important but winning is not a guarantee.