Shop Direct celebrated a hat-trick of awards at the retail industry’s prestigious annual awards, including the “Pureplay Etailer” honour.
The Liverpool-based firm triumphed at the Oracle Retail Week Awards, also picking up awards for Retail Technology Initiative of the Year and Supply Chain Initiative of the Year at the ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London.
The piece de resistance though came as Shop Direct beat off competition from AO.com and ASOS, taking the prize for online retailer.
Winners were decided by a judging panel made up of influential figures from the retail sector, including Asda president and chief executive Andy Clarke and House of Fraser chief executive John King, who said:
“In 2013-14, the [Shop Direct] delivered a 512% increase in profitability – a stunning achievement. It did so by building the business on three pillars: good things, easily accessible and more people. Shop Direct is now very much the etailer to watch.”
Shop Direct group chief executive Alex Baldock said:
“These awards show that people are sitting up and taking notice of Shop Direct’s transformation. When other retailers say we’re setting the pace online, it makes us even more confident we’re on the right path. Our ambition of becoming a world class digital retailer is in reach.
“We’re investing heavily in cutting-edge technology to help us move closer to that goal. But it’s not just about technology – our people are driving this transformation of a catalogue business into a digital leader, and I’m proud to be working with them. We’re determined to put Liverpool on the
map for etail.”
Shop Direct was also awarded Retail Technology Initiative of the Year for its experimentation programme.
The retailer is constantly testing ways to make the online experience easier for shoppers and has built a state-of-the-art user experience lab in its Speke HQ to bring customers into its business to see how they shop and navigate its websites.
The firm conducts 50 experiments a month and judges of the Oracle Retail Week Awards commented that this is more than the yearly output of some of its rivals.