Are you offering an awesome online retail experience for your customers? Then, consider nominating yourself for the E-Commerce Experience Award.
The 2024 Small Business BC Awards season is underway, and there’s still time to nominate yourself for a chance to win $5,000 and promote your business to a province-wide audience.
What is the Small Business BC E-Commerce Experience Award?
The E-Commerce Experience Award goes to the BC small business that’s succeeding online and providing a best-in-class experience for its customers.
This award is great for small businesses that have put effort into their E-Commerce strategy. They have a website that converts visitors into customers, an easy-to-navigate digital storefront, and a measurable digital marketing strategy that inspires.
If you have a few E-Commerce tricks up your sleeve and have a demonstrated record of excellent customer satisfaction with online purchases, you should nominate your business for the award.
The winner will receive a cash prize of $5,000 and province-wide recognition as a leading small business.
What businesses are eligible for the E-Commerce Experience Award?
This category is open to any BC business that has been selling a product or service online through its own website for at least 12 months.
Here’s a quick overview of the main eligibility criteria:
- Businesses must be selling a product or service online
- Businesses must be in operation for at least 12 months
- Businesses must be based in British Columbia
- Businesses must have 50 or fewer employees
- Nominations must be submitted online by 11:59 pm on August 16, 2024
- Past Small Business BC Awards winners are prohibited from entering the category in which they won
How do you win the E-commerce Experience Award?
After you are nominated for an award, you must get enough votes from your community to move on to the next round, the Top 5 finalists.
When you’re completing your nomination, the answers you provide and the supporting documentation you share will be examined as part of the judging process.
Here’s a quick look at some of the judging criteria:
- Customer Experience: This business hosts an e-commerce store on their website that features a frictionless transactional experience, from start to finish, across devices.
- Strategy: This business demonstrates a clear plan for e-commerce growth that leans on measurable digital marketing tactics and effective messaging.
- Branding: This business recognizes an online store is a digital storefront, enticing customers with a consistent brand experience throughout all touch points.
This year, our judges will be assessing the following areas of the online experience when making their decision. Any supporting evidence you can provide is welcomed.
- Effectiveness of your online store
- Ease of navigation
- The Checkout Process
- Consistency of experience across mobile and desktop
- Prominence of business contact information on the site
- Speed of the online store
- Quality of product listings
- Digital marketing strategy
- Variety and creativity of marketing efforts
- Look and design of the online store
- Consistency with business branding
- Quality of brand imagery
What businesses won the E-Commerce Experience Award in the past?
The E-Commerce Experience Award is relatively new for the Small Business BC Awards, which are now in their 21st year. The category was introduced in 2023, and the first-ever winner was Mint Cleaning from Ucluelet.
Co-founders Monika Scott and Robyn Mair started their business as a cleaning service before they launched a line of eco-friendly cleaning products. They said that winning the E-Commerce Experience Award was a huge moment for their business.
In their profile on the Small Business BC Blog, Mint Cleaning said that one of the biggest factors to their success was the decision to hire a graphic designer. The designer did their branding, designed their logo, and helped solidify the brand’s signature mint colour.
“Get a skilled graphic designer to do that for you right out of the gate…that is so important to get you started,” said Monika. “We talk to sellers, and they say that when people walk in, their eyes go over to our products.”
The eye-catching nature of the product was a big reason why they won the E-Commerce Experience Award. Mint Cleaning’s exceptional branding stood out to the judges. The Mint Cleaning website was simple and effective. In their pitch to the judges, their presentation was strong as they showed clear potential for future growth and a plan for how to achieve it.
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