The soul of online retailing in Australia - internetretailing.com.au. Get serious about selling online!

The international awards for online retailing (Online Retail Awards - ORA)  is seeking

applicants for the Online Retail Awards 2010.

The closing date for applicants is April 30 2010.

Last year the following Australia/NZ sites featured in the final awards:

Category: Gardening

HIGH COMMENDATION
Buy-a-Shed
buyashed.co.nz
Agency: The Creative Collective, Australia

Category: Health
WINNER
Pharmacy Online
pharmacyonline.com.au
There are many online pharmacies, but passion is the word the judges used to
describe Pharmacy Online’s winning Australian website. It aims to provide
customers with quality advice, the lowest prices and highly responsive
customer service – online. And it succeeds.
Agency: Webtech Pro, Australia

For more information visit: onlineretailawards.com

Online Retail Awards

A little more about the international awards for online retailing

The Online Retail Awards are impartial, independent and objective. Their aim is to seek out examples of excellent online retail websites, best practice and customer service and to reward them publicly at an annual event.

The awards don’t celebrate websites, as such. Rather, they celebrate a retailer’s presence online sector by sector. For three years, after winning an award, an online retailer can display their special winner’s logo, as a stamp of authority – of credibility.

To keep things as simple as possible in the first year or two, only websites in their English versions will be accepted for judging. As the Online Retail Awards grow in stature - as they surely will - plans are already in place to create regional heats with regional judges, who will be able to examine sites in their original language, as well as in English.

Entry to the Online Retail Awards is online, appropriately, and judged online by experts.

Simple to enter:

The Online Retail Awards really are simple to enter. A working URL submitted with a brief descriptive paper are all that is required. All entry forms can be completed online and a submission paper can be prepared offline, on the desktop, before it is uploaded to the Online Retail Awards website.

Eligibility of entries:

An online retailer will be allowed to enter the awards if the website and online activity described took place between January 1 and December 31, 2009. The site must have been open for transactions between retailer and customer during that time. Reference may be made to prior periods if it helps the judges to view the online retailing activity in context, but entries will not be judged on past glories. In some instances, it is understood that a PR agency may enter on behalf of a client. It is important to make clear that any winner’s trophy will be given to the client, not the agency.

Closing date for entries:

The closing date for entries is April 30, 2010, giving time for anyone launching an end of year Sale site to collate research findings and other data and to submit their entry. But remember, entries must have been available to online shoppers before midnight on December 31, 2009. Entries received after April 30, without prior permission from the organizers, will pay a late fee, as shown below.

Entry fees:

Each entry will incur a fee of £160.00 inclusive of UK value added tax. If the same entry is submitted for another category, such as an Overall Achievement category, then an additional but fee must be paid of £160.00 also inclusive of UK value added tax. Online retailers with sites covering different store departments may enter as many categories as they have departments, but a separate entry fee must be paid for each entry. If the retailer wishes to enter each department for an Overall Achievement award, then additional entry fees must also be paid for each entry made.

Categories:

There are 21 retail sector categories for the Online Retail Awards, and 5 overall achievement categories. Full details are on the website at www.OnlineRetailAwards.com

The ultimate accoldae is the Prix d’OR award for the online retailer of the year chosen by the judges from all the category winners and won last year by then newcomer Brand Alley.

For more information visit: onlineretailawards.com