There’s been a lot of positive buzz recently about Wayfair LLC, which increased its web sales 71% in 2015 and promoted itself effectively enough to earn Internet Retailer’s designation as Best Digital Marketer in E-Commerce. Now Wayfair has one additional feather in its cap: It is nominated in the most categories of any company for the annual Internet Retailer Excellence Awards.
Wayfair, No. 33 in the 2015 Internet Retailer Top 500, is a finalist for three awards: E-Retailer Growth Award, E-Retail Marketer of the Year and Internet Retailer of the Year. Two other nominees for Internet Retailer of the Year garnered a second nod, with Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1 in the Top 500) listed as a finalist for Global E-Retailer of the Year and Nordstrom Inc. (No. 19) for Omnichannel Retailer of the Year.
In total there are 51 nominees for the 13 Internet Retailer Excellence Awards, which will be handed out at a banquet at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place hotel in Chicago on June 8, as the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition convenes for its 12th straight year. Internet Retailer serves as the official media sponsor of IRCE, which will occur at McCormick Place West in Chicago from June 7-10.
“I enthusiastically congratulate all 51 finalists for our second annual 2016 Internet Retailer Excellence Awards,” says Jack Love, publisher of Internet Retailer. “Our goal is to highlight best practices that all online retailers and B2B e-commerce companies can learn from. We added three categories this year and the greater number of awards will provide more knowledge to the industry and thus more ways for businesses that sell online to improve their operations. Given this slate of contenders, our job of picking the winners in each of the 13 categories will be extremely challenging.”
Two of the new categories are in the area of business-to-business e-commerce, as Internet Retailer this year will hand out awards for the B2B E-Commerce Marketer of the Year and B2B E-Commerce Website Design of the Year, as well as the B2B E-Commerce Player of the Year award that W.W. Grainger Inc. won last year at the inaugural Internet Retailer Excellence Awards event at IRCE.
Finalists for the top B2B award this year are CDW Corp.; Global Industrial, a subsidiary of Systemax Inc.; The MSC Industrial Supply Co.; and Premier Farnell plc whose B2B e-commerce sites include Element14.com and Newark.com. CDW is No. 33 in the B2B E-Commerce 300, which ranks companies by their online sales to businesses, government agencies, school systems, universities, nonprofits and other enterprises. Systemax is No. 41, MSC Industrial No. 97 and the Newark element14 unit of U.K.-based Premier Farnell No. 110.
The finalists were selected by panels composed of Internet Retailer editors and industry experts. Here is a complete list of the finalists in the 13 categories of the 2016 Internet Retailer Excellence Awards:
Emerging Retailer of the Year: Ipsy, Boxed Wholesale, Green Chef Inc., HF Global Inc. Harry’s
E-Retail Growth Award: 123Stores.com, NakedWines.com Inc., Saatva Inc., Wayfair LLC
Web Redesign of the Year: DJO Global/BetterBraces.com, Hickies Inc., Jackthreads.com, LeCreuset.com, OmahaSteaks.com Inc.
E-Retail Marketer of the Year: Dollar Shave Club, Wayfair LLC, Yoox Net-a-Porter Group S.p.A.
Best Marketing Video of the Year: Motorola Mobility LLC, Net-a-Porter Group LLC, Sears Brands LLC/Craftsman
Best Product Video of the Year: Cellular Outfitter, Music & Arts, Native Commerce, OFM LLC, Thos. Baker LLC
B2B E-Commerce Marketer of the Year: Cenveo Inc., Dollar Days International Inc., Edmund Optics Inc.
B2B E-Commerce Website Redesign of the Year: CivicSolar Inc., Ferguson Enterprises Inc., Sustainable Supply Co. LLC, W.W. Grainger Inc.
B2B E-Commerce Player of the Year: CDW Corp., Global Industrial (subsidiary of Systemax Inc.), MSC Industrial Supply Co., Premier Farnell PLC
Mobile Commerce Award: The Home Depot Inc., Netshoes.com, Revolve Clothing, Sephora USA Inc.
Global E-Retailer of the Year: Amazon.com Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Uniqlo Co. Ltd.
Omnichannel Retailer of the Year: Batteries Plus Bulbs LLC, The Neiman Marcus Group Inc., Nordstrom Inc., Target Corp.
Internet Retailer of the Year: Amazon.com Inc., Etsy Inc., Nike Inc., Nordstrom Inc., Wayfair LLC
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