Wayfair Inc., the online home furnishings retailer that grew its online sales 71% last year in its first year as a public company, was named Internet Retailer of the Year, taking the top prize in the second annual Internet Retailer Excellence Awards, held Wednesday night.
“Our job is never really done,” said Jane Carpenter, Wayfair‘s director of public relations, in accepting the award. “We’re really focused on creating the world’s best e-commerce experience for the home.”
Wayfair, No. 24 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, operates e-commerce sites Wayfair.com, Joss & Main, AllModern, Birch Lane and Dwell Studio, and increased its active customers in 2015 to 5.4 million from 3.2 million. The e-retailer was selected as the winner of the Internet Retailer of the year award over four other finalists: Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1), Etsy Inc. (No. 23), Nike Inc. (No. 47) and Nordstrom Inc. (No. 18). A panel of judges that included Internet Retailer editors and industry consultants selected the winner.
Judges awarded a total of 13 prizes, including three in business-to-business categories. MSC Industrial Supply Co. won the top honor, claiming the award of B2B E-Commerce Player of the Year. W.W. Grainger Inc., which won the top B2B prize last year, was named winner of the award for the B2B E-Commerce Website Design of the Year. In the category of B2B Marketer of the Year, the winner was label printer Cenveo Inc.
The 13 prizes were awarded Wednesday night at a banquet at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, where the 2016 Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition is taking place.
Here are the winners in all 13 categories in bold, followed by the other finalists in each category:
- Emerging E-Retailer of the Year: Boxed Wholesale LLC, Harry’s, Ipsy, Green Chef Inc.
- E-Retail Growth Award: Saatva Inc., 123Stores.com, NakedWines.com, Wayfair
- Web Redesign of the Year: Hickies.com, BetterBraces.com, JackThreads.com, LeCreuset.com, OmahaSteaks.com
- E-Retail Marketer of the Year: Dollar Shave Club, Wayfair, Yoox Net-A-Porter
- Best Marketing Video of the Year: Motorola Mobility, Sears Craftsman, Yoox Net-A-Porter
- Best Product Video of the Year: OFM, Music & Arts, Mobovida, Native Commerce, Thos. Baker
- B2B E-Commerce Marketer of the Year: Cenveo, Dollar Days International Inc., Edmund Optics Inc.
- B2B E-Commerce Website Design of the Year: W.W. Grainger, Civic Solar Inc., Ferguson Enterprises Inc., Sustainable Supply Co. LLC
- B2B E-Commerce Player of the Year: MSC Industrial Supply, CDW Corp., Global Industrial, Premier Farnell plc
- Mobile Commerce Award: Sephora USA Inc., The Home Depot Inc., Revolve Clothing, Grupo Netshoes
- Global E-Retailer of the Year: Uniqlo Co. Ltd., Amazon, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.
- Omnichannel Retailer of the Year: Target Corp., Batteries Plus Bulbs LLC, Neiman Marcus Inc., Nordstrom
- Internet Retailer of the Year: Wayfair, Amazon, Etsy, Nike, Nordstrom
Nominations will open in December for the 2017 Internet Retailer Excellence Awards.
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