Ecommerce Awards

Applicants' Area

Tips for Entrants

This list is based on our experience in previous years, and is intended to help you make the best possible case for your organisation.
NOTE- it is recommended that you work on your application offline, and copy and pasteyour answersinto the fields of the application form when you are happy.This will prevent you losing work if you have an interruption to your internet connection, or if your session times out.

1. The form is divided into three main sections - the first short set of questions are factual details about your company. The second set are more descriptive about your company and its achievements, which should be filled in for all categories; and the third set are specific to the category(s) you are entering. Make sure you fill in all as completely and as accurately as you can. The more information you provide the judges, the better case you make.
   
2. Try to start your application straight away - in previous years we have seen lots of rushed entries and requests for extensions coming in near the deadline. The more relevant details you complete about your organisation, the better chance you have of impressing the judges.
   
3. Complete the category sections for all the categories you think you could compete in. Remember, in some regions not all categories are as well represented. The category questions are simple to answer - if you have made a compelling achievement you could win.
   
4. Plan out what you want to say about your organisation's use of technology and get it down in writing before completing the main body. The more details and benefits to your business you have to say, the more your application will stand out with the judges. That way you'll have a better chance of winning a regional or a national prize.
   
5. Once you have completed your initial registration and started your category applications with the Awards you have until the closing date to complete your chosen categories, to your satisfaction. Make sure you know the basic details about your organisations, such as turnover and headcount, before you start. Make a note of your company registration or charity number, if you have one. You may need these for the application form.
   
6. Look at the website section on previous winners - learn the sorts of achievements that impressed the regional and national judging panels. It's not always the biggest companies with the largest budgets that do well - look at last year's winners for inspiration.
   
7. Your website must be live during the Awards programme and judging period, as it will be reviewed as part of the short-listing and judging process. If we cannot access the site after three attempts you will not be short-listed. Ensure your URL is complete and accurate.
   
8. Whilst the form fields may look small, they will accept a large amount of data. Consider cutting & pasting the information from a word processor or text editor. That way you can check the spelling. Remember that formatting will be lost - so don't put effort into layout and fonts.
   
9. The Awards are not a website beauty parade: The judges are looking for clear examples of how you have improved your business through the use of the Internet to interact with your customers, business partners, suppliers etc. They cannot tell this just from the web site - it's the detail you provide in the descriptive fields that will help them.
   
10. Substantiate your claims. Some entries have statements like "we grew bigger" - as an example, it would be more effective to say "we grew our revenue by X% to the current level above and now have customers in Y countries - they were all in the UK this time last year".

From Andrew Cornaby, Response Maintenance , the National E-Commerce Awards winner 2003:-
"It is wonderful when organisations such as InterForum and the DTI recognise the hard work that people put into their businesses. Businesses should not be afraid to enter for the fear of thinking that they have no chance of winning. Though that is exactly how I felt, I ended up scooping the Mobile and Wireless category award worth £8000 pounds and the Grand National E-commerce Award worth £30,000 - two wonderful awards that had me in tears of joy and excitement."
From Jon Pryse-Jones, Pryse Jones , the National E-Commerce Awards winner 2001:-
"It is best to give lots of accurate facts rather thanvague answers - the judges, of which I was one in both 2002 & 2003 for the Eastern region - like to feel that nothing is being withheld and that the information on the entry forms ishonest and correct. Also the passion of the winners about their sites shines through from their entry forms and is alwaysa major consideration for me."
From Steve Radford, Operations Director, IMS UK Ltd , winner of the National Innovation Award for Advanced Supply Chain Integration in 2003.

• 'If something's worth doing, then its worth doing well' Put as much time and effort into preparing your application as you would expect the judges to spend when considering it. No one is going to bestow or win a national award based on 10 minutes work.
  
• If they need to know it, put it in. Remember that the judges may not have any past experience of your industry and will probably not have time to research around your application. If they are unable to understand your industry, product or market from the information you have included, then your application is unlikely to make the shortlist.
  
• Sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees. Get someone to proof read your application for spelling and grammatical errors. It's very difficult to spot your own mistakes especially in something you may have already rewritten a couple of times, and spell check can miss the occasional spilling mistake!
  
• Modesty is NOT the best policy. It's not often that this is the right tactic, but boast, boast, boast! This is your first and last chance to sell yourself.
  
• Answer the question. Answer each question in full and don't rely on information that you may have included in a previous answer. This is especially important if your application will be judged for more than one award, as judges may only be given the section of your application that relates to the award they are judging.
  
• It's not always good to recycle. Don't rely on simply cutting and pasting text from your marketing literature to answer a question. Nor should you reuse an answer written as part of a previous application, especially if it was for a different award. Think about what this award is there to recognise, each question is there for a reason and the same question on two different application forms will probably require two different answers.

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