2010 Categories - Overview

Store Design of the Year
This category is looking to find the world’s greatest new store designs. It is open to all retail sectors and store sizes that have opened in the last 12 months. They should be able to demonstrate to the judges that the design is delivering a real customer experience, it enhances the brand and can be held up to be a truly innovative and commercially effective store design.

Responsible Retailer of the Year
An increasingly important and prestigious award honouring the retailer who the judges feel has made significant steps to enhance its corporate reputation. For International operators this could mean a strategy that makes it stand out either on the world stage or for domestic retailers it could be a strategy that simply succeeds in setting new world-class standards of good practice.

Emerging Market Retailer of the Year
The World Retail Awards jury will be seeking to recognise the retailer from an emerging market that best represents the essential retail qualities of entrepreneurship, originality and flexibility. This award will reward a business that can demonstrate that they have a robust and growing retail format and therefore reflect how dynamic and important retailing around the world and the part it is playing in the development of the emerging economies.

Etailer of the Year - sponsored by GfK
The internet continues to be one of the fastest growing areas of retail. As both “pure play” and “multi channel” retailers have shown, successful E-tailing is about constantly innovating with the technology, the customer proposition, customer services and the excellence of delivery. This award is therefore designed to reflect the excellence of execution and innovation over the last 12 months from either a pure play or multi channel retailer.

Retail Advertising Awards
This important category within the World Retail Awards is designed to acknowledge and celebrate the import role of communication within retailing. Entries will be judged by industry peers who will apply the key retail measures of brand development, creativity, customer targeting and ROI.

Open to retailers or their agencies, the work can be entered across 4 distinct categories and will be shortlisted by industry experts. Each submission must clearly state which category it is being entered for and must explicitly detail the discreet objectives for each category. Any submission must have appeared between January 2009 and November 2009.

Sub categories:

• In-store
  Recognising retail promotions in-store that ran over the last 12 months either as part of the wider campaign or as an in store-only discreet promotion for the brand, a range or service
  
• New media
  Retail campaigns that have effectively used channels of communication other than ‘traditional’ or ‘direct’ media but including the internet, content/viral/guerilla/ambient and m-commerce either as a focused campaign or as part of the wider, multi channel campaign.
  
• In store Promotion – discreet campaigns with communication and campaign objectives not replicated in any other media/communication channel.

Retail Innovation Award 
This category seeks to put the spotlight on all the great new ideas being developed by small, medium and large retailers. With the emphasis on innovation and new ideas this category will be judged on the level of creativity and potential to inspire customers and they judges will take into account that many entries will not have a trading history of much more than a year.

Outstanding Leadership Award
The recipient of this important award will go to the individual the Grand Jury believes best demonstrates a clear vision for everyone in the business, is passionate about customers, new ideas, nurturing talent and is an example and inspiration to others.

Multi-market retailer of the year
This category aims to recognise a cross-border retailer only. Retailers trading in multiple countries will be considered by the jury and they will choose the retailer that they believe to be the best exponent of international retailing. An expert panel will draw up a short-list of international retailers to go forward to the World Retail Awards grand jury.

The retailers will be judged against a series of performance criteria including evidence of significant development over the prior 12 months and estimation of the strength of the brand(s) in all its key territories. Financial performance – evidence of above-average sales and margin growth will be very important as well as a clear picture of the strategic direction of the business.

Retailer of the year – sponsored by Oracle
The accolade Retailer of the Year will be awarded to the retailer that has proved it is a world class performer across every aspect of its business.

It can be a national or multi national retailer, but overwhelmingly it will be a retailer that can truly be described as having had an exceptional year.

There must be evidence of strong financial performance, product and store innovation and proven high customer acceptance. A list of nominees will be presented to the World Retail Awards grand jury who will determine the winner.