Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 25.11.2021 
Tom & Co, winners of multiple UK eCommerce Awards, share their 2021 journey and why entering awards is part of their strategy for success.
We have always known that our team is fantastic at building top-notch eCommerce websites. We know this because whilst ‘headless’ is only now becoming a buzzword in the world of eCommerce, Tom&Co got ahead of the curve eight years ago. Our team’s expertise really is second to none. Not to blow our own trumpet!
Headless gives endless flexibility when building an eCommerce site, which has attracted the likes of Oliver Bonas, Topps Tiles, Agent Provocateur and the RHS.
But! There is always a but. Whilst we have been super busy ferreting away creating best in class websites, we have not always found the time to put our wonderful work up for awards. 2021 was the year we changed that.
Our journey to award success all started with the UK Digital Growth Awards. After relaunching Topps Tiles, we were so thrilled with the result, we boldly put it forward for BC2 eCommerce Website of the Year. The risk paid off as Topps Tiles were crowned the worthy winner! The entry process was a lot of fun as we got to put pen to paper to clearly see what we had set out to achieve and how we accomplished all of this and more. Being new to award wins, both the Topps Tiles and Tom&Co team were over the moon. We seemed to go from strength to strength following on from this. Let’s tell you how it went!
Being an Adobe Partner, The Adobe Experience Maker Awards was HUGE for us. Leona Lewis hosted the award ceremony, need we say more. Initially, we were over the moon to be named a finalist, with tough competition, up against biscuit royalty Orea and Industry West. We were even more overjoyed to be crowned the winner! It is always flattering to be a winner in a category called ‘The Mastermind.’ We will take it.
Next up, we had the Direct Ecommerce awards. At this point, we were busy shining our new awards cabinet when our clients The Leprosy Mission won Best Charity Trading Brand and Wentworth Puzzles bagged two awards for Best B2C Technology Partners AND Best Gifts, Hobbies & In-home Brand.
It could have been suggested that we were getting a little big for our boots. But like with everything we do at Tom&Co we aim for the stars, we go big or go home. That is why we nominated Topps Tiles in the GLOBAL eCommerce Awards. With the awards coinciding with the Euro 2020, although the Football sadly did not come home, Topps Tiles certainly did! Topps took home GLOBAL DIY, Home, Furniture & Interior Design Ecommerce Website of the Year.
The lucky streak continued as with thirteen years of experience judging some of the finest work in eCommerce, we nervously awaited the finalist announcement for The eCommerce Awards 2021. We could not have been happier that we got to take home the winner’s trophy for Best B2B eCommerce site AND Best Wholesale and Trade eCommerce with our wonderful client Topps Tiles Trade.
Further Award wins in other competitions followed during the year: Best Retail with Oliver Bonas, Best UX with Topps Tiles and Best B2B website with Topps Tiles Trade. We were made a finalist in all three categories and crowned the winner for Best UX. We were even highly commended for best B2B website too.
Our final challenge for 2021 was to win in the UK ecommerce awards. This awards night was that much more special as it was the first non virtual event we were attending in 2021. We got suited and booted and headed to the Montcalm hotel. We had a phenomenal night and a clean sweep winning Food & Drink Ecommerce website of the year with Biscuiteers, Fashion & Apparel Ecommerce website of the year with Oliver Bonas and B2B Ecommerce website of the year Topps Tiles Trade.
At Tom&Co we work extremely closely with our clients and like them to view us as an extension of their business. Winning all these fantastic awards together has given us all a well-deserved sense of achievement, but more importantly made us feel even more like a team. A big thank you to ‘Don’t Panic’ for helping us achieve this and for being such a huge part of Tom&Co’s award success in 2021.
