Judging Criteria

Judging session – 20 August 2025

Shortlist announcement – 22 August 2025

Judges read and pre-score all entry forms, considering the structure, presentation and clarity of each section and the supporting materials submitted. Judges score each section on the entry form and these scores will be combined to give an overall score for each entry. All judges pre-scores will be combined, and the highest-scoring entries will determine the shortlist.

Winners are determined at a judging session, where judges will discuss the shortlist and agree on a winner for each category.

Entries should not exceed 1000 words and should relate to work undertaken between March 2024 – July 2025.

WEBSITE AWARDS

Please complete the following sections providing details of the website that you are entering. Please note entries must not exceed a total word count of 1000 words in this section.

All information provided will remain confidential to the judges before and after the event and will not be shared with anyone outside of the judging panel allocated to review your entry.

• Website Overview & Strategy (1-10 points)

Please provide the judges with a synopsis of what the website does and how it adds value to the end user. Please also provide details of the target audience and your overall strategy to reach them as well as the strategy to meet the overall objectives.

• Implementation, Innovation, Conversion & Creativity (1-10 points)

Please give us a detailed explanation of how you implemented the website outlining the innovation you used to make this website stand out amongst the crowd. Please also detail the conversion stats for the website including any screenshots necessary to demonstrate this.

• Results & evaluation (1-10 points)

Please relate these to the objectives and targets stated above. Provide actual numbers rather than percentages wherever possible.

• Why you think you should win (1-10 points)

What do you think sets your website/app apart from the other entries being judged? Judges will in particular be looking for the thing that makes this website unique.

Please detail any supporting documents you are including as part of your submission,

Optional – Please upload to the online entry portal when submitting this entry form.

INNOVATION/SOFTWARE/EXTENSION AWARDS

Please complete the following sections providing details of the innovation, software, or extension that you are entering. Please note entries must not exceed a total word count of 1000 words in this section.

All information provided will remain confidential to the judges before and after the event and will not be shared with anyone outside of the judging panel allocated to review your entry.

• Overview of Innovation/Software/Extension

Please provide the judges with a synopsis of what the tool does and how it adds value to the end user.

• Total budget

Please include costs associated with running the innovation/software/extension and how much you intend to or do sell the innovation/software/product for.

• Existing problems and target audience (1-10 points)

Please include details outlining the problems that this innovation/software/extension solves and how if at all these problems were previously dealt with. Entrants should detail who the target customers or users of this product are.

• USP and Features (1-10 points)

Please outline what is the innovation/software/extension’s unique proposition. Entrants should highlight the major features that are unique to the product/software or innovation which help solve a customer problem or benefit the customer positively.

• Key Metrics (1-10 points)

Please detail what key metrics have you used to measure whether this innovation, software or extension is successful. I.e., does it save money, make things faster, generate more revenue?

• Why should your Innovation, Software or Extension win? (1-10 points)

What single thing about your innovation, software or extension is not done by anyone else? What makes it stand out to be award-worthy?

Please include a login and password for numerous users to access your software.

We ask you to send a ‘UK eCommerce Awards’ login to allow judges to be able to test and evaluate your product if they feel necessary. In addition, if you’d like to provide a demo or video, please provide the link below.

Please note if you’re unable to provide a login please contact awards@dontpanicprojects.com. Judging is based on the application form and the judges’ industry knowledge of the tools. They are a highly experienced judging panel with in-depth industry knowledge. The tool logins requested are for any judges who feel that want to delve deeper into any claims/functionality detailed in the entry.

Please detail any supporting documents you are including as part of your submission.

Optional – Please upload to the online entry portal when submitting this entry form.

CAMPAIGN/INITIATIVE/APP AWARDS

Please complete the following sections providing details of the campaign, initiative or app that you are entering. Please note entries must not exceed a total word count of 1000 words.

All information provided will remain confidential to the judges before and after the event and will not be shared with anyone outside of the judging panel allocated to review your entry.

• Objective(s) & budget (1-10 points)

Tell us what you were looking to achieve from the campaign/initiative/app and any targets that were set. We recommend showing targets as quantifiable metrics e.g., ‘Increase conversions from 150 to 300 a month’ rather than ‘Increase conversions by 10%’.

Please include a breakdown of implementation costs, staffing costs, agency fees etc. All elements of the entry form are confidential, and judges will not share this information. If you are unable to provide a detailed budget breakdown, please include the financial band your budget is within along with the percentage budget allocated for staffing costs, agency fees and media spend etc.

• Target audience & strategy (1-10 points)

Please provide us with details about the audience you were targeting and your overall strategy to reach them as well as the strategy to meet the overall objectives.

• Implementation & creativity  (1-10 points)

Please give us a detailed explanation of your implementation of the campaign/initiative/app. Include screenshots to help us visualise campaigns. Provide information on the creativity of the campaign/initiative/app.

• Details of any challenges faced and how these were overcome (1-10 points)

What challenges were unique to you and how have you overcome them? What was the end result of overcoming these challenges?

• Results & evaluation (1-10 points)

Please relate these to the objectives and targets stated above. Provide actual numbers rather than percentages wherever possible.

• Why should your campaign/initiative/app win? (1-10 points)

What do you think sets your campaign/initiative/app apart from the other entries being judged? Judges will in particular be looking for the thing that makes this entry different to the others, what is unique?

Please detail any supporting documents you are including as part of your submission.

Optional – Please upload to the online entry portal when submitting this entry form.

AGENCY/TEAM/EMERGING TALENT AWARDS

Please complete the following sections providing details of the agency/team/individual that you are entering. Please note entries can be self-nominated or nominated by a third party and must not exceed a total word count of 1000 words in this section.

All information provided will remain confidential to the judges before and after the event and will not be shared with anyone outside of the judging panel allocated to review your entry.

• Overview of the Agency/Team/Emerging Talent nominee

Please include numbers, staff turnover, roles etc for agency and team nominations or current and previous job roles etc for Rising Star nominations

• Agency/Team/Emerging Talent objectives (1-10 points)

Tell us what you were looking to achieve and any targets that have been set within the agency or team to help achieve your goals. We recommend showing targets as quantifiable metrics e.g., ‘Increase conversions from 150 to 300 a month’ rather than ‘Increase conversions by 10%’.

• Recent work example(s) (1-10 points)

Please include details of recent client or campaign work. How does your recent work display creativity and make your entry stand out amongst others?

• Details of any recent achievements (1-10 points)

What makes your entry stand out? Please include details of any achievements you feel make your agency, team or emerging talent award-worthy. What are you proud of?

• Details of any challenges faced and how these were overcome (1-10 points)

What challenges were unique to you and how have you overcome them? What was the end result of overcoming these challenges?

• Why should your Agency/Team/Emerging Talent win? (1-10 points)

Please detail what you feel makes you stand out amongst others and why you feel your entry is award-winning. What makes you unique? What gives you the competitive edge?

Please detail any supporting documents you are including as part of your submission.

Optional – Please upload to the online entry portal when submitting this entry form.

SUPPORTING MATERIAL

A company or campaign logo (in JPEG format, max 2MB) must be uploaded along with each entry (this may be used on the website, event brochure and presentations should you be shortlisted).

If appropriate you may upload up to 3 pieces of supporting materials along with your entry. These can be in JPEG, PDF, or Microsoft Word, and must be under 2MB and could include items such as:

• Audited accounts
• Team CV’s
• Training and development records
• Copies of media coverage
• Media evaluation
• Client references
• RAJAR / ABC circulation figures
• Website analytics
• Testimonials
• Videos (via online link in form)
• Publications
• Marketing materials
• Photography
• Weblinks
• Market research findings

ETHICAL, TRANSPARENT, FAIR & CONFIDENTIAL

The UK eCommerce Awards prides itself on its ethical and transparent process and confidentiality is taken extremely seriously.

Judges are not allowed to enter any of the categories.

All judging discussions are confidential, and the material will not be shared with anyone outside of the judging panel before or after the ceremony. Judging papers will not be shared with any third parties and will be deleted immediately after the judging period. Judges can only access entries they have been asked to score.

Permission to use any material for winning case studies post-event will be sought from entrants.