Award win for Excellence in Direct Retailing

Harts of Stur picked up a national award at the recent Excellence in Housewares Awards. This prestigious award ceremony is organised by Progressive Housewares Magazine in conjunction with the British Independent Retailer Association. Embraced by the housewares industry they are recognised as the 'Oscars' for the housewares trade. Now in their 19th year, the awards shine the spotlight on retailers for their retailing excellence and suppliers for their product innovation and service acumen.

Harts of Stur eCommerce Director Graham Hart (centre right) pictured with Kirsty Allen (centre left) accepting the Excellence in Direct Retailing award from comedian Tania Edwards (left) and Dr Samir Attia (right) from award sponsor Smart Worldwide[/caption]

Excellence in Housewares Award

Comedian Tania Edwards was compere for the evening, bringing her unique humour and passion for commending deserving winners. Around 400 retailers and suppliers from across the UK attended the glitzy award ceremony. Held at the Lancaster Hotel in London, the evening had an 80s electric dreams theme and saw finalists and winners celebrating until the early hours. After the champagne reception and official welcome, guests enjoyed a delicious three course meal. Then the awards proper got underway. We were finalists in three categories which included Excellence in Retail Display, Excellence in Retailer Initiative and Excellence in Direct Retailing. Narrowly missing out on the first two awards, our name was called as winner of Excellence in Direct Retailing.

New Website

The award comes just over a month after we re-launched our website at the end of August. Building on the high standards and success of previous incarnations, our new website features a fresh, modern design. The new website also offers a much improved user experience making it even easier to browse the 18,000+ products. Split into logical departments and categories, it's easy to drill down further using filtering. The search function is also much improved, offering suggested products whilst you type. Working with an industry leader, we are one of the first companies embracing the all-new 'headless' web design. This, combined with the Magento 2 Enterprise platform, makes our website one of the fastest sites currently out there. These industry-leading page load times provide a smoother shopping experience. The checkout process has also been vastly improved, especially on mobile devices, for a quicker and more streamlined transaction. Payment options include PayPal plus the option of Interest Free Credit on orders above £375. The judging panel were also impressed with how third party marketplaces were utilised. The use of social media to maximise sales was also commended. Other finalists in the direct retailing category included Amazon, Ocado, Emporium Cookshop, Philip Morris Direct and The Hut Group. MD Philip Hart commented: ‘I was completely blown away when our name was read out as Direct Retailer of the Year. The calibre of finalists in this category was extremely high which makes receiving this award all the more special”.