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“Put your customers first” – The Winners of the ARA Retail Awards Announced
The 2019 eftpos ARA Retail Awards took place in Melbourne this morning and celebrated those who are disrupting and sparking change in the retail industry.
The highly celebrated winners of the 2019 eftpos ARA Retailer Awards were announced this morning in Melbourne, from small businesses to franchises and everything in between. This year’s theme, Retail Morphosis, honoured the ‘progressive development’ of retail over the past few years.
With keynotes from Steve Plarre, the CEO of Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses and Amanda Stevens, a renowned speaker with extensive knowledge in customer experience, this was an event for everyone in retail.
The awards were broken up into twelve categories, spanning from Excellence in Customer Experience to Woman of the Year. The six judges, Robyn Batson (Sussan Group), Alla Buinowicz (Taking Shape), Warwick Ponder (eftpos), Peter Wilkinson (Forever New), Radinck van Vollenhoven (Stocard) and Bernie Brookes AM (Flannerys) were tasked with the job of selecting winners that create a wonderful customer journey, inspire change and ‘zig’ when others ‘zag’.
“Although the retail landscape will continue to be disrupted by emerging technology and international competitors, it is truly gratifying to see the industry filled with hardworking retailers who continue to power retail through innovation and adaption,” said Executive Director of the ARA, Russell Zimmerman. “Our annual Awards program is an excellent platform for retailers to come together, network, share stories, and most importantly support one another. Their ongoing passion and dedication is what and contributes to the vitality of the $320bn sector.”
Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2019 eftpos ARA Retailer Awards:
Award |
Winner(s) |
| Manhattan Associates Excellence in Customer Experience Award | Birdsnest & Petstock |
| Pronto Retail Innovator of the Year Award | Biome |
| Store Fit-out Award | Coles Liquor |
| Daylight Agency Excellence in Retail Marketing Award | Bakers Delight Holdings & Petstock |
| FCB Retail Employer of the Year | Petstock |
| Rest Retail Business Woman of the Year Award | Chelsea McIntosh |
| Australian Retail Graduate of the Year Award | Esther Laub |
| Rest Young Retailer of the Year Award | Aled Ball |
| eftpos Digital Commerce Retailer of the Year Award | YCL Jewels |
| eftpos Franchise Group of the Year Award | Bakers Delight |
| eftpos Independent Australian Retailer of the Year Award | Birdsnest |
| eftpos National Retailer of the Year | Vodafone |
Vodafone took out the top spot for the National Retailer of the Year, “Six years ago, when I started, we were losing 100k customers a month,” began the spokesperson for Vodafone. “When you start thinking about putting your customer first and believing in yourself, it really works. Back yourself, back your people and create good content decisions and you’ll see a turnaround.”
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