Retail Awards recognise health trends

Held on September 16, this year’s National Retail Awards saw market trends embracing health and wellness following the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic continue, with retailers in the health and wellness category claiming two of five category awards at this year’s ceremony.

The first of the two stands out as the most obvious beneficiary of a changed retail market rewarding rapid and innovative responses to changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially established in 2021, Australian online marketplace Medcart was initially built on the Marketplacer platform as a business specifically designed to streamline ways healthcare organisations and workers access Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

The marketplace’s rapid ascent to $10 million in revenue and a growth in products on offer from 2,000 to 12,000 in just over one year of operation has seen it awarded Emerging Retailer of the Year, with the Medcart team showing no signs of wanting to slow down anytime soon.

“We are thrilled to be honoured as Emerging Retailer of the Year for 2022 at the National Retail Awards, and know that this accolade would simply not have been possible without Marketplacer,” said Dylan Bookless, MedCart CEO, in a statement, “The team were able to get Medcart up and running in such a short period of time and we worked hand in hand to launch a platform that allowed Medcart to scale quickly. Marketplacer has supported our operations and the technology will help us achieve strong growth in the years ahead while continuing to be a valuable technology partner for Medcart in the future.”

Joining Medcart as a health and wellness retail venture rewarded at this year’s National Retail Awards is online health and wellness retailer Zea, awarded Small Retailer of the Year. Australian family-owned, Zea offers consumers naturally sourced health and wellness products including skin care, pain management products and sports recovery items.

The success of the pair comes as venture capital funding trends for the year have also embraced advancements in healthtech and health retail provision despite an otherwise modest investments market overall. Recent advancements have also been made elsewhere in retail with big names led by Amazon looking to embrace opportunities in the healthcare industries, headlined by the retail giant’s acquisition of US primary care organisation One Medical announced in July. Amazon has also indicated plans to enter the space of providing prescription drugs to consumers in Japan as a potential way to continue its overall growth in the country.

Elsewhere at this year’s National Retail Awards, non-alcoholic spirits retailer Lyre’s beat out stiff competition led by fellow finalist Booktopia to claim the year’s Online Retailer of the Year Award, seeing reward for the consumer market’s surprising embrace of non-alcoholic beverage options within the last 12 months.

The e-commerce landscape is changing. With a Power Retail Switched On membership, you get access to current e-commerce revenue and forecasting, traffic levels, average conversion rate, payment preferences and more!