Brussels, October 20, 2022 - Tonight, BeCommerce, the Belgian e-commerce federation, presented the BeCommerce Awards for the seventeenth time to the best webshops operating in Belgium. Big winner among the webshops that registered this year is luxury and premium fashion store De Bijenkorf.be, which won the prestigious BeCommerce Award 2022. 

Bijenkorf.be voted best webshop thanks to attention to the online customer experience and journey (customer centricity)

The most important prize - the BeCommerce Award - was presented tonight, based on an extensive interview between the professional jury and each of the five nominees for the Special Jury Award and the Public Award. Based on these interviews and the public votes, the jury chose the winner of the "BeCommerce Award 2022. In the end, the Belgian web store De Bijenkorf.be made it from the other nominees: Blancheporte, Gofluo, Sleepworld and bpost, The recognition has also been rewarded with a prize worth 5,000 euros, donated by PostNL, since the first Awards ceremony in 2005.

"As a jury, we were strongly impressed by the approach of debijenkorf.be: it is a hugely professional webshop, where the customer is central at all levels. In our opinion, no other company invests as much in this 'customer centricity' as de Bijenkorf.be. That department alone employs twelve people. Coupled with a strong digital performance and many votes from the public, this makes the webshop without discussion the well-deserved winner of the BeCommerce Awards 2022," the jury said.

"In e-commerce, the customer is at the wheel: he helps determine what web shops should offer and how. Whoever excels in mastering these 'customer centricity' processes has an excellent chance of winning the BeCommerce Award. Bijenkorf.be clearly masters this, for the second time in a row. Even better: the 'customer centricity' department is the heart of their company. The twelve people in the 'customer centricity' department are in contact with all the other departments and everyone can call on their knowledge and insights. Bijenkorf.be is therefore a deserved winner and may call itself the best webshop in the country for a year," adds Sofie Geeroms, general director of BeCommerce. 

Sustainability gains importance

At the seventeenth edition of the BeCommerce Awards, it became clear that sustainability also plays a major role in the success of a webshop. Companies that innovate and make a clear commitment to sustainability won prizes. For example, Rajapack.be, a B2B company from Tongeren that specializes in sustainable packaging, office products and warehouse supplies, was awarded the Sustainability Award. But also in other categories, such as the 'BeCommerce Innovation Award' and the 'BeCommerce Logistics Award', a sustainable strategy was decisive for the winner: both bpost and Raja convinced the jury with their case with verve, and both sustainability winners also confirmed their results with a successful digital performance score and high number of public votes.

"Sustainability is key. That's why we've obviously created a separate category for this for several years now. But what really struck us this year, is that the jury attaches enormous importance to a clear sustainability story behind the company. At the same time, we also see the increasing importance of B2B e-commerce," analyzes Sofie Geeroms.

Sleepworld favorite of public, bpost favorite of jury

The crowd favorite, which won the "BeCommerce Public Award," is Sleepworld, with 693 votes. That's over a hundred votes more than runner-up Blancheporte (556). Sleepworld is a Belgian family business that offers everything for quality sleep: in addition to mattresses, box springs and beds, they also sell other accessories such as pillows, comforters, slatted bases, toppers, bed textiles, nightwear... They also provide trained sleep consultants. They know how to successfully translate this personal approach online as well. A total of 5146 public votes were cast. 

The jury presented its 'BeCommerce Jury Award' to bpost. Bpost caught the jury's eye because of its pioneering role as a logistics player. "Logistics players innovate and commit to sustainability. They are setting a good example and playing a pioneering role. They facilitate other web shops to also become greener. What is important in this story is that consumers expect this from the logistics players and to a large extent put the responsibility for this on them," explains Sofie Geeroms.

The final winners in all categories are known:

• The "BeCommerce Start-up Award," went to Gofluo, a Belgian company based in Antwerp. As the name suggests, Gofluo sells reflective clothes and accessories for young and old that are also hip and stylish.

• This year's 'BeCommerce Consumer Journey Award' goes to the Bijenkorf.be for their strong customer centricity, giving the customer a great offer, easy ordering and offering great customer service. The award praises webshops that make online activities as easy and enjoyable as possible for the consumer or user. Bijenkorf thereby perpetuates previously built market position in Belgium. 

• YourSurprise, a website that allows people to surprise someone with a personal gift, was awarded the "BeCommerce Cross-border Award" for the best cross-border store. The award honors e-retailers operating in at least two other European countries. The webshops must be developed in the language of the country in which they operate, be located in Europe and have a strategy to conquer multiple markets in Europe.

• Rajapack.be, the online store specializing in eco-friendly packaging, office supplies and warehouse supplies, then wins the 'BeCommerce Sustainability Award' again this year. Moreover, together with BeCommerce, Raja is also participating in the European Green Deal. "We see that when webshops innovate and fully commit to sustainability, they are also rewarded for it," adds Sofie Geeroms.  

• The 'BeCommerce Innovation Award' goes to bpost, Belgium's largest postal company. Bpost aims to be a reference company in terms of sustainability and respect for the planet. "The green change process implemented in such a large company benefits the whole of Belgian e-commerce. Because of this impact, we believe bpost deserves this award," motivates the jury. 

• E5 fashion won the 'BeCommerce Omnichannel Award'. E5 is a Belgian fashion chain for men and women headquartered in Sint-Niklaas. This award rewards webshops whose channels are perfectly aligned and offer customers a hassle-free shopping experience. "During the covid-19-crisis, e5 was in deep trouble, but they managed to turn the tide. We were therefore impressed by the resurgence and passion among the e5 team," the jury echoes.

• Gofluo also won the "BeCommerce Advertising Campaign Award". This award rewards the best promotional campaign for an online store in 2022. Gofluo tries to reach customers through local and international advertising campaigns that are best targeted by region, age, culture, and so on. The jury found the communication very original and visual.

• The 'BeCommerce Logistics Award' rewards the webshop with the best logistics strategy, with attention to carbon footprint, delivery time and vision of the 'last mile'. Here bpost showed itself with the strongest dossier. Bpost is committed to eco-zones and drives electric cars, which shows an innovative attitude.

• The 'BeCommerce Payment Award' awards web stores that are innovative with the payment system, with a lot of attention to security and how the web store acts against fraud. The winner of this award is Adyen, just like last year, by the way, and thus succeeds itself. Adyen is a payment platform that grows businesses and offers so much more than just payment solutions. It is an innovative company working with future-oriented technology. That's why they were also nominated for the Innovation Award.

• The "BeCommerce Platform Award" honors Web stores that have created their own platform or marketplace that third-party sellers can also connect to. The winner in this category is Outspot, a Belgian company that also operates in other countries. Outspot is a large offering platform with more than 100,000 daily visitors. Their offer ranges from gardening items, quilts, electrical appliances to worldwide exclusive vacations in every season. Outspot has won multiple awards in previous editions of the BeCommerce Awards. 

About BeCommerce

BeCommerce is the Belgian non-profit organization that brings together companies active in digital commerce on the Belgian market. BeCommerce contributes to consumer confidence in e-commerce by providing a formal trust mark to webshops. Thanks to the certification, security scans, consumer ratings and reviews of e-commerce websites, BeCommerce helps build the growth of the sector.

BeCommerce also puts these objectives into practice through awareness, information, knowledge and research projects and the development of its own Trustmark code of conduct. Moreover, BeCommerce contributes to the creation of a favorable economic and political environment for the sector. In particular, it is working for the removal of any regulatory restriction that inhibits the competitiveness of digital commerce, including distance selling, and its further development in Belgium.

The organization counts among its members and partners mainly online stores and companies active in the e-commerce and distance selling sector, as well as companies providing services in logistics, payment and IT.