In the hearts and minds of the Belgian online shopper

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Award competition open to all

Take your chances and sign up for the SafeShops Awards. The competition is open for all companies with an e-commerce website and a .be url. All awards are delivered in 3 categories (small, medium & big), depending on your yearly e-commerce turn-over.
Even if your web shop does not win an award, you’re still going home with a client research study of your web shop.

So go on, post your entry now!


 

Why should you participate?

And why not? Web shop entries are easy and free. Whether you are a member of SafeShops.be or not.

The jury are your customers. Because the result of a questionnaire from the independent research agency WHY5Research, which you send to your customers, determines whether you win. For the “big” web shops, WHY5Research carries out the survey itself.

Not a far-flung jury: market research determines the winners.

Whether or not you ultimately win an award, you will in any case receive a consumer survey about your web shop. And on the day of the award ceremony, you can present your web shop to a whole new public.

So you can’t lose, just win a lot! Free research and promotion, that’s already worth it, isn’t it?

 

How to take home an award?

No doubt you do whatever you can to make each of your clients’ shopping experience a tremendous hit. So time to shine! Prove your worth and benefit from all the attention and the lessons you can learn from customer research. And here is how you do that:

STEP 1: Make sure your website is legally compliant.

In case of doubt, SafeShops has the right not to accept your submission. SafeShops label carriers are of course sure of their legal compliance.

STEP 2: Submit your web shop before December 30th, 2019

Remember: it’s free! 😉

STEP 3: Questionnaire

If you registered and nominated for the categories “small” or “medium”, you’ll receive the link to a quantitative questionnaire, created by our independent research agency WHY5Research. You should send this questionnaire to your customers, all responses will go directly to WHY5Research.

If you’re registered and nominated for the category “big”, WHY5Research will run the customer research survey for you.

STEP 4: Gathering of Responses

After a period of 1,5 months you should have gathered a minimum of responses (only categories small & medium). This minimum is necessary to ensure a representative result. We strongly recommend you to “push” your customers to fill in the survey. You could work with incentives for example. SafeShops.be can help you with that.

For the category “big”, a representative number of responses will be guaranteed by Why5Research who will conduct the research.

STEP 5: Be Present

Make sure to be present at the Award show on April 2nd, 2020. If you’re a winner but not present, the award will be given to the next one in line.

Why we do it?

Since 2017 SafeShops.be and WHY5Research investigate how the Belgian consumer shops online. We develop and share real insights into online shopping to help the e-commerce landscape grow even more.

Supporting online shopping and rewarding best practices are crucial in that growing process. And we find answers to the following questions:

  • What is the ideal web shop according to the Belgian consumer?
  • What are the minimum requirements for a web shop to be considered “good”?
  • What motivates the Belgian online shopper?

Not only by surveying the participating web shops, but also through a general study of the Belgian online shopper. This study is updated every year and the results are presented during the SafeShops Award ceremony.

And that should give every web shop in Belgium the tools to grow and make each online shopping experience a success. And that, again, contributes to enhancing consumer confidence and trust in online shopping.


 

How we do it?

We serve a double goal for quantitative research.

1. Quantifying online shopping motivations:

 

  • First, we built a qualitative hypothesis around the different motivations or needs people can have while shopping online.
  • Then, we map the size/importance of those different needs.
  • A questionnaire is sent to a representative panel of the Belgian population (18-65, gender & region). This edition will, for the first time, also look into how the Belgian consumer thinks about sustainability in e-commerce.

 

2. Evaluation of the nominated sites:

 

  • Through a survey sent to respondents who shopped on the sites in question
  • With a focus on the assessment & satisfaction of criteria in terms of:

– Logistics (packaging, return policy, delivery options, etc.)
– Client service (communication, complaint handling, follow-up)
– Payment / contracting (clarity order process, security, mobile options, reimbursement, etc.)
– Concept (general impression and satisfaction, usability, etc.)
– And specific criteria for ticketing in the travel or entertainment industries
– The webshop with the highest scores on all of the above will win the Diamond Award.

  • And an analysis of how the evaluated sites fit the shopper motivations