Zentrada.magazin - Category "Märkte und Macher / Doers and Markets" - Edition No.26 21.12.2009

21.12.2009

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Award: Second place in the Central Market Wholesale Online Shop Competition 2008 on the IAW Wholesale Trade Fair in Cologne

16. Sep 2008

The winners of the Central Market Competition "The best wholesale online shop 2008" are certain: silver jewellery wholesale, MaKant Europe and trading house Lichtenstein are on the top of the podium. However, it appears that many B2B online shops do not meet the quality standards of online shops for consumers.



The winners at the awards ceremony at the IAW in Cologne „The positive and quick response of some wholesalers in this competition made us very happy. However, the overall level of submissions shows still plenty of optimization potential in case of wholesale online shops“, gets Martina Schimmel-Schloo, editor-in-chief of the Central Market and the chairwoman of the jury, the result to the heart of the issue. More than 30 wholesalers in the area of consumer goods applied. The competition entries were put to the acid by a seven-member jury. Last week, during the International Fair for Promotional Products in Cologne a presentation of results and the award ceremony took place.

And the winners are …

... The Frankfurt-based company MaKant-Europe (http://www.makant-europe.de) occupied the second place with 1270 points. The online shop is aimed at resellers. The factors such as „sale“, „functions“ and „technology“ were assessed especially positively. „Great look, clear layout and a good image quality”. The visitors see thanks to a red-yellow-green display or alternatively thanks to the number of pieces how may items are currently available“, according to the jury’s verdict.

The competitors show overall that the wholesalers in the matter of online shops lag significantly behind the classic consumer online shops. „Especially in case of the visual appearance and the user guidance I see a gap of five years!“, said the jury member Christian Rothe, visiting lecturer of ESB Reutlingen. And also his colleagues have a similar view: „Overall, it must be said that many B2B shops forget that at the other end there is a man who is used to deal with user-friendly and modern B2C online shops from his private life.“

The competition „The best online wholesale shops in Germany“ wants to support the development of the online wholesale through better transparency, benchmarks and constructive criticism and it will be continued in the next years. „The first solicitation still shows a considerable demand for optimization as far as technology and concept of the wholesale shop are concerned. After the development of software standards for the higher requirements of the B2B business, there are visible many individual solutions and programming, which offer a good idea or solution. Continuously good shops with distinctive functions, usability und contents are therefore very rare“, analyses zentrada.de managing director Ingo Schloo the first edition of the award.

The jury consisted of:
- Eric Jankowfsky, Board Member of Oxid e-Sales
- Wolfgang Lang, Wholesale Consultant
- Christan Rothe, Visiting Lecturer from ESB Reutlingen
- Ingo Schloo, Managing Director of zentrada.de
- Prof. Dr. Marco Schmäh, Institute of Marketing and E-Commerce at the ESB Reutlingen
- Torsten Schwarz, Online Marketing Pioneer and Author

Initiator:
The competition was established by the Trend Magazine Central Market. Annually, they award the prize to the best wholesale online shops for consumer goods and support buyers and suppliers in the booming Internet business.