The World Duty Free Group has won the prestigious award for ‘The Clear Returns Best Customer Experience’ at this month’s BT and RetailWeek tech & ecomm Awards 2015, beating off ‘fierce competition’ from UK High Street retail giants, including B&Q, Mothercare, Tesco and Virgin Media.

 

Nearly 600 guests – including some of the best known names in UK retail – were on hand to see WDFG receive this accolade at London’s Hilton Park Lane, London, with these awards described as ‘definitive’ in terms of those retailers who are ahead of the rest when it comes to retail technology and ecommerce.

 

This was the first time that the travel retailer has ever entered these awards and Sue Gosling, WDFG’s Head of Global Experiential Marketing & Creative Solutions was understandably delighted: “This award represents very important recognition for us as an airport retailer. Innovation and technology are at the heart of our business and both are already an integral part of all our stores.

 

 

WINNER WITH ‘ASK THE EXPERT APP’

“Our innovative ‘Ask the Expert’ app is inspired, completely portable and extremely intuitive. It enables our Contentainment teams to deliver the best possible retail experience to our customers, as they can access detailed product knowledge and linguistic skills in seconds and let other skilled team members interact face-to face, via the iPad, with the customer concerned.”

 

The award was all the more significant considering that the number of entries apparently rose by around 75%, making 2015 the biggest year to date for this event and a tougher selection process for the judges who were represented by senior executives major retail organisations, including Farfetch; Boohoo; Sainsbury’s; Argos; House of Fraser; Shop Direct; Monsoon; Tesco; John Lewis; and Photobox.

 

Some of the biggest names in UK retailing also won awards in the numerous categories and they included: Argos; Boots; GAME; Clear Channel; Mothercare; Topshop; Homebase/IBM; ASOS; House of Fraser and more.

 

WDFG adds that ‘the quality of work entered by its High Street retail contemporaries was also outstanding’ and it adds that this clearly demonstrates that technology and ecommerce are leading the change in the retail industry.