Evolve and Breakout: The Judging Session for the ECI Awards

The final judging session for the first Annual ECI Awards, which was held at the Lake View Hotel in Beijing on March 14, 2015, was a huge success, with 48 experts in e-commerce coming from Taiwan, Korea, and Mainland China joining the expert committee. There were reportedly nearly 500 cases submitted and considered for the ECI Awards, and one third of them had made it into the final round. These cases have been reviewed and approved by the committee, and the list of winners will be announced at the ECI Awards Ceremony on April 11, 2015.

2014 has been a bountiful year for China’s e-commerce industry, with the emergence of many outstanding sample cases. The ECI Awards Committee has made a list of 11 trending keywords as a retrospect on 2014, and an outlook on the 2015 industry trends.

The following are the eleven e-commerce trending keywords from the final judging session for the first Annual ECI Awards:

Top 11: General education. The fast development of e-commerce used to intimidate traditionally operating companies. However, 2014 has seen more and more traditional companies joining the crowd of e-commerce. Although it will take some trial and error for those companies to learn and adopt the new concept and strategies, they are gradually realizing the importance of e-commerce, and are willing to commit themselves to the advancement of the industry.

Top 10: Tool. In China, e-commerce was once seen simply as “selling goods online”. However, the many successful cases at the final judging session have provided insights into the prospect of using e-commerce as a tool for breakout for both brands and platforms. It shows that e-commerce as a tool is not limited to marketing efforts, but also has permeated into areas such as supply chain, logistics, warehouse and operation.

Top 9: Mobile. It is reported that as of the last quarter of 2014, mobile e-commerce has a market share of 33% in the entire e-commerce industry. At the final judging session, “mobile” is one of the most repeated words, where all the submitted cases were integrated with mobile e-commerce on some level. There were also some cases that were based entirely on mobile. It is predicted that mobile e-commerce will play an even bigger part in the industry.

Top 8: Technology. One of the obstacles for e-commerce platforms and brands is the cost per acquisition of consumers. The successful case of Masa Maso has inspired the industry to leverage technology in a more optimistic and sustainable way, which can further help the industry gain more advantages in 2015.

Top 7: Integration. The committee at this final judging session was excited to see the integration of e-commerce beyond marketing, where all the other areas were connected and seamlessly integrated, which was a big improvement compared to 2012 and 2103.

Top 6: Scenes. This reflects the interaction between businesses and consumers, where e-commerce connects online shopping with offline experiences. It can be concluded, that whoever gets the “scene” gets the consumers.

Top 5: Trigger. E-commerce this year was seen to use “triggers” to resonate with consumers. Whether it’s the trigger of urban culture for emotional resonance, the trigger of sports for consumer connections, the trigger of entertainment for attention, or the trigger of public affairs for opinions, the industry has adopted this new strategy to connect with their consumers.

Top 4: Loyalty. With so many competitors, the e-commerce platforms and brands are trying hard to engage with their consumers to build up loyalty, in the hopes that they will stick with the brand for platform in the long term.

Top 3: Global. The appearance of many international cases submitted for the awards exhibited China’s presence and influence in the global e-commerce industry.

Top 2: Evolve. The value of technological advancement is to make our daily life more convenient and easy. The emergence of e-commerce is a reflection of this value, and the industry has seen evolution throughout the years. The cases of Renren Express and Tujia Rentals are a representation of this evolution in the industry.

Top 1: Breakthrough. In all aspects, the e-commerce industry had a breakthrough year in 2014, connecting various areas of the industry and reaching huge achievements. In one of the cases, Edaixi, a platform for laundry, has profoundly impacted the laundry industry with its deep understanding of the Internet and laundry industry. We believe that there will be more and more game changers like these in the foreseeable future.

Article by: ECI Awards Experts Committee