BigCommerce Announced 2017 Design Award Winners

Human Solution, Hyphen Sleep, KidsChoo, Native Union and Soundwall recognized for best-in-class storefront designs

AUSTIN, Texas — June 20, 2017 — BigCommerce, the leading ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established brands, today announced the winners of the 2017 BigCommerce Design Awards, an international contest recognizing excellence in ecommerce design. Winning retailers — Human Solution, Hyphen Sleep, KidsChoo, Native Union and Soundwall — stood out among more than one thousand submissions for their distinctive storefront designs, compelling use of photography and content, easy-to-use site navigation and overall customer experience.

“To be compelling, online stores must balance personality to attract and engage shoppers with functionality that makes it possible to easily find and buy the right product,” said Andrea Wagner, head of design at BigCommerce. “This year’s winners demonstrate the value that thoughtful design can add to any business, providing intuitive navigation, clean layouts and helpful content that conveys their brand promise and helps visitors buy with confidence.”

BigCommerce Design Award winners were selected by a panel of leading design minds in the technology industry, including Kevin Lee, head of design at Visa; Mike Morello, COO of Digital for Inc. magazine; Paul Moran, UX and design manager at Envato; and Andrea Wagner, head of design at BigCommerce. Twenty-seven businesses were identified as category finalists, with winners recognized in the following categories:

• Best Overall Design: Hyphen Sleep. Hyphen, a breakout in the online mattress industry, won best overall design for creating an eye-catching site that both informs and inspires. Judges believed its ability to communicate product value in a visually appealing way creates a site experience that compels customers to purchase.

• Best Homepage Design: Native Union. Mobile accessories retailer Native Union impressed judges with its clean homepage design, featuring clear category navigation and vivid product photography designed to help customers explore a wide-range of mobile accessories.

• Best Category or Product Page: Soundwall. As a maker of artwork covered flat-panel speakers with IoT functionality, Soundwall needed an innovative way to help shoppers understand a unique product, which judges felt was accomplished through an artful balance of product imagery, informative text and engaging video directly on each product page.

• Best Customer Experience: Human Solution. Through simple page navigation, on-site product reviews and a step-by-step configuration tool, this standing desk company simplifies the purchase process for its UPLIFT Desk.

• People’s Choice Award: KidsChoo. KidsChoo, a UK supplier of healthy and convenient meals, snacks and drinks for children, received more than 35,000 votes to win the people’s choice award for its vibrant design and simple navigation, which clearly conveys the brand’s identity and core message.

“It’s quite an honor to be selected as the winner of the 2017 BigCommerce Design Awards,” said Shaun Pennington, President at Hyphen Sleep. “As an online-only brand, we believe it is of paramount importance to have a site that provides all the information a consumer needs to make an informed purchase decision, and the tools offered through the BigCommerce platform make it easy for us to build a beautiful site that meets the needs of our customers.”

Merchants selling on the BigCommerce platform can choose between dozens of out-of-the-box ecommerce themes, or build fully-customized storefronts using the industry’s best development framework. All BigCommerce themes come with fully responsive one-page checkout, faceted search capabilities and SEO optimization, among hundreds of other features designed to increase sales and enhance the customer experience.

The BigCommerce Design Awards recognize brands selling online through BigCommerce’s platform that exhibit industry-leading design, photography and customer experience. Winners received cash prizes and a feature ad placement in Inc. magazine. To learn more about this year’s awards, visit: www.bigcommerce.com/awards/design.