The Good Retail Awards 2023, organised by Modern Retail, were held on Sunday 5th February, live from the Inspiring Retail Stage at Spring Fair.
The 4th annual edition of the Good Retail Awards continued to shine a light on inspiring retailers throughout the industry. All those shortlisted for the Awards displayed fantastic stories of innovation, creativity, purpose and success.
The Good Retail Awards 2023 Winners
The Good Retail Awards 2023 winners are as follows:
Sustainability Initiative Award – UpCircle Beauty
UpCircle Beauty is setting the standard in the beauty industry, going above and beyond to contribute positively to the environment in a truly circular way.
At UpCircle, they believe sustainability should be circular, which is why they are proud to be the UK’s #1 upcycled skincare brand. They offer truly differentiated products that are forward-thinking, planet-friendly, high performance and accessibly priced.
They upcycle 20 different by-product ingredients from varied industries, including the argan, tea, juice, date, olive and wood industries, using these in their skincare formulations.
Packaging is another aspect of the business that is circular, with UpCircle Beauty launching a packaging returns scheme that sees customers get their very own packaging returned back to them. The team said that despite being a small team with a limited budget, doing this is the best thing they have ever done.
They also offer a ‘Refills Collection’ area of the website, where all prices are subject to a 20% discount to incentivise refilling, as well as emailing a freepost label to make it hassle-free to have a positive impact on the planet.
Instore Creativity Award – Williams of Audlem Ltd
Family business, Williams of Audlem Ltd, has restored their 161-year-old village shop to reflect its heritage and history in a unique, authentic and sustainable way. They have undergone a project to create a unique and authentic trading space that attracts customers in a climate where nostalgia is growing in popularity. To counteract the decline of small shops, they have created a one-of-a-kind shopping experience.
They reused and repurposed original fixtures that had been removed from the shop, but not disposed of, including their old cash register which they had restored by the BBC Repair Shop team in 2018. Suitable authentic fitments were introduced in the shopfitting, as well as updating lighting with eco-friendly lights that are in the period style of the shop’s new look. On the exterior, the old shop pavement awnings were restored, as well as the signwriting and exterior paintwork being made to reflect the heritage of the shop. In 2022, they commissioned a bespoke hand painted wall mural to celebrate the shop’s 160th year in business.
The shop’s renovation has captured the imagination of many shoppers, with some travelling from as far as New Zealand to see the cash register and some even giving their own treasured artefacts to ‘rehome’ in their store as they have loved the shop’s backstory so much.
Community Award – Prior Shop
Prior Shop is a fully independent, female-founded and staffed shop with a gallery space and community workshop hub that delivers results for makers, as well as the wider community as a whole.
Founded on the belief that the creative community in Bristol deserve real, practical support, Prior Shop has brought the work of 150 independent creatives into a retail space that is normally reserved for big brand names. With each creative being hand-picked by founder, Beck, every one creates low-impact, sustainable, handcrafted work. This has allowed these fantastic makers to be alongside the likes of Oliver Bonas and Ted Baker.
Looking to be more than just a place for makers to share their work in a retail space, Prior Shop supports them practically, by running small business mentoring workshops free of charge, running monthly pop-up ‘meet the maker’ markets to solidify connections between makers and customers, and pitch to press on behalf of artists.
Prior Shop has successfully created a space that feeds back into the local economy, supporting local creatives and providing outlets for their work to be celebrated. Their work last year alone injected £150k back into the creative community in Bristol in sales of makers’ work.
Bricks ‘n’ Clicks Award – Roller Girl Gang
Roller Girl Gang has used both online and offline channels to meet their customers’ needs, creating a diverse community that is able to learn and engage on a range of platforms, as well as in person. Alongside creating an innovative instore experience, they have used their online channels as a hub for those that have an interest in roller skating, regardless of their level of experience.
Their instore experience is based around a no-pressure sales approach, encouraging people to ask all of their questions and try boots on. The team ensure they give the best possible advice, regardless of whether that means they will make a purchase, with the team even recommending other small businesses around the UK that may be able to support an individual better.
Customers are able to collect instore, or even request to have roller skates custom-built on-site. To help customers find out as much as possible before they go instore, Roller Girl Gang has used its website to engage people, including a ‘learn online’ section where you can learn to skate through a video course, a blog that shares customers’ stories, skate reviews and much more, as well as using their social media channels to engage their community. In addition to this, Roller Girl Gang runs classes and events and have grown from a team of one in October 2020 to 4 part-time staff, an events co-ordinator, 10 coaches and around 30 volunteer marshalls.
Digital Impact Award – Horlicks
Horlicks decided to create a digital strategy to share their new nourishing shakes range. Their approach considered every step of the consumer journey, from discovery to retargeting those that have abandoned purchases.
Their strategy was designed to target longer-tail non-brand keywords, to make sure they were able to reach the most relevant audience. Alongside an optimised Google and Bing ecom ad campaign, they implemented a cohesive Facebook and Instagram organic and paid social strategy, to enable them to share informative content with their target market. This was done through relatable posts, Reels and Stories. Through A/B testing, they were able to find the best places to put their products directly in front of their target audiences.
Influencer marketing was also a key part of Horlicks’ strategy, using two celebrity influencers and two macro influencers to boost brand awareness and generate conversions with a unique discount code for their audience.
To strengthen their educational messaging around the new product launch, Horlicks created an incentivised quiz to drive users into the consideration phase, using this tool to inform people about the range and give targeted recommendations based on users’ individual answers. Horlicks’ campaign had measurable benefits, with impressive results at every touchpoint.
Retail District Award – Wimborne BID
Wimborne BID created a Christmas film to market the town, encourage people to support local and encourage people to visit Wimborne. This is the fifth year that they have created a Christmas film, helping people to re-discover the incredible businesses on offer in the area.
The 90-second Christmas film was called ‘Fall in Love with Wimborne this Christmas’ and featured two people meeting and falling in love in Wimborne. Each scene was shot in front of businesses in the town, showcasing the range and diversity on offer with around 50 businesses being shown. In all promotions, the hashtag #FallInLoveWimborne was used, with the film generating around 14,000 viewers across social media platforms, as well as having a reach of more than 18,000 on Facebook alone.
This creative idea brought positive promotion for the town, showing off the fantastic range and quality of the various businesses in Wimborne.
Power of One Award – Montezuma’s Chocolate
Montezuma’s Chocolate has worked with charity, Children on The Edge for over 10 years and looked to find a solution to fewer people carrying change and therefore a reduction in the number of donations.
Montezuma’s worked with microdonation leaders, Pennies, to implement their technology and allow every customer to easily make a microdonation when they buy from a Montezuma’s store or online.
Since working with Pennies, they have successfully raised £38,790 and counting, which has helped children across the world in the most vulnerable places. The money has helped them to build 14 learning centres in Uganda, supporting over 6,500 young refugee children and helping an extra 2,800 children to learn in smaller cluster groups in their communities.
Training all store teams to fully understand the work that Children on the Edge do means they are able to have a conversation with every customer about how their money would help, alongside information instore about the partnership.
The Full Good Retail Awards 2023 Shortlist
The high standard of entries into the Good Retail Awards 2023 made it a real challenge for the judges to decide the winners.
The full Good Retail Awards 2023 shortlist is below.
Sustainability Initiative Award
Instore Creativity Award
Community Award
Chapter Two Community Bookshop
Bricks ‘n’ Clicks Award
Digital Impact Award
Retail District Award
Power of One Award
Congratulations again to all of the Good Retail Awards 2023 winners and shortlistees. For the latest information on the Good Retail Awards, click here.
To view the 2022 Good Retail Awards winners, click here.
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Holly brings a wealth of experience in both print and digital publishing. As Modern Retail’s Content Editor, Holly is passionate about helping independent retailers to thrive in today’s ever-changing market.
