Yuppiechef.com has scooped “Best eCommerce Site in South Africa” at the 2014 South African E-commerce Awards for the fifth consecutive year – beating Woolworths, Groupon, Takealot and Kalahari to the finish line.
The news was announced on Thursday 4 September at the 2014 South African E-commerce Conference held in Midrand, where 500 attendees gathered for the awards and for a day of talks by thought leaders in the e-commerce space.
The South African E-commerce Awards have been designed to recognise and reward those South African websites that have demonstrated excellence in their use of the Internet as a platform for e-commerce.
The awards are now in their ninth year and are run by uAfrica.com. The nomination process was initiated by a public vote from which a shortlist of thirty sites were selected and judged by uAfrica, a technology company focused on e-commerce and headed up by Andy Higgins, founder and former MD of BidorBuy.co.za.
Judges shopped on each shortlisted site as ‘mystery shoppers’ and allocated points to user experience, quality of data, customer care, communication, ordering process and mobile experience before coming to a final decision.
In response to the news of the award, Yuppiechef.com director Paul Galatis says: “We were a team of seven people in January 2011 and have grown to a team of 80 over the past four years, all dedicated to building an exceptional online experience for our customers and inspiring them to get into their kitchens and start cooking!
“It’s wonderful to be rewarded for doing work we’re passionate about and we’re very pleased to have been recognised by the awards for the fifth year in a row.”
Started in 2006 by friends Andrew Smith and Shane Dryden, Yuppiechef.com began in Smith’s lounge, selling one brand and 20 products. Today the company sells more than 8 000 of the world’s best kitchen tools, specialty cooking ingredients, and home decor items from over 300 brands. More recently it launched an online cooking school, in collaboration with leading South African chefs and food personalities.
Yuppiechef delivers for free throughout South Africa, regardless of the order value, and handwrites thank you cards to each and every one of their customers with each order. In 2014 Yuppiechef expanded globally, shipping to eight countries across Africa and the UAE.
The full results of the South African 2014 E-commerce Awards are:
* Best eCommerce Store – Winner: Yuppiechef.com; First Runner Up: Zando; Second Runner Up: Takealot.com.
* Best Shopping Process – Winner: Zando; First Runner Up: Yuppiechef.com; Second Runner Up: takealot.com.
* Best Customer Service – Winner: Zando; First Runner Up: Takealot.com; Second Runner Up: Mantality.
* Best eCommerce Services Platform – Winner: Bidorbuy; First Runner Up: TravelGround; Second Runner Up: Groupon.
* Best Small eCommerce Business – Winner: Poetry; First Runner Up: Babylife; Second Runner Up: Seeds for Africa.
* South Africa’s Favourite eCommerce Website – Winner: Kalahari.com; First Runner Up: Takealot.com; Second Runner Up: Groupon.
“We have been overwhelmed by the response to our survey and are thrilled to be able to congratulate our entrants, finalists and winners – the fact that they have formed part of this survey at all, means that they are contributing to an industry that related business thought leaders are expecting exponential growth from,” says Andy Higgins, MD of uAfrica.com.
In an open letter, Yuppiechef MD Andrew Smith thanked family and friends, suppliers, Yuppiechef employees and loyal customers. “Thank you to all of you once again for what you’ve shared with our business. We would never have got this far without your support, encouragement and constant cheering from the sidelines. It really does help.”
