Peer-Reviewed Awards for Marketing & Ecommerce Achievements Among Retail & DTC Brands
In a highly competitive retail and direct-to-consumer market, effective marketing and ecommerce strategies can make all the difference in driving growth and gaining customer loyalty. The CommerceNextys awards recognize individuals and companies who have achieved exceptional results in these areas, celebrating their innovative approaches and breakthrough success. At the last CommerceNexty Awards, the community recognized retail industry innovators like American Eagle Outfitters, Old Navy, E.L.F. Beauty, Bombas, TULA Skincare, Made In, Warby Parker and Gainful.
We’re thrilled to bring The CommerceNextys back for CommerceNext 2023 on June 20-21 at the New York Hilton Midtown.
This year’s award categories are:
- Marketing Innovator of the Year
- Most Impactful Social Responsibility Campaign
- Best Use of Data or Technology in Marketing
- Most Effective Brand Storytelling
- Outstanding New Ecommerce Experience
- Best Use of a New Channel
- Women in Retail’s Top Woman of the Year Award
Nominations are now open for the categories above. Please nominate yourself, a client or a colleague using the nomination form.
Community Nominations Deadline:March 6- April 14, 2023
Award timeline
The winners get a special VIP experience at CommerceNext, including complimentary hotel rooms, press mentions and other perks!
| March 6- April 14, 2023 | Community Nominations |
| May 3, 2023 | Finalists Selected |
| May 3-23, 2023 | Voting on Finalists |
| June 21, 2023 at CommerceNext | Announce Winners |
Award Rules:
- Winners can only be from retailers or DTC brands.
- Self-nominations are encouraged, as are any nominations on behalf of other retailers and brands.
- Voting is limited to 3 votes per company and 1 vote per person
- Winners are selected based on a combination of our board of judges and a popular vote. The popular vote will contribute 50% to the overall score.
The board of judges includes:
- Web Smith, Founder at 2PM
- Roberto Croce, SVP Global Digital Commerce at American Eagle Outfitters
- Jeff Gerstel, CMO at B&H Photo
- Liesel Walsh, frmr SVP Marketing & Customer Experience at Boston Proper
- Joe Megibow, CEO at Bright Cellars
- Elyse Burack, Head of Consumer Marketing at Capsule
- Lev Peker, CEO at Carlotz
- Emily Hickey, Co-Founder & CEO at Chief Detective Growth Consulting
- Vivian Chang, Head of DTC Practice at Clorox
- Matt Gehring, CMO at Dutch
- Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer at E.L.F. BEAUTY
- Amy Africa, CEO at Eight By Eight
- Doug Jensen, SVP, GTM Analytics & Activation and Learning COE at Estee Lauder Companies, Inc.
- Vijay Talwar, Chief Digital and Customer Officer at Dufry Group
- Brian Seewald, SVP, Ecommerce at EXPRESS
- Todd Lehr, CTO at FIGS
- Sunil Kaki, CMO at FIGS
- Geoff Sanders, CMO at Firstleaf
- Charlie Cole, CEO at FTD
- Bree Casart, Head of Digital at Hanna Andersson
- Shawna Hausman, frmr CMO at Health-E Commerce
- Derek Yarbrough, CMO at J.Crew Group
- Sarah Rasmusen, Chief Customer Officer at Lands' End
- Qun Wei, Head of Analytics at Lemonade
- Scott Ableman, frmr CMO at LevelFields
- Andrew Fried, SVP, Direct to Consumer at Mint Mobile
- Suruchi Shukla, Vice President Marketing at Minted
- Emily Culp, Board Member at Mizzen + Main, Stio & Cordial
- Julie Evans, VP and CMO at Omaha Steaks
- Angela Hsu, CMO at Overstock
- Barkha Saxena, SVP & GM Shoppers and CDO at Poshmark
- David Cost, VP of Ecommerce and Marketing at Rainbow
- Jenna Flateman Posner, CDO at SNIPES
- Liana Thompson, Vice President, Global Ecommerce at Stuart Weitzman
- Noam Paransky, Chief Omni and Innovation Officer at Tapestry
- Jason Nickel, SVP of Marketing at Ten Thousand
- Mike Lackman, CEO at Trade Coffee
- Billy May, Retail CEO and Board Member, Executive Chair, Board of Directors at Trademark Partners Global
- Jeff Hamm, VP, Digital Experience and Operations at Ulta Beauty
- Alex Waldman, Co-Founder & Creative Director at Universal Standard
- Malena Higuera, General Manager at Urban Decay
- Daren Hull, frmr President at Vera Bradley
- Sarah Henry, VP, Head of Content, Influencer, & Commerce at Walmart
- Naomi Jacobs, Sr. Director, Head of Social at Walmart
- Jon Mandell, frmr SVP, Global Membership Marketing & Commerce at WW
- Leslie Emmons Burthey, frmr Head of Commerce at WW
- Pano Anthos, Managing Partner at XRC Labs
The CommerceNexty winners for 2023 will be presented at the end of CommerceNext on June 21, 2022 in NYC.
We are excited to celebrate our community’s achievements in marketing and ecommerce and encourage each of you to nominate 1-2 people for the awards.
Community Nominations Deadline:March 6- April 14, 2023
Our most recent winners of The CommerceNextys were:
Marketing Innovator of the Year:
E.L.F. Beauty drives social buzz from Chipotle partnership.
Ekta Chopra, CDO at E.L.F. Beauty
E.L.F. Beauty partnered with Chipotle to create an eye shadow palette that matched Chipotle's restaurant colors to gain attention from Chipotle fans. The unexpected partnership between Chipotle and E.L.F. Beauty got people talking and sold out immediately.
Most Impactful Social Responsibility Campaign:
Bombas’s 2021 Pride campaign pushes the boundaries of pride collections with its commitment to social impact and support.
Kate Huyett, CMO at Bombas
Ahead of last year's Pride month, Bombas launched a dedicated line celebrating the diverse experiences, stories and intersectionalities within the LGBTQ+ community. For every Pride item purchased, an item was donated to someone in need within the LGBTQ+ community through three Giving Partners to individuals within this marginalized population who are also at-risk or experiencing homelessness.
Best Use of Data or Technology in Marketing:
TULA transforms its data usage, leveraging cross-channel attribution to increase its ROAS three-fold.
Zack Abbell, VP Digital and Ecommerce, TULA
TULA leaned into data-driven marketing by building out its growth and analytics teams and implementing the Rockerbox measurement platform. TULA was able to establish a de-duplicated ROAS that they could consistently use to measure all marketing channels, from Facebook, Linear TV, Paid Shopping and influencer attribution while successfully testing and scaling these channels. As a result, TULA tripled its marketing spend while maintaining a positive ROAS.
Most Effective Brand Storytelling:
Made In’s content marketing helps home chefs and elevates their brand story.
Lindsay Jackson, VP of Brand Marketing at Made In
Made In sits at the intersection of chef & culinary and craftsmanship. Their campaigns, which run across TV, print and digital, artfully show the beauty of craftmanship and leverage the chefs that partner with them to create the products. Everything is fully concepted, created, directed, edited and deployed in-house. Also, the inhouse studio and test kitchen is creating helpful YouTube content for customers from the world's best chefs.
Outstanding New Ecommerce Experience:
Virtual Vision Test by Warby Parker has made it significantly easier and faster for eligible users to renew a contacts or glasses prescription from home.
Erin Collins, VP, Ecommerce at Warby Parker
When using an iPhone 6s or above, users are guided through a simple but thorough eligibility quiz to make sure the service is a good fit. If they’re eligible, the app walks the user through an equally simple vision test that can be completed anywhere with 10 feet of space. That’s all done, from start to finish, in 10 minutes flat. Then, within two days, an eye doctor reviews the results in detail.
Best Use of a New Channel:
Gainful builds out its influencer program to cultivate long-term relationships.
Taylor Nulk, Influencer, Affiliate, and Partnerships Manager at Gainful and Kamila Orzech, Influencer Coordinator at Gainful
Gainful’s program goal is to build credibility as a premium personalized performance nutrition brand. To do so, their influencer seeding efforts include engaging 250+ seeding opportunities (gifted/unpaid) per month, building a pipeline of ongoing ambassador partnerships with the right talent, and monitoring & tracking how Gainful shows up in this lower funnel space to continue to elevate the brand.
Women in Retail’s Top Woman of the Year Award:
Jennifer Foyle, President, Executive Creative Director, AE & Aerie.
Jennifer Foyle has recently achieved: 29 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth for Aerie, $5 billion in revenue at AEO in 2021, American Eagle bottoms business surpassing $2 billion in annual revenue in 2021, the launch of emerging brands including OFFL/NE by Aerie and Unsubscribed, rejuvenation of the American Eagle brand with creative marketing and innovative customer connections as a trailblazer in the metaverse.