The 4th annual eBay for Business Awards are open for entries with the grand prize totalling a humongous £20,000 in cash… plus an absolutely ginormous £100,000 unique marketing bundle for good measure. If you’ve never entered before, you won’t want to miss out this year!
The 4th annual eBay for Business Awards is a nationwide competition to find and celebrate the most successful, innovative, and inspiring entrepreneurs from the marketplace’s 300,000-strong community of small businesses. And don’t think that because you’re not a massive business you don’t stand a chance – in the past winners have been drawn from all business sizes and categories and small businesses can most definitely win and if you’re the only person in the business then yes that does include you.
How to enter
You have until 11:59:59 on the 24th of August to get your entry in. Winners will be chosen by a panel of expert judges, including eBay UK VP Rob Hattrell and a selection of last year’s award winners, and will be announced on social media at the end of October.
Yes, you need an eBay business to enter the awards but perhaps more important is having a unique compelling story. The two main criteria entries will be judged on are:
- The most original entry including the story they tell either in video format or in the written word limit of 600-1,000 words
- The most interesting entry in relation to the materials provided on entry including photographs, technical drawings or details of products, a business model or ideas.
Winners will also discover that they are high on eBay’s radar and will undoubtedly find their businesses promoted in many unusual ways throughout the year. For instance just recently, it’s no surprise that the signed vintage top worn by Lewis Capaldi and auctioned for charity was purchased from Sheanies Vintage… a category winner in the 2019 eBay for Business awards.
“This year has been an undoubtedly tough one for many small businesses, as SMEs up and down the country have fought to continue trading throughout the pandemic. Our sellers have shown real agility and resilience in dealing with the disruption to keep their businesses moving, which is why we want to celebrate the achievements of our valued sellers with bigger prizes than ever for the 2020 Awards.
I’m looking forward to finding out about the unique stories behind the brightest and best of our small business community on eBay. Whether you’re a kitchen table side hustle, a family-run business or a lockdown start-up, we want to hear from you!”
– Rob Hattrell, VP, eBay UK
4th Annual eBay for Business Awards Prize Package
Following an incredibly challenging start to the year for many small businesses, each of the 11 category prize winners will receive a £5,000 prize. They will also be given a free one-year eBay Anchor Store Subscription and access to eBay’s Concierge, the gold-plated customer service team, together valued at over £15,000, to support them in navigating the effects of the crisis.
This year’s Grand Prize winner will receive an extra £15,000, totalling £20,000, as well as a unique marketing bundle worth over £100,000, in recognition of their entrepreneurial success.
Sadly this year there are no plans for a glittering black tie awards presentation ceremony – but the pandemic won’t stop eBay celebrating the award winners and they are preparing some surprises to blow your socks off if you are a winner.
Small Businesses Rock!
The launch of this year’s Awards comes as eBay reveals the trend of setting up a start-up has become more mainstream in lockdown, as the number of new businesses joining eBay surged 335% in June. This figure represents the biggest year-on-year spike in new businesses joining eBay UK since the pandemic began.
The data also shows the number of new start-ups joining eBay UK grew consistently each month during lockdown, as the number of new businesses joining the platform in June was almost 40% greater than in April when the impact of lockdown was first felt.
“Working closely with the eBay team over the past year has been one of the best parts about winning my award. As a Young Entrepreneur, to receive this recognition has given me the confidence to take my small business to the next level. I used the prize money to help secure a lease on a new premises, in order to increase our online capacity and also open a physical store. Even though this had to close during lockdown, I could never have expected that sales would be up by 120% on the first six months of this year compared to 2019!”
– Jake Harris, Into Music and winner of last year’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award
3 Responses
I’d like to nominate Hong Kong, for banking services. Great job this year as always.
These awards are a great gesture from Ebay and seem very beneficial to the winners.
However, in my opinion what I feel is wrong is that Award Winners place their Ebay Award Winning ‘Badge’ on their Ebay Shops. These awards are NOT Performance Based Awards, so this potentially gives Buyers the wrong impression that the Award Winning Seller has achieved great financial / business success as an Ebay Seller, which may or may not be the case.
As was reported in an online news report I saw a few years ago who wrote an article on these awards, they discovered that a previous winner of these Ebay Awards had a negative financial track record according to their financial annual accounts submitted to Companies House. The company had apparently submitted accounts showing a substantial loss, year after year. But they became an Ebay Award Winner despite this. Displaying this Award Winning Badge on Winner’s Ebay Shops in my opinion is a misleading advert to Ebay Buyers, as they are not seller performance based awards. Perhaps Ebay should rethink this policy of the placement of these awards on the winner’s Ebay shops.
This honestly is not sour grapes as I have never entered these Ebay competitions before. I am just against misleading advertising.
Good luck to all those entering this year.