E- commerce expert from HELLMUT RUCK takes 2nd place in the E-Retailer of the Year 2021 competition

apollon, leading software provider for marketing automation and product data communication, has nominated the e-commerce expert of its customer HELLMUT RUCK GmbH for the award E-Retailer of the Year 2021 and congratulates Cindy Kroszewski, Head of E-Commerce at HELLMUT RUCK for the 2nd place. The annual award honors outstanding personalities of online, mail order and crosschannel commerce.

The E-Retailer of the Year is an annual award for outstanding e-commerce minds in Germany. The cross-media people award recognizes store operators who have stood out in the past twelve months for their innovation, creativity, courage, idealism and unusual ideas. The award is organized and presented by bevh, the German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association, in cooperation with the renowned editorial teams iBusiness, ONEtoONE and Versandhausberater. Nominations are based on submissions from potential e-retailers and their online stores, which are then shortlisted by the jury in a public vote.

This year, 42 German-speaking e-commerce experts made it onto the shortlist for E-Retailer of the Year 2021 and were available for selection by the editorial teams‘ approximately 76,000 users. Among them was Cindy Kroszewski, formerly Grasmüller, of long-time customer HELLMUT RUCK. Due to her e-commerce expertise, which is reflected in her online stores, Cindy Grasmüller made it to second place and was named the second best e-retailer of 2021. First place went to Katharina Gillesberger, Head of Digital Marketing at BayWa.

As Head of E-Commerce at the leading specialist wholesaler for foot care, cosmetics and wellness, Cindy Kroszewski is responsible for the distribution of RUCK’s foot care product lines via several web stores. The online stores have been at the cutting edge of technology and creative design for years. In addition to Online Media Net, as the PIM and DAM system for product data communication, the 3D configurator also contributes to RUCK’s progressive online store. With the help of the 3D configurator, RUCK customers are able to individually configure and purchase practice equipment such as cabinets, chairs and special furniture in the online store. The special feature of the furniture configurator is that all equipment variants are rendered and visualized in real time. This gives the customer better quality advice and drastically reduces incorrect orders with incoming returns.

I believe that in B2B business, too, or perhaps even here in particular, it’s service. In my view, the optimal handling of returns, complaints and customer questions is elementary. We still have a lot of catching up to do here because of the structures that have evolved. I also believe in data and the systems behind the purchasing channels – a topic that no one in e-commerce finds sexy. But when I see the new possibilities that the conversion of our PIM system has opened up for us, for example, and how many places we benefit from it (visibility on Google, finding products via search, and much more), it confirms my assessment that these systems are sometimes more important than what the customer sees on the front end. I also believe that it’s the interaction between the various channels – omnichannel marketing and customer journeys – that makes a successful retailer, says Cindy Kroszweski, Head of E-Commerce at HELLMUT RUCK.

Norbert Weckerle, CEO of apollon: „We are very happy that we nominated Cindy Kroszewski as e-retailer of the year 2021 and even more happy that she won the 2nd place. Congratulations again at this point. That is a special achievement to prevail against 41 candidates*, considering that the competitors were top specialist lights from Amazon, Douglas or Bergzeit. Awesome and chapeau dear Cindy!“

The interview with Cindy Kroszewski and the editors of High Text Verlag can be found here: https://apollon.rocks/3khguns

Press contact
Yasemin Czechowski
Marketing Manager
Tel: +49 7231 941-133
E-Mail: yczechowski@apollon.de

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