We are delighted to hear that one of our long-time Amazon repricing customers has just received the King’s Award for Enterprise in the UK.
This is an exceptional achievement and only awarded to a select few businesses each year and once again we would like to wish a massive congratulations.
This is not the first time they received this prestigious award, they previously were awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2018.
What is the King’s Award for Enterprise?
The King’s Awards for Enterprise, formerly referred to as The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise is an Awards Programme for British businesses and organizations that demonstrate outstanding performance in international trade, innovation, sustainable development or promoting opportunity.
These awards are the most prestigious official recognition in the UK for British businesses.
“It is extremely important to us”
Rob Evans, Managing Director
I caught up with Managing Director at Rarewaves, Rob Evans to discuss what this means to the company:
Congrats on your recent award – how important is this to your business?
Rob: “It is extremely important to us. The King’s Award for enterprise is the highest accolade that a British business can win, so it shows how hard the teams here at Rarewaves work to strive to be the best.“
Having a large inventory – automating as much of your operations as possible must be highly important?
Rob: “Automation is key to everything we do at Rarewaves. We are a tech business at our core, so ensuring that we are able to continue to grow using systems and automation makes our growth viable. We’re 100% privately owned and self funded, so have to grow sustainably. This award is for sustained growth over 6 years and automation has allowed us to do this.”
You sell across many marketplaces & channels – what are the challenges and rewards of doing this?
Rob: “The challenges are managing the vast inventory we have across so many channels. We sell on over 30 channels and manage tens of millions of listings. Doing this across multiple languages and territories is a challenge so we need robust systems and processes to do so. We use native speaking colleagues to help understand the local customers’ requirements and expectations.
The rewards are the huge potential customers we can reach as well as the diverse range of opportunities that may not be represented locally.”
You’ve worked with some of the Repricer.com team for 10+ years – have they been part of your success?
Rob: “Absolutely. It’s vitally important to work with people who know and understand your business. Repricer allows us to work one-on-one with our dedicated account manager to help manage our pricing and inventory management across our wide range of channels we sell on which is invaluable. The bespoke integration with our inventory management system is also hugely important.”
Do you have any tips/recommendations for new eCommerce sellers?
Rob: “Selling online can be daunting, especially internationally, but cross border trade is a massive opportunity to access new markets. You need to understand the product you are selling, the applicable local tax laws, the importance of localised customer service. Understand how to repatriate funds in different currencies. Research as much as possible, as all of the information is available and there are many organisations that exist to help companies export their products abroad.”
What’s next for Rarewaves?
Rob: “As well as continuing to grow our current business, we are launching locally in several European countries. Rarewaves continues to grow, utilizing our own website, Rarewaves.com, various new marketplace platforms worldwide and growing the number of products that we sell. We currently sell over 3 million products and expect to double that in the next 12 months.”
About Rarewaves
Brad Aspess had the idea for Rarewaves after selling some of his 100,000 vinyl records on eBay and launched the venture in 2005.
Today, Rarewaves are one of the fastest-growing online retailers in the world serving over 30 million customers in 175 countries. They sell music, DVDs, video games, clothing, electronics, gadgets, toys, stationery, office products and much more.
Receiving the King’s Award for Enterprise is just another accolade to add to their incredible list of achievements.
In 2012, they were ranked the 19th fastest growing tech companies in the UK in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100. In the same year, they were also named by the London Stock Exchange one of the Top 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain.
In 2017, Rarewaves were a finalist in The Amazon Marketplace Export Champion of the Year and were included in The Sunday Times HSBC Tech Track 200 in 2021.
Rarewaves also featured in Web Retailer’s Top 1,000 Amazon Sellers list in 2016.
Once again, congratulations from the Repricer team on your well deserved achievement.
