How to get your store featured

The Showcase is a free library of online stores worth learning from. Stores get in two ways: our editors pick them, or members submit them. This guide covers the second route, and what helps a submission.

First, the most important point. Nobody can buy a place in the Showcase. When our editors pick a store, it costs nothing. If you submit your own, a small review fee pays for an editor’s time, not a guaranteed place, and if we pass we tell you why. The awards are a separate thing.

What editors look for

We don’t publish a scoring sheet for the Showcase, because it isn’t a competition. But if you read the notes our editors wrote on the stores already featured, a few threads come up again and again.

Navigation that matches how customers shop

Many of our favourite stores organise the catalogue around the question a shopper arrives with.

• Lick lets you shop paint by colour, mood, finish or room, which suits people who don’t know colour names.
• MUD Jeans sorts jeans by fit, which is how most people shop for denim.
• Done by Deer follows a child’s day: dinner time, play time and cosy time.

Plain explanations of unfamiliar products

Ippodo Tea gives each type of tea a plain guide to what it is and how to brew it. Graza gives each olive oil a one-line use case. Neither assumes the shopper is already an expert.

Tools that help people decide

A good finder, quiz or calculator answers a real question. VOLDOG has a feeding calculator for raw pet food. Lupine Lights has a product finder and comparison for bike lights. Silk & Snow has comparison pages for mattresses and bedding.

The real world, made visible

For bigger or more personal purchases, it helps when people can find a human. Chupi shows appointments, its Dublin store, payment plans and its returns promise from the header. That helps with a big, nervy purchase like an engagement ring.

Restraint

Our editors often mention space, calm layouts and photography that lets the product lead. A store doesn’t have to do everything. It has to do its own job well.

Size doesn’t matter

Hex Pens builds its store around one fountain pen and sits in the Showcase next to stores with much larger ranges. What counts is how well the store does its job.

We feature stores for what they do well, not for how big they are.

How to submit

1. Create a free account. You need one to submit.
2. Go to [Submit](/submit) and paste your store address. We fill in what we can for you.
3. Add the credits. Name the agencies, studios or freelancers who worked on the store and what they did. We’ll ask each agency to confirm its credit.
4. Tell the story. Say what the store sells and what’s worth looking at. Short and specific is better than long.
5. Add results if you want to. They’re optional. Any numbers you give are shown as “reported by entrant”. Only judges can mark results as verified.
6. Confirm and submit. You confirm that you worked on the project and are allowed to share the details.

Screenshots and screen recordings

You don’t need to upload images. We take a full-page screenshot of your store automatically, and it scrolls in the hero of your project page.

If your store is better seen in use, for example hovering, filtering, a quiz or dark mode, you can upload a screen recording instead. It can be MP4, WebM or MOV, up to 100MB. Between 10 and 20 seconds works best.

What happens next

An editor reviews every submission within five working days. If it’s a fit, your project page goes live in the Showcase with its screenshot, features and credits. Every credited agency also gets its own page listing its work.

Claiming a page

If your store is already in the Showcase, you don’t need to submit it again. Use “Claim this page” on your store or agency page. It’s free. We confirm you work there with an email to your business’s own domain, and then an editor approves it.

Once you’ve claimed a page, you can keep details up to date, or take the page down yourself.

The featured badge

Featured stores can embed a small badge on their own site. It reads Featured, In the Showcase, and links back to your project page. It comes in light and dark versions and is free to use.

Featured means an editor thinks your store is worth other people’s time. It isn’t an award, so please don’t describe it as a win.

If you want to be judged

The awards are where work is judged and scored. Entries for Edition 01 are due to open on 15 February 2027. That date is a draft until we confirm it. Read How The Ecom Awards will be judged or see how to enter.

Questions about the Showcase? Email hello@theecomawards.com.