This year's expert judges have been hard at work, testing the entries for award-winning qualities. Member of the judging panel, Ciaron Dunne, founder of Genie Ventures sent us this photo of his team, putting the websites through their paces. Ciaron said, "We ran this as a collaborate exercise with a diverse team of designers and online marketers at Genie HQ in Cambridge, and we had a lot of fun."
And so, after much deliberation, we are delighted to announce the websites in the running for The GWG Website of the Year. The category winners and overall Website of the Year will be announced by Anna Bance of Girl Meets Dress at the Awards Reception on Monday 21st November at The Royal Institution of Great Britain, Albemarle Street, W1, London.

THE SHORTLIST

RETAIL

BLOOM & WILD
www.bloomandwild.com

Online florist with a fresh approach to sending flowers. The innovative packaging, enabling flowers to be delivered through the letterbox, and signature attention to detail makes the Bloom & Wild experience unlike any other.

BOB BOOKS
www.bobbooks.co.uk

Bob Books is the UK's top supplier of photographic paper photobooks, helping you turn your photos into unique coffee-table books.

POSH TOTTY DESIGNS
www.poshtottydesigns.com

The go-to place for personalised jewellery and unusual gifts, much of which has been lovingly handmade in the Posh Totty workshop in Brighton

RIBBLE CYCLES
www.ribblecycles.co.uk

The site boasts a Bike Builder allowing a bike to be fully configured from start to finish, revolutionising the way cyclists can shop online.

LUXURY

BEYOND BESPOKE
beyond-bespoke.com

Beyond Bespoke is the only platform for British companies and brands of quality to promote their products and services to an international audience.

BOUTIQUE RETREATS
boutique-retreats.co.uk

Boutique Retreats offer luxury holiday cottages, bridging the gap between traditional holiday lets and boutique hotels, providing a personalised service - arranging delivery of fresh produce to your door, booking a table at the best restaurants, organising your day trips and more.

VESTIAIRE COLLECTIVE
www.vestiairecollective.com

Vestiaire Collective is becoming the go-to site for buying and selling premium, designer fashion. Whether you're on the hunt for key designer pieces, or simply looking to invest in good quality basics, discover over 2,500 classic and contemporary designer brands.

HOME & INTERIORS

BUTTON & SPRUNG
www.buttonandsprung.com

Button & Sprung promises to make buying an upholstered bed or pocket sprung mattress an easy and enjoyable experience.

MORE THAN WORDS
www.morethanwords.uk.com

More Than Words was launched in 2010 by creative designer Lisa Long. It was the first website to offer customers a way of truly personalising their artwork. A one stop shop whereby you select your product, mix your own special colours, enter you words and choose your font.

ROCKETT ST GEORGE
www.rockettstgeorge.co.uk

Interiors emporium, Rockett St George is an online shop offering an eclectic mix of homeware and gifts for its discerning style junkie customer base.

SWEETPEA & WILLOW
www.sweetpeaandwillow.com

Sweetpea & Willow offers quality, reproduction classic French furniture at affordable prices. The website is fresh, always on trend and in line with what its customers want.

GARDENING

GREEN PLANT SWAP
www.greenplantswap.co.uk

GreenPlantSwap is a kind of 'Facebook for gardeners built around a database of 21,000 plants.' It's also location-based, a marketplace, an events platform, and enables members to list plants they have/want, linked to their growing information.

PLANTS4PRESENTS
www.plants4presents.co.uk

The place to buy plant gifts, where you can see how plants will be gift-wrapped and boxed and also includes detailed plant care information. Visitors can filter plants by situation, price, type and occasion.

TRAVEL/LEISURE

I-ESCAPE KIDS
i-escape.com/kids

In Jan 2016, i-escape kids re-launched with an innovative, mobile-friendly design to highlight the key family-friendly features of the properties it lists.

GRAND CENTRAL BIRMINGHAM
www.grandcentralbirmingham.com

This shopping mall in Birmingham required a modern brand and the latest digital technology to propel it in front of a new more affluent audience. Combining sleek dynamic design with latest touchscreen technology, the site offers interactive information about where to go next once you’ve arrived; taking mall way finding to a new level by adding destination marketing.

PEARLSHARE
www.pearlshare.com

Pearlshare allows users to build and share personalised local guides through the site or its app. Users save their favourite Pearls - restaurants, bars, hotels and attractions - and create guides, based on themes or locations.

ARTS/CULTURE

ART UK
artuk.org

Launched in February, 2016, Art UK was originally Your Paintings, hosted on bbc.co.uk. This online register of photographs of every publicly owned oil painting in Britain is the only country in the world to have such a resource.

FROM THE BOX OFFICE
www.fromtheboxoffice.com

The site provides a simple way for fans to access a wide range of events and a great booking experience by being informative, reliable, fast and secure.

RISE ART
www.riseart.com

Rise Art is breaking down the boundaries of the art world, making quality art accessible to all. Rise Art stands out via its exceptional curation and its exclusive selection of art and artists handpicked by experts, as well as outstanding customer service, always going above and beyond to make its clients happy and help them discover art that they love.

BEST OF BRITISH

GIFT WRAPPED & GORGEOUS

Gift Wrapped & Gorgeous is the place to find British made gifts. It's warm and welcoming with the feel good factor for customers and partner companies alike.

JONNY'S SISTER
www.jonnyssister.co.uk

Jonny's Sister embraces British craftsmanship by producing unique and personalised gifts for children, adults and the home.

MUSEUM OF ENGLISH RURAL LIFE
www.reading.ac.uk/TheMERL

The new museum aims to challenge perceptions about rural England by revealing the historical and contemporary relevance of country life. The website allows users to get a taster of what is on offer as the museum opened its doors again on 22nd October 2016.

HEALTH/BEAUTY

CONTENT BEAUTY & WELLBEING
www.contentbeautywellbeing.com

Specialising in emerging results-driven niche brands, Content is regarded as London’s leading organic and natural apothecary. Brand selection involves meeting a criteria, which ensures undesirable synthetic chemicals, are edited whilst focusing on results driven high-end beauty brands, proving that the desire to go natural is no longer a compromise on results or luxury.

LIFESUM
www.lifesum.com

Lifesum is a Stockholm-based digital health company with over 15 million users. Using tech and psychology, it creates a tailored plan to help people live happier, more balanced lives.

LOVE MY SKIN
www.love-my-skin.co.uk

Love My Skin is all about the latest skin technology, offering a shop front and information on how to improve your skin.

REALLY USEFUL

CHILDCARE
www.childcare.co.uk

Childcare.co.uk is the UK's largest online childcare platform, helping over a million parents find childcare. It has also helped hundreds of thousands of babysitters, nannies, registered childminders and tutors find work.

HOUSEKEEP
housekeep.com

Housekeep is the first real-time booking site for cleaners. Users view live availability, book and pay online, focusing on long term contracts. It’s the only business building technology for this recurring relationship between consumers and cleaners.

CORPORATE

BRITISH QUALITY FOUNDATION (BQF)
www.bqf.org.uk

Established in 1994,BQF is the premier organisation representing excellence and performance improvement in the UK.

CHATTERTONS
www.chattertons.com

Chattertons is a leading firm of solicitors and provider of wealth management services in Lincolnshire and across the East Midlands. The website offers articles on legal topics, information on events and essential information on the services on offer and contact details to its professionals.

COVENTRY UNIVERSITY/BUSINESS
www.coventry.ac.uk/business

Coventry University is a global business with a foot hold on every continent with the ability to match its client’s geographies and customer profile either virtually or physically. The website allows users to access its expertise and utilise the unique attributes of a leading university to boost a business's potential. It is one of the top universities for business partnerships and is proud to be seen as a ‘business facing’ institution.

KEN BELL ACCOUNTING
www.kenbellaccounting.co.uk

Ken Bell Accounting is a bookkeeping company founded over 20 years ago. The firm is now, by number of licences supported, the UK's largest Xero bookkeeper and the fourth largest in the world. The site has recently been overhauled, enabling clients to book and pay for online Xero tuition.

BUSINESS

EXPORTING IS GREAT
www.exportingisgreat.gov.uk

Exporting is Great is a government service, funded by the Department for International Trade (DIT), helping British businesses find opportunities to export their goods and services.

STREETS
streetsweb.co.uk

Streets' recently relaunched site reflects the needs and user journey of its stakeholders clients, prospect, intermediaries and potential employees. The site acts both from a marketing point as well as business process.

FINANCE

BERRYFX
www.berryfx.com

BerryFX.com is an online platform for converting currency and international money transfer provider. This basically means that it gives fixed, transparent and competetive exchange rates and sends money abroad for clients at no extra cost.

eTORO
www.etoro.com

eToro is the first global market place for people to trade currencies, commodities, indices and CFD stocks online in a simple, transparent and more enjoyable way.

PANDLE
www.pandle.co.uk

Pandle is free, cloud based accounting software made with real people in mind. Pandle focuses on sole traders and small businesses and is simple and intuitive to use.

STARTUPS

CAT IN A FLAT
catinaflat.com

Launched in Oct 2015, Cat in a Flat connects loving cat owners with trusted cat sitters in their area. Its mission is to help cats stay in the comfort of their own homes by connecting cat owners with trusted, local, cat-loving sitters.

CLASSLIST
www.schoolclasslist.com

Classlist is a website designed to make life easier for you when it comes to all things school related. Connect with other parents, organise events or even sell off that bike languishing unused in the shed. Thousands of parents across the UK already use Classlist to make life run more smoothly.

HUB-BOX
www.hub-box.com

The convenience of online shopping has now been matched by the convenience of delivery – with HubBox Click & Collect. The company operates a nationwide network of Collect Points so shoppers can collect their deliveries hassle-free.

SOCIAL/COMMUNITY

MUMSMEETUP
mumsmeetup.com

MumsMeetUp.com connects mums locally and across the UK, enabling them to find mums like themselves in their area and playmates for their children.

MY HOME TOUCH
myhometouch.com

HomeTouch is an online marketplace that allows clients to select their own carer through a list of recommendations and by browsing carer profiles which include videos, bios, DBS details and reviews from previous clients.

EDUCATION

EDPLACE
www.edplace.com

EdPlace believes every parent should have access to quality educational support that effectively helps their child succeed. It does this by providing parents access to the best education tools, technology, resources & teachers. Subjects covered include English, Maths and Science across the National Curriculum in Key Stages 1 to 4 with other subjects coming soon.

MY ANTIQUES SCHOOL
www.my-antique-school.com

MyAntiqueSchool is the first and online online school teaching enthusiasts all over the world about everything vintage, retro and antiques. It's tutors include many familiar faces from the Antiques Roadshow teams (UK and US).

PROPERTY

FOXTONS
www.foxtons.co.uk

Foxtons.co.uk is regularly voted the best in the business. Every property, regardless of price, features floorplans, 360° virtual tours, numerous high-resolution photographs, slide shows, local information, location maps, aerial views and full colour brochures.

OPUN
www.opun.co.uk

Opun believes that making your home beautiful should be beautifully easy. It uses modern software and deep experience in the home improvements sector to bring a level of customer service that has, until now, been missing. You can book a visit online at a time that suits you, then you approve the work done online and you pay online.

FOOD

BISCUITEERS
www.biscuiteers.com

Famed for its tins of delicious, picture perfect iced biscuits, Biscuiteers specialises in handmade and lovingly decorated biscuits suitable for all manner of occasions.

MARKET PORTER
www.marketporter.com

Market Porter works with a select group of independent, high quality suppliers such as butchers and cheesemongers to bring you the very best fresh produce direct from the suppliers.

Q JACKER
uk.qjacker.com

Q-jacker enables fans to pre-order and quickly collect food and drinks before an event or from their seat in the venue. It's featured in a number of stadiums throughout England and is also breaking into the American market.

CHARITY

CARERS.ORG
www.carers.org

The charity works to improve support, services and recognition for anyone living with the challenges of caring, unpaid, for a family member or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or addiction problems.

CANCER RESEARCH
www.cancerresearchuk.org

The About Cancer section of the CRUK website gives reliable, easy to understand advice about cancer.

WVS
wvs.org.uk

WVS was founded by vet Luke Gamble (star of TV's Luke' Gamble's Vet Adventures) in 2002. The website supports a commitment to improving animal welfare globally. WVS aims to BE the difference in animal welfare and the new website helps with this aim significantly.

EXCELLENCE IN CUSTOMER SERVICE

This will be announced separately in due course.

November 2016