WDSF Awards 2015

At the WDSF 2015 Official Dinner on Thursday, 23 April 2015, two new awards were inaugurated that will shape and set the tone in department store retailing:

World's Best Sales Associate at a Department Store 2015
World's Best In-Store Campaign by a Department Store 2015.

More than 300 top retail executives from around the world participated in the Official Dinner which was organized in the wonderful Villa Miani, a unique position to admire the Eternal City as well as the Pincio and the Janiculum hills.

World’s Best Sales Associate at a Department Store 2015

The Award Ceremony started with the award for World’s Best Sales Associate. The three finalists from

Macy’s (USA)
Selfridges (UK)
The KaDeWe Group (Germany)

were selected by a panel of experts, led by BS Nagesh from TRRAIN. The jury’s goal was to honour exceptional performances by a sales associate in fulfilling customer expectations, commitment beyond duty, product knowledge, team work and commercial results. Eva Bunzel, from The KaDeWe Group, won the trophy and shared some examples which demonstrated her passionate dedication to excellent customer service. She was joined on stage by her CEO André Maeder.

Finalists for World’s Best Sales Associate Award

Award World's Best Sales Associate at a Department Store: M. Dupont (L'Oréal Luxe), Andre Maeder (The KaDeWe Group), Eva Bunzel (The KaDaWe Group) Winner of the Award, John Kirby (Selfridges) Award finalist, Anne Pitcher (Selfridges), BS Nagesh (TRRAIN)

World’s Best In-Store Campaign by a Department Store 2015

This new Award recognizes the important role of in-store campaigns for department stores, in creating footfall, increasing conversion rates and sales, as well as connecting with current and new customers. During the evening, all three finalists

Woolworths (South Africa)
Central Department Store (Thailand)
Palacio de Hierro (Mexico)

were welcomed on stage by Jury’s chairman Helmut Merkel and shared with the audience their great campaigns. Woolworths won the Award for its 2014 Christmas campaign. Marketing Director Charmaine Huet accepted the prize and presented the strategy of their last Christmas Campaign and explained how her team was able to combine creativity, passion, emotion and commercial success. Woolworths Group's CEO Ian Moir later joined her on stage.

Finalists for World’s Best In-Store Campaign Award

Award World's Best In-Store Campaign by a Department Store: Tos Chirathivat (Central Group), Carlos Salcidas (Palacio de Hierro) Award finalist, Yuwadee Chirathivat (Central) Award finalist, Helmut Merkel, and from Woolworths, Winner of the Award: Charmaine Huet, Ian Moir and Simon Susman

All finalists’ works have been summarized in two books which will be available end of May 2015 on IGDS’s E-Store at www.igds.org.

The World’s Best Sales Associate at a Department Store 2015 was sponsored by