Search For Britain's Best Small Shop of 2019 Gets Underway

The annual search to find Britain’s Best Small Shop, a competition managed by the Independent Retailers Confederation (IRC), begins today with a focus on consumer engagement and how independent retailers promote all that is special about their businesses to the local community and consumers at large.

Celebrating personal commitment, innovation and community engagement, the Best Small Shops competition has proven successful in recognising the contribution of independent retailers on the UK’s high streets and shopping parades. The 2018 competition had “by far the biggest impact of anything we have been involved in before” – said 2018 winner, Rosamund de la Hey of The Mainstreet Trading Company.

The launch coincides with Independent’s Day, the national campaign which celebrates and promotes the UK’s independent retailers each year on 4th July. The competition is open to any UK independent retailer, selling goods or services to the public.

Independent’s Day

Independents’ Day UK is an annual campaign held on the 4th July each year, with this year seeing at least 100 different town management teams, business improvement districts and local business groups across the country are participating in initiatives to promote the day.

Image source: TalkingRetail.com

Competition Timeline

The competition closes early September and a shortlist of the most impressive applicants will be invited to attend the competition reception in November, where they will have the opportunity to meet with trade representatives and other shortlisted retailers, before the winner and runners up are announced.

For 2019 competition entrants will be challenged with promoting the benefits of their retail offering to consumers with the initial selection process being voted on by the general public at indieretail.uk.

The most successful applications selected over 10 weeks of consumer voting will go forward to an industry panel and formal review, to select the shortlist for the reception event. Competition entrants will need to succinctly showcase their proposition to consumers, outline areas of community engagement, alongside innovation and development plans for their business over the coming years.

Submit your entry

The competition opened at 10am today at bestsmallshops.uk.

To enter the competition you will need to:

• Be an independent retailer, defined as a non-corporate business selling goods or services to the public for use or consumption rather than for resale, from a business rated premises in the UK
• Create a public facing listing on the Indie Retail website
• Complete the online competition entry form in full at bestsmallshops.uk
• Submit your entry before 8am on Monday 9th September 2019