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About the Author
Mitch (@mitchellharper) is the co-founder and CEO of BigCommerce. Way back in 2007 he built what eventually became BigCommerce as you know it. Today he runs the company alongside Eddie and along with our 100+ team members, is passionate about helping businesses succeed with e-commerce. Mitch spends time between our Sydney and Austin offices and is giving the keynote at TechConnect 2012 in Sydney on April 19th. |
Over the last two months we’ve been running a huge e-commerce makeover contest in which the first place winner will receive over $22,000 in prizes, including migration of their existing ecommerce store to BigCommerce, a professional store design, Google AdWords coaching, marketing advice, free email marketing services from our friends at Mailchimp and a whole lot more.
Well, the votes are in and our judges have made a decision from the 5 finalists. The first place winner of our $35,000 e-commerce makeover contest is Lisa Zawacki from GorillaSacks.com!
So why did our judges choose Lisa? Well, let me quote from our press release:
“Founded by Lisa Zawacki, grand prize winner Gorilla Sacks converts retired billboards into one-of-a-kind messenger, market, tote and sling bags. The company also donates 10% of its profits to Gorilla Haven, whose mission is to help make every captive gorilla’s life as enriched and natural as possible. Zawacki entered the contest due to her frustration with the limited functionality of her existing OS Commerce website; she was also eager to build a more professional looking site that would support her efforts to partner with large corporations on their recycling efforts. In her video entry, Zawacki detailed her struggle with the company’s current ecommerce platform and her desire to take Gorilla Sacks to the next level in terms of online presence and growth.”
Long story short: Lisa was extremely popular with voters and judges, her products are awesome and she helps gorillas with proceeds from her business. To us, she was the ideal enterpreneur and a wonderful person also. Plus her entry video was hilarious:
So what has Lisa won? Over $22,000 in prizes which are shown below:
- BigCommerce diamond store ($7,198 value – 2 year subscription)
- Professionally crafted store design ($5,000 value)
- Migration of existing store to BigCommerce ($2,000 value)
- MailChimp 25,000 subscriber plan ($3,600 value – 2 year subscription)
- ROI Revolution Google AdWords audit ($975 value)
- Sales Rescue Team 4 hour consult ($500 value)
- FanAppz Pro license ($600 value – 1 year subscription)
- Various PR opportunities (approx $2,000 value)
- Case study posted on BigCommerce.com (approx $1,000 value)
In addition to announcing the grand prize winner, I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to our four runner-ups who will each receive a BigCommerce gold store and further PR opportunities valued at a total of over $4,000 each!
The four runners-up are:
- CoastCityStyles.com – DC and Marvel comic-themed T-shirts and merchandise
- KettleBellsUSA.com – kettlebells and other weight training items
- LatinPopShop.com – Latino, Latino-American and Latin-themed arts and handmade gifts
- OverTheMoonRibbons.com – a unique line of ribbons for design and craft projects
We really loved everyone’s videos and were overwhelmed with your positive comments about BigCommerce and how it has had (or would have) a huge impact on growing your business. We’re all about small business and it made us really happy to hear your stories.
As our team of e-commerce experts get to work on Lisa’s BigCommerce store we’ll keep you updated with their progress, including screenshots of design mockups, marketing advice shared with Lisa and of course how her sales (hopefully!) improve when her new BigCommerce-powered store goes live!
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