Fellows ‘Highly Commended’ for Etailing and Online Strategy at Prestigious UK Jewellery Awards!
On Thursday 4th July Birmingham-based auction house Fellows was ‘highly commended’ at the UK Jewellery Awards for its exceptional achievements in ‘etailing’ and online strategy after being nominated for ‘Etailer of the Year 2013’.
Established in 1876 as a family business, Fellows has seen significant growth and investment in online technologies under the supervision of Managing Director Stephen Whittaker, who has had great success in bringing the auction house experience online.
Fellows is an auction house that likes to innovate, and ten years ago became the very first auction house in the UK to offer live online bidding – complete with audio and video streamed live from the auction room. Fellows was also one of the first auction houses to develop a mobile site and dedicated app which means that, unlike most auction houses, users can browse lots and bid while on the go.
In order to cater to a burgeoning watch audience their sister site, watchauctions.co.uk, launched pioneering software that allowed watch valuers to access years of sale data for over 20 key brands searchable by model and condition.
Combining these new technologies with the years of experience held by Fellows specialists provides an auction experience that is both accessible to a wide range of audiences and, most importantly, transparent – allowing customers confidence in bidding live for an item they have never actually seen. The proof is in the pudding, too – Fellows’ audience has become more global while total website visits, data registrations and catalogue app downloads are increasing by 30% Year on Year.
Managing Director Stephen Whittaker states, “being ‘highly commended’ at the UK Jewellery Awards is a fantastic compliment to everybody who has worked so hard to make the website what it is today. It demonstrates that the real auction experience can be brought online with a great deal of success - a success which we are confident we will see continue.”