Judging · Edition 01 · 2027 · Draft
Judged by people who run stores. Feedback for everyone.
The Ecom Awards are judged by people who build and run online stores. Here is how scoring works, how we handle conflicts, and how to apply to join the panel.
The 2027 panel
JUDGE 01 · EDITION 01 Judge · Dubai
Karl Lillrud
Fractional Chief AI Officer, keynote speaker and author
“I look for ecommerce work that solves a real customer or business problem, shows clear strategic choices and can prove that the result works beyond the presentation.”
Worked with Volvo Cars · Spotify · Klarna · H&M · AstraZeneca · SEB
Karl Lillrud is an AI, data and ecommerce leader with close to three decades across digital commerce, retail, payments, banking, telecom and enterprise transformation. At Volvo Cars he works in Data and Analytics program and portfolio leadership across AI readiness, use case selection, business cases, Proof of Value, governance, risk, dependencies and production readiness. He is also an international keynote speaker and author, with judging experience across technology, ecommerce, AI, customer experience and startups.
More judges to be announced. Every judge declares conflicts and steps out of entries they’re connected to.
How judging works
- 01
Judges score on their own
Each judge scores entries independently, without seeing anyone else’s scores first.
- 02
Scored against a published rubric
The same four criteria for every category, weighted the same way. You can read them below before you enter.
- 03
Written feedback for every entrant
Every entry gets written feedback from its judges, whether it wins or not. It’s included in the entry fee.
- 04
The panel agrees the results
Scores are combined and the panel agrees the shortlist and winners. If no entry is good enough, a category can have no winner.
SCORING RUBRIC · EVERY CATEGORY
What changed, with evidence.
Design, build quality, speed and accessibility.
Why the work was the right answer to the brief.
How well the entry shows its working.
Conflicts of interest
- Judges declare any connection to an entry before scoring: clients, employers, investors, friends and family, or competitors.
- A judge with a conflict skips that entry. Another judge scores it instead.
- Businesses connected to the organisers can be featured in the Showcase, but they can’t win an award.
- Sponsors have no say. A category partner puts its name on a category, but never judges it and never sees scores before results.
- Nobody can buy a result, a shortlist place or a better score.
What we look for in judges
- You run, or have run, an online store, or you lead ecommerce work at an agency or in-house team.
- You’ve shipped work you can point to, and you know what good looks like in your area.
- You can write short, fair, useful feedback, including to people whose work didn’t win.
- You’re happy to declare conflicts and step out of entries you’re connected to.
- You can be based anywhere. The awards are open worldwide and judging is done online.
We’ll share the timetable and time commitment before you say yes. Applying doesn’t commit you to anything.
THE 2027 PANEL
More soon1 confirmed so farWe won’t list anyone until they’ve agreed to judge.
Apply to judge
Tell us who you are and what you know best. We read every application and reply by email.