“I’m truly proud of this recognition, especially because our ePages rental shop triumphed alongside brand shops such as Strenesse and Tom Tailor,” remarks Stan Soldan, founder and owner of PomadeShop.de. “When I decided to go into online business, I wasn’t altogether certain that people would even want to buy pomade online. To minimize risk as much as possible, I opted for a rental shop by STRATO so that I could quickly and easily get started in e-commerce.”

The success story of PomadeShop.de demonstrates that low capital costs make rental-shop models ideal—particularly for entering the realm of online business. “Even on a small budget, small and medium-sized businesses need not risk much to become very successful; this award presented to PomadeShop.de is wonderful proof. “We feel this vindicates our strategy of offering inexpensive rental shops for all types of products and services,” adds Sören von Varchmin, Vice President of Sales at ePages.

In cooperation with the trade journal Internet World Business, the Shop Usability Award was created by Shoplupe GmbH, a shop-usability service provider for small and medium-sized online shops. Consisting of renowned figures from the world of e-commerce, a high-calibre panel of judges has selected the most user-friendly online shops every year since 2008. 270 shops contended for one of this year’s coveted trophies in twelve categories.