eCommerce Websites Win Over Umbraco Awards Judges

Odense, Denmark, 19^th June 2025, innovative e-commerce sites came to the fore at this year’s Umbraco Awards. More than seventy four projects were submitted by digital agencies from Europe, UK and the USA, with winners selected in seven categories, and an overall winner awarded Jury’s Choice.

Digital agency founders and web developers from around the world gather every year at the Codegarden conference in Denmark to be updated on the Umbraco open-source content management system (CMS), network with their peers, and share case study successes. The three-day conference includes an Awards evening celebrating the year’s premier websites and digital experiences built on the Umbraco CMS platform.

Praising the quality of this year’s award submissions, Umbraco VP Marketing, Pernille Stausbøll, said. “Our mission is to provide a CMS platform that is sufficiently flexible, extensible, and scalable to support enterprises’ digital ambitions, now and into the future. The award finalists demonstrate how our digital agency partners are using Umbraco to build outstanding websites that meet the most demanding business requirements, while remaining user-friendly for customers, editors, and marketing teams.”

Herefordshire digital agency, TSD, won this year’s Jury’s Choice for its development of an e-commerce site for Bond Jewellery, which provides an elegant interface, underpinned by cutting-edge functionality, including a custom live feed into Diamond Exchange with dynamic pricing. TSD brought Stripe into the CMS frontend through a custom implementation of Umbraco Commerce to provide a seamless online payment experience. More than 6,500 products are presented on the site, plus precious metal variants for each of the diamond settings. TSD has made the editor experience as easy as possible to facilitate product updates. Umbraco judges praised, “The complexity of the use-case and the way TSD implemented this with Umbraco Commerce to deliver an elegant front-end with deep functionality, including a live Diamond Exchange feed, is truly impressive.”

TSD’s CEO, Tim Gaunt, comments, “We always strive to provide our customers with tailored ecommerce solutions that provide a great user experience and maximise clients’ return on investment. We’re delighted to gain this level of international recognition from Umbraco and our peers in the industry.”

The Most Innovative Solution category was won by digital agency, Perplex Digital, for the  e-commerce site it built for Dutch car lease company, Centraal Beheere, enhanced with  conversational AI. Perplex integrated Umbraco Commerce, Azure AI, HubSpot CRM, and Umbraco Engage to create a site that optimises customer service. Busy sales assistants can now handle more queries, with the assistance of chatbot, Elize. The new site provides round-the-clock service: 11% of visitors engage in a conversation with the chatbot, 19% of people request a quote using Elize, and 33% of visitors return to the site for further, personalised conversations.

Judges observed that, “This site is innovative in every aspect. The Central Beheer site makes good use of Azure AI for business automation and showcases how a seamless blend of Umbraco, AI, HubSpot, and Engage work together to personalise and optimise each customer journey and improve engagement. This is a beautiful example of what can be achieved with Umbraco.”

The Best Cloud solution was won by Danish digital agency, PicoPublish, which built a digital presence for The Danish Agro Group, a co-operative of more than 8,000 farmers. The judges noted that the Danish Agro website successfully integrates the content from 70 websites into a single Umbraco Cloud instance, significantly saving time and cost for the organisation. The judges noted that, “Danish Agro showcases how a large enterprise with multiple brands can be successfully migrated into Umbraco Cloud. Editors can launch a website from within the CMS using the no-code launchpad. As a result of the migration to the cloud, Danish Agro has reduced time spent on managing content by approximately 47 percent, and lowered total CMS costs by almost 60 percent.”

The Best Umbraco Commerce Solution was won by Dutch digital agency, Speak B.V. which developed a robust e-commerce platform for insulation product vendor, Isolatiehandel.nl. The webshop includes dynamic search and product comparison tools, purchase history and re-ordering tools. Speak integrated Ajax live search, so the correct items appear on screen as users are typing into the search box. Customers can set a filter to compare similar products and select the best ones for their needs. A calculation module helps customers to order the correct quantity of products for their project, and a cross-sell pop-up encourages them to purchase related items that they might need. Speak also integrated Umbraco Commerce with KING ERP software for product importer and shipping status updates. Abandoned carts automatically trigger a follow-up email with a discount code, and business customers are able to pay on account after their first purchase, with a 5% discount across the site. The site also integrates with TrustPilot to import reviews and uses the API to send automated review requests.

Judges commended Speak’s impressive integration of Umbraco Commerce, ERP and search, commenting, “This is a real showcase that covers every e-commerce aspect from B2B to B2C, with real-time search, product comparison, cross-selling and re-ordering. The fully-featured ecommerce site makes good use of Umbraco Commerce functionalities, with extensions on top. The calculation module is impressive, orders are synchronised with the ERP, with automated reviews. The extensive integration of features and functionalities is outstanding, and the UX is on point.”

Best Designed Site – was won by DEPT® for developing a new digital presence for the ARTIS zoo, museum, and micro-organism exhibition in Amsterdam. Judges commented, “This is a great looking design which provides online visitors with an experience that’s as close as possible to going to the zoo. You immediately get the vibe. It’s well-balanced and knows when to use visuals and effects and when not. The design succeeds in making three very different areas of content, that are distinct from each other, feel like a natural part of the same website. The navigation via the menu and use of simple and clean design lines makes a rather complex structure appear very simple and accessible, which is what good design can do.”

The Best Editing Experience was won by Danish digital agency Ecreo, for designing a multi-lingual e-commerce site for Danish bathroom brand, Dansani that allows content editors to gain a live preview of changes prior to publishing. Umbraco judges praised the Dansani site’s, “Impressive preview function and overall ease of editing. Seamlessly integrating Umbraco Cloud with multiple technology solutions while enabling editors to work in one steamlined workflow enhances the overall editing experience. The block preview is nicely done and the product picker for images is very cool. This is a visually compelling site that is easy to edit and preview in a multi-lingual setup.”

Best Umbraco Partner Solution – was won by Seattle digital agency, Bonsai Media Group for creating a highly-interactive e-commerce site for boatbuilding brand, Regulator Marine on Umbraco Cloud. Judges selected this project because, “The site combines impressive cloud-based functionality and beautiful design with great imagery throughout. Users are able to customise their boat design using the online configurator. The site has an outstanding overall UX, while delivering a wealth of information to users. Bonsai Media Group has created a high-impact, Cloud-powered site that exemplifies strategic digital transformation.”

Information on all of the 2025 nominees can be found at: https://umbraco.com/blog/announcing-the-2025-umbraco-awards-nominees/