(4 December 2007) bobshop scoops the title of Best Online Auction Website for the second year in a row, in the 2007 South African E-Commerce Awards surveyed and presented by Jump Shopping.

Voted Best Online Auction website in 2007, Bob Shop - South Africa's largest online marketplace, will be shooting to score a hat trick in the 2008 South African E-Commerce Awards, hosted by Jump Shopping. True to the industry, power was awarded to the people or rather the users, in that the public were requested to nominate their favorite sites according to the 20 differentiated nomination categories. Over and above contributing during the nomination process, public users were also required to vote from the final nominations list before handing the final decision over to the panel of judges after a total of 17,000 votes. Andy Higgins, Managing Director of Bob Shop comments, "To win a second time in a row is a tremendous achievement for Bob Shop considering that the awards are based on public opinions rather than those of industry peers. These awards present a true reflection of user experience and preference".

The South African e-Commerce Awards are presented and surveyed by Jump Shopping and after its inception in 2006 has grown significantly. As commented by Albert Bredenhann, Managing Director of Jump.co.za, "The 2007 awards were a runaway success with new entries joining in the running as well as a clear indication that the standard of local e-Commerce stores have vastly improved from the previous year's selection". Bredenhann further adds that he expects to see an e-commerce boom hit the market within the next two years due to the increased access to broadband as well as the entrance of offline stores joining the online arena.

The awards were segregated into 20 sub awards which were categorised according to the industry in which each website fits into, namely the best of: Auctions (bobshop.co.za), Automotive (autostyle.co.za), Bookstores (kalahari.net), Clothing and Accessories (rebelrock.co.za), Computer (digitalplanet.co.za), Electronic (webantics.co.za), Flowers and Gifts (netflorist.co.za), Food and Wine (woolworths.co.za), Games (btgames.co.za), Health and Beauty (manology.co.za), Home and Garden (yuppichef.co.za), Jewellery and Watches (kalahari.net), Kids and Baby (edreams.co.za), Music and Movie (musica.co.za), Photographic (sacamera.co.za), Property (privateproperty.co.za), Sports and Outdoor (sportstuff.co.za), Travel Bookings (safarinow.co.za), e-Commerce enabler (igroup.co.za) and best e-Commerce website (kalahari.net).

After the conclusion of the awards, Matthew Buckland, General Manager from Mail & Guardian and one of the judges of this years awards comments, "E-Commerce in South Africa is definitely on the right track and with the anticipated growth of broadband penetration in South Africa, I think we can expect great things from online shopping in the next two years". With the positive fluidity of the online industry it's no wonder that industry leaders look to the future with great anticipation and optimism for e-Commerce as a whole.