St Rocco’s Hospice has won the grand prize at this year’s eBay for business awards and has also won the Community Hero prize receiving in total a £20,000 cash prize and additional support to help grow their enterprise.

The eBay for Business Awards is an annual moment designed to recognise and celebrate the most inspiring sellers among eBay UK’s community of 300,000 small and medium-sized businesses. eBay received over 2,000 entries for this year’s awards across all categories, ranging from kitchen table start-ups and university ‘side hustles’, to established family businesses and those complementing offline stores with online avenues.

To win the Grand prize in these circumstances is a tremendous achievement for the St. Rocco’s team and recognition of the hard work they have put in over the last year. 

Coping with the pandemic

Back in 2019, the charity spotted the opportunity to expand online shopping for the charity shop sector and employed an ecommerce manager – Daniel Taylor – who set about maximising St Rocco’s Hospice fundraising through ecommerce platforms like eBay.

During the pandemic, with our physical stores closed, this sales avenue became even more important for us, relying heavily on selling donations online to fund care.  

Daniel commented, “We’re thrilled to have won the Community Hero award and become the first charity ever to win the Grand Prize award. The pandemic has been an incredibly tough time for everyone, but especially for charities who have been hit hard by store closures, so to be recognised for our achievements this year is brilliant. eBay has played a huge role in helping to fund the vital work that St Rocco’s does, over lockdown and in the months since.

“Now, we’re focused on growing our eBay offering, alongside our existing shops, so we can support the Hospice and the Warrington community for many years to come. We will be recruiting more staff and volunteers and are looking at moving to bigger premises to enable us to maximise the impact of the help eBay will give us this year.”

Murray Lambell, General Manager of eBay UK, added “To turn an idea into a thriving business, it takes someone who is willing to take risks, who can think creatively to innovate, and has the determination to overcome whatever challenge is thrown at them. That’s never been truer than it is now.”

Why not see what bargains you can grab from the St. Rocco’s eBay store now