Last updated: April 2026
Online stores built for Pronet Design clients have won six GPeC trophies over the past three years - six different stores, five different categories, three consecutive editions of the most important eCommerce competition in Romania. The trophies belong to the clients. They built the businesses, the content and the marketing teams. Pronet Design built the technical infrastructure. This article explains what GPeC is, how the judging works, and what other business owners can learn from the stores that won.
What GPeC is and what it measures
GPeC (Gala Premiilor eCommerce) is the longest-running online retail competition in Romania, held every year since 2006. Unlike awards decided by public vote or by sales figures, GPeC scores each store across eight audit categories and more than 200 objective criteria:
| Audit | What gets checked |
|---|---|
| UX audit | Homepage, internal search, About page, category pages, product pages, cart, checkout, thank-you page, customer experience, the site as a whole |
| Mobile UX audit | The mobile version of the store - the one that matters most, since more than 80% of traffic now comes from phones |
| Legal audit | Compliance with consumer law - terms and conditions, returns policy, company details, GDPR |
| Security health check | Site security - SSL, data protection, known vulnerabilities |
| SEO health check | Search engine readiness - URL structure, meta tags, loading speed |
| Content and social media audit | Quality of the content and how the brand shows up on social platforms |
| Email marketing audit | Quality of email campaigns - abandoned cart flows, customer communication |
A high GPeC score means the store actually works for the person buying from it, not just for the developer. That is why a GPeC trophy is public, verifiable proof that an online store is well built.
The six trophies, won by Pronet Design clients
1. BWT Romania (bwt-ro.ro) - Highest Score Start-up, GPeC 2023
Who they are: the Romanian arm of the Austrian BWT group (Best Water Technology), a European leader in water treatment. The store sells filtration systems, filter jugs, water softeners and solutions for kitchens, homes, offices, sport and professional catering.
At GPeC 2023, bwt-ro.ro took the Highest Score Start-up trophy - the best-scoring newly launched store in the competition, judged across all eight audits.
2 and 3. Caffe Culinarte (caffeculinarte.ro) - Highest Score Food & Beverages and Highest Score Start-up, GPeC 2024
Who they are: a specialty coffee shop from Sibiu with more than 25 years in the food industry. They import green coffee from certified farms, roast it in their own roastery and sell both to consumers and to the hospitality trade. Brand partners include Rocket Espresso, Macap, Wega and BWT.
At GPeC 2024, caffeculinarte.ro won two trophies in the same edition - Highest Score Food & Beverages and Highest Score Start-up. It is the only store in the recent history of the competition to do that.
4. BWT Romania (bwt.ro) - Highest Score Home Wellbeing, GPeC 2025
BWT entered GPeC 2025 with the bwt.ro domain and won Highest Score Home Wellbeing, showing that the store had held onto - and improved on - the standard it set in 2023.
5. Mobila ABC (mobilaabc.ro) - Highest Score Start-up, GPeC 2025
Who they are: a furniture retailer with a physical showroom in Cluj-Napoca. They chose to build their own store rather than rent a template solution, and won Highest Score Start-up in their first year online, at GPeC 2025.
6. My Espresso Shop (myespressoshop.ro) - Highest Score Home, Deco & Appliances, GPeC 2025
Who they are: a store specialised in espresso machines and premium coffee equipment. They pair technical advice with online sales - every product is explained in enough detail for the buyer to choose properly. The store won Highest Score Home, Deco & Appliances at GPeC 2025.
What the winning stores have in common
Look at all six and the same things keep coming back:
- A mobile experience that holds up - checkout that works properly on a phone, and pages that load fast on mobile data
- Content people can use - detailed product pages that answer questions, not bare spec sheets
- Full legal compliance - GDPR, returns policy, terms and conditions kept up to date
- An active presence - social accounts that are actually used, email marketing that runs, replies that come back
- Solid technical foundations - security, speed, technical SEO
A GPeC trophy is never won on the platform alone. The judging covers content, social media, email marketing and legal compliance - all of that sits with the client, not with the technical agency. Pronet Design provides the infrastructure. The result belongs to the client.
What other business owners can take from this
- Mobile matters more than anything else - with over 80% of traffic on phones, an awkward mobile checkout loses orders on the spot
- Content sells - the winning stores do not publish spec lists, they publish pages that help someone decide
- Legal and GDPR are not optional - GPeC checks them explicitly, and the fines for getting them wrong are not small
- Email marketing brings sales back - an automated abandoned cart reminder pays for itself almost immediately
- Social media is part of the score - a store with dormant social accounts loses points, and customers
If you want to build an online store to a similar standard, read our complete guide to launching an online store in Romania and our guide to the integrations that matter.
Frequently asked questions
Does GPeC evaluate every online store in Romania?
No. Entering is voluntary. Stores sign up to be audited, and the jury scores them across eight audit categories with more than 200 criteria. A Highest Score trophy means the top score in that category, in that edition.
Will any store built by Pronet Design win at GPeC?
Not automatically. A trophy depends on the technical build, which is our part, but also on content, photography, email marketing, social media and how the client talks to buyers. It is a joint effort. We provide the platform, the win belongs to the whole team.
What does a store at GPeC standard cost?
The award-winning stores in our portfolio started at around EUR 10,000, including full custom design, every integration needed and properly produced content. A basic store from EUR 3,400 can enter GPeC, but a score high enough for a trophy usually means a more involved build.
What platform do the winning stores run on?
All six run on OpenCart, the platform we work with most. Implemented properly, it holds its own against anything on the market.
