THE deadline is fast approaching for the Herald Fashion Awards and leading online fashion businesses are being encouraged to get their entries in before it is to late.

Held in association with Bridge 2 Business, Markup, Therapie Clinic and s1jobs, the awards celebrate the best online firms that are doing something special to celebrate Scottish fashion.

Retailers, designers and bloggers will battle it out to come out on top in the 12 award categories, which include Best Scottish Online Retailer, Blogger of the Year, Twitterati of the Year and Luxury Online Boutique of the Year.

Entrants have until Thursday, October 6, to submit their applications via the online entry form at www.heraldfashion.co.uk/entry.

New sponsor Markup, a software development company which offers e-commerce software and services to fashion retailers are sponsoring the Best Online Newcomer Award.

Barry Gear, director of Markup, said: “Online has become the most competitive market place for retailers the world over, and fashion is no exception.

"To make it to the shortlist a unique innovative product will not be enough. Their site must find the right balance between brand identify, optimum usability and ultimately an efficient user journey with intelligent marketing to drive traffic for sales."

Therapie Clinic will sponsor the Blogger of the Year category, while Bridge 2 Business sponsor the Scottish Online Fashion Graduate of the Year Award.

Brian McEwan, Programme Manager, Young Enterprise Scotland, said: “The Scottish Online Fashion Graduate of the Year category highlights the depth of emerging creative and entrepreneurial talent to have recently come through Further or Higher Education. Bridge 2 Business chose to sponsor this award as it is testament to how aware the Colleges and Universities are to the skills required of Graduates, enabling them to begin their careers, of which many of are choosing to start their own businesses. Within the fashion sector, Entrepreneurial skills are vital, so we would be looking to see how the Graduates have combined their technical skills with business skills. Like many of last year’s finalists, it is about creating a niche, identifying a gap in the market and exploiting it in the most innovative and sustainable way. This year’s entrants will need evidence of a positive “Can Do” approach, showing how to utilise their full networks and develop a competitive advantage for their businesses and ideas."

Katie McGlade, Company Director, said: As we all know, blogging is hugely influential when it comes to word of mouth marketing and this can greatly increase Therapie if not any business’s reach and reputation both online and offline. Therapie clinic hopes to raise awareness within this category of the amazing result driven treatments that we offer and this is through the help of bloggers/influencers.

For assistance with your entry please contact Lyndsay Wilson on 0141 302 7407 and to read more on this year’s judging panel log on to www.heraldfashion.co.uk.