NEW! Digital Beacon Awards Recognize Standouts in Online Engagement, Social Media, and E-Commerce
Hardware Connection is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Digital Beacon Awards, a new initiative launched this year to honor outstanding achievement in online marketing, social media, and digital presence within the independent hardware retail channel.
These awards highlight how digital tools and tactics help retailers grow customer loyalty, drive sales, and enhance community impact.
The Digital Beacon Awards are presented in proud partnership with WD-40 Low Odor, whose sponsorship underscores the importance of innovation not just in product development, but in how retailers connect with their communities online. We thank WD-40 Company for its support and industry leadership in helping independent retailers achieve digital excellence.
Each category below showcases an aspect of digital engagement, with links to the winning entries that demonstrate standout performance in action:
Beacon Award for Digital Excellence
This top honor recognizes a retailer that exemplifies industry-leading performance across all areas of digital engagement. As the highest distinction among the Digital Beacon Awards, it represents a best-of-the-best achievement. This recipient will be honored during the Independent Home Improvement Conference Awards Gala on July 30 at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando, Fla.
- Sullivan Hardware & Garden, Indianapolis, Ind.
Outstanding Community Engagement
Honors retailers that use digital tools to actively engage with and support their local communities in meaningful and measurable ways.
- Valu Home Centers, Buffalo, N.Y. – Dog Adoption Event
Top Digital Advertising Campaign Recognizes effective use of paid online campaigns, including search, display, and video ads that drive traffic, sales, or awareness.
- McGuckin Hardware, Boulder, Colo. – McGuckin Tasty Traditions Sale
Best Social Media Campaign
Highlights a retailer that has created a strategic, consistent, and engaging social media series to build brand identity and connect with customers.
- Taylor’s Do it Center & Pleasants Hardware, Virginia Beach, Va. – 2024 Plantlympics 1, 2024 Plantlympics 2, 2024 Plantlympics 3, 2024 Plantlympics 4
Best Individual Social Media Post
Celebrates a single social post that resonated with audiences through creativity, timing, or storytelling.
- Valu Home Centers, Buffalo, N.Y. – The Legend of the Do-it Yourselfer
Best Website or E-Commerce Experience
Acknowledges exceptional design, functionality, and user experience on a retailer’s website or online store.
- Taylor’s Do it Center, Virginia Beach, Va.
Industry Influencers Who Shaped the Digital Beacon Awards
To help evaluate Digital Beacon Award entries, Hardware Connection enlisted a panel of expert influencers with deep roots in home improvement and digital media:
Kathryn Emery is the founder of BeTheBestHome.com and a nationally recognized home improvement expert, bringing a consumer-focused lens to digital communication and strategy.
Brent Gentling is the creator of BYOTools, which include social media and a YouTube channel where he shares expert advice, DIY tutorials, and home improvement solutions from a contractor’s perspective.
Chip Wade is a HGTV personality and founder of Wade Works Creative. With a strong digital brand and a background in architecture, design, and engineering, Wade brought insight into effective online storytelling.
Kelly Wright is a columnist for Hardware Connection and founder of Hello Yuns. Wright offered unique insight as both a digital content creator and a hardware retailer.
“This first year of the Digital Beacon Awards set the bar high,” said Doug Donaldson, editor of Hardware Connection. “With more than three dozen impressive entries, it’s clear that independent retailers are embracing digital platforms not just to sell, but to connect, inform, and inspire. We look forward to celebrating these winners at the IHI Conference and seeing what they and other retailers will do next to redefine the digital landscape within the independent channel.”
Full profiles of all Digital Beacon Award recipients will appear in the September issue of Hardware Connection and, of course, online.
