Forrester Wave b2c Commerce 3q12

7/27/2019 Forrester Wave b2c Commerce 3q12

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/forrester-wave-b2c-commerce-3q12 1/23

Forreter Reearc, Ic., 60 Acor Park Drive, Cambride, MA 02140 UsA Te: +1 617.613.6000 | Fax: +1 617.613.5000 | www.orreter.com

The Forrester Wave™: B2C CommerceSuites, Q3 2012b Bria K. Waker, september 24, 2012

FOR: eBuie &

Cae strate

Proeioa

Key TaKeaWays

Cmmrc st Vr d’t Jt prv Bc Fctt;

T ec Cmmrc Cbt

oday’s marketplace is orcing eBusiness proessionals to consider alternativesto selecting solutions ocused on just a transactional website. Vendors now oer

solutions that enable marketing, commerce, and service capabilities across many

consumer touchpoints and geographies.

T Cmmrc st Mrkt i grw a Frm lk Fr

Mttct st

Te B2C commerce suite market is growing as rms respond to changing customer

expectations. Te growing importance o online, mobile, and social interactions

or serving customers across touchpoints with multiple brands, opportunities to

expand globally, and complex order management needs are driving the market or

commerce suite solutions.

iBM, br, orc, a dmwr l T pck i T

Cmmrc st Mrkt

As previous technology becomes outdated, less eective, and more expensive

to maintain, improved multitouchpoint commerce eatures, business tools, and

solution exibility will dictate which providers lead the pack. Vendors need strong

site management, content management, order management, and merchandising

tools to win with clients.



© 2012, Forreter Reearc, Ic. A rit reerved. Uautorized reproductio i trict proibited. Iormatio i baed o bet avaiabereource. Opiio refect judmet at te time ad are ubject to cae. Forreter®, Tecorapic®, Forreter Wave, RoeView, TecRadar,ad Tota Ecoomic Impact are trademark o Forreter Reearc, Ic. A oter trademark are te propert o teir repective compaie. Topurcae reprit o ti documet, peae emai [email protected]. For additioa iormatio, o to www.orreter.com.

FOR EBUsInEss & ChAnnEl sTRATEgy PROFEssIOnAls

Why Read This RepoRT

In Forrester’s 75-criteria evaluation o global business-to-consumer (B2C) enterprise-class commerce

suite vendors, we identied the 10 most signicant soware providers — Demandware, Digital River,

hybris, IBM, Intershop, Magento, Micros-Retail, Oracle (AG), RedPrairie, and SAP — in the category

and researched, analyzed, and scored them. Tis report details our ndings about how well each vendor

ullls our criteria and where they stand in relation to each other to help eBusiness and channel strategy

proessionals select the right partner or their B2C online and multichannel commerce solution.

Tabe O Cotet

B Ct T arv ivt

i Cmmrc Tc

B2C Cmmrc st evt ovrvw

B2C Cmmrc st hv evv

sbtt

Vr prf

smt Mtr

note & Reource

Forreter coducted product evauatio i

Februar 2012 ad iterviewed ie vedor

compaie: Demadware, Diita River,

bri, IBM, Iterop, Maeto, Micro-

Retai, RedPrairie, ad sAP.

Reated Reearc Documet

sMB eCommerce soutio 2012

Apri 12, 2012

Te Aie Commerce Patorm

October 19, 2011

eCommerce Tecoo seectio Ceckit

Apri 4, 2011

T Frrtr Wv™: B2C Cmmrc st,Q3 2012Te soutio Provider Tat Matter Mot Ad how Te stack Up

b Bria K. Waker

wit Peter sedo, Zia Daie Wider, ad li Varo

2

5

10

14

19

sEPTEMBER 24, 2012

http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=RES71982



http://www.forrester.com/go?objectid=BIO1919









http://www.forrester.com/




Te Forreter Wave™: B2C Commerce suite, Q3 2012 2

© 2012, Forreter Reearc, Ic. Reproductio Proibited september 24, 2012

Businesses ConTinue To aggRessiVely inVesT in CoMMeRCe TeChnology

oday, the global retail and business landscape remains uncertain: raditional retail and direct-

to-consumer companies are under ongoing pressure to meet even low-single-digit comp store

increases.1 Yet commerce technology investment remains strong: 56% o companies report plans

to increase spending by 5% or more, and 18% plan to increase spending by at least 20% in 2012

compared with 2011 (see Figure 1).2

Tis level o investment is primarily driven by the ongoing growth o online and mobile channels,

with online retail growth averaging 12% in the US and Europe.3 Online and mobile commerce

are becoming critical components o today’s multichannel customer experience — whether the

customer buys online or not. In a sense, all businesses today are online; increasingly, they must have

a direct-to-consumer strategy, driving the demand or B2C commerce solutions overall. But other

important actors are driving investment in commerce technology, including the need or:

■ Cross-touchpoint solutions. Te way we think o eBusiness technology has undamentally

changed. No longer are businesses selecting a set o solutions and technologies to launch a site;

they are now selecting technologies that can support marketing, shopping, buying, and service

capabilities across a multitude o customer touchpoints. o accomplish this, today’s solutions

must enable consistent core platorm capabilities to manage products, orders, and customer data,

integrating consistently with enterprise systems. At the same time, solutions must be open and

exible to power websites, mobile sites, applications, call center interaces, and in-store options.

Tis requires solutions rameworks, accelerators, and application programming interaces (APIs)

that expose the platorm in such a way to enable developers to much more easily develop new

customer experiences o existing platorm capabilities. Tis represents a signicant evolution

rom the requirements that these solutions have needed to support in the past.

■ Increased exibility. As consumer Internet-connected devices prolierate and incorporate

ecosystems like Amazon.com, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microso, aobao.com, and

encent, it seems that every business is prone to urther disruption.4 Te eBusiness leader

is snarled up trying to connect with, market to, sell to, and serve customers across an ever-

dividing Splinternet.5 Even with the advent o responsive design and HML5 — which may

help simpliy how these experiences are designed and supported — the Splinternet adds to the

complexity and cost o serving customers and puts pressure on enterprise content, marketing,

and commerce platorms to meet these emerging opportunities in an efcient and cost-eective

way.6 While many o these emerging touchpoints are unproven, businesses that can experiment

with, support, scale, and optimize emerging touchpoints have an opportunity to dierentiate

themselves rom competitors and capture new market opportunities.

■ Better order management to handle increased ulllment complexity.oday’s direct-to-

consumer businesses are increasingly leveraging multiple ulllment centers and drop-ship

vendors while adding cross-channel capabilities like ship-to-store and in-store pickup. Wal-






Mart has even enabled customers to order online and then pay with cash when picking up the

order in a store.7 As a result, orders will no longer be ullled rom a single ulllment center.

omorrow’s orders will be sourced rom a wide variety o locations that include not only the

ulllment center but also drop-ship vendors, distributors, stores, and third-party logisticsproviders that may either regionally stage high-demand products or support seasonal inventory

volumes — or both. Order management capabilities are critical to driving a high-quality

consumer experience. Tese capabilities may include business logic to support best-ulllment-

node selection, exible integration with a diverse supply chain, and customer service interaces

to manage issues and exceptions. And to drive protable orders, transportation and ulllment

costs must be actors in how orders are routed and brokered.

■ Support or multiple businesses and regions rom a common inrastructure. oday’s

multichannel businesses are increasingly multisite and multibrand businesses. Tis trend enables

more specic and targeted marketing opportunities or customers; they can also benet rom

search engine optimization (SEO) by enabling the use o more specic terms and metadata to

target related search terms. Innovative merchandising and marketing in areas like ash sales,

social commerce, and mobile commerce are also driving orces behind the need to support a

diverse set o sites and customer touchpoints rom a common inrastructure. But global

commerce has also emerged rom being a nice-to-have requirement to a must-have one — even

though many organizations may not yet be ready to ully invest in standalone sites and businesses

or new global markets. For many businesses, international markets present a long-term

opportunity to grow and diversiy their global retail operations and/or brands.






Figure 1 Commerce Platorm Investment Activity Is Signicant

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.80141

We already have a project underway6%

“When, if at all, are you planning to change your eCommerce platform technology solution?”

Within 12 months9%

12 to 18 months12%

18 to 24 months25%

24 to 36 months20%

More than 36 months5%

We are not planning to replatformin the foreseeable future

17%

Increase more than 20%18%

Increase 5% to 19%38%

Stay about the same44%

Base: 140 eBusiness decision-makers

“How is your investment in eCommerce technology changing in 2012 compared with 2011?”

Base: 140 eBusiness decision-makers(”Don’t know” responses have been removed from this analysis)

Source: May 2012 Global eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professional Online Survey

Note: No respondents told us that investment was decreasing.

More than half of companies plan to replatform in the next 24 months1-2

Companies’ investment in eCommerce technology will increase in 20121-1






T Cmmrc st Mrkt h s M sfct C Rct

Tere have been a large number o mergers and acquisitions in the commerce solutions space over

the past two years, keeping bankers, lawyers, and, indeed, analysts busy. Old alliances have been

torn apart, new portolios ormed, and old sales arguments recongured.

In the past ew years alone, IBM has acquired Sterling Commerce, Coremetrics, and Unica (among

others), proceeding to “blue-wash” the oerings and embark on an aggressive product development

and marketing initiative it terms “Smarter Commerce.” Oracle has acquired Art echnology Group

(AG), Endeca, RightNow echnologies, and FatWire Solutions (again, among others) and sought

to rationalize the product portolio and sales team organization as well as clariy the marketing and

partner messages. Micros-Retail bought Fry Multimedia, integrating the OCP product into Micros

and splitting o Fry as a design shop. RedPrairie acquired Escalate Retail and began to invest in

the Blue Martini product and “clienteling” in-store solutions while shedding some o the product

baggage. eBay acquired GSI Commerce and gained a controlling interest in Intershop while alsoacquiring the remaining portion o Magento that it did not already own. CDC Soware bought

relatively little-known commerce solution ruition and has struggled to re-energize it. And lastly,

we saw Demandware execute an initial public oering, rendering its soware-as-a-service (SaaS)

business model and product strategy open or all to scrutinize and evaluate. Phew!

Tere may not be many signicant independent players le in the market, but we can expect

partnering and potential changes o control to be ongoing orces as payments providers, content

management system vendors, enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors, and point-o-sale (POS)

vendors all react to the changing dynamics in their industry — especially the overwhelming need to

be multichannel, multitouchpoint, agile commerce solutions.8 We will also see many startups orm,

SMB players move upmarket, emerging market solutions gain worldwide interest, and many pointsolutions added to the rosters o the commerce solutions providers.

B2C CoMMeRCe suiTe eValuaTion oVeRVieW

o assess how well the B2C commerce suite vendors meet the evolving needs o the market and to

determine how the vendors stack up against each other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and

weaknesses o top B2C commerce platorm vendors across a range o business and technology criteria.

T Fc o or B2C Cmmrc st Frrtr Wv

Our Forrester Wave evaluation ocuses on the requirements and needs o the direct-to-consumer

online retail business. We have principally ocused on products that enable:

■ Direct-to-consumer commerce shopping and customer experiences.Tese capabilities include

search/browse, rich shopping cart unctionality, product comparison, promotions,

personalization, cross-sells, wish lists, registries, multichannel ordering, rich Internet application

(RIA) support, customer data management, marketing tools, and customer sel-service.






■ Multitouchpoint and site management, content management, and business optimization.

Tese tools include product content management, web content management (WCM), online

marketing, analytics and testing, security, order management, and customer service.

■ Te common integration needs o online retailers. Tese include integration to ERP systems,

merchandise planning systems, content management systems, customer service and customer

relationship management (CRM) systems, inventory management systems, nance and

accounting management systems, and business intelligence (BI) solutions.

hw W hv evv or evt o B2C Cmmrc st

We have taken a hard look at the requirements o our B2C commerce clients to understand how this

year’s evaluation needed to evolve, driven by the nature o the many inquiries and projects where

we support clients directly in their commerce technology selection projects. We made a number o changes that have aected the criteria, scoring, and weighting within the Forrester Wave since our

evaluation o B2C commerce platorms in Q4 2010, including:

■ An increased emphasis on order management. While we increased the number o order

management criteria in our Q4 2010 B2C eCommerce platorm evaluation, we have urther

emphasized this capability in the criteria and their weighting in this evaluation. Tis is driven by

the increased complexity o clients’ B2C ulllment scenarios, leveraging multiple ulllment

centers, drop-ship vendors, participation in marketplaces, and use o physical retail stores as both

pickup points and ulllment locations. Increasingly, clients are looking to solve all direct orders

via the commerce system, including the Web, phone, and mobile, as well as to support orders

initiated or ullled in stores. And that solution must also span multiple sites and geographies.While existing ERP systems and warehouse management systems may have capabilities in these

areas, B2C companies are increasingly looking or third-party systems that specialize in order

management to meet these needs. Pairing these systems with commerce platorms is

advantageous, given that the platorms increasingly power multiple customer touchpoints.

■ An increased emphasis on site, product, and web content management.Product content

management and WCM capabilities are not new requirements or most commerce platorms, but

the stakes and the solutions have continued to increase as the sources o product content —

editorial, vendor-supplied, syndicated, and user-generated — have grown. Businesses are

increasingly seeking tools to improve workow and efciency, as well as tools that allow them to

leverage a variety o content across touchpoints and user experiences. Tis desire or greater

control over the customer experience — minimizing the need or developer or I intervention

or every change — is a common reason why businesses are looking to migrate rom homegrown

solutions or their existing rst- or second-generation commerce solutions. Te growth o

branded sites, ash sale sites, and globalization as well as the ongoing ocus on SEO continue to

be key drivers or improved content and site management tools.






■ A ocus on global multichannel and multitouchpoint product strategy. When evaluating

the strength o a vendor’s product strategy, we looked or a number o leading-edge strategic

capabilities that we expect to become increasingly important. Tese include “ront-end”

capabilities such as multichannel/multitouchpoint site management capabilities, mobile

commerce, and in-store and call center solutions. We also included “back-end” suite

integration across critical modules or merchandising, site and content management, and order

management. We also looked at the accelerator or “starter store” (reerence application) that the

solutions provide, and we examined support or multiple ownership and operating models, such

as on-premises, managed/hosted, and SaaS solutions with multiple remuneration models, such

as license, revenue share, and utilization. We also looked at how well these vendors understand

their clients and their clients’ business problems and how they work to build and rene their

product strategy as a result.

or evt Cvr a R o st T — Frm lc T ss

In this evaluation, Forrester ocused on the leading commerce platorms or direct-to-consumer

online retailing — or B2C commerce. Evaluated solutions include a variety o delivery models and

the vendors that oer their solutions across these delivery models, including:

■ On-premises licensed soware platorms. Tese applications can be implemented and run in-

house by internal I resources, or they may be supported via various outsourcing models on a

client’s behal. ypically, these platorms will oer the most exibility over time. Oen, systems

integrators (SIs) or commerce services providers (CSPs) implement and support these solutions.9

■ Hosted/managed platorms. Close cousins o licensed soware applications, the vendors thatoer hosted/managed platorms typically implement and run applications on behal o a client,

reducing the internal I resources required to a bare minimum. A ew hosted/managed

application vendors also allow clients to install and run applications internally via a license model.

■ SaaS platorms. SaaS solutions rely on a multi-instance application, where many clients use

the same technology and hosting environment. Tese solutions typically cost less to run, oer

the benets o shared development and support, and may be implemented more efciently or

clients. Downsides in the past have been a lack o exibility and control and a sense that the

development needs o an individual client may be subject to the needs o the vendor or its larger

clients. Tis concern appears to be lessening as SaaS solutions continue to mature.

hw T Crtr ar orz

Aer examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we

developed a comprehensive set o evaluation criteria. We evaluated vendors against 75 criteria,

which we grouped into three high-level buckets:






■ Current ofering. Te criteria we selected to assess the strength o companies’ current oerings

are weighted heavily toward business user tools — a requirement that commerce executives have

told us is critical as marketing and merchandising take the ront seat in commerce strategies. We

evaluated each oering against 15 groups o criteria: solution architecture; technology

architecture; multisite management; multiple device/touchpoint support; catalog, product

content, and site content management; B2C eCommerce eatures; marketing tools; customer

account management; customer service; order management; reporting and analytics; security;

community and social commerce; globalization/internationalization; and proessional services.

■ Strategy. We compared the strategies o each company with the needs o commerce executives,

industry trends, and Forrester’s orward-looking vision o the commerce market to assess how

well each vendor is positioned or uture success. We examined each vendor’s product road map;

planned B2C enhancements; target market and B2C ocus; key technology partners and channel

strategy; commerce service providers; and cost o ownership.

■ Market presence. Many rms support online businesses with technology orphaned by vendors

that struggled to be protable or have gone out o business. eBusiness and I executives

must look or vendors with a strong and stable installed base, steady growth, and a network

o partners and resellers. o determine the current market presence or our evaluation, we

combined inormation about each vendor’s installed base, new customers, revenue, revenue

growth, and the nancial resources to support the strategy and product development.

T B2C Cmmrc st ar T Bt o T Bt

Forrester included 10 vendors in this assessment: Demandware, Digital River, hybris, IBM,Intershop, Magento, Micros-Retail, Oracle (AG), RedPrairie, and SAP.10 While we considered

including a large number o companies oering commerce solutions or this assessment, each o the

vendors we included has (see Figure 2):

■ A signicant ocus on — and market presence in — enterprise B2C commerce solutions.

Although many o the vendors included in this assessment serve clients in other market

segments — such as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-government (B2G), and business-

to-employee (B2E) — each has a ocused product oering or its established B2C commerce

customer base as well as an ongoing to commitment to B2C commerce clients.

■ A protable or stable business with at least $20 million in revenues and client momentum.

o ensure that the vendors we evaluated will remain viable in this evolving market, Forrester

limited its analysis to companies that have the resources and momentum to sustain themselves

through variable market conditions. Each o these companies has a minimum o $20 million in

annual commerce solution product sales, is protable or indicates it is approaching protability,

and has at least 50 existing clients as well as positive sales momentum.






■ Te ability to support enterprise-class commerce clients across multiple B2C verticals.

Forrester denes enterprise-class commerce as websites transacting more than $100 million in

online sales annually. Many clients o the assessed vendors may be transacting less than this, but

these solutions are running one or more sites at this level and have demonstrated this capability

across clients in multiple B2C verticals. Vendors that primarily serve clients in one specic

vertical, such as soware or media, were not included in this report.11

Forrester did not include companies in this assessment with a primary ocus in other related market

segments, such as:

■ B2B-ocused solutions with limited current B2C commerce capabilities.We may consider

companies like BigMachines, Igniy, Insite Soware, NetSuite, and Oracle’s Siebel in the uture

as their B2C commerce capabilities evolve, but they do not have a mature B2C-ocused solution

today. We may evaluate these, as well as many o the companies represented in this B2Ccommerce suite evaluation, in upcoming research ocused on B2B commerce. Past research is

also available or B2B commerce solutions.12

■ Solutions ocused on small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). Tis includes solutions rom

companies such as Amazon.com (Webstore by Amazon), eBay (ProStores), Shopiy, Volusion,

and Yahoo (Yahoo Merchant Solutions), which tend to serve clients operating with less than $10

million in annual online revenues. However, we have written research on these and many other

SMB commerce solutions in North America and Europe.13

■ Full-service solutions aimed at providing a suite o capabilities or commerce companies.

We have written separate research on and an overview o the capabilities o ull-service solutionslike Amazon, eCommera, GSI Commerce, ModusLink Global Solutions, OneStop, PFSweb, and

Speed FC.14

■ Digital- or media-ocused solutions. Tese providers ocus their solutions on media, soware,

online subscriptions, and other virtual or digital goods. We have written separate research on

vendors that specialize in the unique requirements o selling digital goods, including asknet,

Avangate, BlueSnap’s Plimus, cleverbridge, and Elastic Path Soware.15 Digital River, a provider

included in the current B2C commerce suite evaluation, also oers solutions or this market.






Figure 2 Evaluated Vendors: Vendor Inormation And Selection Criteria

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

Vendor

Demandware

Digital River

hybris

IBM

Intershop

Magento

Micros-Retail

RedPrairie

SAP

Product version

evaluated

SaaS

SaaS

4.7

7.0

7.0

1.11

4.0

2012.1

WCEM 2.0

Vendor selection criteria

The vendor’s product was generally available at the time of data collection, with at least three referencesavailable for contact.

The vendor has a focused product oering for, an established customer base in, and an ongoingcommitment to B2C commerce.

The vendor generates at least $20 million in annual eCommerce platform software and services sales, isprotable, and has at least 50 clients with positive sales momentum.

The vendor demonstrates the ability to support enterprise-class direct-to-consumer businesses with salesof more than $100 million per year with the product evaluated.

B2C CoMMeRCe suiTes haVe eVolVed suBsTanTially

Since our last evaluation in 2010, we have seen the welcome evolution o many commerce platorms

and solution suites. Tis evolution is driven in part by solution providers’ ocus on changing clientrequirements, as well as by the signicant merger and acquisition activity over the past two years.

Since our earlier detailed evaluation, we have seen dramatic improvements and advances rom many

o the evaluated solution providers as well as across the market as a whole. As a group, these systems

are poised to support their clients as they increasingly move into multichannel and multitouchpoint

commerce and support the next generation o customer shopping and research touchpoints.

However, our evaluation also highlights very important dierentiators and models this year.






Our evaluation uncovered a diverse and complex market in which (see Figure 3):

■ IBM, hybris, Oracle, and Demandware lead the pack. IBM, hybris, and Oracle oer strong

eCommerce capabilities, the ability to support multiple touchpoints and multichannelrequirements, and strong or very strong business management tools. IBM has the lead in order

management capabilities with its Sterling Commerce solution, whereas hybris and Oracle have

less mature solutions in this area. Demandware oers a SaaS solution with strong multisite

and eective merchandising tools, but its order management solution is nascent and aimed at

smaller and less complex clients at this stage. IBM, hybris, and Oracle oer traditional soware

application licensing models but have also worked to add exibility that utilizes third-party

hosted/managed or SaaS models.16

■ Micros-Retail, Intershop, RedPrairie, and Digital River ofer compelling solutions. Each

o these vendors oers strong eCommerce capabilities, with varying multitouchpoint and

multichannel capabilities. Each oers strong to moderately strong eCommerce eatures and

moderately eective business management tools, but the vendors vary considerably in areas

such as product catalog management, WCM, order management, and support or globalization/

internationalization. Micros-Retail oers strong merchandising tools, dierentiated testing,

and eective site and content management tools. Intershop has made signicant strides, largely

through leveraging its relationship with GSI and their joint “next-generation” V11 project, but

the company still lags the market leaders. RedPrairie has combined the ormer Escalate Retail

Blue Martini product with its order management system (OMS), call center, and supply chain

solutions, but it has yet to see the benet o its investment in the core eCommerce solution.

Digital River is largely geared toward smaller enterprise or midmarket clients, and it continues

to ocus on consumer electronics, soware, and manuacturing clients.

■ SAP and Magento lag behind. Tese two vendors can oer well-placed solutions or the right

client, but they lag behind the competition as solutions or the enterprise B2C eCommerce

client. SAP’s solution is unique in this evaluation as the product is not intended to really stand

alone as a commerce platorm; rather, it aims to help SAP ERP/CRM customers extend that

product to support eCommerce. While holding promise in terms o reducing integration

complexity and simpliying the management o the solution — especially or on-premises,

I-led programs — the combined solution requires third-party CMS tools and lacks overall

competitive capabilities when compared with the wider market. Magento is a commercial open

source solution that has enjoyed remarkable success since it launched its open source product —

Magneto Community Edition — targeting small businesses ve years ago. However, at its core,

the “enterprise edition” remains geared toward these smaller clients, with the extensions that

target more sophisticated clients alling short.






Tis evaluation o the enterprise B2C commerce suite market is intended to be a starting point only.

We encourage readers to view the detailed product evaluations and adapt the criteria weightings to

t their individual needs through the Forrester Wave Excel-based vendor comparison tool. We also

encourage clients to review the research on other solutions types and segments and to leverage theirinquiry access to learn more beore beginning a selection process.

Figure 3 Forrester Wave™: B2C Commerce Suites, Q3 ’12


Go online to download

the Forrester Wave tool

for more detailed product

evaluations, feature

comparisons, and

customizable rankings.

RiskyBets Contenders Leaders

StrongPerformers

StrategyWeak Strong

Current

oering

Weak

Strong

SAPMagento

Digital RiverRedPrairie

IntershopMicros-Retail

Demandware

hybris

IBM

Market presence

Full vendor participation

Incomplete vendor participation

Oracle ATG






Figure 3 Forrester Wave™: B2C Commerce Suites, Q3 ’12 (Cont.)


CURRENT OFFERING

Solution architecture

Technology architecture

Multisite management

Multiple device/touchpoint support

Catalog, product content,

and site content management

B2C eCommerce features

Marketing toolsCustomer account management

Customer service

Order management

Reporting and analytics

Security

Community and social commerce

Globalization/internationalization

Professional services

STRATEGY

Product road map

Planned B2C enhancements

(next 24 months)Target market and B2C focus

Key technology partners and

channel strategy

Commerce service providers

Cost of ownership

MARKET PRESENCE

Installed base for this version of

the product

New customers (past 12 months)

Revenue

Revenue growthFinancial resources

F o r r e s t e r ’ s

W e i g h t i n g

50%

5%

5%

7%

5%

15%

10%

5%5%

5%

15%

3%

5%

2%

10%

3%

50%

50%

30%

10%

5%

5%

0%

0%

30%

20%

25%

15%10%

D e m a n d w a r e

4.02

3.35

3.90

4.00

5.00

4.00

4.20

4.154.00

3.50

3.52

3.65

5.00

4.00

4.45

3.90

4.05

4.00

4.00

4.00

5.00

4.00

3.00

3.05

3.00

3.00

2.00

5.003.00

D i g i t a l R i v e r

3.13

1.90

2.80

3.00

2.00

2.51

2.75

3.054.00

3.00

3.27

3.35

5.00

3.00

4.20

3.55

2.45

2.00

3.00

4.00

3.00

0.00

1.00

3.55

4.00

3.00

5.00

2.002.00

h y b r i s

4.31

4.45

4.30

5.00

4.00

4.79

4.40

4.504.00

4.00

4.28

4.00

3.00

3.00

4.55

3.90

4.10

4.00

4.00

5.00

3.00

5.00

3.00

3.90

4.00

4.00

3.00

5.004.00

I B M

4.53

5.00

4.50

5.00

4.00

4.00

4.35

4.555.00

4.50

4.53

4.65

5.00

4.00

4.85

4.35

4.70

5.00

4.00

5.00

5.00

5.00

4.00

4.70

5.00

5.00

5.00

3.005.00

I n t e r s h o p

3.57

4.00

3.30

3.00

3.00

3.52

3.40

3.504.00

3.00

3.27

3.35

5.00

3.00

4.45

3.45

3.10

3.00

3.00

4.00

3.00

3.00

4.00

2.55

3.00

2.00

2.00

3.003.00

M a g e n t o

2.45

2.00

2.60

2.00

3.00

2.30

2.50

2.603.00

2.50

2.24

2.60

2.00

2.00

3.00

2.45

2.60

2.00

3.00

3.00

4.00

4.00

5.00

3.25

4.00

4.00

2.00

3.003.00

M i c r o s - R e t

a i l

3.58

3.45

4.00

3.00

3.00

3.97

3.90

3.654.00

3.50

3.83

3.80

3.00

3.00

3.00

3.65

3.00

3.00

3.00

4.00

3.00

1.00

2.00

2.55

1.00

2.00

4.00

3.004.00

R e d P r a i r i e

3.32

3.00

3.30

3.00

4.00

3.00

3.35

3.753.00

3.50

4.07

2.60

3.00

3.00

3.00

3.45

3.00

3.00

3.00

4.00

3.00

1.00

2.00

2.25

2.00

2.00

2.00

3.003.00

S A P

2.59

2.45

2.80

2.00

2.00

2.30

2.20

2.153.00

3.00

3.06

2.20

3.00

3.00

3.10

2.35

2.00

2.00

2.00

2.00

2.00

2.00

0.00

3.60

3.00

4.00

3.00

5.004.00

All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).






VendoR pRoFiles

lr prv Rbt a Fxb Cmmrc Cbt

Leaders in our B2C commerce suite evaluation include:

■ IBM. IBM’s WebSphere Commerce represents a highly exible and scalable enterprise B2C

eCommerce solution; it shows signicant adoption within the top tier o eCommerce retailers and

continued successul growth. Te suite is strengthened through the added capabilities o IBM’s

Sterling Commerce OMS solution along with the Coremetrics and Unica product integrations.

Te IBM solution combines a rich set o eCommerce capabilities with a exible service-oriented

architecture (SOA) and integration capability, enabling the product to be extended and

customized. However, clients have reported concerns over the total cost o ownership, as IBM’s

solutions are less contemporary and use ewer open source elements and conventions that today’s

developers are able to learn quickly. Business user tools such as the IBM Management Center haveevolved, although they are no longer industry-leading, necessitating urther investment by IBM.

IBM has a very strong product strategy ocused on core product enhancements as well as the

building out o a comprehensive suite o multichannel capabilities. A soon-to-be-released SaaS

oering combining WebSphere Commerce and Sterling Commerce in a cloud-based ormat will

be a compelling option or clients that may otherwise be drawn to Demandware.

■ hybris. As a solution, hybris has continued to mature over the past two years — and gained

market share quickly as a result. Specically, hybris has made signicant improvements to its

product’s site management tools, content management tools, and order management capabilities.

While hybris severed its relationship with Endeca (which was acquired by Oracle), the company

acquired iCongo in a creative deal that made iCongo’s key investors the lead ownership groupo hybris.17 aking advantage o the team and solution experience at iCongo, hybris turned to

redevelop an OMS solution and hosted oering. Its progress in these areas is notable or an

enterprise soware solution, illustrating the contemporary nature o the hybris architecture.

Te key dierentiators o hybris remain strong product content management tools, catalog

management, enterprise integration, and globalization/internationalization capabilities. Its

eCommerce eatures have also matured notably, and there is a well-dened ability to extend the

product and customize it to develop dierentiated eCommerce sites across a variety o verticals.

Tis remains a young company growing very quickly, which continues to raise questions o the

potential or over-commitment to clients by either hybris or its partners, which are adding and

scaling their hybris-trained teams exceptionally quickly.

■ Oracle. Oracle declined to participate in this evaluation directly; however, Oracle’s AG continues

to be a leader in B2C eCommerce platorm solutions. A number o actors have led to a perceived

loss in position among the best-o-breed solution providers. First and oremost was the acquisition

o AG by Oracle. Customers are eager to understand how Oracle is tting AG into its overall

Oracle soware and solution oerings, which is only now beginning to be communicated. A series






o related acquisitions — such as RightNow, FatWire, and, most notably, Endeca — has

complicated matters. Despite that, AG combines a strong and well-rounded eCommerce eature

set with an array o targeting, personalization, and customer interaction tools. Oracle’s unique

dierentiator at this point is the opportunity to combine AG and Endeca, adding search-drivencustomer experience management to a commerce platorm oering — something that Oracle is

just beginning to execute. However, Oracle’s order management solutions — eBusiness suite, Siebel,

and Fusion Distributed Order Orchestration (DOO) — are not as strong or B2C multichannel

applications. Te biggest question or prospective Oracle customers at this point is its vision or

AG, Endeca, RightNow, and Fusion DOO as an integrated commerce solution oering.

■ Demandware. Demandware has improved its solution in terms o our evaluation perhaps more

than any other solution rom our previous evaluations. Demandware accomplished this through

signicantly improved site and content management tools; the addition o a still relatively basic

but improving order management and call center solution; the addition o commerce service

providers to support client integrations; and the development o open commerce APIs to extend

the platorm. Demandware’s LINK program remains a dierentiator, along with its developer

portals and customer training. Look or Demandware to continue to improve its business

management tools and the sophistication o its integration capabilities. While it remains

committed to its revenue share model, Demandware appears ready to introduce an alternative

“utilization” model soon, aimed at larger prospective clients and partners.

str prrmr B drt strt Wt sm Wk

Strong Perormers in our B2C commerce solution evaluation include:

■ Micros-Retail. Micros-Retail has completed the integration o the Fry solutions into its

oerings, spitting out the services and products while pulling the Fry OCP commerce solution

into MICROS and turning what was le o Fry into an interactive agency ocused principally

on MICROS customers. While the OCP product remains a very strong eCommerce solution

with key dierentiators in areas such as merchandising and customer targeting, MICROS has

yet to ully integrate its order management and call center solutions with the OCP product so

that it can sell and support these eectively as a suite. It seems the product development traction

was aected by MICROS’ decision to develop a lodgings-industry-ocused product based on

OCP; it also showed some indecisiveness in integrating the Fry product and sales teams with

MICROS. However, MICROS has a signicant opportunity to leverage OCP and its other

commerce oerings in a well-integrated multichannel and multitouchpoint solution with the

right investment. Customers will want to see urther development o a MICROS OCP partner

network as well as improved hosted oerings or MICROS to be ully competitive.






■ Intershop. Intershop has made signicant progress since our last evaluation, although it still

has room to improve beore becoming a best-o-breed solution. Te core improvements in

the Intershop product came rom the joint development work it did with GSI Commerce and

a number o supporting partners. Many o these improvements are in the latest versions o

Intershop and in GSI’s next-generation V11 product, and they will continue to become evident

over time. However, it still needs to deliver improved site and content management tools that

business users can leverage, minimizing the need or ongoing developer and I support. Many

o Intershop’s largest clients have reported improved satisaction with Intershop, but they are

also more reliant than ever on Intershop’s proessional services or support. Intershop has basic

order management and product content management capabilities, but many more sophisticated

customers will require third-party solutions in these areas. While Intershop has beneted

rom the controlling stake that GSI (and now eBay) have taken in the company, there remains

a nagging lack o clarity as to the long-term role that Intershop will play in an eBay or GSI

Commerce solutions oering. Tis lack o clarity will continue to plague Intershop’s customerand partner growth, particularly in North America.

■ RedPrairie. RedPrairie acquired Escalate Retail and its collection o commerce solutions —

including Blue Martini, Ecometry, and GERS Retail Systems. Te company has perormed some

surgical product portolio rationalization and combined these dierent solutions with RedPrairie’s

order management and supply chain solutions. On paper, this combination makes or a dynamic

capability set able to meet the eCommerce, OMS, CRM, and supply chain management

requirements o retailers looking to embrace multichannel retailing across digital touchpoints.

However, RedPrairie’s Blue Martini commerce platorm lags the market-leading solutions in

support or enterprise B2C commerce. RedPrairie has already made a notable investment in its

platorm and integration with other RedPrairie products, and this continued ocus on eCommercebusiness solutions and multichannel eatures will be very important or current and uture clients.

Focus may be a challenge or RedPrairie as it looks to add commerce platorm solutions to its base

supply chain and transportation management oerings, but it has a strong vision and appears

committed to developing solutions or its core retail and grocery markets.

■ Digital River. Digital River is best known or supporting soware clients’ eCommerce needs

with checkout, payment, and digital and physical ulllment needs. But as that market has

plateaued to some degree and new entrants have challenged Digital River’s market dominance,

Digital River has diversied into providing broader B2C commerce capabilities. However, the

solution remains somewhat limited by this heritage and lacks the eatures to compete as a best-

o-breed multichannel and multitouchpoint solution. Digital River will appeal to consumer

electronics and digital goods companies looking or a discrete eCommerce solution paired with

ull-service capabilities such as payments, ulllment, and customer service. Digital River has

some strengths in globalization, payments, and security.






Ctr prt uq ortt

Contenders in our B2C commerce solution evaluation include:

■ SAP. SAP Web Channel Experience Management is a solution long in development by SAP.

Te product is implemented in either an on-premises or hosted/managed ashion. Te goal o

the solution is to enable a client with a heavy investment in SAP’s ERP and CRM solutions to

leverage that capability in online commerce. Tereore, areas such as order management and

customer service are inherently intended to leverage the other SAP applications. However, SAP’s

Web Channel Experience Management solution also assumes you will run the digital channels

o CMS solutions, such as SAP’s preerred partner CoreMedia, which notably has little market

presence outside Northern Europe. Tis assumed level o both SAP investment and reliance

on third-party solutions or such central commerce capabilities will limit the appeal o the SAP

solution, though it will be a great t or some. Ultimately, though, many competitive solutions

also integrate deeply with SAP, making SAP Web Channel Experience Management perhaps lessappealing as a standalone solution.

■ Magento. Magento’s growth over the past ew years has been remarkable. apping into a PHP

developer and agency community with a low-cost or ree licensing model and a well-matched set

o solution capabilities or the small online business, Magento has also made inroads in the

midmarket and enterprise market. However, upon close evaluation, Magento still lacks the core

eatures and partner extensions to compete in the enterprise arena, with particular gaps in areas

like CMS, OMS, and customer service eatures. Magento is a strong t or a smaller online

business inside a larger enterprise — such as a smaller brand or emerging market solution — and

will continue to appeal to companies seeking a high degree o customization on the platorm, but

the solution lacks many o the multichannel capabilities required today. Te development o eBay’s X.commerce web services solution — which eBay dubs a “abric” — may enable Magento

to add these eatures through partners more eectively at some point in the uture.

Tr ar M imrtt pr B T W evt hr

Te commerce solutions market is a diverse one, and there are additional solutions that may be

relevant to companies looking or a commerce platorm or services. Tere are numerous platorms

to support companies o dierent sizes, levels o sophistication, geographies, as well as dierent

channels and touchpoints. Some additional solutions to consider include:

■ MarketLive. MarketLive oers an eective product aimed at the midmarket eCommerce

retailer, and it continues to gain momentum in the midmarket specialty retail segment with

a well-priced and well-rounded solution. MarketLive has also improved options or working

with its integration partners or a customer’s own I sta or launching and optimizing a site

post-launch. MarketLive has more than doubled its R&D investment over the past several years

with a ocus on expanded merchant tools, order management, and content management, which

continues to position it well in the midmarket specialty retailer solution segment.






■ GSI Commerce. GSI has been hard at work over the past ew years — together with Intershop

and a number o partners — in developing its next-generation V11 platorm. Te platorm

holds much promise or both GSI and its customers, not to mention GSI’s parent, eBay. For

GSI, the new platorm will be an important departure rom a model in which GSI sta had to

execute almost every change and update to the site on a client’s behal; it will move to one in

which customers will have sel-service business management tools and GSI will be much less

involved day to day. Alongside the Intershop-based commerce platorm, GSI has developed

a Sterling Commerce-based retail OMS and a business intelligence (BI) suite or reporting

capability, both o which may prove to be key dierentiators. However, migrating customers to

this next-generation platorm is a signicant undertaking raught with risks, and impatient and

rustrated customers will add to the challenge.

■ Elastic Path Soware. Elastic Path is an eective eCommerce solution but has some limitations

that reect its specic vertical ocus. Elastic Path now largely ocuses on digital goods andsubscriptions, making it relevant to the media, telecom, and soware industries in particular.

Tese industries have a subset o eCommerce requirements that dier rom those o other B2C

eCommerce verticals, although these are oen very specialized. As a result, areas such as WCM,

product content management, and order management receive much less ocus or require third-

party solutions as well as Elastic Path. Somewhat uniquely, Elastic Path ships source code with

its application and leverages many common open source rameworks and products, enabling

developers to extend and customize the product widely. However, Elastic Path has struggled to

develop partners to support clients, limiting its growth as a commerce solution.

■ Ascentium. Late in 2011, Microso announced that it was dropping its Commerce Server

product; this had been the market leader in the early days o eCommerce but had lagged inour recent evaluations. Ascentium — through its acquisition o Cactus Commerce — became

the beneciary o Microso’s exit rom the commerce solutions market; Microso handed

the Commerce Server product over to Ascentium due to its history o building the product

and technical expertise with it.18 With that transition complete and with customer and partner

support in place, Ascentium is now beginning to invest in the Commerce Server product and is

developing compelling partnerships that will help it attempt to regain relevance as an enterprise

commerce solution. Tis will be a challenge or a product that today resides within an agency

and that may lack the resources needed to innovate and invest, but it is welcome news or a

market in need o Microso-centric enterprise commerce solutions.






suppleMenTal MaTeRial

o Rrc

Te online version o Figure 3 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed

product evaluations and customizable rankings.

dt src u i T Frrtr Wv

Forrester used a combination o our data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses o each

solution:

■ Hands-on scenario-based lab evaluations. Vendors spent one day with a team o analysts who

perormed a hands-on evaluation o the product using a scenario-based testing methodology.

We evaluated each product using the same scenario(s), creating a level playing eld by evaluating every product on the same criteria. Scenarios or this evaluation ocused on routine

commerce management and content tasks. For more on scenario-based evaluation, reer to our

report on the scenario-based commerce technology evaluation process.19

■ Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluation

criteria. Once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor calls where

necessary to gather details o vendor qualications.

■ Product demos. We asked vendors to conduct demonstrations o their product’s unctionality.

We used ndings rom these product demos to validate details o each vendor’s product

capabilities. Demos or this evaluation ocused on core commerce eatures, dierentiation o theproducts, and the business user tools used to manage client sites.

■ Customer reerence calls. o validate product and vendor qualications, Forrester also

conducted reerence calls with two o each vendor’s current customers.

T Frrtr Wv Mt

We conduct primary research to develop a list o vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated

in this market. From that initial pool o vendors, we then narrow our nal list. We choose these

vendors based on: 1) product t; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate

vendors that have limited customer reerences and products that don’t t the scope o our evaluation.

Aer examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop

the initial evaluation criteria. o evaluate the vendors and their products against our set o criteria, we

gather details o product qualications through a combination o lab evaluations, questionnaires,

demos, and/or discussions with client reerences. We send evaluations to the vendors or their review,

and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view o vendor oerings and strategies.






We set deault weightings to reect our analysis o the needs o large user companies — and/or

other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave document — and then score the vendors based

on a clearly dened scale. Tese deault weightings are intended only as a starting point, and we

encourage readers to adapt the weightings to t their individual needs through the Excel-basedtool. Te nal scores generate the graphical depiction o the market based on current oering,

strategy, and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product

capabilities and vendor strategies evolve.

endnoTes

1 Comp-store reers to comparable store sales. Tis compares retail sales at stores open or more than one

year and is a metric that’s commonly used to gauge the perormance o retail stores.

2 Source: May 2012 Global eBusiness & Channel Strategy Proessional Online Survey o 66 eBusiness and

channel strategy proessionals.3 Source: Forrester Research Online Retail Forecast, 2012 o 2016 (US) and Forrester Research Online Retail

Forecast, 2011 o 2016 (Western Europe).

4 Interaction ecosystems include the combination o Apple’s iOS, Mac OS, iunes marketplace, and Apple V,

or example. Other interaction ecosystems include: Google’s Android, Chrome OS, Wallet, and Google+;

Microso’s Windows 8, Ofce, Bing, and Xbox; and Facebook. Oen, these ecosystems are combined and

integrated with third-party services to develop innovative opportunities to interact with, sell to, and serve

customers.

5 For more on the Splinternet, see the January 26, 2010, “he Splinternet” report.

6 For more on responsive design, see the July 12, 2012, “Understanding Responsive Design” report.

7 Source: Christine Hauser, “Growth in Retail Sales Slows From Last Year’s Numbers,” Te New York imes,

July 5, 2012 (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/business/economy/retail-sales-ell-short-in-june.html).

8 For a vision o the commerce platorm o the uture, see the October 19, 2011, “he Agile Commerce

Platorm” report.

9 For more on systems integrators and commerce services providers, see the February 24, 2012, “he

Forrester Wave™: Global Commerce Service Providers, Q1 2012” report and see the February 9, 2012, “How

o Select A Commerce Services Provider” report.

10 While Oracle chose not to provide ull inormation or its solution, we placed it in the Forrester Wave based

on our knowledge o Oracle’s solution rom past analysis and publicly available inormation in order to

provide a complete picture o the competitive landscape.

11 For an overview o digital-goods-ocused commerce solutions, see the November 7, 2011, “Market

Overview: Digital Commerce Solutions 2011” report.

12 For an overview o B2B eCommerce platorms, see the December 7, 2009, “Market Overview: B2B

eCommerce Platorms” report.






























13 For an overview o SMB-oriented eCommerce solutions, see the April 12, 2012, “SMB eCommerce

Solutions 2012” report.

14 For an overview o the ull-service eCommerce solutions marketplace, see the October 31, 2008, “Market

Overview: Full-Service eCommerce Solutions” report.

15 For an overview o digital-goods-ocused commerce solutions, see the November 7, 2011, “Market

Overview: Digital Commerce Solutions 2011” report.

16 Note that hosted/managed and SaaS oerings rom IBM, hybris, and Oracle dier in a number o ways

rom the ull enterprise soware licensed product reviewed in this report.

17 For more on the hybris acquisition o iCongo and what it means or the market, read the ollowing blog

post: Brian K. Walker, “hybris & iCongo Come ogether: What It Means,” Brian Walker’s Blog For eBusiness

& Channel Strategy Professionals, August 22, 2011 (http://blogs.orrester.com/brian_walker/11-08-22-

hybris_icongo_come_together_what_it_means).

18 Cactus Commerce was actively engaged in product development or Microso’s Commerce Server or many

years prior to its acquisition by Ascentium.

19 For more on using scenarios in technology evaluation, see the May 17, 2010, “Scenario-Based eCommerce

echnology Evaluation Process” report.



















Forreter Reearc, Ic. (nadaq: FORR) i a idepedet reearc compa tat provide pramatic ad orward-tiki advice to

oba eader i buie ad tecoo Forreter work wit proeioa i 17 ke roe at major compaie providi proprietar

«

Forrester Focuses On

eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Repoibe or buidi a muticae ae ad ervice trate,

ou mut optimize ow peope, procee, ad tecoo adapt

acro a rapid evovi et o cutomer toucpoit. Forreter

ep ou create orward-tiki trateie to juti deciioad optimize our idividua, team, ad corporate perormace.

ERIC CHANG, client persona representing eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

About Forrester

goba marketi ad trate eader tur to Forreter to ep

tem make te tou deciio ecear to capitaize o it

i marketi, tecoo, ad coumer beavior. We eure our

ucce b providi:

nData-drive iit to udertad te impact o cai

coumer beavior.

nForward-ooki reearc ad aai to uide our deciio.

nObjective advice o too ad tecooie to coect ou wit

cutomer.

nBet practice or marketi ad cro-cae trate.

foR moRE INfoRmAtIoN

o nd out how Forrester Research can help you be successul every day, please

contact the ofce nearest you, or visit us at www.orrester.com. For a complete list

o worldwide locations, visit www.orrester.com/about.

ClIENt suppoRt

For inormation on hard-copy or electronic reprints, please contact Client Support

at +1 866.367.7378, +1 617.613.5730, or [email protected] . We oer

quantity discounts and special pricing or academic and nonprot institutions.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.forrester.com/

mailto:[email protected]

Forrester Wave b2c Commerce 3q12

Documents

Transcript of Forrester Wave b2c Commerce 3q12