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Gartner has placed IBM’s digital commerce offering in the number one place for ‘completeness of vision’ and in the top three for ‘ability to execute’ compared with competitors.

 

The Gartner Magic Quadrant, outlined in its September report, ‘Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce‘, plots ecommerce software providers into one of four quadrants: leaders, challengers, visionaries and niche players.

Gartner developed the Magic Quadrant product comparison tool to help guide the investment decisions of business and IT leaders and C-level executives.

While IBM, Oracle and SAP (hybris) are the market leaders, Demandware and Digital River are examples of those viewed as challengers with a lower ‘completeness of vision’.

Niche players include NetSuite, Volusion and Intershop.

Gartner defines the digital commerce software market as maturing. It continued to grow in 2013, exceeding $3.4 billion sales. It is expected to continue growing at a 13.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2012 and 2017.

 

FEATURED RESOURCE: Download a complimentary copy of the ‘Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce’ here »

 

As an increasing number of mergers occur, the established vendors are extending their platforms.

“Incumbent vendors are investing in building out their commerce platforms and those in adjacent areas, such as search, order management and marketing – both through organic development and acquisition,” the report says.

Vendors that fit into the leadership category “demonstrate the optimal blend of insight, innovation, execution and the ability to see what’s going to happen next,” Gartner outlines. They have demonstrated longevity in the ecommerce market and shown a commitment to product innovation.

The report provides a detailed independent review of 11 ecommerce providers that enable organisations to build commerce sites in B2B, B2C and B2B2C.

They cover multiple industry verticals including retail, branded manufacturing, distribution and wholesaling, industrial manufacturing, high tech, telecom, publishing and media, travel and hospitality.

Gartner details both strengths and cautions of these 11 providers, in alphabetical order: Demandware, Digital River, eBay Enterprise (Enterprise Commerce Platform), eBay Enterprise (Magento Enterprise Edition), IBM, Intershop, Micros Systems, NetSuite, Oracle, SAP (hybris) and Volusion.

Some of IBM’s strengths that secure it a leadership position include:

 

Functionality

IBM’s Smarter Commerce portfolio recognises that a sale is just one aspect of an experience in the ‘age of the customer’. Gartner outlines how the IBM multichannel commerce capabilities provide a depth of functionality including:

• Order management,
• configure, price and quote,
• warehouse management and logistics,
• in-store analytics,
• customer experience management,
• web analytics,
• product recommendations,
• campaign management,
• mobile marketing,
• master data management, and
• WCM.

 

Scalability and multiple deployment options

IBM’s WebSphere Commerce has proven its scalability by currently working with clients earning more than $10 million to $500 million in online revenue, the Gartner report says.

Its multiple deployment models include:

• Licensed on-premises software,
• licensed software hosted by third-party infrastructure, and
• licensed software hosted by IBM.

 

Global presence and vertical support

WebSphere Commerce’s more than 1,100 customers cover all major geographies, with 25% operating in the B2B space.

Clients cover the globe across multiple vertical industries in:

• North America (60%),
• Europe, the Middle East and Africa (27%),
• Asia Pacific (9%), and
• Latin America (4%).

 

Download a complimentary copy of the full report here »