International Data Corporation (IDC) has published a new vendor assessment and market analysis study (GIPW02W) profiling and ranking the leading providers in the worldwide retail ecommerce software platform market, even as the market gets more matured.
The IDC MarketScape study found that aggressive product development and company acquisitions by the vendors have resulted in the rapid maturing of the ecommerce software platform market.
Among the software vendors analyzed, Oracle, IBM, and hybris (an SAP company) can be considered leaders in the worldwide retail ecommerce software market.
Over the past five years, behavior has evolved in terms of how consumers expect to engage with retailers that operate physical and/or online stores.
IDC believes that consumers are now engaging retailers against five attributes, with customers instrumented (through mobile devices), informed (through “always on” Internet access), interconnected (through social communities), in-place (in-store, in public, or at home to shop), and immediate (in their ability to take action).
These five attributes are driving consumers to expect a seamless experience — commonly referred to as “omnichannel” in the retail industry.
IDC Retail Insights’ ongoing analysis and research of retailers indicates that many retailers that have both physical and online/digital stores face challenges in connecting the parts of their businesses together from both operational and technical perspectives to deliver an omnichannel experience to their customers, delivering against the five attributes listed above.
“IDC has observed that as consumers’ quest for shopping convenience and the best prices grew — in part fueled by an uncertain economic period across many parts of the globe — so did the demand for online/digital sales channels delivered through ecommerce software platforms,” said Spencer Izard, head, IDC Retail Insights Europe.
Izard added, “All of this has driven a rapid maturing of the ecommerce software platform market through aggressive product development and company acquisitions by the vendors included in this study. This IDC Retail Insights study presents insights both into the factors that retailers should consider when looking to invest and which vendors are the strongest from a global perspective to consider and why.”
The study, IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Retail eCommerce 2014 Vendor Assessment, is an assessment of the ecommerce software platform market for retailers using the IDC MarketScape model, covering eight key vendors on a worldwide basis: Demandware, eBay, hybris (an SAP company), IBM, Intershop, MICROS, Oracle, and Worldline.
The assessment is based on the vendors’ current and future capabilities with a view of presenting a detailed perspective of the market for retailers, assessing which vendor (or vendors) to engage for first-time deployments or replacement/upgrade programs.