The Forrester Wave:™ B2C Commerce Solutions, Q2 2022 surfaced a significant shift in the market, which we predicted but did not expect to see so quickly or so clearly.

So What Did The Results Reveal About The Market?

  1. Three solutions scored higher than longer-tenured, successful, broadly adopted solutions. In all three cases, these solutions take a modern approach to building for the cloud. This is not a coincidence. The agility and flexibility that this architecture brings their customers also enables them to innovate more quickly than the competition.
  2. Usability, modern architecture, and innovation were significant differentiators. The solutions with the highest overall scores each earned them in a different way. One offers very full features in a highly usable, unified interface (and scored highest for current offering criteria). The second strikes a balance that the market needs, between standard functionality, usability, and open architecture (and has the second highest score overall). The third has prioritized only certain functionality (by design) but excels in its strategic approach to architecture and innovation (and scored highest for the strategy criteria).
  3. These success stories are about unwavering focus on a clear target in a truly new way. Each of these three leading solutions has different priorities, but all have focused on becoming the best solution for their target market and on bringing innovation to customers as quickly (and smoothly) as possible. From unifying the administration of other (non-owned) solutions within its own interface to scrapping the comprehensive UI altogether in favor of an API-focused commerce engine, these solutions have forged their own paths.

Before You Review The Results, Here Is A Quick Primer On Forrester Wave™ Evaluations

  1. We score vendors across criteria in three areas: current offering (the software product itself), strategy (the company’s vision and strategic direction for the product), and market presence (the market share and growth of the solution).
  2. The resulting scores indicate three things:
    1. Each vendor’s position on the Wave graphic (current offering score on the Y axis, strategy on the X axis, and market presence by the size of the dot)
    2. Overall results for each solution against market expectations in the form of totaled and weighted scores
    3. Specific scores for the vendors in each criterion (The best thing you can do to guide your vendor selection is understanding how a vendor scores in the criteria that are most crucial to you.)

Two Crucial Facts

Forrester analysts include all vendors in a market that meet the inclusion criteria for the Wave (we publish the inclusion criteria in the Wave findings report). Forrester analysts will not include a vendor unless they recommend the solution and/or the solution has a significant install base among Forrester clients.

These evaluations are complex and nuanced, and specific scores help you uncover the vendors that are a best fit for your company’s specific needs — across all vendors in the evaluation, not just the Leaders. We are here to help you navigate these important decisions!

So How Can You Determine Which Solution To Consider?

If you are one of the 30% of digital businesses currently evaluating new commerce solutions, please get in touch with me for an inquiry or guidance session so we can talk it through.

In the meantime, Forrester clients should download the full Wave scorecard (using the Excel download link at the top of the page) and dig into the wealth of evaluative information in the scores and scales. This is an incredibly powerful tool — one you can also customize by adjusting the weighting of various criteria that are more or less important to your business. As you prioritize your needs, you can see how each vendor scored in the criteria that matter most to you. And of course, I am here to help you parse it!