The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Search And Product Discovery, Q3 2023
The commerce search and product discovery market has transformed dramatically over the past decade. Previously, digital businesses relied on built-in commerce platform search functionality based on Solr or Elasticsearch, but this evolved from 'good enough' to 'not enough' as independent solutions emerged and accelerated. Eight of the 10 evaluated vendors have recent acquisitions, many in the past year. Products vary in their use of AI-powered functionality and appeal to different user types. Businesses should seek solutions that enable their preferred balance of manual control, AI-led optimization, and visibility; prioritize appropriate user experience for their needs; and support the most appropriate features for their brand or industry.
No common features specified.
Vendors must, among other requirements:
A: This research evaluates 10 commerce search and product discovery providers across 26 criteria grouped into three categories: current offering (50% weight), strategy (50% weight), and market presence. The evaluation covers functionality including usability and tooling, manual and automated search configuration, personalization, guided search, visual search, analytics, data enhancement, internationalization, and delivery models. It also assesses vendor strategy elements like vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, adoption, community, and supporting services.
A: Digital business professionals should use this research as a starting point for selecting commerce search and product discovery solutions. It helps buyers identify vendors that match their specific needs based on priorities such as: the preferred balance of manual control versus AI-led optimization; whether technical or non-technical users will primarily configure the system; industry-specific features like product quizzes or guided search; and the vendor's strategic positioning including innovation focus, partner ecosystem strength, and long-term viability. Readers can download the Excel-based vendor comparison tool to customize criteria weightings for their unique requirements.
A: All vendors must natively provide core commerce search and product discovery functions including: personalized search results, product listing pages, configurable customer-facing facets for filtering, and tooling that enables nontechnical practitioners to configure, manage and review keyword/semantic search results, product recommendations, and merchandising. The product must be generally available (not beta/pilot) as a standalone offering as of June 12, 2023.
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A: Strength of Current Offering (50% weight) evaluates the vendor's product capabilities across 17 functional criteria including usability, search configuration, personalization, and technical delivery. It focuses on what the product can do today. Strength of Strategy (50% weight) evaluates the vendor's future direction across 7 criteria including vision, innovation, roadmap, partnerships, and market adoption. It focuses on the vendor's ability to execute and lead in the evolving market.