Report:
The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions For B2B, Q2 2024
How does Forrester define the Commerce Solutions For B2B market in 2024?
The B2B digital commerce market has evolved beyond the trade-off between modern architecture and proven feature sets. Vendors now offer a balance of both - cloud-native vendors invested in features while established vendors modernized their architecture. The market enables composable commerce platforms using best-fit components from native solutions or app stores. Vendors differentiate through industry-specific feature sets, partners, and AI models tuned for particular business models like apparel brands selling to boutiques or manufacturers selling service and spare parts to production plants.
Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions For B2B, Q2 2024 in 2024
- Publication Date: 05-May-2024
- Document ID: RES180810
- Summary: In our 24-criterion evaluation of commerce solutions for B2B providers, we identified the most significant ones and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps tech leaders select the right one for their needs.
- Authors: Joe Cicman, Fiona Swerdlow, Caroline Provost
How did the Commerce Solutions For B2B market evolve in 2024?
- The B2B digital commerce market has achieved a balance between modern architecture and proven feature sets
- Cloud-native vendors have invested in features while stalwarts have invested in modernized architecture
- Both camps enable composable commerce platforms using out-of-the-box or best-of-breed components
- Vendors are tuning their feature sets, partners, and success teams for specific industry use cases
- AI models are being customized for different B2B business models
- The market includes 14 evaluated providers across Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders
- Solutions range from wholesale brand commerce to complex industrial equipment sales
- No single vendor offers features for all B2B use cases - specificity to customer buying processes is critical
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- Substantial B2B product revenue. Each vendor has at least $20 million in B2B product revenue.
- Strong support for B2B commerce. These vendors provide functions for a variety of B2B commerce use cases and have recent and ongoing adoption among large manufacturers and distributors with direct and indirect routes to market.
- A broad customer base. The vendors have an existing customer base of enterprise global clients and a focus on more than one region, with current evidence of mindshare and adoption among Forrester clients.
What are the common features of top products in the Commerce Solutions For B2B space?
No common features specified.
Scope Exclusions
- Vendors with less than $20 million in B2B product revenue
- Solutions without strong support for variety of B2B commerce use cases
- Vendors without adoption among large manufacturers and distributors
- Vendors without enterprise global client base or multi-region focus
- Vendors without current evidence of mindshare among Forrester clients
- Evaluation materials submitted after February 28, 2024 cutoff date
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Substantial B2B product revenue of at least $20 million
- Strong support for B2B commerce with functions for variety of use cases and adoption among large manufacturers and distributors
- Broad customer base of enterprise global clients with focus on more than one region and current evidence of mindshare among Forrester clients
Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting
- Front end — 5%
- Content and assets — 5%
- Testing and optimization — 5%
- Assisted buying and quoting — 5%
- Personalized search — 5%
- Order and inventory management — 5%
- Product catalog management — 5%
- Pricing — 5%
- Promotions — 5%
- Customer account and contract entitlements — 10%
- Reporting and analytics — 5%
- Application architecture — 15%
- Extensibility and integration — 10%
- Workflow and business process modeling — 5%
- AI — 10%
Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting
- Vision — 20%
- Innovation — 15%
- Roadmap — 15%
- Partner ecosystem — 15%
- Adoption — 15%
- Pricing flexibility and transparency — 5%
- Community — 15%
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research covers a comprehensive evaluation of 14 commerce solution providers for B2B using 24 criteria. It evaluates vendors across current offering (including application architecture, AI, customer account management, and buying/quoting features), strategy (vision, innovation, roadmap), and market presence. The evaluation focuses on solutions that support various B2B commerce use cases with adoption among large manufacturers and distributors with direct and indirect routes to market.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: Tech leaders selecting B2B commerce solutions should use this research as a starting point for vendor evaluation. It is particularly valuable for: manufacturers and distributors evaluating commerce platforms; organizations seeking to balance modern architecture with proven B2B features; businesses looking to compose their commerce platform with appropriate components; and companies needing industry-specific commerce capabilities. Users should adapt the criteria weightings in the Excel comparison tool to fit their specific needs and business models.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: All vendors included must have: (1) At least $20 million in B2B product revenue, (2) Strong support for B2B commerce with functions for variety of use cases and recent adoption among large manufacturers and distributors with direct and indirect routes to market, and (3) A broad customer base of enterprise global clients focused on more than one region with current evidence of mindshare and adoption among Forrester clients.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- B2B product revenue below $20 million threshold
- Insufficient support for variety of B2B commerce use cases
- Lack of recent adoption among large manufacturers and distributors
- Limited customer base without enterprise global clients
- Single region focus without multi-region presence
- Insufficient mindshare or adoption evidence among Forrester clients
- Declined to participate in evaluation process
- Contributed only partially to evaluation process
- Submitted materials after February 28, 2024 deadline
Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?
A:
- Orient feature set to your specific industry - select solutions built for your customers' buying processes and be specific about day-in-the-life scenarios
- Match vendor's architectural vision to your architectural reality - assess readiness to build React front ends, write serverless API extensions, or code PHP customizations
- Evaluate ISV partners for interactions that matter to your strategy - understand trade-offs between all-in-one versus decoupled capabilities from multiple vendors
- Recruit service partners with right sector expertise - select partners with blend of strategy, design, and implementation experience in your industry and the vendor's architectural style
- Don't conflate commerce replatforming with enterprise modernization - recognize these as separate initiatives
- If standardized on an architectural style, choose commerce solution that follows suit
- Consider whether you need packaged best practices for momentum or differentiated experiences for competitive advantage
Q: How has the Commerce Solutions For B2B market evolved in 2024?
A:
- Vendors have built a balance of modern architecture and proven feature sets, eliminating the previous trade-off
- New-school cloud-native vendors invested in features while stalwarts invested in modernized architecture
- Composable commerce platforms allow mixing native 'good enough' components with best-of-breed from app stores
- Feature sets, partners, and success teams are increasingly tuned for specific industry use cases
- AI models are being customized for industry-specific applications
- Market differentiation based on industry-specific business models rather than just technology capabilities
Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?
A: Current Offering (vertical axis) measures the strength of each vendor's present product capabilities including application architecture, AI, customer account management, and assisted buying features - totaling 50% weighting. Strategy (horizontal axis) evaluates the vendor's future direction and market approach including vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, and community - also totaling 50% weighting. Current Offering focuses on what the solution can do today, while Strategy assesses the vendor's ability to execute and evolve in the future.
Reference
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions For B2B, Q2 2024, 05-May-2024, ID RES180810
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