The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions For B2C, Q2 2024

Commerce Solutions For B2C Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

Key features and pros and cons of top Commerce Solutions For B2C products:

BigCommerce - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong in practitioner UX
Strong in multiple storefronts
Strategic acquisitions (Feedonomics and Makeswift) that strengthen the solution
Addresses front-end flexibility with Makeswift for visual editing
Strength in adoption
Pricing flexibility and transparency with clearly understandable terms and limits on price increases
Solution 'just works' with continuous improvement over time
Pre-integrated partner solutions

Cons:

Weaker in supporting services and offerings - does not offer larger portfolio beyond commerce solution
Weaker in personalized search
Weaker in subscriptions - opts to leave this to partners

Commercetools - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong in product catalog management
Strong in architecture
Successful UI investments with Composable Frontend seeing more adoption
Stronger in adoption
Strong partner ecosystem
Provides architecturally open solution with flexibility to support customer agility
Often lower cost than other commerce vendors

Cons:

Weaker in community
Weaker in roadmap - provides less transparency into upcoming features than other vendors
Weaker in personalized search
Weaker in promotions (area of ongoing improvement)
May require customers to add more functionality from other vendors to reach feature parity, potentially resulting in higher overall ecosystem cost

Salesforce - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong in community
Strong in adoption - successful retention strategy
Stronger in order and inventory management
Stronger in merchandising
Strategic addition of Composable Front-end product adds value for current customers
Broad portfolio of business applications
Recent work to enhance AI throughout the platform
Options for modular front-end management
Well-established solution

Cons:

Weaker in pricing flexibility and transparency
Weaker in innovation - did not disclose R&D budget and focused on specific areas of improvement
Weaker in reporting and analytics
Weaker in architecture - most of solution still deployed together rather than modularly

Shopify - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong in practitioner UX
Strong in cart and checkout - long-standing areas of focus that remain superior
Sheer volume of customers
Large percentage of all checkouts occur on platform, especially in US
Sets best practices in checkout through customer familiarity
Strengths in pricing flexibility and transparency
Strong vision
Simplifies processes
Brings innovation to customers
Provides trust and transparency
Commerce Components modular packaging approach for larger enterprise accounts

Cons:

Weaker in product catalog management
Weaker in testing and optimization - leans on integrated partner solutions
On par in community - lacks in-person events which competitors host
Working to shake off 'all in one' reputation for enterprise market

VTEX - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong in user tracking and improvements
Strong in personalized search - only vendor to attain highest score, functionality rivals standalone commerce search providers
Strong in community with yearly VTEX Day event
Focus on developer experience with VTEX IO
Three front-end options with Fast Store offering more flexibility
Customers feel strong partnership
Sense of community fostered among customers
Front-runner in Latin America, finding footing in North America

Cons:

Weaker in roadmap - released some promised enhancements behind schedule
Weaker in promotions
Weaker in pricing and bundling - user experience less intuitive than others
Broad global adoption still slow

Adobe - Contenders

Pros:

Strong in pricing and bundling
Stronger in community
Strong partner ecosystem with broad, global set of implementation and support partners
Variety of options for front-end management including Edge Delivery Services with document-based content authoring
Successfully working to bring together product portfolio
Modernizing commerce product
New tools and improvements like edge delivery service and site performance

Cons:

Weaker in pricing flexibility and transparency
Weaker in adoption - most focused on transitioning customers from legacy to cloud offering
Weakness in product catalog management
Weakness in testing and optimization (though offers strong standalone solution outside commerce product)
Experience product remains separate from commerce

Elastic Path - Contenders

Pros:

Stronger in subscriptions
Strong in architecture - providing modular solution available as individual components or add-ons
On par for pricing flexibility and transparency
Prebuilt connections to adjacent solutions
API-first architecture
Modular alternative with growth potential

Cons:

Weaker in community
Weaker in adoption - still gaining ground with Composable Commerce product
Weaker in merchandising
Weaker in content and assets - missing key features such as scheduling
Declined to participate in full evaluation - roadmap unclear

Kibo Commerce - Contenders

Pros:

Strong in order and inventory management
Strong in subscriptions - demonstrates benefits of unified solution on single platform
Strong in supporting services and offerings - boasts enterprise OMS on same platform as commerce
Unified platform comprised of commerce and order management solutions
Recent AI advancements in platform
Vendor transparency supports positive relationship

Cons:

Weaker in partner ecosystem
Weaker in vision - doesn't articulate differentiating vision in current market
Weaker in cart and checkout
Weaker in front end
Deep partnership with builder.io for modular front end, but third-party solution not included in evaluation

SAP - Challengers

Pros:

Dominant name in back office
Long-standing vendor with large customer base
Continues to innovate including recent addition of recommerce support
Myriad of partners
Releases updates to solution

Cons:

Commerce strategy is splintered
Weaker in vision and innovation compared to other vendors
Commerce portfolio varied and confusing
SAP Upscale Commerce is nonstarter in market with last update over a year ago
Falling behind others in the space
Declined to participate in full evaluation

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2024?

A: BigCommerce, Commercetools, Salesforce, Shopify, VTEX

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

A: The Forrester Wave evaluation uses the term 'Leaders' for vendors that demonstrate strong current offerings (positioned higher on the vertical axis) and strong strategy (positioned further right on the horizontal axis). Leaders in this evaluation show superior capabilities across the evaluated criteria including practitioner UX, product catalog management, merchandising, search, content management, front-end flexibility, commerce functionality, and strategic vision. They typically have strengths in adoption, partner ecosystems, pricing transparency, and community engagement. However, the specific definition of what constitutes a 'Leader' versus 'Strong Performer' or 'Contender' is based on the relative scoring across all 32 evaluation criteria and their weightings, combining both current offering strength and strategic positioning.

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

A: https://www.forrester.com/policies/forrester-wave-methodology/

Report:

Top Vendor Products for Commerce Solutions For B2C in 2024

Commerce Solutions For B2C Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2024?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

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