eCommerce Platform Selection Guide
Speed up the process to build your business case and select your eCommerce solution
- Selecting and implementing the right eCommerce platform – one that aligns with your requirements – is a significant undertaking.
- Despite the importance of selecting and implementing the right eCommerce platform, many organizations struggle to define an approach to picking the most appropriate vendor and rolling out the solution in an effective and cost-efficient manner.
- IT often finds itself in the unenviable position of taking the fall for eCommerce platforms that don’t deliver on the promise of the eCommerce strategy.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- eCommerce platform selection must be driven by your overall customer experience management strategy: link your eCommerce selection to your organization’s CXM framework.
- Determine what exactly you require from your eCommerce platform; leverage use cases to help guide selection.
- Ensure strong points of integration between eCommerce and other software, such as CRM and POS. Your eCommerce solution should not live in isolation; it must be part of a wider ecosystem.
Impact and Result
- A clear, concise, and compelling eCommerce RFP and a detailed requirements picklist.
- An eCommerce platform that effectively meets business needs and delivers value.
- Reduced costs during eCommerce selection and faster time to results after implementation.
eCommerce Platform Selection Guide
Speed up the process to build your business case and select your eCommerce solution.
Table of Contents
| 3 | Analyst Perspective |
| 4 | Executive Summary |
| 8 | Executive Brief |
| 17 | Selection Overview |
| 22 | Vendor Analysis |
| 48 | Summary of Accomplishment |
| 49 | Related Research |
| 50 | Bibliography |
Analyst Perspective
Implementing the proper eCommerce platform is integral to providing your customers with an enhanced purchasing experience.
Modern eCommerce solutions enable businesses to carve out a place for themselves in the ever-expanding and hyper-competitive digital landscape. The market for eCommerce platforms has seen an explosion of growth in recent years as organizations look to accelerate their digital transformation to keep pace with the increased amenability of consumers for online shopping, the expanded adoption of smartphone use, and ultimately, a hyper competitive landscape that sees more and more companies putting a concerted emphasis on digital retailing.
IT needs to be a trusted partner in the selection and implementation of an eCommerce platform, but the business also needs to own the requirements and be involved from the get-go.
The selection of an eCommerce platform must be a multi-step process that involves defining target capabilities, prioritizing requirements across functional categories, determining the architecture model for the eCommerce environment, and developing a comprehensive RFP that can be scored in a weighted fashion.
To succeed with the implementation of an eCommerce solution, create a detailed roadmap that outlines milestones for configuration, security, points of implementation, data migration, training, and ongoing application maintenance.
 | Austin Wagar |
Executive Summary
Your Challenge
| Common Obstacles
| Info-Tech’s Approach
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Info-Tech Insight
IT must work in unison with other relevant stakeholders throughout the organization, including their counterparts in marketing and sales, to define a unified vision for the eCommerce platform.
Info-Tech’s methodology for selecting the right eCommerce platform
| 1. Contextualize the eCommerce Landscape | 2. Select the Right eCommerce Vendor | |
| Phase Steps |
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| Phase Outcomes |
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Info-Tech Insight
Need help constructing your RFP? Use Info-Tech’s eCommerce RFP Template!
Guided Implementation
A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.
The eCommerce selection process should be broken into segments:
- eCommerce vendor shortlisting with this buyer’s guide
- Structured Approach to Selection
- Contract review
Phase 1 | Phase 2 |
| Call #1: Understand what an eCommerce platform is and discover the “art of the possible” for sales and marketing. Call #2: Build the business case to select an eCommerce platform. | Call #3:Define your key eCommerce requirements. Call #4:Build procurement items, such as an RFP. Call #5: Evaluate the eCommerce solution landscape and shortlist viable options. |
Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs
DIY Toolkit | Guided Implementation | Workshop | Consulting |
| "Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful." | "Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track." | "We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." | "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project." |
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options | |||
eCommerce Platform Selection Guide
Speed up the process to build your business case and select your eCommerce solution.
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
What exactly is an eCommerce platform?
| An eCommerce platform is an end-to-end software solution that enables buying and selling over the internet, empowering users to effectively manage their online operations in a single, centralized application. eCommerce platforms are typically designed to benefit two different types of organizational models: those selling business-to-business (B2B), and those selling business-to-consumer (B2C). An eCommerce platform offers many key features, including but not limited to:
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Info-Tech InsighteCommerce platform feature sets are rapidly evolving to keep pace with the accelerated growth of the eCommerce space. Base your eCommerce vendor selection on your requirements and use cases, not on the latest industry trends and developments. |
eCommerce Platform Selection Guide
The proliferation and rapid evolution of the eCommerce market makes it difficult to stay on top of the space
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