The digital commerce landscape is highly competitive and estimated to continue growing rapidly for B2C and B2B in the coming years.
$3.5 trillion forecast for B2C eCommerce by 2019 (eMarketer)
$1 trillion forecast for B2B eCommerce by 2020 (Forrester)
While this is a prime opportunity for B2C and B2B companies, the brands that deliver exceptional customer experiences will ultimately differentiate themselves from the competition.
However, creating and implementing a top-notch experience requires a great deal of planning, strategy, time, and the right platform to support it.
When it’s time to choose a new commerce platform for your business, you may find yourself in one of two situations:
- Your commerce business has matured, and your existing platform lacks the features and capabilities to scale for future growth.
- Your current platform provider(s) require that you upgrade to a new release to access new features and capabilities.
Sound familiar? If so, avoid the pitfall many organizations make, which is to start down the technology path of identifying feature gaps and researching different platforms.
Instead take a step back to review the state of your commerce business. Then, build a business case that aligns with your organization’s strategy and business model.
What should you include in the business case?
We’ve identified five key items to research and document before evaluating commerce platforms.
- Establish your baseline
- Identify business goals and objectives
- Understand your customer(s) and define the current customer experience
- Outline success metrics and key performance indicators
- Evaluate the total cost of ownership and return on investment models
Learn how establishing a business case adds value when choosing a commerce platform in our latest guide – Best Practices for Choosing a Commerce Platform, Part 1.
