The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Solutions, Q2 2022 surfaced a significant shift in the market, which we predicted but did not expect to see so quickly or so clearly.

So What Did The Results Reveal About The Market?

  1. Three solutions scored higher than more broadly adopted solutions. In all three cases, these solutions take a modern approach to building for the cloud. This is not a coincidence. This approach enables these solution providers to innovate more quickly than others and deliver fresh capabilities to customers — giving their customers the ability to be agile and only write code that differentiates them.
  2. Usability, modern architecture, and innovation were significant differentiators. The solutions with the highest overall scores each earned them in a different way. One offers a full feature set in a highly usable, unified interface (and scored highest for current offering criteria). The second prioritized only certain functionality (by design) but excels in its strategic approach to architecture and innovation (and scored highest for strategy criteria). The third strikes a balance that the market needs between standard functionality, usability, and open architecture (and has the second highest current offering score).
  3. These success stories are about focusing on a clear target in a new way. Each of these three leading solutions serves different types of businesses. All focus on being the best solution for their target market. They all also focus on bringing innovation to customers as smoothly as possible. They offer unified and customizable UIs backed by APIs. 

Before You Review The Results, Here Is A Quick Primer On Forrester Wave™ Evaluations

  • We score vendors across criteria in three areas: current offering (the software product itself), strategy (the company’s vision and strategic direction for the product), and market presence (the market share and growth of the solution).
  • The resulting scores indicate three things:
    1. Each vendor’s position on the Wave graphic (current offering score on the Y axis, strategy on the X axis, and market presence by the size of dot)
    2. Overall results for each solution against tech buyer expectations in the form of totaled and weighted scores
    3. Specific performance against each criterion, which is the most important consideration for tech buyers selecting a new vendor

Two Crucial Facts

Forrester includes vendors in a Wave that meet the inclusion criteria within the given market (we publish the inclusion criteria in the Wave findings report). Forrester analysts will not include a vendor unless they recommend the solution and/or the solution has a significant install base among Forrester clients.

These evaluations are complex and nuanced, and specific scores help you uncover the vendors that are best fit for your company’s specific needs — across all vendors in the evaluation, not just the Leaders. We’re here to help you navigate these important decisions!

How Should You Determine Which Vendors To Consider?

If you are one of the 30% of digital businesses currently evaluating new commerce solutions, please get in touch with me for an inquiry or guidance session so we can talk it through.

In the meantime, Forrester clients should download the full Wave report and scorecard (using the Excel download link at the top of the page) and dig into the wealth of evaluative information in the scores and scales. This is an incredibly powerful tool — one you can also customize by adjusting the weighting of various criteria that are more or less important to your business. As you prioritize your needs, you can see each vendor’s score in the criteria that matter most to you. And of course, I am here to help you parse it!