Forrester Chooses New B2B Commerce Market Leaders

It has been nearly two years since analysts at Forrester Research first released their report on the leading B2B commerce suites available, and according to Principal Analyst Peter Sheldon, “much has changed.”

Researchers have now published an updated report on today’s leading B2B commerce service providers, and the winners are celebrating the accomplishment. According to reports published Tuesday (July 14), CloudCraze, NetSuite and Magento (eBay Enterprise) were among the top B2B commerce options.

The leaders were chosen for “The Forrester Wave: B2B Commerce Suites, Q2 2015” report.

“Each of these vendors has a strong offering in B2B,” said Sheldon, “but withal come with noteworthy caveats.” CloudCraze appeals to B2B players because it is a native SalesForce application, the analyst noted. On the other hand, eBay Enterprise is largely affordable and customizable, and NetSuite provides a single service for companies to run B2B commerce, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management tools.

In other words, each service has its own pros and cons for each B2B company.

“Deciding on which vendor to pick depends in part where B2B firms are on their path to digital maturity and the quality of the customer experience they deem appropriate to serve their digitally savvy B2B buyers,” Sheldon wrote.

Forrester researchers also highlighted IBM, Insite Software, Intershop, hybris and Oracle Commerce as leading players, and ones in the midst of the most aggressive competition in the B2B commerce services market. “All five have proven, mature B2B commerce capabilities, a large installed base of B2B customers and a focused product strategy for supporting B2B channels,” the analyst wrote.

Reacting to Forrester’s results, eBay Enterprise President Craig Hayman reiterated the importance for the B2B market to get on board with more sophisticated commerce services. “Manufacturers and distributors know that offering a B2B eCommerce capability to their vendors is critical to their success,” he said. CloudCraze Founder Bill Loumpouridis echoed this sentiment, calling Forrester’s choice of the company in its report a “tremendous milestone” for the firm.



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