Full-Service eCommerce Solutions Are No Longer An All-Or-Nothing Long-Term Commitment
eBusiness leaders are under tremendous pressure to deliver in the face of aggressive business growth plans, competitive threats and digitally-empowered consumer demands. When you add evolving sales and services channels and ever-more global markets on the road map to the mix, even eBusiness leaders with hefty budgets and a do-it-yourself attitude acknowledge they could use a little help.
Some retailers, CPGs and branded manufacturers are outsourcing all or parts of their eCommerce operations to full-service eCommerce solution providers. However, the days of 10-year contracts and one-size fits all solutions are long gone. Full-service commerce providers have undergone quite a few iterations as the eCommerce market has matured. Today, these solutions are:
- Becoming more modular. They are unbundling their full stack offerings into modules so firms can pick and choose elements of their eCommerce operations to outsource or keep in house.
- Being more transparent with pricing. They have evolved away from obfuscated revenue share models to à la carte, transparent pricing per service, with usage- or per-transaction-based pricing models commonly replacing or acting in tandem with revenue share.
- Opening technologies up for flexible integrations. As these providers unbundle their offerings, they’re also making their technologies easier to integrate with through flexible APIs.
- Focusing on omnichannel. These providers are developing their technologies to enable better data transfers, consistent user experiences, and enhanced fulfillment flexibility for their clients to keep up with the pace of change in the marketplace.
- Becoming increasingly global. These solutions often include cross-border shipping and/or end-to-end localized eCommerce operations in many global markets to help firms globalize.
- Focusing on offering strategy consulting. These providers are productizing their years of eCommerce expertise to offer strategy and consulting services to clients.
What type of company is a good fit for a full service eCommerce solution? Who are the full service eCommerce solution providers? How do you make this outsourcing relationship a success? Forrester published a report yesterday that will address these questions for you (client access required).
In the report, we include overviews of the full-service offerings from: arvato, BrandShop, Digital River, eBay Enterprise, Newgistics, Onestop Internet, PFSweb, and Speed Commerce. Additionally, the report includes a brief overview of players specializing in particular verticals or markets: Baozun, Mena360, Singapore Post and Yoox Group.
I hope you enjoy the report. I look forward to your comments.
Thanks,
Lily