IBM, hybris, Oracle Commerce, and Intershop top Forrester’s first-ever ranking of B2B commerce suite vendors — platforms for front-office content, community, and commerce that meet customer expectations for 24x7x365 ordering, real-time customer service, and expedited shipping — both online and on mobile devices.

In the Forrester Wave™ evaluation, Forrester examines seven vendors based on 66 evaluation criteria across each vendor’s current offering, strategy, and market presence. The evaluation shows:

  • IBM is a Leader thanks to a strong current offering, well-defined strategy, and robust B2B commerce, order management, and configure/price/quote capabilities. Through the acquisition of Sterling as well as its own global business services group, IBM possesses a deep understanding of the needs of its B2B clients — and this is well demonstrated in the strength of its Websphere Commerce, Sterling CPQ, and Sterling Order Management solution set.
  • Insite Software and NetSuite offer relatively strong competitive offerings, but concerns over inability to scale professional services rank these vendors in the Strong Performers category.

“By the end of 2013, B2B eCommerce in the US alone will be a $559 billion market. But despite being over twice the size of the $252 billion US B2C eCommerce market, the B2B market is far less mature. In fact, most B2B companies trail far behind the average B2C firm in terms of the robustness of the online experience they offer. However, B2B eCommerce companies are now investing significant resources to close the gap,” notes Principal Analyst Peter Sheldon in his new report.

Learn more about “The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites, Q4 2013,” here.