Today’s Tough Requirements
eCommerce is quickly becoming the mainstream – regardless of the type of goods or services you are selling. For digital goods and software in particular, eCommerce is quickly becoming mission critical. Today’s consumers and businesses alike require a faster, more convenient way to access and purchase digital goods anytime, anyplace, on any device. Agile commerce will soon be considered a “must” rather than a “nice to have.”
This means that software and digital goods vendors face the challenge of managing downloads and subscription-based access, advanced licensing requirements, product security/ DRM, plus managing the customer experience across the product lifecycle, channels and devices. The rapid rise of subscription-based products and SaaS only serves to amplify this need (SaaS sales are forecasted to reach around $48BN in 2014 from $17BN in 2010).
To leverage the opportunities, as well as to stay relevant in the face of increasing competition, eCommerce professionals are also looking to expand to new markets and geographies, embrace new revenue and licensing models, multiply their sales efforts through affiliates and other channels, optimize online campaigns and buying processes … and the list goes on. Just to expand to new geographies alone brings its own set of challenges: local payment methods, ordering interface languages, shopper support (local numbers, languages), billing currencies, taxation, etc. All of these require business intelligence, expertise, industry insights and additional services to support internal teams.
How Are You Benchmarking Your eCommerce Efforts?
Is your in-house solution or ecommerce provider offering the needed flexibility and broad palette of capabilities? Want to try something new or simply to benchmark your current eCommerce platform? Do you need flexibility in terms of adopting new business models or ways to get to market, including questions like being the merchant of record, service provider, or both?
Evaluating solutions when you have multifaceted requirements is a daunting task. Not to worry, help is at hand. Forrester Research Inc. recently released their report, “Market Overview: Digital Commerce Solutions 2011”, highlighting providers that are changing the game in terms of how digital goods are taken to market, bought and used.
Market Overview: Digital Commerce Solutions 2011
The Forrester report takes a look at the key solutions available today and lays out simple steps for selecting the digital commerce provider that is right for you
The report recommends:
- Focus on the unique needs of your vertical
- Identify future-state business models
- Beware of the pitfalls of outsourcing operations functions
- Consider niche solutions where appropriate
- Focus on building a digital relationship with your customers
- Use Forrester’s scenario-based technology evaluation process (STEP) to ensure your business and customer goals are met
Core to their recommendation is that software and other digital goods vendors look at their long-term digital commerce strategy, and select eCommerce vendors that have the flexibility and scalability to meet their rapidly evolving needs in this dynamic digital goods marketplace.
Get Your Complimentary Report Now
Avangate is offering the “Market Overview: Digital Commerce Solutions 2011”report complimentary to software, SaaS and digital goods vendors. You can download the report here and feel free to comment below on what you see as key elements of an ecommerce solution that can take you forward in 2012 and beyond.
