Market Perspectives

ISG Research is happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Digital Commerce: ISG Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by ISG Research. This research is part of a portfolio of ISG Buyers Guides in CRM covering marketing, sales, customer service, partner, platform and sales engagement.

In Economics 101, a commercial transaction occurs when a buyer and a seller come together and agree that the goods or services being sold meet the needs of the buyer and the offerings of the seller. Essentially, CRM systems aim to facilitate these transactions—or commerce—whether it involves a new sale, a marketing lead or a customer interaction. The goal is to match the needs of the buyer with what the seller has to offer.

ISG defines digital commerce as the process and technology that enables the interchange of purchasing of products or services by consumers or customers. For these interactions to be successful, it is essential that they can be completed with as little friction as possible from a mobile device, computer or wherever technology can make it possible.

Digital commerce has emerged as an important method of selling, representing a logical extension of traditional commerce. There has been a significant shift from the old linear models of business operations. In the past, businesses would procure raw materials, create products and sell them through retail or field sales representatives. Today's buyers have numerous options for engaging with businesses, including digital commerce platforms, self-service portals, inside sales partners and field sales representatives.

Modern CRM systems need to be more unified with digital commerce to accommodate these diverse channels. Customers often use multiple paths to make a purchase, and businesses must understand their customers' journeys across these various channels. The ultimate aim is to ensure successful transactions by aligning the buyers' needs with the sellers' offerings. Integrating digital commerce capabilities within a CRM system streamlines and enhances the management of customer interactions and sales transactions across online channels.

There are several key benefits to integrating commerce with CRM systems. One significant advantage is the ability to offer a personalized shopping experience. Businesses can tailor recommendations and promotions based on customers' past purchases and browsing behavior. This level of personalization makes shopping more engaging for customers and increases the likelihood of repeat purchases. Additionally, CRM-integrated commerce platforms ensure seamless transaction processes, reducing cart abandonment and enhancing the overall shopping experience. When transactions are smooth, customers are more likely to complete their purchases and have a positive impression of the business.

Another important benefit is the centralization of data. By merging data from digital commerce with CRM systems, businesses can gain a holistic view of their customers, which aids in better decision-making and strategy formulation. Centralized data allows for more accurate customer insights and personalization to the customer, leading to improved marketing strategies and more effective sales tactics. The level of hyper-personalization possible when digital commerce utilizes AI and generative AI (GenAI) makes interactions easier for consumers. By 2026, we assert that 3 in 5 digital commerce software providers will use GenAI to enhance the UX in searching for relevant products and services to maximize successful buying engagements. Enhanced customer engagement is achieved through personalized communication, automated follow-ups and loyalty programs managed via CRM-integrated commerce platforms. These features enable businesses to maintain consistent and meaningful interactions with their customers and build long-term relationships.

CRM platforms are not just complementary to physical retail spaces; they can serve as standalone digital commerce platforms. The focus in B2C commerce has been on understanding the customer, including their propensity to spend money on certain products and services. The more businesses know about their customers, the more effective they can be in promoting relevant products and services. Unlike a physical retail store that may not know who a customer is and cannot offer personalized promotions, a digital commerce store can provide tailored offers based on a customer's specific interests.

On the B2B side, the adoption of digital commerce has been slower but steadily growing, especially with the rise of the pandemic and the increasing importance of digital products. The subscription economy, which started with digital products, has now expanded to include all parts of the economy. This includes bundles of products that may have both physical and digital elements. Digital products and services can be purchased and delivered online, eliminating the need for physical delivery.

Over the past decade, the tech industry and digital products have seen significant growth. Twenty years ago, purchasing software and digital products online was not an option. The rise of the internet has made digital products a reality, enabling businesses to conduct transactions and deliver services online. B2B customers are increasingly recognizing the benefits of digital commerce, which offers lower costs, greater convenience and the ability to engage with customers more effectively. Digital commerce allows transactions to occur anytime and anywhere, without the need to wait for office hours to speak with a representative. This flexibility and convenience make digital commerce an attractive option for many businesses.

The technological evolution of digital commerce from software providers has been the level of sophistication to access and embed access through headless platforms. The advancement in product catalogues and pricing has made it easier to support a range of products and services and supporting range of capabilities in shopping carts to ensure the path to conversion. Still further that many digital commerce offerings have not been able to provide the level of product experiences for a shoppers’ satisfaction and proper purchases and preventing returns. The support for configure price and quote (CPQ) has not been as sophisticated to support B2B commerce requirements.

The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Digital Commerce evaluated software providers and products based on specific capabilities that support digital transactions, whether a B2C shopfront, B2B self-service portal, or direct to consumer (D2C) manufacturing. The evaluation focused on the ease of integration to fulfillment, order and subscription management, accounting and financial systems of record, how the product supports product catalogues, shopping carts, orders and payments to delivery, the evaluation of roles and preferences, and business collaboration to support the evolving use of AI and machine learning. It also examined the investment by the software provider in resources and improvements.

This research evaluates the following software providers that offer products that address key elements of Digital Commerce as we define it: Adobe, Akinon, BigCommerce, commercetools, Elastic Path, HCLSoftware, HubSpot, Intershop, Kibo, Microsoft, NetSuite, Oracle, Salesforce, Sana, SAP, Shopify, Shopware, Spryker, VTEX and Zoho.

This research-based index evaluates the full business and information technology value of digital commerce software offerings. We encourage you to learn more about our Buyers Guide and its effectiveness as a provider selection and RFI/RFP tool.

We urge organizations to do a thorough job of evaluating digital commerce offerings in this Buyers Guide as both the results of our in-depth analysis of these software providers and as an evaluation methodology. The Buyers Guide can be used to evaluate existing suppliers, plus provides evaluation criteria for new projects. Using it can shorten the cycle time for an RFP and the definition of an RFI.

The Buyers Guide for Digital Commerce in 2024 finds Salesforce first on the list, followed by Oracle and Adobe.

Software providers that rated in the top three of any category ﹘ including the product and customer experience dimensions ﹘ earn the designation of Leader.

The Leaders in Product Experience are:

• Salesforce
• Oracle
• Zoho

The Leaders in Customer Experience are:

• Salesforce
• HubSpot
• Oracle

The Leaders across any of the seven categories are:

• Salesforce, which has achieved this rating in seven of the seven categories.
• HubSpot and Oracle in five categories.
• Adobe and SAP in two categories.
• Zoho in one category.

The overall performance chart provides a visual representation of how providers rate across product and customer experience. Software providers with products scoring higher in a weighted rating of the five product experience categories place farther to the right. The combination of ratings for the two customer experience categories determines their placement on the vertical axis. As a result, providers that place closer to the upper-right are “exemplary” and rated higher than those closer to the lower-left and identified as providers of “merit.” Software providers that excelled at customer experience over product experience have an “assurance” rating, and those excelling instead in product experience have an “innovative” rating.

Note that close provider scores should not be taken to imply that the packages evaluated are functionally identical or equally well-suited for use by every enterprise or process. Although there is a high degree of commonality in how organizations handle digital commerce there are many idiosyncrasies and differences that can make one provider’s offering a better fit than another.

ISG Research has made every effort to encompass in this Buyers Guide the overall product and customer experience from our digital commerce blueprint, which we believe reflects what a well-crafted RFP should contain. Even so, there may be additional areas that affect which software provider and products best fit an enterprise’s particular requirements. Therefore, while this research is complete as it stands, utilizing it in your own organizational context is critical to ensure that products deliver the highest level of support for your projects.

You can find more details on our community as well as on our expertise in the research for this Buyers Guide.