The future of ecommerce according to Gartner

In June 2018 Gartner released a new ecommerce research report. Gartner involved 18 ecommerce companies in his report and evaluated them on their strengths and weaknesses.

There were three new companies involved in Gartner’s report. These new companies are Commercetools, Skava, and 2checkout. It is important to mention these companies. Even so, these are not the companies that will be discussed in this article.

The companies that will be discussed in this article are BigCommerce, Shopify, and Magento. Companies that we, from Tinx-IT, at this moment in time talk about every day.

BigCommerce as a big player for small companies

We wanted to talk about BigCommerce, even though Tinx-IT does not have a Connector available at this moment. We wanted to do this because according to the Gartner research report BigCommerce is a very strong and flexible ecommerce platform.
In the past, this platform was used for small businesses. However, currently larger enterprises have started using BigCommerce as well. The main reason this is happening is that BigCommerce is easy to integrate with complex digital environments.
Even though the software is not entirely equipped for complex business models (such as multistore support for central product catalog management and the possibility for cost centre hierarchy), it can be easily adjusted to an environment that is more appropriate for business models.

A ‘robust’ future for BigCommerce

BigCommerce is attempting to serve larger companies. In the future, they will most like focus more on business models for B2B companies. Because BigCommerce is attempting to serve larger companies they are entering a market with more ‘robust’ competitors. This competition is higher than the market for small- and medium-sized companies. Those ‘robust’ competitors will also see the possibilities with SMB companies and will start offering more affordable cloud-based solutions.

Do you need a BigCommerce connector for Microsoft Dynamics NAV? Please let us know by filling out this form.

The flexibility of Shopify

Tinx-IT is currently developing a connector for Shopify and Dynamics NAV. Shopify is a fast-growing player in the ecommerce market. This young company mainly focusses on B2C webshops of companies with a GMV of less than 50 million dollars.
According to Gartner, Shopify describes itself as an extremely accessible platform for clients of all kinds. With this broad approach, Shopify fits in with different niches of the ecommerce branch.
Small companies can use Shopify Lite, whilst companies with a higher GMV could use Shopify Plus. Shopify has a large partner community, that enriches the platform with a big number of apps. The Shopify Appstore already contains more than 2400 apps. A lot of developers also act like distributors, by recommending Shopify to their clients.

Worldwide company or maybe not?

All of this seems to describe Shopify as a strong player with a lot of potentials. However, it is remarkable that it grows so quickly, without being profitable. The company describes itself as a global seller with clients in more than 175 countries. Nonetheless, about 79% of all their clients are based in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia. As a result, the company does not support foreign currencies and local languages.

Maybe in the future, Shopify will focus more on their worldwide network and more on the advanced features for enterprises. The company could try and improve the following futures:

• Compatibility with DOM;
• support with complex digital products;
• multibrand, and;
• improved API-integration for back-office applications such as ERP.

Do you want to know more about Shopify back-office integration with Microsoft Dynamics NAV? Please reach out to us here.

Market leader Magento

Magento is a long-lasting ecommerce platform and is one of the biggest market leaders in webshop software.
Tinx-IT has been working with Magento from the very start of our Connector.

In opposition to Shopify and BigCommerce, Magento has a single-tenant SaaS, AWS cloud-hosted managed service offering. Yet, it is possible for companies to develop their ecommerce software on-premise or in an alternatively public cloud or a private cloud. This is an appealing USP for enterprises.

Besides the usual Magento Commerce Platform (formerly known as the Magento Enterprise edition), there is also a Magento Open Source (formerly known as the Magento Community edition). Which is available free of charge.

Independence and quick growth

Magento has grown a lot ever since they became an independent company. Previously Magento was owned by eBay. One of the reasons that Magento grew so quickly, is because of their Open Source community. They started focussing more on the advantages of their Open Source edition and used it to develop things like software integration. Because of this Open Source edition, the software became much more advanced.

In the past year, the company has decided to develop in a different way. Magento has started to focus more on the Commerce Platform edition and even made certain modules exclusively available for the Commerce Platform. Some of these modules are OM, B2B, and BI.

Since the publication of the Gartner research report, Magento has been taken over by Adobe. In the announcement that Magento made, it was mentioned that Adobe and Magento want to focus more on improving their network of developers, designers, and innovators. Maybe this is an indication that Magento will return to its roots and will start to focus more on the development of their software and their Open Source edition.

Another remarkable thing is that Magento does not include PIM (Product Information Management) Software in their environment. Competitors of Magento do often use this software.

Do you want to use PIM-software in Magento? Please let us know here.