‘Intershop, SAP and Insite are B2B ecommerce leaders’

Intershop, SAP and Insite Software are ranked as leader, the highest ranking possible, in a study by Forrester on B2B ecommerce software providers. According to this report, commerce suites finally have caught up to the complex needs of B2B businesses.

Every quarter, global research company Forrester identifies and ranks the twelve most significant B2B ecommerce software providers. This time the names are Apttus, Episerver, Handshake, IBM, Insite Software, Intershop, Magento, Oracle, Salesforce, Sana Commerce, SAP, and Unilog.

SAP, Insite Software and Intershop are the only ecommerce software players that are ranked as leaders, while other vendors like IBM, Oracle and Magento are ranked as ‘strong performers’. About SAP, Forrester writes that it has a 50/50 revenue split of B2B and B2C clients and that it’s equally adept at both. “SAP has also been investing heavily in its cloud strategy.” The research agency praises Insite Software because it has rounded out the experience capabilities of its “already strong” B2B platform.

Selected for flexibility rather than depth

Forrester says Intershop is probably the most tenure ecommerce suite that many still don’t know about. “Intershop is a well-rounded ecommerce suite that pleasantly surprises many of its clients, many of whom initially selected it for its flexibility rather than depth”, Forrester writes. “In fact, its customers routinely report that the individual components of the suite are more than sufficient for their needs. For example, several told us that they switched their PIM or CMS back to Intershop after not seeing a big difference with others’ standalone solutions.”

Future of B2B ecommerce

Forrester also praises the company’s solid vision for the future of B2B ecommerce. “Its ability to support that vision is even more impressive”, it writes. “Intershop has long valued its in-house development but has recently decoupled the solution into microservices and debuted its third-party app marketplace.”

Forrester is clear about the future of B2B ecommerce. It thinks access rights, personalization and search are the key differentiators for B2B commerce suites. “It has become the norm to deliver B2C-like experiences in B2B, so businesses need to emulate their offline relationships via well-developed access controls, and they must use stronger content management, testing, and search capabilities to make purchasing more personalized and efficient.