Given the trends in the marketplace, what do you see on the horizon for ecommerce solutions?
This is such a dynamic field. Every day is a new day in the world of ecommerce. We see a lot of things, and looking in the near future, there are many different things that I think may happen.
One of the things I certainly see happening is the decline of the revenue-share business model. A lot of the packaged and hosted providers have revenue-share pricing models. I personally believe that, over time, we’ll see a major decline. That is already happening because we see a lot of larger merchants, particularly, moving away from those providers because they are not happy and willing to share a percentage of the order value. A flat-fee pricing structure based on usage is likely to continue gaining prominence.
I also see a lot of multichannel integration happening. Right now, most of the ecommerce and shopping-cart providers are focused on a more pure-play, Internetbased solution.
However, as the market consolidates, I think there will be more multichannel integration offerings. Among ecommerce providers, you’ll begin to see solutions that target specific verticals that we’ve probably already seen in the enterprise market. Along the same lines, because the customers and merchants are getting more sophisticated, and they are getting more comfortable with the online commerce world, they are beginning to demand those rich functionalities specific to their vertical and industry.
I see multilanguage rising into prominence because a lot of the growth in the ecommerce world is coming from abroad. U.S. merchants and North American, English-speaking merchants are looking to expand their market beyond their local country, and they are looking to tap into the world market. They will want to provide their store in a variety of different languages.
I see the emergence of mobile commerce. It’s beginning to happen. People are getting more and more web savvy when it comes to cell phones. It’s more popular in Japan and Europe, but I believe U.S. merchants are likely to incorporate that.
I see the integration with other technologies out there such as social networks, playing a role in the ecommerce world. Social networks can influence the popularity of a product, and the question will be how you can integrate that into your ecommerce offering and make that more engaging?
