A Systems Overview - Total Retail

By Ernie Schell

In part 1 of this two-part series from our August issue, we classified e-commerce systems into four essential groups: bundled suites, enterprise leaders, niche players and experienced multichannel partners.

These groups serve as a convenient way to organize a list of the major systems you should be considering. Last month we covered bundled suites. In this issue we cover the remaining three (in alphabetical order within each category):

Enterprise Leaders
These systems support the largest multi- channel e-commerce sites. They've typically been around the longest and have the greatest experience. In most cases, this equals a substantial price tag. But for large integrated enterprises, these solutions can be priceless. (Note: This doesn't include full-service agencies such as GSI Commerce, because they offer a lot more than website design or hosting.)

ATG Commerce Suite: used by more than 600 of the largest retailers

BroadVision: used by five of the top 10 Fortune 500 retailers, including Wal-Mart and Sears, to power their online stores

Demandware: Patricia Seybold Group says this is the only enterprise-class on-demand e-commerce platform

Fry Inc.: cited as an e-commerce "leader" in a recent Forrester Wave report; Fry is a hotbed of creativity

Intershop: the Enfinity Suite 6 supports major retailers worldwide, plus supply chain and affiliate connectivity

MarketLive: used by more than 100  multichannel retailers, plus catalogers and brand manufacturers

Truition: the CMS eCommerce Platform has 125-plus users in 10 countries, including Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NFL, Pelikan and ShopNBC.com

Venda: a "visionary" in Gartner's Magic Quadrant, users include Crabtree & Evelyn, the British Museum, Laura Ashley, Panasonic, Sharp and Urban Outfitters.

Niche Players
While smaller companies are in this group, there are also very large ones that are only niche in that their users don't represent the same substantial base of large e-commerce websites as "enterprise" vendors.

In virtually every way, these e-commerce platforms may be competitive with "enterprise" applications. They even may outshine others in building websites for government, financial services, health care and other specialized markets, but e-commerce for world-class retailers isn't their primary claim to fame.

BX.com: its pureCommerce system serves midsize businesses

Catapult (Coe-Truman Tech-nologies): serves B-to-C and B-to-B

Digital River: specializes in software firms, high-tech manufacturing and consumer electronics

Elastic Path: users include Time Inc. and Samsonite

iCongo: B-to-C and B-to-B e-commerce systems, plus a cross-channel retail platform that includes in-store  channel optimization systems

InSiteCommerce: users in the manufacturing, distribution, retail and service industries

Magento: an "open source" solution from Varien, you can get this platform for free or pay for access to the enterprise version that includes additional features and Varien's support

Tellus: users include Chef's Catalog, SeaBear and Woodcraft

Virid: offers its marketAgility e-commerce platform

Volusion: an all-in-one e-commerce solution ideal for small companies seeking a low fixed- price option

WebLinc: flexible custom solutions used by L.L.Bean, Calvin Klein, Urban Outfitters, Spencer Gifts and over 100-plus  other retailers

Experienced Multichannel Partners
These systems have been the most widely integrated with direct commerce order management solutions (OMS). If you're going to link a new e-commerce application with your existing call center, inventory database and fulfillment operations, these platforms have more experience than most in facilitating such integration.

Ability Commerce: a newcomer with strong roots in the Ecometry system from Escalate Retail. Also interfaces to the  activeSERIES OMS from MNP

BCF Commerce Net Store (Phoenix Systems Group): develops and supports software for direct marketing, catalog and e-commerce companies

CommerceV3: integrates with many order management systems, including Stone Edge Technologies, MOM, CoLinear Systems, Natural Solutions and OrderMotion

DMinSite: has integrated Mercury 6.0 with a dozen order management systems.

Ernie Schell is director of Marketing Systems Analysis (ernie@schell.com).