Gartner E-Commerce Hype Cycle 2010 - Amazon Web Services

107 Pages·2010·0.89 MB·English

Research
Publication Date: 3 August 2010 ID Number: G00205840

Hype Cycle for E-Commerce, 2010
Gene Alvarez
E-commerce continues to rivet the attention of enterprises struggling to return to growth.
This Hype Cycle will help enterprises evaluate the suitability of an exploding number of
e-commerce technological capabilities, long-established and emerging, and to
understand their business value.
© 2010 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form
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are subject to change without notice.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 5
What You Need to Know .................................................................................................. 5
Customer Experience .......................................................................................... 5
Social .................................................................................................................. 5
Globalization ....................................................................................................... 5
Mobile ................................................................................................................. 5
Software as a Service.......................................................................................... 5
The Hype Cycle ............................................................................................................... 6
Using the Hype Cycle .......................................................................................... 7
E-Commerce Foundational Components ............................................................. 7
Web Customer Experience .................................................................................. 8
Marketing ............................................................................................................ 8
Sales ................................................................................................................... 9
Service ................................................................................................................ 9
Mobile ................................................................................................................. 9
Social CRM ....................................................................................................... 10
New to the Hype Cycle ...................................................................................... 10
Mobile................................................................................................... 10
Social ................................................................................................... 11
Web Customer Experience ................................................................... 11
The Priority Matrix .......................................................................................................... 13
Off the Hype Cycle ......................................................................................................... 15
On the Rise ................................................................................................................... 16
Mobile Fraud Detection ..................................................................................... 16
Social-Shopping Sites ....................................................................................... 18
Context Delivery Architecture ............................................................................ 19
Persona Management ....................................................................................... 20
Rich Information Visualization............................................................................ 22
Customer-Centric Web Strategies ..................................................................... 23
Transactional Ad Units ...................................................................................... 24
E-Services......................................................................................................... 25
Online Advertising Data Exchanges ................................................................... 26
Social Commerce .............................................................................................. 28
Context-Enriched Services ................................................................................ 29
Open-Source E-Commerce Software................................................................. 31
Campaign Management SaaS ........................................................................... 32
Web Content Product Recommendation Engine ................................................ 33
Customer Interaction Hub .................................................................................. 33
E-Invoicing ........................................................................................................ 34
Mobile Web Applications ................................................................................... 38
Social CRM for Sales ........................................................................................ 40
Social CRM: Community Marketing ................................................................... 41
At the Peak .................................................................................................................... 42
Mobile Coupons ................................................................................................ 42
Campaign Optimization ..................................................................................... 43
Mobile Consumer Application Platforms............................................................. 44
Loyalty Marketing .............................................................................................. 45
Web 3.0 ............................................................................................................ 46
Cloud/Web Platforms......................................................................................... 47
Enterprise Feedback Management .................................................................... 49
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Multichannel Campaign Management ................................................................ 49
Multicommerce MDM......................................................................................... 50
Consumer Web Mashups .................................................................................. 52
Predictive Campaign Analytics .......................................................................... 53
Sliding Into the Trough ................................................................................................... 54
E-Commerce on Demand .................................................................................. 54
Mobile Social Networks ..................................................................................... 55
Event-Triggered Marketing ................................................................................ 56
Content Analytics .............................................................................................. 57
Fraud Detection................................................................................................. 59
MDM of Product Data ........................................................................................ 61
MDM of Customer Data ..................................................................................... 63
Microblogging .................................................................................................... 65
Mobile Advertising ............................................................................................. 67
Customer Profitability Management ................................................................... 69
Distributed Order Management .......................................................................... 70
Virtual Environments for Consumer Sales .......................................................... 71
Online Video ..................................................................................................... 72
Virtual Assistants ............................................................................................... 74
Consumer-Generated Media ............................................................................. 75
Campaign Segmentation ................................................................................... 76
E-Mail Marketing ............................................................................................... 76
Preference-Driven Personalization .................................................................... 77
Climbing the Slope ......................................................................................................... 78
Consumer Digital Rights Management ............................................................... 78
Content Delivery Networks ................................................................................ 80
E-Commerce Web 2.0 Sales Tools .................................................................... 82
Mobile Search ................................................................................................... 84
Social Search .................................................................................................... 85
Web-to-Print Applications .................................................................................. 86
Integration as a Service ..................................................................................... 87
Knowledge Management for Customer Self-Service .......................................... 91
Wikis ................................................................................................................. 91
Web Analytics ................................................................................................... 93
Web and Application Hosting ............................................................................. 95
Sales Order Management.................................................................................. 96
Entering the Plateau ...................................................................................................... 97
Enterprise Portals .............................................................................................. 97
Podcasting ........................................................................................................ 98
Sales Configuration ........................................................................................... 99
Blogs ............................................................................................................... 100
Consumer Content Creation Tools ................................................................... 101
Appendixes .................................................................................................................. 103
Hype Cycle Phases, Benefit Ratings and Maturity Levels ................................ 105
Recommended Reading ........................................................................................................... 106

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Hype Cycle Phases..................................................................................................... 105
Table 2. Benefit Ratings ........................................................................................................... 105
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Table 3. Maturity Levels ........................................................................................................... 106

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Hype Cycle for E-Commerce, 2010 .............................................................................. 12
Figure 2. Priority Matrix for E-Commerce, 2010 .......................................................................... 15
Figure 3. Hype Cycle for E-Commerce, 2009 ............................................................................ 103

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ANALYSIS
What You Need to Know
The weak economy and five key trends are driving new investment and upgrades in e-commerce
capabilities. Client interest in e-commerce has been increasing since the last release of this
report; however, prudence and a focus on improving sales and customer experience is guiding all
investment activities.
Customer Experience
Organizations want to improve their websites with rich online customer experiences. Driven by
consumerization, organizations are improving their site user interfaces with rich Internet
application (RIA) capabilities for all types of commerce — business to business (B2B) and
business to consumer (B2C) — as websites are no longer compared with direct competitors, but
are compared with leading consumer website customer experiences.
Social
Organizations are also adding social capabilities. Here, organizations are seeking to take
advantage of many forms of social CRM capabilities. These range from building a following of
"friends" in public communities, such as Facebook and Twitter, to enabling user-generated
content to contribute to the organization's website and other activities that involve leveraging the
"wisdom of the crowd."
Globalization
Organizations are going global for new customers; therefore, there is significant interest in
enabling e-commerce in new countries and regions. This is driving requirements for localization
capabilities, such as translation, localized currencies and payment processes, local
implementation services at local rates, and other key international capabilities.
Mobile
Organizations want to implement mobile e-commerce capabilities to take advantage of the
growing populations, using Internet-enabled smartphones and tablets for Web browsing and
context-aware applications. Advancements in mobile technologies and devices and demand from
consumers for mobile applications and Web browser access are also gaining more hype as
devices, such as the Apple iPhone 4, iPad and other mobile devices, enable consumers and
business partners to access an organization's website for product/service investigation and to
possibly make a purchase directly through the device.
Software as a Service
The increasing number of providers and developments in e-commerce software as a service
(SaaS), which is also referred to as e-commerce on demand, have opened e-commerce
capabilities to a much broader audience of organizations than ever before, and the hype
surrounding SaaS offerings is increasingly due to current economic and market forces.
Organizations that want to develop their e-commerce capabilities into next-generation customer
experiences and to increase sales and customer retention should use this Hype Cycle to
understand the hype, technology maturity and business impacts of leading e-commerce
technologies. Because of the amount of technology available, organizations without this
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understanding risk investing in technologies that may not provide returns, may hurt customer
relationships and may negatively affect their already-complicated e-commerce capabilities.
The Hype Cycle
E-commerce trends and technologies are transforming the way enterprises interact with markets,
including prospects, customers and partners. Research from the "Magic Quadrant for E-
Commerce" uncovered how interest in e-commerce has expanded to industries outside traditional
retail. The new industries investing in e-commerce capabilities are discrete manufacturing,
distribution, telecommunication and publishing (see "Findings: CEOs Are Placing New Bets on E-
Commerce as Part of Their Return-to-Growth Strategy").
B2C organizations still lead in innovation, however, tapping into communities of consumers via
social-network software (such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter) as a way to engage with
customers and improve the overall online shopping experience. Moreover, B2C organizations are
capitalizing on the increasing number of smartphones and Web-capable phones. Therefore,
many are making sure that they have a mobile website that is easy to use via a mobile Web
browser, and many are creating mobile applications for devices such as iPhone4 and iPad (see
"How Mobile E-Commerce Should be Using Context, but Isn't" and "Top Eight Ways Context Will
Make Your M-Commerce Applications Stickier").
Consumerization continues to put pressure on organizations to offer rich customer experiences
as customers of all types continue to compare site capabilities with other popular sites, such as
Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay, regardless of the industry. Often, business
partners will expect the capabilities of consumer sites for their purchasing requirements to be
coupled with more-advanced B2B sales capabilities, such as sales configuration, customer-
specific catalogs and links to electronic data interchange (EDI) capabilities. As organizations look
to capitalize on these trends, they are also challenging IT organizations and business owners to
lower operating costs and provide reliable, highly scalable, available and stable 24/7
environments.
The 2010 Hype Cycle for E-Commerce illustrates the varying hype and maturity levels of e-
commerce technologies, as well as their business dynamics and complexities. The sheer number
of technologies being hyped in the e-commerce market demonstrates the complexity of an
organization's e-commerce technology portfolio and strategy.
E-commerce is often associated or confused with other synonyms, such as e-business, e-retailing
or individual technologies (such as EDI). Therefore, we have provided a definition to use with this
Hype Cycle: "E-commerce is a compilation of business models, processes and technologies that
enable online sales, service and marketing for B2B and B2C commerce. It facilitates transactions
over the Web, and supports the creation and continuing development of online relationships."
E-commerce technologies are critical to key initiatives, such as CRM, partner relationship
management, process improvements, sales growth, reduction of sales costs, brand building, and
delivering value to consumers and business partners. This is accomplished by enabling an
enjoyable customer experience that exceeds sales and service expectations.
Organizations are unable to purchase a single e-commerce solution that is a complete match with
all their unique business requirements as they exist, or that is agile enough to support changing
requirements. Most organizations' e-commerce initiatives can have as many as 15 to 20 primary
or core integration points to complete a business process, such as campaign to cash, and as
many as five to 10 vendors to provide the complete operational site. Additionally, some B2B
organizations find themselves managing multiple types of e-commerce beyond partner-direct
(B2B), because of the varying IT capabilities of their partner networks.
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Using the Hype Cycle
Use this Hype Cycle to investigate, evaluate and prioritize individual technologies that will enable
you to create a unique Internet experience and address current and future e-commerce trends.
The Hype Cycle for E-Commerce addresses 65 of the most-relevant and topical e-commerce
technologies, and groups them into seven key areas:
E-commerce foundational components
Customer Web experience
Marketing
Sales
Service
Mobile
Social CRM
These groupings will enable you to align these technologies with your individual online strategies,
tactical initiatives, and B2B or B2C objectives.
E-Commerce Foundational Components
These components enable B2B and B2C organizations to process orders; manage many types of
content and product information; locate products, exchange data, services and suppliers, as well
as analytics; and manage overall performance. Technologies in the group enable organization to
conduct any type of commerce and are necessary to core functionality and business processes
supported by e-commerce website. Technologies in this group include:
Cloud/Web platforms
Consumer digital rights management (DRM)
Content analytics
Content delivery networks
Context delivery architecture
Context-enriched services
Customer interaction hub (CIH)
Customer profitability management
Distributed order management
E-invoicing
Fraud detection
Enterprise portals
Integration as a service (IaaS)
Multicommerce master data management (MDM)*
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MDM of customer data
MDM of product data
Online video
Rich information visualization
Web analytics
Web and application hosting
Web-to-print applications
*Technology that became obsolete before it reached the Plateau of Productivity (see Hype
Cycle figure)
Web Customer Experience
These technologies enable organizations to provide an enjoyable Web experience at any point
during the customer interaction life cycle. This customer life cycle will include marketing, sales or
service activities delivered over the Web. The focus of these technologies is providing an
enjoyable online experience that is intuitive and easy-to-use for all types of customers.
Technologies in this group include:
Consumer content creation tools
Consumer Web mashups
Consumer-generated media
Customer-centric Web strategies
Persona management
Podcasting
Preference-driven personalization
Web 3.0*
Web content product recommendation engines
*Technology that became obsolete before it reached the Plateau of Productivity (see
Hype Cycle figure)
Marketing
These technologies enable organizations to create customer demand and leads via the Web
channel. The technologies in this section enable organizations to use online marketing
techniques to acquire new customers, expand the number of product being offered to a customer
and to win customers that may have left the organization. Technologies in this area include:
Campaign management SaaS
Campaign optimization
Campaign segmentation
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E-mail marketing
Event-triggered marketing
Loyalty marketing
Multichannel campaign management
Online advertising data exchanges
Predictive campaign analytics
Transactional advertising units
Sales
These technologies enable organizations to select products and services and to process
transactions over the Web channel. The technologies in this section enable organizations to
improve their sales by offering full Web stores as a service, improvements to the user interface to
increase conversion, to configure products and services without the aid of a human and other
sales capabilities. Technologies in this area include:
E-commerce on demand
E-commerce Web 2.0 sales tools
Open-source e-commerce software
Sales configuration
Sales order management
Virtual environments for consumer sales
Service
These technologies enable organizations to service customers before, during or after a sale, and
to resolve customer issues. These technologies also offer the ability to collect feedback from
customers and enable online self-service. Technologies in this area include:
Enterprise feedback management (EFM)
E-service
Knowledge management for customer self-service
Virtual assistants
Mobile
These technologies enable organizations to provide mobile-based e-commerce (m-commerce)
and can complement all phases of the customer life cycle. Particularly in the m-commerce space,
many enterprises are beginning to develop context-enriched applications for the purpose of
increasing customer loyalty and improving sales. Since it is the early days of context-enriched
commerce, many different approaches are being taken, such as leveraging customer location and
sending Short Message Service (SMS) messages. These technologies include:
Mobile advertising
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Mobile consumer application platforms
Mobile coupons
Mobile fraud detection
Mobile search
Mobile social networks
Mobile Web applications
Social CRM
These technologies enable organizations to use social techniques within their Web stores or to
take part in larger external (both public or privately created) communities of customers. Social
CRM applications encourage many-to-many participation among internal users, as well as
customers, partners, affiliates, fans, constituents, donors, members and other external parties, to
support sales, customer service and marketing processes. Social CRM works in each of these
domains, for example, to provide a social enterprise feedback mechanism in the service domain,
as well as social monitoring or product development in the marketing domain:
Blogs
Microblogging
Social commerce
Social CRM: community marketing
Social CRM: for sales
Social search
Social shopping
Wikis
New to the Hype Cycle
The 2010 E-Commerce Hype Cycle covers 65 technologies. To respond to the market trends
listed above and to assist organizations looking to capitalize on these trends, the following
technologies have been added to the 2010 E-Commerce Hype Cycle:
Mobile
Mobile advertising
Mobile coupons
Mobile fraud detection
Mobile search
Mobile social networks
Mobile Web applications
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