E-Commerce Agility

In just a few short years, e-commerce has changed the competitive landscape of many industries.

It has not only redefined customer relationships and business processes, but also provided new distribution channels, payment and delivery methods, and another mode for communication.

This study looks at 82 brands across six sectors to examine how quickly they are adapting to the changing retail landscape and which platform types drive higher degrees of agility.

Key findings reveal that while platform matters in furthering a brand’s success, it should be considered in conjunction with existing resources and long-term growth plans.

E-Commerce Agility Defined
Looking beyond the dictionary definition of having the power to move quickly and easily, being agile means having the ability to (1) sufficiently run and scale the IT function on-demand, and (2) rapidly respond to changing conditions or opportunities in the marketplace.

Companies are always looking for faster and more innovative ways to drive sales and profitability. Maintaining an IT infrastructure to continuously scale a cuttingedge e-commerce operation demands resources and strategic prioritization.

Overarching trends show that:

• Large retailers with customized solutions sprang ahead at the beginning of this decade, but over time, smaller challengers employed cloud-based systems to target new opportunities online
• SaaS market is expected to grow at an 18 percent annual rate to 28 percent of the enterprise applications market in 2018 (from 17 percent in 2013). Despite accelerating cloud growth, on-premise solutions continue to lead the market with 82 percent penetration, and in-house models are proving successful for retailers with the capital and focus to augment their online capabilities.