For the first time, Forrester has included Shopware in The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions For B2B, Q2 2024 report. Find out why this is a great honor for us, what was examined, and how the results support B2B customers in choosing a commerce solution in this blog post.
Here's what's covered:
What is the Forrester Wave™ B2B Commerce Solutions Report, and who is it for?
Forrester is a renowned research and advisory firm based in the USA that has been supporting executives in their decision-making for over 35 years – whether on a business or technology level. Their customer-centric, growth-oriented approach is reflected in their research and reports.
In this post, we present our insights into the report: The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions For B2B, Q2 2024, which examined 14 providers of commerce solutions in the B2B sector. It's crucial to note that it does not represent the entire landscape of providers but only those that Forrester recognizes as the most significant. For an overview of all providers, refer to Forrester's Landscape reports, which also listed Shopware in its Q4 2023 edition.
Those in the business-to-business sector looking to understand which top commerce solutions for B2B best fit their company’s needs will find valuable insights in this 2024 Wave™ report, making it a useful starting point for decision-making.
For Shopware, this is the first time we have been examined in a Forrester Wave™ report, so our joy about it is even greater.
Shopware was examined for the first time in a 2024 Forrester Wave report and is thus considered by the analyst firm as one of the 14 most significant B2B Commerce solutions.
How Forrester conducts its evaluation
Forrester's methodology for this extensive evaluation begins with primary research to develop a list of providers to consider for the evaluation. Once the final list is determined based on specific inclusion criteria, an in-depth collection of product details and strategies is conducted through questionnaires, demos, briefings, and customer interviews. These inputs, combined with analyst expertise, feed into a comparative rating system that benchmarks each provider against others.
This rating system categorizes providers into four groups:
Leaders
Strong Performers
Contenders
Challengers
Providers are plotted on a coordinate system where the Y-axis shows the strength of their current offerings, including criteria like AI, personalized search, or product catalog management. The X-axis reflects the strength of their strategies, assessed based on criteria like vision, roadmap, and community. Market presence is indicated by the size of markers on the diagram, representing each provider’s revenue and customer numbers.
Each evaluated provider must demonstrate substantial B2B revenues (at least $20 million) and robust support for diverse B2B commerce applications. All included providers maintain a wide customer base of global corporate clients across multiple regions, showing significant market share and growth among Forrester clients.
Digital B2B commerce market: Forrester provides insights and selection guidance
The latest Forrester Wave™ Report for B2B Commerce Solutions not only evaluates providers but also offers deep insights into the evolving landscape of B2B digital commerce, summarized below.
The market increasingly balances modern architecture with proven feature sets, eliminating the need for companies to compromise between features demanded by customers and the agility required by business teams. Companies can now flexibly configure their commerce platforms to suit their needs.
The right provider choice is determined by the specific business model of the company. Features, partners, and success teams of providers are aligned with specific industry needs, including their AI models.
For B2B customers, it's essential to select providers that:
Align their features with the industry needs of the customer, simplifying the procurement processes.
Offer a vision that matches the customer's architectural reality. All providers offer cloud solutions, but each in their own way.
Have the right ISV partners for crucial interactions. Each provider pursues its own vision of how companies will architect the right platform for engaging prospects, customers, and partners.
Have recruited the right service partners for the customer's sector. It's important to choose a partner who functions not just as a contractor but as a co-innovation partner with both industry and architectural expertise.
2024 B2B Commerce Solutions Forrester Wave™ report outcomes: Shopware’s evaluation
Shopware was rated as a "Contender". The following chart provides insight into this categorization by showing how Shopware was rated in relevant criteria. For the strategy and current offering criteria, here's what the numbers 1 to 5 mean:
1.00 = Below par relative to others in this evaluation.
3.00 = On par relative to others in this evaluation.
5.00 = Superior relative to others in this evaluation.
Shopware's rating
Current offering | 2.4 |
|---|---|
Front end | 1.00 |
Content and assets | 3.00 |
Testing and optimization | 1.00 |
Assisted buying and quoting | 3.00 |
Personalized search | 3.00 |
Order and inventory management | 3.00 |
Product catalog management | 3.00 |
Pricing | 1.00 |
Promotions | 3.00 |
Customer account and contract entitlements | 3.00 |
Reporting and analytics | 1.00 |
Application architecture | 1.00 |
Extensibility and integration | 3.00 |
Workflow and business process modeling | 5.00 |
AI | 3.00 |
Strategy | 1.7 |
|---|---|
Vision | 1.00 |
Innovation | 1.00 |
Roadmap | 3.00 |
Partner ecosystem | 1.00 |
Adoption | 1.00 |
Pricing flexibility and transparency | 3.00 |
Community | 3.00 |
Market presence | 2.00 |
Revenue | 1.00 |
Number of customers | 3.00 |
What this result means for us
We are incredibly pleased and honored to be acknowledged in this prestigious report for the first time, ranking us among 14 top providers for B2B commerce solutions. We are particularly proud to have received the highest score in the "Workflow and business process modeling" criteria. To us, this underscores the value and sophisticated design of our automation tools, Flow Builder and Rule Builder, and confirms our vision of using innovative solutions to significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our customer's business processes.
Shopware also received a score of 3.0/5.0 in 13 criteria, including:
Artificial Intelligence: With our AI Copilot, we offer over 10 functions that help our clients improve their day-to-day work and accelerate workflows.
Price flexibility and transparency: Our pricing structure is clear and provides companies with different needs through the appropriate solution packages.
Community engagement: Powered by our open source philosophy, our ecommerce system benefits from a vibrant community of developers and users who contribute to the continuous improvement of our product.
Shopware roadmap: We plan our future releases proactively to drive innovative and customer-centered solutions and support our users in the best possible way.
Extensibility and integration: Our platform is designed to seamlessly integrate with third-party solutions, giving our customers the flexibility they need.
According to the report:
» Shopware is a best fit for midsize enterprises or divisions of large enterprises looking for a quick start with out-of-the-box features. «
– The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions For B2B, Q2 2024, authored by Joe Cicman.
Discover your B2B potential
Interested in learning more about Shopware and the 2024 Forrester report? Our sales team is ready to guide you through the report, provide key insights , and advise on your specific challenges.
Sources:
The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions For B2B, Q2 2024. The 14 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up. By Joe Cicman.
