Review of The Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions For B2B, Q2 2024
The Forrester Wave™ report for Q2 2024 offers an in-depth evaluation of commerce solutions for B2B providers, focusing on how these tools balance comprehensive features with modern architecture. This review will highlight Optimizely, while also providing insights into how other products covered in the report stack up against it.
Optimizely
Optimizely is recognized for enhancing its B2B Commerce capabilities with freemium platform features. Remember that Optimizely (formerly Episerver) technically has two distinct products in the commerce category. The product submitted to Forrester for the report was acquired as “Insite Commerce” in December 2019. Optimizely did not submit the product formerly known as Episerver Commerce for evaluation.
Here are the key points from the report:
- Strengths:
- Innovation: Optimizely has invested significantly in its platform to provide a cohesive Digital Experience Platform (DXP). This includes freemium editions of various portfolio products like Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Customer Data Platform (CDP).
- Partner Ecosystem: The company boasts a robust and growing ecosystem of partners, particularly those with expertise in B2B for industrial distributors and manufacturers.
- Testing and Optimization: Optimizely excels in testing and optimization, offering capabilities that many other vendors do not provide natively.
- AI-Powered Tools: The roadmap includes AI-powered tools for predictive cart building and analyzing spending patterns.
- Weaknesses:
- Scalability and Transparency: While reference customers appreciate the breadth of features and customization options, they desire simpler and more transparent scaling in the core features.
- Best Fit:
- Optimizely Configured Commerce is ideal for industrial manufacturers and distributors in sectors like electrical, plumbing, or construction that need an out-of-the-box best-practice feature set.
How Other Products Stack Up Against Optimizely B2B Commerce
- Salesforce
- Strengths: Salesforce is known for its Embedded Commerce strategy and AI-powered features that help customers scale efficiently. It has a strong partner ecosystem and rapid implementation speed.
- Weaknesses: It has limitations in order and inventory management, and some reference customers noted the need for improved performance and scalability.
- Comparison with Optimizely: While Salesforce excels in rapid deployment and has a robust AI integration, Optimizely offers more specialized testing and optimization tools natively.
- Commercetools
- Strengths: Known for its MACH architecture, Commercetools offers a flexible API-based approach and strong extensibility. It’s ideal for digitally mature businesses requiring a best-of-breed architecture.
- Weaknesses: It lacks built-in reporting and analytics, deferring these capabilities to external tools.
- Comparison with Optimizely: Commercetools provides unmatched architectural flexibility but falls short in native testing and optimization capabilities compared to Optimizely.
- Sitecore
- Strengths: Sitecore’s architecture is cloud-native with fine-grained APIs, allowing for highly customized business models. It has a strong partner ecosystem and a customer-aligned agile roadmap.
- Weaknesses: It lacks bundled visual editing capabilities and requires additional investment for front-end development.
- Comparison with Optimizely: Sitecore excels in flexibility and customization for complex business models, whereas Optimizely offers more comprehensive out-of-the-box features and simpler scaling options.
- Adobe
- Strengths: Adobe Experience Cloud provides a balanced blend of features and flexibility, with strong partner support and personalized search capabilities powered by AI.
- Weaknesses: It relies heavily on pro-code methods for workflow and business process modeling.
- Comparison with Optimizely: Adobe offers a broader suite of integrated applications, but Optimizely’s testing and optimization capabilities are more robust and user-friendly.
- BigCommerce
- Strengths: BigCommerce is known for its open SaaS platform and flexibility across different stages of e-commerce growth. It has strong innovation through partnerships and an expanding partner ecosystem.
- Weaknesses: It lacks advanced customer account and contract entitlements needed for complex B2B operations.
- Comparison with Optimizely: While BigCommerce provides a versatile platform for various business sizes, Optimizely offers more specialized tools for industrial B2B applications.
In summary, Optimizely stands out in the Forrester Wave™ report for its innovation, strong partner ecosystem, and robust testing and optimization capabilities, making it an excellent choice for industrial manufacturers. Compared to other solutions like Salesforce, Commercetools, Sitecore, Adobe, and BigCommerce, Optimizely offers a unique blend of freemium features and AI-powered tools that cater specifically to the needs of industrial distributors and manufacturers. Each solution has its strengths and is suitable for different business needs, but Optimizely’s comprehensive out-of-the-box features and focus on optimization set it apart in the B2B commerce landscape.
