Thursday, July 31, 2008
In 5 Years, 90% of E-Commerce Sites Will Use Some SaaS Solutions
byGartner Research released a report today that predicted 90 percent of e-commerce websites will use at least one software as a service (SaaS) solution by 2013. In addition, they forecast 40 percent of e-commerce sites will use an all-SaaS solution by that same time frame.
E-commerce SaaS-based services can include things such as web stores, accounting, shipping, product reviews, product recommendations and “social sales capabilities.”
According to Gene Alvarez, a research VP for Gartner: “The trend toward SaaS applications has affected customer relationship management (CRM) and other applications, and e-commerce isn’t exempt from this trend. E-commerce SaaS solutions enable companies that couldn’t afford e-commerce to have these capabilities and compete online.” The Gartner report stated organizations that are having difficulty maintaining the necessary IT budget for the people, hardware, software that is needed are particularly attracted to solutions that the SaaS model can provide.
Gartner was quick to point out that a SaaS model is not for every company. The report also emphasized SaaS options will lower the barrier to entry for firms that want to compete with big companies that have their own proprietary e-commerce solutions.
