whitebook ecommerce

S y s t e m

THE WHITE BOOK OFECOMMERCE SOLUTIONS

By Philippe Humeau (CEO and co-founder of NBS System)& Matthieu Jung (NBS System Marketing Team Manager) "Grow your business safely"

Relevant keys to choose an ecommerce framework

Avril 2012 – Philippe Humeau & Matthieu Jung – NBS System

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Introduction page 2

Purpose of this study 2 Limitationsofthisstudy 2 WhatisthebesteCommercesolution 3

Market segmentation page 4

ECommerce:SolutionsPHPvsSolutionsJAVA 5 Overviewofthechart 5

Solutions, in detail page 7

Magento:theleader 7 PrestaShop:climbingtheladder 12 DrupalCommerce:backtoeCommerce 16 Demandware:averyspecialposition 20 Intershop:forthebiggest 25 OXIDeShop:Germanengineered 28 RBSChange:becauseexperiencematters! 32 Hybris:therisingstar 37

The time has come to choose page 41

About the authors page 46

Greetings page 47 Copyrights page 48

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Introduction

Purpose of this study

The great game of eCommerce solutions is in full swing this year and we wanted to provide all decision makers with the relevant keys to help them in their choice of eCommerce solutions.

The authors are both working in a leading European managed hosting company named NBS System. We currently host more than 2000 eCommerce Websites in our private Cloud. Already behind a lot of technical innovations, NBS System’s team wanted to share the knowledge around those great eCommerce frameworks.

The goal of this study is not to find out which is the best solution in absolute terms. A specific solution will be more effective in a customer-specific context and that is the purpose of our study: to provide people with the key deci-sions leading to choose the right solution for their needs.

When eMerchants go in search of the best solution for their needs, they quickly feel the difficulty of obtaining concrete and transparent answers. Indeed, the sector of eCommerce is more and more specialized and all players use to have their specific expertise in a particular solution domain, but few of them are able to respond more broadly, especially to eMerchants wanting to have an overview of the market.

The study also aims to better understand how solutions get organized with each other and what their long-term strategies are. Market segmentation plays a prominent role in this context. For a better understanding of eCom-merce solutions, an eMerchant must know who the solutions are targeting, why and how.

Limitationsofthisstudy

This work cannot be complete, perfect or accurate in an ever changing world of ECommerce. It is a mid-2012 picture of the market, which only reflects our thinking and findings. The frameworks are evolving on a monthly or trimester basis, so depending on when you read this book, you may find outdated informations.

We had no sponsoring of any kind by any solution provider. NBS System (an infrastructure hosting and security spe-cialist in the eCommerce sector) made a point of carrying out this study with the impartiality based on its position. Indeed, not doing integration, NBS System doesn’t receive any commission on licenses or developments, therefore putting the company in a position of neutrality.

Editors may not appreciate our full transparency, our feedbacks or our views, which, once again, are only our own. On top of that, we are now working with almost all mentioned editors, hosting sites using every technology (except, of course, Demandware which is a SaaS) and the choice to make is not wishful thinking but a functional and practical choice for the eMerchants.

Every editor wishes to be ranked “5 stars” in every KPI, but that would not help eMerchants to adopt the right plat-form for their needs.

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This study only reflects our interviews, tests and benchmark so it is, by design, incomplete. We tried to cover the broadest spectrum possible along with gathering as much information as possible on each solution, but in some cases there was no substantial response or no answer even from the editor and sometimes we were not able to test all the functionality.

We also have not had the opportunity to include the following Frameworks:

• Ubercart and osCommerce (that are about to disappear)• Zen Cart, VirtueMart (rare in Europe where the study was started)• IBM WebSphere Commerce and Microsoft Commerce server (to which we had no access)• WordPress WP eCommerce (still marginal in its functional coverage)• Interspire (not yet well known on the market, nor supported in Europe)• The SaaS platforms: Volusion, Oxatis, Power boutique, etc... • On the SaaS point, Magento Go was treated as part of X.commerce and Demandware for its unusual “high-end” SaaS positioning

WhatisthebesteCommercesolution?

Of course, all solutions claim to be optimal for all projects, which in reality is far from accurate. For example, choo-sing a solution based on PHP, when 50 people need to connect to the back office, is a bad choice for performance reasons.

Building from our experience in eCommerce on more than 2,000 eCommerce sites, we can say that many eMer-chants have made choices that do not really match their needs, weighing now on their business.

ECommerce solutions are grouped into four major categories:

• The Tier 4 corresponds to small projects (e.g. from 0 to 1 million euros turnover made online)• The Tier3 includes medium-sized projects (e.g. from 1 to 10 million euros online turnover)• The Tier 2 includes larger projects with brands, with turnover between 10 to 100 million euros• The Tier1 corresponds to the « monsters » that can generate online turnover over 100 million euros and up to several billion

To carry out this study, we spoke directly with customers, partners, and with the editors in order to find out concrete information on the size of the projects (turnover, total budget of the project, etc…) that are carried out with their so-lution. First, we have evaluated the solutions, contacted customers as well as end users and development agencies.Then, NBS System is now working in eCommerce for several years and has been involved in several hundred sup-ports, hosting or auditing projects, large or small.

We are very pleased to share with you our feedback and hope that this study will satisfy your thirst for eCommerce knowledge and will allow you find out which is the very best solution for your needs.

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Market segmentation

The positioning of the solutions on the eCommerce market is a very important point to consider. In order to prepare the groundwork and to better refer our customers and thus improve their e-business, we have tried to understand the editors’ strategy and how their solutions are designed.

The following chart aims to summarize the positioning of the solutions depending on the size of eCommerce pro-jects and on the turnover. Thanks to our experience in eCommerce, customers’ feedback, average quotes and state-ments of the editors, we can now identify the comfort zones of these frameworks. Each solution targets one or more projects depending on its strategy, costs, technical roadmap, performance and functionalities.

All solutions with “flavors” (OXID eShop & Magento) will bear its name in place of the word «comfort» (for comfort zone). Magento PE version, having failed to take off and becoming rare in the editor strategy, will not be shown.

Chartofthe«comfortzones»ofeachsolution

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ECommerce:SolutionsPHPvsSolutionsJAVA

You will see that Javaand PHPare two different worlds, this is why we separated them on this chart. Java solutions mainly focus on bigger websites, which can be easily understood, among others, through three key points:

• The speed of the back office, especially in case of many concurrent connections• The license and service costs are much higher (PHP is more accessible) • Massive management of a large number of references (SKU)

Indeed, Hybris or Intershop may also be appropriate for projects with a turnover of less than one million euros. Pres-taShop could also be suitable, depending the circumstances, for projects over 5 million euros. We are talking about a «usual» or «normal» comfort zone, noticed by customers, sometimes announced by editors and often observed on the average quotes of each technology.

Another aspect is a key in this PHP vs Java contest: the open source policy. The Java plateforms are closed source where the PHP one are open sourced. In the second case, you can review the code, audit it, modify it, contribute by creating plugins and extensions, make proposals regarding the evolution.

Overviewofthechart

The first chart is only a general overview. However, the list of features and the project-specific requirements will also carry weight, even more than this only starting point.

PrestaShop is a product that reaches many starting up sites, mainly in France. Technically simple, it is ideal to get started. However, above a certain level, a meta-framework (eCommerce framework over a Code Fra-mework) will fast become indispensable, especially for Web Agencies. The Tier 4 core player, evolving to 3!

Drupal Commerce is a suitable solution for similar-size projects. However, its lower limit is slightly lower in the end of the Tier 4, thus requiring advanced developers who already know Drupal (the comfort zone was given to us by the editor).

RBSchange is a player positioning its comfort zone from the middle of Tier 3 to the beginning of Tier 2, according to the own editor.

OXID eShop is a multifaceted solution. There are Community, Professional and Enterprise licenses, like for Magento (which seems to have retained the OXID eShop system on this point). The width of the range makes then possible to cover the middle of the Tier 4 to the beginning of the Tier 2.

Magento offers the widest range: from Go SaaS in Tier 4 to the beginning of Tier 2 with EE versions (Enter-prise Edition). Considering even the global X.commerce (see Appendix 1) with Intershop, X.commerce covers almost the whole spectrum, since eBay wants to advance Magento EE version to the middle of Tier 2 segment.

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Demandware is an atypical case, in many ways. This is a SaaS (Software As A Service) which is, according to the editor, positioned for projects with turnover starting at one million euros, just because its payment model allows for a variable component based on the site turnover. The model becomes less attractive with a higher turnover. A mid-Tier 3 to mid-Tier 2 player.

Intershop is a Java solution specifically designed for large accounts, due to its technical aspects but also because Java is less affordable than PHP. Intershop targets massively the mid-Tier 2 to Tier 1, here again, from the editor point of view.

Hybris is, like Intershop, a Java-based high-end solution, built around a comprehensive product manager that makes multichannel operations possible. Being native Java and Oracle-based, in addition with the license costs and the technical nature of the product, make it perfect for Tier 2.

Selectionbytargetedturnover: Making a first round on the basis of the targeted turnover can be a really good start to select some few eCommerce solutions into which digging deeper will make sense. This requires to analyse thoroughly the project considering the volume of sales generated in recent years (and if the site does not yet exist, the forecast for the coming years), as well as the dynamism of the business at time T and especially developments needs in the medium and long term, like functional upgrades.

Afewquestionstobeconsidered: What do I expect from the project? How many visitors will my site get? What will be my turnover in the short, medium and long term? How long will I stay on this platform? What functions or specialties do I really need?

When this analysis is done, eCommerce project managers can start benchmarking to select the most appropriate solutions, considering technical and functional characteristics of each solution we will explain below. We must also consider that sites have an average lifetime of 24 to 36 months and are usually refreshed every 6 months.

Still, this study aims to inform you about several aspects, to help you make an analysis using many criteria. Do not stop at a single page or at a single folder thus selecting an eCommerce solution is a critical choice and so much of your success in the field will depend on it.

We will now cover every selected solutions with more details.

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Solutions, in detailMagento:theleader

Record sheet

MAGENTOSize approx. 300 peopleTurnover2011 not known, estimated at $30mBusinessmodel licenses and support, consulting, applications market place Costofthelicenses $13k per year (EE - Enterprise Edition) per production server Technology PHP 5 (object)Framework ZendDatabase MySQLVersion(atthetimeofthestudy) 1.7.2 Community Edition, 1.12 Enterprise Edition (Enterprise)License Opensource, OSL v3*Dateoffirstrelease 2008Origin U.SWebsitebudgetrange(low/medium/high) €10k / €40k / €150k

History

With now roughly 17% of the total eCommerce market powered by Magento, the two foun-ders of Magento, Roy Rubin and Yoav Kutner, based in Los Angeles, achieved a huge suc-cess. After only four years on the market, their product is not only the leading integration framework in the world of eCommerce but their company has also been acquired by eBay for 180 million dollars (unofficially ‘whispered’ figured).

To date, few people or software companies boast such a success, and so early. With nearly one in five sites now developed around the Magento Ecosystem, this framework is now deeply rooted in eCommerce world. Moreover, their fantastic career path has inspired and gave new impetus to the eCommerce frameworks sector, giving many players the desire to start or grow.

Even if the brilliant CTO Yoav Kutner chose recently to walk another path, the latest Imagine 2012 event in Las Vegas showed everyone that Magento’s momentum is tremendously strong!

It must be said that, in 2008, when Magento came out of the shadows, no framework was really ready to take over the moribund osCommerce. Nowadays, if you use a Magento specific signature in a Google search (called a «dork»), and if you cross this information with some web sources, you would approach more than 120,000 sites in produc-tion using Magento.

This also includes some thousand Enterprise versions. The community that brought Magento (mainly in Europe) has helped make the Framework a success. Thanks to the thousands of modules, web media (forums, blogs, etc…), events and especially the wisely and unfailing personal involvement and drive of the two founders of the company, the success spiral quickly got underway.

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Position in the market

Magento is so far an undisputed leader in mid-market segments (Tiers 3 especially), which position is strengthened by the acquisition by eBay. Although the giant has never been a software publisher, it seems that eBay overall stra-tegy has a vested interest in Magento continuing to be an «independent» entity and that the product remains an open source with free version.

Why Magento has established itself so quickly?

Magento has the most comprehensive back office available on the market (or at least has had for a long time) and it took two to three years for its competitors to get closer to the list of features… an eternity in the Internet world. Magento has not only marketed a product of rare completeness but it is also constantly evolving.

Most of its competitors, such as PrestaShop, could only follow and those already on the market, like OXID eShop, have had to adapt to the fast pace imposed by the new leader. With clear views of the market, Magento has rede-fined the profile of the needs of eMerchants to the point that, since 2009, the word «Magento» is googled more than «eCommerce»!

The unfailing involvement of the leaders Yoav & Roy, who have travelled to attend all events around the world and have certainly accumulate enough miles for a free ticket to the Moon, has also greatly helped to develop the com-munity, whose members now support the product, spread its virtues to customers and get the words out tirelessly.

Ultimately, customers have come to ask for a Magento rather than for an eCommerce website, leadership was gai-ned. It is true that the functional coverage is so successfully completed that it makes dizzy and this, since the early versions. Since then, as soon as new developments appear or are desired, they are in the product roadmap and immediately after on the market! And this is how it became so quickly the new leader.

Range and product

The range of Magento consists of two integration products, the CE, and EE versions, for Community Edition and Enterprise Edition. Magento also launched Go, a SaaS product for general public. The CE & EE versions differ in several aspects, but all are built «on top» of the CE.

PE version, which besides has not really found its public, nor even the love of the own editor, is no longer offered on the market.

EE version and its larger sibling, the premium version, enable to add a large panel of features. Most of them are in the community modules but the features made by the editor are more «native» and provide continuity between the versions. In addition, both versions provide access to the support of the editor.

The support, a pain to be corrected

For years, the support was the big tragedy of Magento Enterprise version. It was sold but was not really available or reliable. The editor has taken shelter behind its frenzied growth to excuse its lack of responsiveness but eCommerce

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sites cannot wait. An association for Magento Enterprise users in France (the Magento Enterprise France User Group), called CUMEF, was even created to pressure the editor and many complaints were also sent from various customers around the world, leading the editor to review its policy.

In order to make up for this widely criticized lack, Magento has decided to emphasize this point, investing in a more efficient process, more staff and a manager with more seniority, so that those dark days be behind the editor as soon as possible. To date, the results are not considered to be totally satisfactory on this point but Magento is acu-tely aware that this still requires improvement and will probably keep up its efforts in this respect.

Another downside to this almost perfect career path is the mobile. After having been at the forefront, with a strong lead on the competitors, Magento made them aware of this matter and competitors set to work. But what actually happened is that in the meantime, Magento lost its manager of the range, who left for Google. Although it may be very flattering that a staff member is poached by Google, it has also been a great problem.

But Magento has not waited long before taking some counter measures and is now back in the game with a very advanced HTML5 mobile version. In the end, the new mobile product is a CSS skin with enhanced layout and navi-gation, so easy for integration, Magento has tackled the challenge.

The framework

Concerning the Framework itself, this is one of the most rigorous and tough in the market. Magento is based on Zend, which is partly explained by the close relationship between Yoav (Technical Director) and the creators of PHP and Zend founders, Zeev Su-raski and Andy Gutman.

The advantage of being based on a Framework is that it makes possible the industrialization of the code and that the editor doesn’t have to do it all. The abstraction, classes and objects provided by the framework allow to skip to the next step. This is one of the secrets of the success of Magento, but on the flip side it makes this “Meta-Framework” accessibility very limited (Magento is a Framework on top of Zend, so a “Meta-Framework” in a way).

As a matter of fact, any developer or hosting provider who gave it a try to Magento can explain how Magento is not designed for the beginners. This is in fact one of the things that can be blamed to the editor. Building a Framework accessible only to 10 percent of the developers means either closing off the market or being certain that many sites will not be optimal. Nothing to say on the content, the code is generally clean, the architecture is well designed, but Yoav and his team are not exactly the developers that we see on the market… Magento 2 promises to solve these issues, at least partly, with a large simplification of some code and a better documentation.

In the end, with the wave of enthusiasm, a great number of people have turned to Magento, but barely a dozen web agencies per country really mastered the intricacies of the product. Everyone pushes up prices, arguing that the framework is complex, but few of them have real skills. As a matter of fact, many companies that have skimped on the resources and chosen not to pay experts in this field, indeed very busy, are now suffering from a bad first site.

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Magento is very efficient and thorough, but it also requires to be handled by an expert and not a self declared one. It is impossible to have a good Magento site without a seriously experimented team. Qualified and methodical specialists are essential. Avoid so-called experts and people who advertise too much. All web agencies first sites, without exception, have been failures to varying degrees. Experience and reputation make now a difference, along with certification. The publisher has also realized that education and simplification were both a key to success, two focuses on which he works.

Besides many innovations, Magento 2 will also bring simplicity and rationality. Beyond this improved accessibility, Magento 2 also gives signs of openness towards large accounts: support for Oracle and Microsoft SQL server, ram-pant development of web service includes a huge number of new methods in SOAP, REST, JSON, XML-RPC, unit tests, move to jQuery, modular view and many new features. All of this should also improve performance by 10 to 20 percent and finally provide full documentation. However, migration to this totally rewritten version will not be possible, it is not release-compatible and it will be necessary to redesign many elements of the site and also rewrite many of the extensions.

2012, a hectic year

In 2012, with the new releases or strategy of PrestaShop, RBS, Drupal Commerce and OXID eShop, it is expected to be a steady year for King Magento. Ready for battle, Magento has the means to hold its own on the low and middle-market: it has a reputation, a community, funds and ideas and it will also release a new version in the first quarter of 2013. It will be intrinsically harder on the segment of high and very high-market.

In fact, the products (PHP based) cannot really provide the essential assets to customers that are in the turnover group from 20 to 100 million euros online sales or more, unlike Java products. The editor is not present in this niche and even rarely called for reflection. However, Tier 2 is a priority niche for him. Magento 2 will surely attempt to correct many of the limitations that prevent the access to this segment and we wish all the best to this editor which revolutionized the sector.

StrengthsandweaknessesofMagento

Pros

+ Sustainable and rapidly evolving product.+ Mature solution including natively a great number of features.+ Standard in the market, supported by a giant (eBay) and a strong community.+ Extended capabilities regarding multistores, catalogues and products management.

Cons

− Complicated framework, requiring real expertise, with few developers and agencies able to master it.− The Enterprise support has been insufficient in terms of responsiveness and solutions (yet).− The web service is insufficient and slow.− The CMS is not very developped.

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Magento’shighlights(the more stars, the best)

Cost Mobile Number of developers in the market Web service /API Easy-to-use back office Technical maturity Community Functional coverage Speed of the solution (website) Speed of the solution (back office) Easy-to-get started for developers

ChartanalysisofMagento(The bigger the area, the best)

Performance & scalability

Complexity of development

Costs (licenses, development etc.)

Sustainability of the solution

Native functional coverage

Availability of skilled resources

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PrestaShop:climbingtheladder

Record sheet

PRESTASHOPSize approx. 60 peopleTurnover2011 not known, estimated at €2.5mBusinessmodel support and modules marketplaceCostofthelicenses freeTechnology PHP 5 (objet)Framework noDatabase MySQLVersion(atthetimeofthestudy) 1.5License Opensource, OSL v3Dateoffirstrelease 2005Origin FranceWebsitebudgetrange(low/medium/high) €3k/€15k/€40k

PrestaShop, starting “small” in eCommerce?

PrestaShop is a widely use product in the French market that starts to conquer United States and Europe. This solution has radically reviewed its organization and ambitions in 2010 with the arrival of Christopher Cremer at its head and is now led

by Benjamin Teszner.

The growth strategy is still being defined by the Founder Bruno Lévêque and M. Teszner. We will soon know more about this. Will they go “High end”, will they turn to SaaS? It is difficult to say but we identified Prestashop as a player that could surprise everyone, at any moment, with a really strong customer base.

The solution itself is easy to get started with, whether for developers or merchants. Due to that simplicity and accessibility, it has sometimes be considered to target the «small» sites and this reputation, although certainly unjustified, remains persistent.

The reason for this reputation is that PrestaShop doesn’t bring «big budgets» to integrators. As the solution is quick to integrate and licenses are free, the interest of large integrators has not been generated.

Concerning more objective parameters, this solution is not really designed to handle peak-loads or large volumes of visitors yet, due to the lack of efficient cache system. Some parts of the code may be functional in terms of qua-lity even if somewhat inelegant, reflecting the speed with which PrestaShop had caught up with the leaders but, honestly, very few have no grey areas.

The decision not to position itself as a «Meta framework» (eCommerce framework built on top of a code fra-mework, like Zend or Symfony) also raises the difficulty to maintain an high-level function libraries. According to integrators, this point is important to help factor and streamline the code in order to facilitate and standardize the development and maintenance process.

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The upside is that the solution is often «lighter» than its competitors and it is far easier to get into the PrestaShop code rather than into Magento or OXID eShop ones. The lack of cache sys-tem can also be explained by this choice. Magento’s cache system, for example, is based on the one provided by Zend while PrestaShop will have to build its own from scratch.

The late arrival of multi-store and faceted navigation caused some delay to PrestaShop and reinforced the image of a product for «small sites». Of course, PrestaShop works hard to quickly address all these points, which should be improved within the next 3 to 6 months, if not already done for some (such as for multi-store).

The policy of the editor to grow along with the demand of its customers makes PrestaShop a highly pragmatic pro-duct: the editor always closely monitored his pilot customers who helped him improve, which is the wish of the meticulous founder, Bruno Lévêque.

Technique is constantly evolving

In terms of technique, the object system in PHP is highly readable and easy-to-access. The web service is one of the most advanced in the market with a unique and constantly improved number of features. The mobile application is here again a key to success with so far some of the more convincing result in the market. The product will incorpo-rate, as of version 1.5, the unit testing system.

The code is lightweight and the list of features is very extensive, including some systems unique to PrestaShop, such as the shopping carts insurance or catalogue manipulation with a Classic C application which allows to save a lot of time editing the catalogue in offline mode with a fast application, before synchronizing with web service.

Like all PHP based solutions, PrestaShop cannot reach the very large (with several ten or hundred million euros on-line sales) because, beyond the technical challenge, only solutions using compiled languages (like Java) are capable to overcome the overhead of a large number of connections to the back office and a linear improvement in the performance.

What is the future of PrestaShop?

So, what is lacking then to PrestaShop to take off for Middle-market? (Tier 3)

Some large integrators are adopting the solution as an opportunity to meet their deadlines and ensure their project margins while avoiding slippage in the deadlines, very common in other frameworks. Editor with a view to profita-bility and a clear business model which can benefit both the company and its partners is also necessary. This may reassure merchants that adopt the solution because this is the only way to make it sustainable. Finally, big attracting big, the references will make the difference.

If PrestaShop manages to sign a first well-known medium-size site, some other sites will naturally arrive in the wake, breaking PrestaShop away from its image and launching at the same time a new stakeholder in the Middle-market. The recent 3 million euros fundraising shows that the editor has the means to achieve this goal and we wish all the

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best to the French team. Similarly, no longer focusing on Magento strategy but having its own strategy could be beneficial. The solution has enough benefits to grow by itself. Being different, unique, taking advantage of its own assets has often many more benefits than going after the leader.

StrengthsandweaknessesofPrestaShop

Pros

+ Easy-to learn system, both for users and developers.+ A comprehensive web service.+ Very clean and advanced mobile application.+ A highly-motivated and ambitious team, who keeps in mind that needs come from customers.

Cons

− No-cache system (no-block, no FPC).− Backlog (soon cleared) in multi-store and faceted navigation.− The lack of underlying framework (Zend, Symfony) limits the code reusability.− A business model that is still finding its way and little readable, which does not reassure about the editor solidity.

PrestaShop’shighlights(The more stars, the best)

Cost Mobile Number of developers in the market Web service / API Easy-to-use back office Technical maturity Community Functional coverage Speed of the solution (website) Speed of the solution (back office) Easy-to-get started for developers

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ChartanalysisofPrestaShop(The bigger the area, the best)

Performance& scalability


Native functional coverageComplexity of development

Costs (licenses, development etc…)


154320



Native functional coverageComplexity of development

Costs (licenses, development etc…)


154320

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Drupal Commerce: back to eCommerce

Record sheet

DRUPALCOMMERCESize 35 peopleTurnover2011 not knownBusinessmodel services (consulting, support, training and integration)Costofthelicenses €0Technology PHP Framework DrupalDatabase NoSQL, MySQL, SQL-Server, Oracle, SQLite, PostgreSQL,

MongoDBVersion(atthetimeofthestudy) 1.3License GPL v2Dateoffirstrelease 2011Origin FranceWebsitebudgetrange(low/medium/high) €10k / €50k / > €100k

The challenger of eCommerce solutions

«DrupalCommerce,thenewwayofeCommerce»: such is the view of the editor.

The competition is so fierce that this ambition may seem dispro-portionate, but Drupal Commerce does really have an impressive potential. Based on Drupal, Commerce Guys framework enters the

market with real benefits. First, Drupal CMS is world famous as it is one the market leaders for over ten years and brings together a community of 350,000 members, powering ones of the largest sites in the world.

With over one million sites in production, Drupal pretends to be the most commonly used CMS in the world regar-ding creating websites. Open source and easy-to-use, Drupal (the CMS, not the eCommerce part) has already proven its value: MTV, The Economist, Whitehouse.gov, Sony Music, Zynga, Ikea, Twitter and the Louvre are using Drupal.

If Drupal’s website statistics are accurate, a bit more than 15,000 sites would be using the Drupal Commerce exten-sion now, which seems a lot and also count the preproduction and development environments. It is very hard to precisely state how many real sites are in production now, but the product drives attention.

Drupal Commerce is the youngest eCommerce platform in this landscape. Version 1.0 was announced at the Dru-palCon London in 2011 and achieved early success. The Drupal community was eagerly awaiting this release. Dru-paliens couldn’t wait to know whether this framework will supplant Ubercart (old Drupal eCommerce module) and revolutionize eCommerce on Drupal, as announced by Commerce Guys. According to the editor, thousands of sites already use Drupal Commerce and the framework has already gained an important reference just after its release.

Despite a dark period when relations between Drupal Commerce and Ubercart leaders were not very good, the solution is now «clean» and tensions seem to be history. Everything is now online and the way is free and clear to make Drupal Commerce one of the leaders of the sector.

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Combining power and experience

The platform has an integrated CMS and benefits from the simple and efficient back office of Drupal, which are obvious advantages. While others, like Magento, chose not to bet (at least so far) on CMS side of their frameworks, Drupal takes the opposite view and provides easy-to-modify and easy-to-skin online stores. Thousands of modules and themes are available and Drupal Commerce is already highly flexible. Small projects can therefore get started fast. Larger projects are also possible by combining the CMS flexibility and the strengths of Drupal Commerce.

Drupal Commerce is however very dependent on Drupal 7 CMS since it is based on it, leaving little control over some aspects of developments to Commerce Guys. What about a fork, for example? Obviously, having one of the Drupal architects in the Board is to alleviate concern in this respect, but this is important. The advantage, in contrast, is that Drupal Commerce doesn’t have to handle the full and complex mechanical, but just the eCommerce aspect. When the time will be to redesign Drupal and upgrade it to V8 (expected in 2013), including Symfony components, what about the evolution of Drupal Commerce?

Another original aspect is that Commerce Guys is «natively» a French-American company. Unlike PrestaShop, which extends from France into the United States, or OXID eShop & Hybris which extends from Germany into France, Drupal Commerce has two bases and actually works without internal limit, fifty-fifty, between the two countries. In such a way, any breakthrough achieved on either of the countries will speed the market penetration of the both.

One more very differentiating aspect is the large number of supported databases. This choice indicates a strong open source influence. In addi-tion to the classic MySQL, there is the rival (built by one of the designers of MySQL), MongoDB (NoSQL), but also PostgreSQL and SQLite. Very nice, but ... Drupal Commerce goes further providing support for Oracle and SQL Server, two of the most robust and func-tional commercial databases in the market, thus putting the framework in a great position to be adopted by major accounts. The main competitor in the segment, Magento, continues to delay supporting SQL server and Oracle and still does not support NoSQL. The difference may seem small but this is far to be the case, mainly for those who know the limitations of MySQL.

A wave to ride

Close to the eCommerce ecosystem, the editor really seeks to contribute to the emergence of its framework. Drupal Commerce France brains attend all fairs, all BarCamps. They have a discreet but long-term policy. Commerce Guys is already partner with over 20 specialized agencies, a significant number considering the youth of the framework. It is also important to note that the Drupal community is very dynamic and passionate.

Among its members, many developers are able to learn quickly and well the use of Drupal Commerce, suggesting a rapid expansion of the framework.

However, being based on Drupal does not only have benefits. Highly dependent on the CMS, Drupal Commerce re-quires an adjustment period and time-to-discovery longer than classic solution when starting from scratch. Conver-sely, the old-time Drupaliens will early hit it off with Drupal Commerce, but without prior experience, mastering Drupal Commerce may also be as difficult for developers as mastering Magento.

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Another flipside of the coin, the editor relied too much on the wealth of Drupal modules. Finally, the functional layer of Drupal Commerce is still a little light compared to those of other solutions in the market. That said, the 80-20 rule applies here, thus 80 per cent of users use in general 20 per cent of Framework possibilities. It is also noted that as it is often the case on platforms originally designed to CMS or blog, Drupal Commerce provides a wide range of

possibilities in the Social Networking field.

One of the issues that have not yet been addressed is the business model. Indeed, the financial model of Commerce Guys requires that the company be involved in a part of the design/architecture process of the project as well as in selling support. When support is well done, this is an obvious value, but the design is a little harder to sell to partners. Indeed, where does design/architecture ends and where does integration begins, when the web agency partner is brought into the process or, conversely, when does he call Commerce Guys? Indeed, web agencies and integrators are the first developers and vendors of solutions, if they do not feel confident with the model of Drupal Commerce or, worse, if they compete with Commerce Guys, this may hinder the market penetration of the product.

Drupal Commerce is flexible, robust and has a very surprising maturity for a newcomer, which is a guarantee of quality for anyone who wants to start a web project. Having its eCommerce site based on one of the most popular frameworks in the world is surely a parameter to consider in selecting a future eCommerce solution. However, we have to keep in mind taht this framework is still young and the services provided are not as mature as others that have been present for several years in the sector.

StrengthsandweaknessesofDrupalCommerce Pros

+ Rapid acquisition of first references and a great fundraising.+ Architecture is robust, flexible and highly scalable.+ Very large Drupal community and very open model.+ Integrated CMS, including native features for blogging.

Cons

− Less native features as its competitors (so far).− Business model should find its feet so as not to antagonize the integrators.− Development learning curve a quite steep for those who do not already master Drupal.− Drupal Commerce is young.

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DrupalCommerce’shighlights(The more stars, the best)

Cost Mobile Number of developers in the market Web service / API Technical maturity Community Functional coverage Speed of the solution (website) Speed of the solution (back office) Easy-to-get started for developers

DrupalCommerce’shighlights(The bigger the area, the best)







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Demandware:averyspecialposition

Record sheet

DEMANDWARESize 215 people (end of 2011)Turnover2011 Approx. $48m (estimation - $36,7m in 2010)Businessmodel percentage of the sales turnover on SaaS platform Costofthelicenses No license but a subscriptionTechnology JavaFramework not applicableDatabase OracleVersion(atthetimeofthestudy) not knownLicense not applicableDateoffirstrelease 2005Origin U.S.Websitebudgetrange(low/medium/high) not applicable

Demandware : Software As A Service

Founded in 2004 by Stephan Schambach, former CEO of Inters-hop, Demandware was formed with a clear vision that is still rele-vant today: bringing to market a solution focused on power and innovation, that would at the same time remove the technical

costs and complexities of running an eCommerce operation. The company became recently listed on the NYSE, American Stock Exchange (Code NYSE: DWRE) with 173 million dollars in floating shares.

Demandware is the only eCommerce solution of the environment which is a «SoftwareAsAService» (SaaS). This term means that software is not purchased under a licensing agreement but through a service subscription. SaaS also allows to save costs of related activities because everything is included in the subscription (server purchase, hosting, maintenance of machines, etc…). Another advantage of this type of software is that the customer can choose the way he uses the features. The software is fully customizable to closely responds to customer requests.

In general, SaaS goes hand in hand with «small sites» because platforms like Magento Go, Oxatis or PowerBoutique may not have enough functional coverage or flexibility in terms of customization to run large websites. However, Demandware is addressed to websites with sales of several million euros. As SaaS, Demandware’s concept can be summarized by a quote by its president and founder, Stephan Schambach: «What is left unsaid by companies specializing in the software sale is that for every euro spent on license, eight euros more have to be added for all the related costs: integration, maintenance, hardware, etc… The eCommerce sector is a large consumer of resources, since industry is constantly innovating. However, if you can handle it all with a single subscription, Demandware will be able to redeploy all your resources optimally to improve your brand image.»

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This highly analytical approach is relatively accurate. In principle, all costs have to be accounted for and Demand-ware can easily convince in the U.S. with this kind of discourse. But in Europe, cost accounting is not so much in mind of leaders and the pure OPEX vs. CAPEX or the calculation as a percentage of turnover are still not customary.

Customization for more flexibility

Demandware comes up with an original and special concept for the eCommerce solutions market: the «onde-mand». It makes possible to customize everything the customer wants. When a need arises, a request is made and Demandware processes it in order to meet all customer requirements.

This is an interesting concept for eCommerce solutions thus all these external services are often the sinews of war for merchant websites. Demandware focused on this demand and comes up with an all-inclusive solution: hosting, updates, daily operations, etc...

The customer does not have to worry about all these elements that can take time. For example, Demandware includes a cloud service that can absorb peaks-loads. The core target of this solution is the larger eCommerce web-sites that have reached such a development that they are unable to find a solution that can keep up with their fast growth. In general, these sites have a minimum turnover of 10 million euros.

The SaaS approach has also (and especially) the merit of not involving the customer’s team in complex development cycles in PHP or Java. Either the selected feature is provided by Demandware, or it is interesting enough so that De-mandware teams fully integrate it with the platform. Ultimately, this platform is constantly enhanced by absorbing its customers demand. The very well designed and almost fully interfaced architecture of Demandware, especially through advanced web services provides many possibilities.

With one or two graphic integrators skilled in CSS/JS/HTML and a shop manager, customers meet 80 per cent of their needs. Graphic integrators will have to learn the workings of Demandware, on the whole simple, but it worth.Similarly, for a «Factory Site», such as delegated eCommerce companies, this tool has strong characteristics: one only «kingdom» to manage all customers, no development cycle, just customization.

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Theimagebelow(courtesyfromDemandware)showsallthatcanbedonewiththeproduct:

The technical referential is really powerful and very functional, easily interfaced both with other products/internal services of the brand and with an external logistics system or with an ERP. The solution is one of the most versatile to date and if you are looking for interface points between your systems, those of your providers and the Demandware platform, no worries, it’s already planned.

Back office is clean and fast, using eclipse for your interactions mapping makes it even more comprehensible and publishing a website front page with internal CMS is extremely easy. All this increases the number of people able to work with Demandware, in a more or less advanced manner. In addition, the back office was actually thought to be easily handled by Shop Managers with no knowledge of HTML/CSS or Java code.

The solution is a bit heavy on front-end and the loading time is quite short but it varies over time: the fact that France had not yet its own POD (part of local infrastructure of the Cloud) can play in these slight variations. Howe-ver, the loading time never exceeded 4.5 seconds, but it also never fell below one second and a half either.

Demandware’s approach API/Web service is by far the most enhanced we have seen to date.

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Demandware, a solution to a specific group

As previously mentioned, SaaS concept is suitable for medium/high-end accounts seeking THE solution that meets all their needs. Demandware also makes possible to easily run multiple sites in different languages thus attracting customers based in various countries. An obvious example is the site of the famous brand Crocs. This ability to ma-nage multiple sites at once with integrated-hosting and many other features meets a current demand from major customers: being scalable. Being able to evolve and grow with a strong growth without trouble is the core benefit provided by Demandware.

Demandware is a very powerful SaaS with almost unlimited possibilities, but such qualities have a cost. The entry cost is around 300 thousand dollars and monthly payment is a percentage of turnover (2 to 4 per cent), with at a minimum 30 thousand dollars per month. The threshold would be therefore for companies that have an annual tur-nover of 12 million dollars. As everything is on-demand, it requires working hand-in-hand with Demandware. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. If a company is not satisfied with some implementation, it will be difficult to call on service providers to make any changes and to get away from Demandware. In fact, you will have to start again from scratch.

This is a typical American concept. Paying a percentage of turnover has not yet become accepted by European in general. But in the end, for companies with high benefit margin and in a segment from 10 to 50 million euros online sales, spending 2-4 per cent of sales for the website (including development & hosting), it can be very profitable. Above, spending over one million euros per year for a site makes less sense. So, Demandware is on a niche but strong market, at the beginning of the Tier 2.

Demandware must established itself in Europe

After a mixed start in France, due to a lead team unaware of the eCommerce sector, company decided to review its management process to have a more expert contact with customers. This new situation combined with more visibility and an excellent pre-sales technical support should give a new boost to Demandware.

In conclusion, basing the activity on Demandware is a considered decision that makes necessary to think of an eCom-merce strategy in the long term, considering the large amounts to be invested and the extreme dependence on the solution, after contract is signed. However, for the delegated eCommerce companies or for businesses between 10 to 50 million euros online sales, flexibility, ease of use and the «all-inclusive» model can be attractive. After reaching the mark where the product becomes less profitable as an integrated framework, customer can always redesign his site. Demandware is a 3+ years out choice.

StrengthsandweaknessesofDemandware

Pros

+ Easy integration / customization / modification of template+ Fully interfaced, high-capacity API & Web service+ Scalable and SaaS mode system+ (almost) All inclusive

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Cons

− Expensive solution (percentage of turnover).− Captive solution (very complicated to step out).− Designed for large accounts only.

Demandware’shighlights(The more stars, the best)

Cost Mobile Number of developers in the market Web service / API Technical maturity Community Functional coverage Speed of the solution (website) Speed of the solution (back office) Easy-to-get started for developers

ChartanalysisofDemandware(The bigger the area, the best)







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Intershop:forthebiggest

Record sheet

INTERSHOPSize 460 peopleTurnover2011 €35.6MBusinessmodel services, eCommerce and marketing + productsCostofthelicenses License €30k/CPU or SaaS, calculated with the customerTechnology JavaFramework specific to IntershopDatabase OracleVersion(atthetimeofthestudy) Enfinity 7License not knownDateoffirstrelease 1992Origin GermanyWebsitebudgetrange(low/medium/high) €250k / €1-10m / > €10m

Substantial experience in eCommerce

Oldest eCommerce solution in this study and maybe in the market, Intershop is a German company established in 1992 and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

One of the few solutions having withstood the bursting of the dot-com bubble, Intershop is now a leader of the tier 1 with its solution Enfinity. With 18 years of experience, Intershop continues to show impressive results: customers with more than 25 online stores with millions of products and a solution present in over 30 countries and translated into 20 languages.

Intershop has diversified its offer with a wide range of services in addition to its solution. All the years of experience have enabled the German company to understand the eMerchant issues and address them in a very realistic way. Intershop provides, for example, many marketing services associated with the solution.

Centralized by a single agency partner, SoQuero, quality services such as SEO campaigns, SEM and e-mailing are available for all eMerchants who have selected Intershop. Selecting a marketing agency is often a difficult decision to take for eMerchants. So, having the choice to trust a single partner, on top of that with 18 years of experience, can make the difference and help their choice.

Intershop, ensuring scalability

From a technical point of view, Enfinity 7 is a solution that provides a very good scalability. Capable of handling mil-lions of products and processing thousands of orders per day, Intershop solution is designed for eCommerce major projects that have an international multi-site strategy. Intershop has many large customers thus proving that it is a technically mature and reliable solution.

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BestWestern, BMW, HP, T-Mobile, Monster and Swarovski are some references cited by the editor. Another strength that comes from the maturity of the solution is the deep experience of the technical support. Throughout decades of operation, Intershop has established effective support available 24/7.

Intershop is not yet widespread in France

Despite all these advantages, there is a major weakness: Intershop Enfinity and its solution are rarely used in France. Although there is a distributor in France, Data solution, repre-sented by Jean-Claude Nogues, Intershop is still not very visible. With some research, it is possible to gather some information here and there but it’s still far too little to be considered by eMerchants in their final choice. It is not easy to share experiences, talk and debate about issues or successes encountered on Intershop in the day-to-day.

There is still no active community and network of partners is almost non-existent. Of course, Intershop provides the services of the agency SoQuero but finding developers experts on the solution Enfinity will not be easy. There are no community groups such as PrestaShop or Bargento Barcamp. In addition, Intershop is a mature solution that has proven itself but this experience has a cost. Starting a project with Intershop solution will cost between 250 thou-sand euros and a couple millions euros depending on the size, ambition and goals of the project.

Selecting Intershop solution for your eCommerce website means also opting to work with highly-skilled professio-nals, who will assist you throughout your business. This experience is reflected in the multitude of available features and services you can integrate with Enfinity and that suit your project. Unfortunately, the price is very high and selecting Intershop represents a huge investment and a long-term collaboration.

StrengthsandweaknessesofIntershop Pros

+ Experience and maturity of the solution.+ Marketing and eCommerce services related to the platform.+ Scalable: perfect for international and multi-sites projects (and international).

Cons

− One of the most expensive solution in the market.− Not very visible in France.− Little choice except for SoQuero.− No community.

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Intershop’shighlights(The more stars, the best)

Cost Mobile Number of developers in the market Web service Easy-to-use back office Technical maturity Community Functional coverage Speed of the solution (website) Speed of the solution (back office) Easy-to-get started for developers

ChartanalysisofIntershop(The bigger the area, the best)







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OXIDeShop:Germanengineered

Record sheet

OXID eShopSize 80 peopleTurnover2011 not knownBusinessmodel services & products Costofthelicenses €2,990 excl. Tax for the Professional Edition. Price starts at

€14,990 excl. Tax for the Enterprise Edition (this is not an annual cost). 20 percent per year have to be added for the support and maintenance contract. OXID eShop Enterprise Edition license has also an annual fee that starts at €7,990 excl. Tax per year

Technology PHPFramework MVC frameworkDatabase MySQLVersion(atthetimeofthestudy) 4.6License GPL V3Dateoffirstrelease 2003Origin GermanyWebsitebudgetrange(low/medium/high) €3k / €10-50k / €100k and over

Leader in Germany, new in the French market

German solution and open source since 2008, OXID eShop has suc cessfully established itself in a country where eCommerce is already well developed and where competition is fierce. No doubt that raising

to this success level indicates very good strengths.

It is no small duty to be the leader in the Tier 3 market in Germany, facing strong opponent like Magento, but still, the OXID team successfully took the position and hold it tight!

Also, OXID eSales was officially launched in France in September 2011 at the eCommerce fair in Paris. The solution is thus making public relations and trying to develop partnerships only for few months in this territory. Although more and more experts are beginning to talk about OXID eShop as a potential competitor of Magento and PrestaShop, there is little real information.

With references such as Neckermann (German Galeries Lafayette) and Medimops, OXID eShop shows that it is a solid and mature solution. The first export movement was made toward France, several months ago, without noti-ceable success yet.

OXID eSales wants to integrate the commercial support of the solution as well as with a centre of expertise and get as close as possible to the eCommerce ecosystem. The OXID team has always been very «Community Oriented» with the OXID Commons for exemple. Moreover, the website, as well as full documentation and software are alrea-dy available in French. This first movement toward internationalization of the solution shows the will of OXID to expand over Europe in the upcoming months.

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By marketing its products through a third-party company in their first export attempt, OXID loses a bit of its lea-dership in the business and has not brought its ‘German’ touch in France yet, which could have helped him to give new impetus to the launch phase.

However, OXID France refocus on the product always more and leave out some of the related activities. Striking a balance between what is done by an internal team and what is delegated to an ecosystem in terms of business is not an easy thing and OXID eShop is not the only one having this problem. Drupal Commerce has the same concern and RBS Change does its best to stop as soon as possible its integration activity and become pure editor. More space for the others means more support to grow, a method that Magento used successfully.

A leading eCommerce solution in Germany

Already a leader in Germany, OXID eShop is a solution that meets the needs of many eMerchants. On the one hand, OXID eShop has successfully established itself among small eMerchants with its open source community version. On the other hand, Professional and Enterprise versions are designed for larger projects and aim to develop the solution to major players in the eCommerce in Germany. The most obvious example is the site Medimops which manages over three million products and shows good technical performance in terms of speed.

Those qualities owe nothing to chance. Among the many code factories you can find in eCommerce, all experts that have been looking into OXID Shop have a uniform feedback: Thecodeandmodelsare«superclean», among the most qualitative on the market.

In addition to all its features, OXID eShop provides a SaaS applications marketplace. To date only available in Ger-many (but soon available in France), OXID eFire makes possible to install third-party modules (payment, SEO, SEM) with an immediate implementation thus everything is already integrated in the OXID eFire platform. This SaaS mar-ketplace model is a real success and has proven itself in Germany.

A very advanced product

OXID eShop met the challenge to please both small and large sites and even if it was not an easy thing, it achieved it with success. The product is suitable for shops requiring about ten days for the integration work to others requiring several hundred days (which is justified), so the range is very wide, from Tier 4 to almost Tier 2. Moreover, the leader of Tier 3 in Germany is not Magento, like in most countries, but OXID eShop!

The framework is developed with Agilemethods, which natively allows teams skilled in these techniques to get fas-ter to the point. Unlike Magento, that will first do it in the version 2, OXID eShop integrates unit testing functionality, with almost the entire surface of the software; nothing like German thoroughness!

Philippe Pertin, OXID eSales France Managing Director, has highlighted some significant results of the solution: more thanonemillionproductsin base for one customer, with thousands of orders each day. They have every reason to be proud of: it’s already a great performance.

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The effort has been made to translate into other languages, that is a nice point, and the modules library has excee-ded 1,000 visits, which makes easier the macro-assembly, especially with eFire. It is difficult to differentiate OXID eShop from the other solutions but it worth to be mentioned thus this is a clean, structured and scalable solution, suitable for a wide range of needs.

Aspects rather exclusive to the solution is that OXID eShop provides, in addition to the web agency support, direct support from the editor. In the case of very special needs, as for example some very specific module, the team of the editor can sometimes even handle it directly.

Thomas Lohner (expert at SysEleven), leader in the OXID eShop hosting market in Germany), gave us some additio-nal information. OXID eShop, like many other platforms, supports only one database and therefore does not enable read-write separation and native high availability a.s.o (this will be the case in version 5). Most features of the native engine are interchangeable with your own implementations, which allow keeping compatible with platform upgrades, while customizing the product. In addition, the Framework is much easier to master for a developer than Drupal Commerce and Magento Frameworks.

OXID eShop is much closer to a customizable eCommerce system where Magento is closer to a framework to be integrated, resulting in shorter project cycles. Cache is also much more efficient than in the majority of Frameworks. In the end, the «Dynamic Content Cache» reduces the number of SQL queries to about 1/10 of the original number.The feeling of efficiency is enhanced by the facts: large websites select OXID eShop and are successful with it, volumes may be really impressive and the solution is stable. Finally, OXID eShop is a very strong competitor to Magento in its core target and thestorywouldhavebeenverydifferentif the product had focused earlier on get-ting a Europe-wide visibility.

StrengthsandweaknessesofOXIDeShop

Pros

+ Solution leader in its country (already highly-advanced in eCommerce).+ Willing to get established in France.+ OXID eFire: SaaS applications marketplace. + In terms of performance, much faster and lighter on front-end than Magento.

Cons

− In terms of performance, much faster and lighter on front-end than Magento.− No noticeable ecosystem outside of Germany yet.− As for Magento, single database support.

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OXIDeShop’shighlights(The bigger the area, the best)

Cost Mobile Number of developers in the market (Germany = 4)

Web service / API Easy-to-use back office Technical maturity Community (Germany = 4) Functional coverage Speed of the solution (website) Speed of the solution (back office) Easy-to-get started for developers

ChartanalysisofOXIDeShop(The bigger the area, the best)



Costs (licenses, deve-lopment etc.)




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RBSChange:becauseexperiencematters!

Record sheet RBSChangeSize 160 peopleTurnover2011 not knownBusinessmodel modules for a fee but free solution Costofthelicenses €0. Only some modules are under commercial license. Fee

is to be paid only once Technology PHPFramework specific to the solutionDatabase MySQL, OracleVersion(atthetimeofthestudy) 3.6License Affero GPL v3Dateoffirstrelease 1997Origin FranceWebsitebudgetrange(low/medium/high) €10k / €20-40k / from €50k

A company that is reinventing itself

RBS Change is an open source solution that the editor is bringing forward more and more. You can easily find some of the DNA of Magento in this story. An editor decided for its own needs, to develop an eCommerce framework, ten years ago. The story sounds familiar no?

This career path is far from trivial because after a decadeofexperiencein integration, it is obvious that for its own good, the editor has set up robust and easy-to-produce mechanisms.

Some well-known companies in open source integration, has already taken part to RBS Exchange process, achieving great result so far. NBS System is keeping a close watch on the solution. Indeed, RBS Change DNA shows all the qualities of an excellent competitor.

RBS Change ... A name that you may have not heard of, but that may certainly change.

An integrator turning in an open source editor

Open Source CMS RBS Change is developed by the independent company ReadyBusinessSystem(RBS) SSII, foun-ded in 1997 and based in Strasbourg, France. The company has 150 employees, a turnover of 26 million euros, which is higher than most of the other companies in our study. RBS Change began to develop in 2005 and from version to version, the tool was improved and became more mature.

A major milestone of the project was reached at the end of 2007 with the official launch of RBSChange2.0: the creation of an eCommerce solution fully integrated with RBS Change content management solution. RBS Change 3.0 became an open source project in 2010. The aim was to facilitate and accelerate the dissemination of CMS while bringing together a community of users and web enthusiasts, which includes all trades and profiles involved in the life of an Internet project.

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RBS Change has selected open source technology for now one year and a half and that decision is paying off. The eCommerce ecosystem is increasingly interested in this solution which is, according to experts, very promising. Indeed, with over ten years of existence, the many benefits it provides and the energy of RBS Change has selected open source technology for now one year and a half and that decision is paying off. The eCommerce ecosystem is increasingly interested in this solution which is, according to experts, very promising.

Indeed, with over ten years of existence, the many benefits it provides and the energy of the editor, RBS Change can compete with recognized eCommerce solutions. The company covers all major eCommerce events in Europe and with its desire to bring together a community, RBS Change affirms little by little its status as a real competitor compared to the giants of the eCommerce.

The native qualities, the speed of the solution and especially its strong affect to the cross-Commerce are already important decisions key for many players. But references as Phox,Rossignol,BestWestern,DeDietrich, and much more have also significant repercussions.

Experience and ambition

With ten years of experience, RBS Change can be considered as one of the eCommerce pioneers and this is reflected in the management of the shift to open source. RBS Change experts have a solid knowledge of the market, they are aware of the e-retailers needs and expectations. CMS enhancements are consistent and the solution is constantly evolving to meet the needs of customers.

Since the solution is open source, RBS Change strives to be an active community.

Jean-Michel Ramseyer, community leader, is very energetic and seeks to make the solution known to the widest audience. Impressive booth at the eCommerce events, interviews on the ecosystem blogs, developing partnerships with agencies, RBS Change is dynamic and it shows. RBS Change also attaches great importance to customers’ feed-back in order to improve. The editor is listening to its customers not only for areas of improvement but also for its technical support.

This point is important because when a project is launched, yet not known or not already addressed bugs can be submitted to the technical support, which can quickly be in great demand. RBS Change is fully aware of the impor-tance of the community and word of mouth and that is why it seeks to demonstrate its commitment to develop the solution with a long-term vision, keeping close to all stakeholders in the sector.

In short, this is a comprehensive and proficient solution, with references, that puts the media in the foreground and with a clearly opposite strategy to the Magento one, in the field.

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RBS Change has still to establish itself in the eCommerce environment

RBS Change has nothing to be ashamed of its performance and native great numberof functionscompared to the direct competitors. Moreover, the original structure of RBS Change with a single source code (a single version exists) and free or fee-paying modules are here to improve the solution. It is therefore very easy to customize the eCommerce projects using a module or another. RBS Change is a solution designed for medium-size, Tier 3 and beginning of the Tier 2 eCommerce projects. It will cost therefore at a minimum 20 to 40 thousand euros to launch an eCommerce project with RBS change.

RBS Change has still a hiatus to address. The company is still both editor and integrator, which complicates its imple-mentation on the eCommerce solutions spectrum. In fact, knowing that the editor may be competitor is stressful for an integrator. However, the company wishes to expand its list of partners and to reassure them, train them and support them.

Company also separates its editor and integrator businesses in order to establish a clearer border. Finally, it seems that like many of its competitors, RBS plans to raise funds. Aware that duality editor/integrator is still not well appre-ciated by them, RBS officially left the field, confirming again recently to a renowned integrator that they will not be competitors anymore at very short term.

To date, RBS Change back office does not allow the development of specific application mobile. It is still possible to have a CSS skin adapted for mobile but nothing compared to what PrestaShop currently provides for example. E-retailers who want to launch a mobile strategy have to take this point into account. In addition, m-commerce is growing every day and having an iPhone or Android application is increasingly requested.

The awakening of a giant?

RBS Change is still suffering from the status as a newcomer in the eCommerce environment and few web agencies are partners with the editor. To date, Alter Way, Smile, Synolia and WaveHub are the only agencies partner with RBS Change. Starting a project with this solution will limit the number of potential providers in the short term but that would not last since the current craze is driving players to this product and the company is rapidly growing.

This is a low-profile solution for the moment, like its management team and their region of origin: modest but hard-working. The company still has to restructure some aspects like splitting of assets and activities, but all should be finalized by the end of the summer, which may also suggests a great fundraising in the wake. But discretion will not last long and we feel it is our responsibility to highlight that it worth keeping a close watch on this solution. We may see the awakening of an eCommerce giant, which already has the qualities of the biggest.

Nevertheless, framework pleasant and affordable development standards should attract developers tired of unfa-thomable complexity Frameworks. The use of PHPTAL and smarty on the front-end side, XUL and SOLR on the back-end side to push the search engine, all natively, should help convince the most sceptical. This simplicity and the use of standards will clearly shorten the learning curve for developers wishing to get started.

In terms of function, multi-stores, multi-warehouse, multichannel management, all natives, should convince, in ad-dition to one of the widest range of Frameworks feature for that time, all backed by a really well made web service!And to give a full picture, the system is one of the lightest load on front-end servers, making it scalable and fast.

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StrengthsandweaknessesofRBSChange

Pros

+ Mature solution.+ Energy of the editor with a real support.+ Solution includes a great number of functions.+ Efficient templating.

Cons

− Mobile application.− Few partner agencies in France at the time.− Some adjustments still required in the business model.

RBSChange’shighlights(The more stars, the best)


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Hybris:therisingstar

Record sheet

HYBRISSize approx. 250 people (estimated)Turnover2011 about €40m (estimated)Businessmodel products & servicesCostofthelicenses price starts at €40k. Price depends on selected modules

and targeted architectureTechnology JavaFramework Hybris platform is both a framework and a ready-to-use

solution with Hybris ACCELERATOR.Database Oracle, SQLServer, MySQLVersion(atthetimeofthestudy) Hybris 4.6License not knownDateoffirstrelease depends on productsOrigin GermanyWebsitebudgetrange(low/medium/high) €100-200k / €500k / > €500k

Hybris, an ambitious solution, with good reason

Hybris, dynamic player in the market for over a decade, has impressive results in terms of growth and performance.

With an unrivalled experience on best practices (through hundreds of projects) involving though catalog and pro-duct management systems, Hybris has gained ground among the leading European eCommerce solutions. This year, Hybris has received the award for the best technology at the last eCommerce trade in Paris and the Summit Thought Leader Award at the last Next Generation Retail Summit in Lisbon.

Founded in 1997, Hybris is a German solution (one more!), based in Munich. The company experienced a strong growth since it caught the eCommerce wave and all these years long, it is mainly since 2008 that the eCommerce solution is booming. Moreover, this is not a part of Hybris DNA, which is not an eCommerce solution, which turned to multichannel, but a multichannel solution that has turned to the eCommerce, with as a cornerstone a product called PCM (Product Content Management). The editor defends «the Agile Commerce,» a responsive trade!

Success rarely happens by chance. At Hybris, CVs of experienced people are kept up high and low. All leaders have a big experience in major software (Sales force, SAP, etc.), years of practice and a large network. All combined with expertise, references and a soft that can handle millions of SKUs without flinching. This is the assurance of an effec-tive system for large accounts.

eCommerce Solution is still not very visible on the French territory but Hybris has proven its value in other countries. Indeed, the solution supports very large accounts and customer references are impressive. Some of the biggest brands in the world have opted for this solution and more and more large companies are attracted to migrate.

As examples, Adidas, Lufthansa, Douglas, Reebok, Rexel, Pirelli, Levi’s, Toys“R”Us, Conrad, Nespresso, Ericsson and many others relied on Hybris.

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Their latest big victory to date caused much comment in the eCommerce field: The Galleries Lafayette.This depart-ment store is somewhere emblematic of a Hybris client: large volumes, great number of products, pure multichan-nel, multi-country.

Why does Hybris attract so many famous brands around the world? Just because the business model of this solution is designed especially for them! Hybris has concentrated its activities on product management: the product content management.

Hybris assists you in your growth

Often, when products are becoming more numerous, the site becomes slower on back office as on front office. This consequence is well known from eMerchants.

Hybris offers several products contained in its MultiChannel Suite:

With Hybris, product management can be done through different channels and all related activities are associated with them: print, media, physical store, social networks, etc... True trademark of Hybris, this specialization is dedi-cated for the major brands that have millions of products to manage and that are constantly changing over time.

Hybris meets the strong demand of eMerchants with the ability to support their growth while flexibly managing their products standard.

Another great strength of Hybris is the ability to provide multichannel solutions for product sales. Whether on mo-bile, internet or physically, everything is integrated with the solution to simplify eMerchants multichannel strategy.

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Hybris believes in a future where all sale channels will be dependent on each other and therefore chose from the beginning to specialize in this sector. Many speakers we have mixed with recently or leaders of major sites say it very well indeed: the E of eCommerce has to disappear, that frontier physical/online has no real meaning anymore.

Knowing how to estimate the ROI of this investment

Although the official statement of the solution affirms that Hybris is accessible even for SMEs, the solution is expen-sive and requires a significant investment. First, Java developers are usually more expensive at a rate per day than PHP developers. Then, the entry-level cost of 40 thousand euros does not give access to much. For budget below 150 thousand euros, there is little credibility to embark on a Hybris development. But it would be unfair to compare only the eCommerce part since, in this case, Hybris PCM will also provide you a much more advanced management of your products standard. Selecting Hybris means also choosing a PCM and an eCommerce system, which is much more attractive financially.

Selecting Hybris for its eCommerce project is a decision that requirescarefulconsideration because this is a long-time and high-budget project. A java developer is more expensive than a PHP developer and the time spent on code is longer. Not being an open source solution, it will not be possible to find add-ons modules to improve the site. Everything must be thought of and designed internally.

In the end, the whole strategy of the eCommerce site will be built based on Hybris (with multichannel and product management) and going back to the choice of the solution will be very complicated. Thus, choosing Hybris means to plan an eCommerce strategy on a very long term but it is worth the effort since having good control over the solution will allow to realize significant ROI.

StrengthsandweaknessesofHybris

Pros

+ Natively Multichannel oriented.+ Product Content Management (PCM).+ Hybris scalability.+ Very complete and segmented solution.

Cons

− Expensive solution.− Closed platform, no external contributions.− Not open source and no community approach.− Requires a full project management, on a global scale.

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The time has come to chooseAfter this study, one conclusion was inescapable since this work has allowed us to take «the pulse» of the eCom-merce solutions market.

The first obvious highlight is that 2012 will be a pivotal year for all these players. Between newcomers fundraising (Drupal Commerce, PrestaShop and probably RBS Change) and the activity of leaders with their share of complexi-ties, this is by no means a foregone conclusion.

In 2012, the market is definitely taking the turn of a reorganization, taking into account the new balance of forces.

eMerchantisKing

With such a rich offer, eMerchants are the big winners, whatever happens. They never have had before such a wide choice! This conclusion is therefore to close the loop and help you select your eCommerce solution, the one that will probably assist you the next 24 to 36 months or even more!

In this highly dynamic market, everyone will have either to make its mark, keep its place in the segment, or launch in a new segment to grow. eRetailers in this context have a wide and varied offer, allowing them certainly to find something that suits them.

On average, eMerchants keep their site two years before a major upgrade is necessary. It is therefore an important but not definitive alliance so you should estimate your needs essentially for the next 24 to 36 months.

Choicebasedontheestimatedturnover

Another important fact, although many of the editors say they cover the entire range, we must recognize that it is not so realistic or accurate in practice. First, to make the right choice, you have to know how to position yourself in your «Tier».*

Are you in tier 1, 2, 3 or 4?

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If you are in 1-Tier or in upper 2-Tier: Most likely you will have to choose between Hybris and Intershop.

If you are in 2-Tier: You can easily think of Demandware along with Hybris. In the beginning of segment 2 (10 to 30 million euros), Magento Enterprise versions and RBS Change can clearly be thought of as well. The choice is not trivial, the real differentiation key being for us in terms of number of people connected simultaneously to the back office. If you need a lot of them, choose a Java rather than a PHP framework. If you are more ppen source oriented and like PHP for its fair quality/price ratio, then Change & Magento are players!

If you are in the 3-Tier: You have access to all PHP frameworks! You will then have to sort by frameworks specialties, by budget related to site development and by specific interests. We have seen OXID eShop, RBS Change and Magen-to strengths in this segment; we should add that Drupal Commerce provides natively a very good system Blog/CMS and that PrestaShop offers unbeatable prices in general, with shorter start times.

If you are in the 4-Tier: You start, you don’t have to hesitate: PrestaShop is the best framework for this market segment in our opinion. Magento CE is also good, but generally more expensive and harder to master, so that integrators have difficulty creating Magento CE websites of quality with a budget less than 15 thousand euros. In this segment, you can also clearly consider adopting a SaaS: Go, Oxatis, PowerBoutique, etc... There are dozens of frameworks to start smoothly in eCommerce, at a very reasonable price.

Choicebasedoncoverageofforces

This turnover segmentation cannot be the only deciding factor: quality of editor support, progress in terms of SoLoMo (Social Local Mobile), stability over time, environment (integrators, developers, community) and capacity for innovation or adaptation, also have to be weighed.

We aimed, with this study, to show you many facets and give you as much points of comparison as possible, to help your decision-making, but nothing will be better than testing on your own and gathering additional information specific to your project.

We added to each solution a spider chart (or radar chart) to show the strengths of the product, a summary table and another table highlighting the strengths and weaknesses. So, read them very carefully to make sure that one of your key points is not listed in the weaknesses of the software in question.

Herearethedifferentsolutionsconsidered:

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Among all these solutions, each has its advantages and disadvantages. Each solution corresponds to a very specific type of eMerchants. Some solutions are designed for small projects and other for enormous projects. Before choo-sing a solution, several factors have to be taken into account but it is essential to know where we are going.

It is clear that all the solutions have their specific strengths that should entice you on a given segment:

PHPgroup

• PrestaShop: Tier 4 leader, unbeatable value for money, quick to master, quick to enrich• Magento: Tier 3 leader, very strong functional coverage, rapidly evolving,• OXID eShop: (Tier 3 leader in Germany) Good support and technically ultra clean solution• Drupal Commerce: Comprehensive CMS , a must-have if you already have a large Drupal ecosystem• RBS Change : Speedy frontend, complete back-end, a little-known but brilliant product for big Tier 3

Javagroup

• Intershop : Tier 1 player. For very large sites, experienced, providing Web marketing services• Demandware : mid Tier 2 player. A very complete and successful solution for segment with turnover ranging from 5 to 50 million euros per year • Hybris : Big Tier 3 and Tier 2 player, A strong and multichannel products catalogue management, a highly experienced player

MoreKPIsthatwesuggesttohelpselect

To answer the initial question «howtochoosetherighteCommercesolution?» we recommend you properly ana-lyse your project needs and goals in the first place. Take the time to finalize the business plan, know what will be the future development of the activity, how many people will be hired, how many products does the site has and how many new products will emerge, what are the key features & figures of your sector.

All these points are difficult to control but it is imperative to have, at least, an idea of their evolution. We must consi-der the choice of eCommerce solution like if we were buying a car. Before buying the car of your dreams, you are bound to ask yourself the following questions: will I need my car in 2, 3 or 5 years? Will I get married, have children? Do I prefer a sports car or a family car? Can I afford to fill the gas tank every two hundreds kilometers? All of the above answers lead to the acquisition of a car that matches your mood & needs. This is the same reasoning for choosing an eCommerce solution.

Our12KPIs

Our 12 (specific to eCommerce) KPIs provide a dashboard to help you make your choice, as follow:

BusinessKPIs

• Estimated budget for the 2 upcoming years (for establishment phase(build), then for the maintenance (run))• Turnover of the website• How long is the site expected to last before a global overhaul is made (2,5 years is realistic)

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HumanKPIs

• Number of people that will be connected to back office (has a big impact on some back office)• Willingness to delegate additional functions (web marketing, integration, hosting etc.)• Availability of technical expertise in-house (and willingness to have)

TechnologicalKPIs

• Dynamic updates and platform improvements (how fast the product is reflecting webmarketing trends)• Number of products (SKUs ) managed by the system• «Decoration independence» and easy-to-skin site, CRM capabilities• Interfacing with third systems, internal systems (e.g. ERP) or external systems (e.g. Logistics)• Level of navigation needed: faceted/multi-stores/multilingual • Checking the solution level of excellence on technological key points, mainly performance for users

Thefutureofsolutions

One last note on future solutions after this long study, based on what we have read during those months of work.

The“PHPs”

We see fierce competition in the core market of eCommerce, with challenges, different complexities and constraints depending on each player.

Magento, RBS Change, OXID eShop, Drupal Commerce and PrestaShop will be competing against each other more and more often. PrestaShop wants to move from Tier 4 to Tier 3, Magento from Tier 3 to Tier 2. As for OXID eShop, RBS Change and Drupal Commerce, they want to establish themselves in Tier 3 and the begining of Tier 2.

Don’t be fooled, this is the famous Tier 3 which marks potential worldwide success or failure of PHP-based players which have not yet reached it.

PrestaShop is still targeting small eMerchants and decided to go for the American market. With hundreds of thou-sands of sites to its credit, the solution, if it gets to monetize some of the services on Tier 4, could have a lucrative market, which is acquired, with a high potential for internationalization. Finally, there is no stigma attached to deal with this tier 4 and competition comes from SaaS players, who can provide a level of customization and functionality comparable to that of PrestaShop.

Magento has other issues to deal with. Between the departure of its co-founder and CTO Yoav Kutner, the mer-ger with eBay that is not so easy, the overhaul with Magento 2.0, the implementation of a real support for large accounts, the need to convince in Tier 2 and preserving its positions in Tier 3, it is far from easy to be a leader. But now Magento also has huge resources with eBay, a team that is growing and still great momentum. Moreover, the intrinsic qualities of product and team are still there: innovation, leadership, strong community, network of partners committed to the cause.

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The“Javas”

Hybris, Intershop and Demandware share the niche market of major brands. These solutions may have fewer cus-tomers, but the customers are prepared to inject more money in eCommerce projects. This segment is growing and has real projects cycles that benefit publishers who may place their know-how. However, the fight is fierce also because there are many other players, but mostly since it is a segment that is highly sought by eCommerce delega-ted companies. Then, it is clear that each customer is profitable but there are not a lot in the end.

Tier 1 segment 1 is the smallest and the Tier 2 is not huge either, all companies have cycles, so you have to be ready to get the contract when it comes. Fewer opportunities, a sales cycle a little longer, more aggressive competitors, very demanding customers and competition from delegated companies as a bonus, it’s not so easy to make its mark in Tier 1 & 2.

But future looks bright in Europe for Intershop and Hybris. Both houses have solid references, mature products and highly-organized societies, «German-style» in sum. Intershop may have to reduce its minimum shopping cart to grow and focus on Tier 2 and Hybris may have to try to upgrade to Tier 1 but overall, a customer interested in Hybris or Intershop knows what he wants and very few companies can compete with these two editors in their comfort zones.

The situation is very different for Demandware. Indeed, Demandware economic model is based on paying a fee as a percentage of the website turnover, in addition to fixed costs. The principle is quite logical for Americans working with a cost-accounting system but this is not a standard model at all, nor evens an acceptable one, for European people. Even if the reasoning of Demandware makes sense because in the end it is consistent to recognize all costs and pay a monthly budget that represents a percentage of the activity, the economic model may shock and fails to convince.

Furthermore, by studying this model, we can easily realize that under a certain turnover, it will work out cheaper to integrate. But after reaching a certain amount, it also becomes difficult to pay 2-4 per cent of the turnover, which limits Demandware in a sites market range of turnover from 7 million euros at a minimum to 50 million euros at a maximum. Indeed, over this amount, paying half a million euros a year seems rather exaggerated to host and main-tain an eCommerce site. Last but not least Demandware is underperforming in Europe with few success in this very competitive market.

Demandware European future is thus little readable with a model which may not arise and a very small customer target, corresponding to the beginning of Tier 2.

This concludes our white paper on eCommerce solutions; we hope that it has been helpful!

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About the authorsThis study was conducted over several months by Philippe Humeau, CEO and co-founder of NBS System, assisted by Matthieu Jung, Communication & Marketing Manager at NBS System.

First, we deeply apologize for the mistakes, typo and other translated or weirdly formed sentences you may have come across while reading. We are French authors and, beyond the genetic curse regarding language skills, we have in no way a decent English level. Our translator did her best to save us from complete failure but we added content after her revision as well.

NBS System is a company operating in the world of computer security and managed hosting since 1999. With over 2,000 managed sites to date, NBS System is a leader in eCommerce managed hosting and outsourcing in France and United Kingdom.

NBS System is atypical in this market because we don’t just host, we try to understand. Understand what is deep inside the framework, what reaction the site has under heavy load, why our customers succeed and how. We like to test, try, bench, demonstrate, optimize and understand.

We gather knowledge, create some, share them and try to be more than robots doing an assembly line job. This study probably will convince you that, among companies in the field of managed hosting, some are customer cen-tric, trying to bring more value than just raw technical skills.

This study is the culmination of years of experience in the eCommerce sector and NBS System deeply wants to convey all its knowledge to professionals in the field.

NBSSystem-UKNBSSytem-France33GlasshouseStreet140boulevardHaussmannLondonW1B5DG75008ParisEnglandFrance

Mail:[email protected]:[email protected]:+448455276098Phone:+33158566086

www.nbs-system.com

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GreetingsThe authors would like to thank all the experts and eCommerce solutions publishers who agreed to participate in this study. In a way or another, and most of them very willingly, they participated to this study accuracy by providing some key information.

The authors also issue special greetings to our translator Bénédicte Mutel ([email protected]) who helped us more than once to translate our contents to Spanish and English and Amélie Hardy ([email protected]) who made this book graphic template.

We also would like to greet our colleagues working at Sysleven (German managed hosting company) who gave us a lot of interesting feedbacks around the OXID eShop framework, especially Thomas Lohner.

Last but not least, Philippe & Matthieu are willing to deeply thank the NBS System team and leaders, whose pa-tience and vision allowed us to find the time to lead and publish this book. The R&D we constantly lead to improve performances and to understand our customer’s tools and challenges is the DNA of our work.

NBS System is in no way a «classical» hosting company. We are proud to be a «managed hosting» and security com-pany, able to provide our customer with far more than just basic optimized configurations or level 1 support.

We hope that this book, our blog posts, howtos and various opensource contributions (like the fantastic NAXSI WAF) will give you the taste to work with us in the future if you have security issues or an eCommerce webiste to run!

If you have feedbacks on this book, or are willing to get in touch with us, do not hesitate to send an email at: [email protected], we will be glad to reply.

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Copyrights & licensingRBS Change, Intershop, Demandware, Magento (and Magento Go), Hybris, OXID Eshop (and OXID Esales), Drupal commerce, Commerce guys, Syseleven, NBS System, Wikigento, Bargento, X.Commerce, Amazon, Ebay, Ubercart, osCommerce, Zen Cart, VirtueMart, IBM, WebSphere, Microsoft (and Microsoft Commerce server), WordPress, Interspire, Volusion, Oxatis, Power boutique, Crocs, Medimops, Galeries Lafayette, and their respective logos are trademarked and/or copyrighted and belongs to their respective owners.

Diffusion, property and reproduction:

NBS System forbids to use this content in any commercial way without prior formal agreement.

As long as the NBS System and the authors names are visible, NBS system allows: • the reproduction of the graphic page 4, including on a publicly visible media (blog, ...)

• education & training facilities, schools, colleges and universities to make use of this document as a peda-gogic content

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S y s t e m

"Grow your business safely"

www.nbs-system.com

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