E-Commerce Is Dead — Long Live E-Commerce

By Lelah Manz, Akamai Technologies, America

Reviewing the results of the Integrated Solutions for Retailers annual technology investment survey, I was surprised to learn that nearly 70% of survey respondents will be investing in e-commerce solutions — up over 10% from the 2010 survey — with the combined investment opportunities in back end cross-channel solutions still falling behind: e-commerce – 66%, cross-channel merchandise management – 18%, cross-channel inventory management – 17%, and cross-channel multichannel operations integration solutions – 16%.

After attending Shop.org in Boston, a quick scan of the agenda shows mobile, cross-channel, and social media dominate today's conversations. Given this focus, the ubiquity of e-commerce sites for tier-one and tier-two retailers and the large number of respondents planning e-commerce investment is surprising.