Is it that time of year?  Is it merely an odd coincidence?  In the last 6 months there has been a major ramping up of seemingly happy and successful retailers looking to see “what else is out there” in the rapidly evolving universe that is eCommerce technology. 

Having been around the block, I know that some of this is a normal occurrence in the industry.  Retailers, more than in other industries, love to see what their peers are doing.  However this is more than that.  This trend in my view is spurred by a couple of key macro factors:

First, as I have said many times, there is increasing pressure on the eCommerce side of the house to continue to grow revenue to make up for lack of growth (or in some cases, contraction) in the traditional store business.  The old model of growing a retail business through the engine of new store openings is officially on sabbatical.  Retailers now are looking to harness the growth of the Web business to grow share and in many cases, to have significant impact on the top-line.  As such, marketers and IT shops alike are looking to see what capabilities they can leverage to drive conversion and revenue. 

Second, economic pressures retailers are feeling in terms of constrained or contracting revenue, reductions in available capital and a major push from the CFO to reduce op-ex.  For many retailers this is about doing more with less.  In this classic battle IT is being challenged to deliver to the needs of the business in areas like content management, campaign management, social, mobile, new site (micro-site) development and more.  On a much more tactical level, marketing is screaming for features.     

The result of these two key factors is a major push by retailers (in some cases driven by IT, and in other cases driven by marketing) to see what other eCommerce solutions are available with the following key focus areas:

• Current Pains – how does our current solution impede our business goals?
• Solution capability – what have now become the “basics” of eCommerce…i.e. what can I get in the box today?
• Solution cost – how much does a new solution cost from a hardware, software and hosting perspective relative to what I am paying for today?
• Operations – what does a new solution look in terms of a headcount footprint…i.e. how many people would be required to run the solution (where could I reduce or re-purpose headcount)?
• Futures – how does a new solution set me up for long-term business opportunities and growth?

The analysis that is going on today in many cases is being done without a defined budget but instead with the lens of assumed revenue growth and decreasing op-ex.  In this mode retailers can justify budget through cost savings and with the implied value of supporting their growth engine for the long term.