L2 and Demandware Release New Report on Global eCommerce Agility

Independent study examines the critical factors that impact retailers’ ability to be agile in the evolving retail marketplace

BURLINGTON, Mass.--()--Demandware®, Inc. (NYSE: DWRE), the industry-leading provider of enterprise cloud commerce solutions, and L2, Inc., a member-based business intelligence service that benchmarks the digital competence of brands, today announced the release of a new report that examines the factors that most impact retailers’ ability to be agile with their global ecommerce operations. The L2 Intelligence Report: eCommerce Agility, developed in partnership with Demandware, analyzed more than 80 brands and concluded that the type of ecommerce platform used is a critical and leading factor that determines a retailer’s level of agility and ability to execute critical business strategies.

“eCommerce is the fastest growing channel in retail today. As such, the ability to adapt quickly is crucial for sustaining competitive advantage,” said Scott Galloway, Clinical Professor of Marketing, NYU Stern and Founder of L2.

Defining and Measuring Agility in Commerce

Agility, as defined by L2, Inc., is a retailers’ ability to proactively manage and execute against three critical strategies that can impact the success of their ecommerce business:

1. Dynamic content creation -- the frequency with which a brand is able to change site content to keep consumers engaged, impressed and returning on a regular basis. The primary element measured in the study was the number of landing page changes that were detected over a 12-week period, manifested through featured items, promotions and marketing campaigns.

2. Integration of new technologies -- an assessment of how well a brand’s site has been kept current and innovative across four dimensions of customer experience capabilities: content & commerce, search & navigation, customer service and omnichannel.

3. Ease of new market entry -- the pace of a brand’s year-over-year rollout of retail store locations and country-specific websites in new geographies. Findings are tied back to ecommerce platforms and infrastructure.

After identifying agile firms, the study explores the correlation between platform architecture – across on-premise (i.e. license), in-house (i.e. homegrown), and cloud (i.e. SaaS) -- and financial performance as measured by sales, operating margin and earnings growth. The L2 Intelligence Report draws the following conclusions:

Agility Correlates to Strong Financial Performance

The analysis reveals that retailers with high degrees of agility – based on the three critical strategies described above -- have stronger financial performance. Cloud brands not only had the greatest sales and earnings growth, but also the highest overall site rankings, driven by content, customer service and search. Of the 80+ companies evaluated, cloud solutions saw an average of 12 percent in annual sales growth over the past five years, as compared to 9 percent and 6 percent growth for on-premise and in-house solutions, respectively.

Agility Levels Are Superior and Sustained with Cloud Platforms

The study shows a direct correlation between agility levels and the type of ecommerce platform implemented. Retailers that use cloud commerce platforms exhibited higher degrees of agility; a stronger ability to provide engaging brand experiences; and broader international reach. Cloud-powered sites have remained at the vanguard of ecommerce innovation, outperforming all other site types.

Agility Accelerates New Market Entry and Expansion

International expansion presents a huge growth opportunity for retailers and has become a popular means for boosting returns and driving retailers’ bottom lines. eCommerce is a low-risk way for brands to test new markets or complement existing store footprints. Brands that operate on a cloud platform have a competitive edge because they are able to leverage ready-built infrastructure and integrations to launch new sites more quickly, and are able to strike the perfect balance between brand control and localized merchandising.

The L2 study found that agile retailers are more apt to have online presences in emerging markets as a low-risk way to test new markets or complement an existing store footprint. On average, 60 percent of cloud brands operate sites in the emerging markets, compared with just 45 percent of in-house brands and 40 percent of on- premise brands. Conversely, 86 percent of brands on an in-house platform have physical stores in emerging markets, while only 45 percent have an ecommerce presence in these regions.

“Demandware’s value proposition is grounded in the unique tenets of a cloud model,” said Elana Anderson, SVP, Worldwide Marketing, Demandware. “We believe – and the L2 research provides further evidence – that retail brands must be agile in order to stay ahead of the curve in this ever-evolving retail market. That agility requires a nimble platform that facilitates continuous innovation and empowers the business to focus its efforts on delivering a differentiated experience to the consumer, instead of platform maintenance.”

To learn more about the research, download the full report here.

About L2

L2 is a member-based business intelligence (“BI”) firm focused on digital competence of consumer brands. L2 provides member brands with actionable, data-driven insights on their digital performance. The L2 Digital IQ Index® is the globally recognized benchmark for digital performance. Analyzing more than 850 data points across Site & E-Commerce, Digital Marketing, Social Media, and Mobile & Tablets – L2 quantitatively diagnoses brands’ digital strengths and weaknesses and rank peer-to-peer performance. For more information, please visit: http://l2inc.com or email:membership@l2inc.com.

About Demandware

Demandware, the category-defining leader of enterprise cloud commerce solutions, empowers the world’s leading retailers to continuously innovate in our complex, consumer-driven world. Demandware’s open cloud platform provides unique benefits including seamless innovation, the LINK ecosystem of integrated best-of-breed partners, and community insight to optimize customer experiences. These advantages enable Demandware customers to lead their markets and grow faster. For more information, visit http://www.demandware.com, call +1-888-553-9216 or email info@demandware.com.

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Contacts

Lewis PR
Kim Karelis, 781-761-4484
kim.karelis@lewispr.com

Contacts

Lewis PR
Kim Karelis, 781-761-4484
kim.karelis@lewispr.com