The study, which surveyed 340 marketing and IT professionals at B2B and B2C organizations, found that implementation and resource costs are even higher for organizations using legacy commerce systems. The percentage of Oracle, SAP and IBM users reporting implementations that take longer than a year is 26 percent higher than the average. These users also report much higher implementation costs, with 40 percent of users spending more than $3m.

Although companies with legacy commerce systems spend significantly more, the report reveals that only about half (53 percent) of respondents agree that their current e-commerce system helps them be as profitable as possible. This indicates a major disconnect between resource cost and effectiveness, which is a result of rigid technology implemented by legacy ERP systems.

“We are in a new era of commerce, where the speed and cost benefits of a SaaS commerce platform are abundantly clear,” said Ray Grady, executive vice president of CloudCraze. “As digital commerce gains traction and becomes the most common touchpoint for both consumers and business buyers, brands that work with legacy commerce platforms experience tremendous challenges that negatively impact profitability and customer service.”

The survey found that scaling for growth and market changes, quickly updating to the customer and company’s evolving needs, and gaining a holistic view of the customer are the top three pain points for brands today.

These challenges are particularly pervasive for brands that generate more than $25m in revenue. Nearly 60 percent cite scaling quickly to meet the changing needs of the market as their top challenge.

Customer engagement is an additional pain point for these organizations. Roughly 80 percent say they would benefit from increasing the level of engagement with their customers online.

Overcoming Commerce Challenges

Digital commerce is expected to grow at an annual rate of 19 percent, underscoring the major opportunity for revenue growth for brands that invest in a cost-effective commerce solution with a fast implementation. More than 40 percent of cloud-based system users report over half of their total sales are already happening online, as opposed to only 13 percent of on-premise system users, which points to the power of easy application management, deployment, and upgrades inherent in cloud-based systems.

To view the full report, click here.

Source: CloudCraze