Platform vendor evaluation is one of the most complex jobs a retailer or brand will tackle for their Digital Roadmap. This exercise has at least a few distinct phases: deciding when your current situation has reached its end, where you are headed next, and, most importantly, the change management in-between.

This past week, Gartner released its Digital Commerce Magic Quadrant, which was introduced in the 80s and '90s to provide an overview of a particular software market segment -- in this case, eCommerce platforms.

My big quibble with the Quadrant overall is that it presupposes that each vendor wants to build a suite of all the things. Frankly, if you ask this observer, the Quadrant is a little out of step with its Pragmatic Composability message.

I wanted to provide a phrase from the report from the point of view of each vendor who made that happy quadrant.

Adobe: Experience Manager and Analytics-focused

Commercetools: Large Enterprises

Salesforce: Buy extra licenses

SAP: Monolith (I'm not making this up, it was in the report)

Shopify: Innovation

VTEX narrowly missed the quadrant this time, but I'll give them an honorable mention here for being on the line ;-)

As far as RFPs overall, given the volume out there, it must be RFP season as we are starting to inch towards Fall and companies think about their 2024 roadmap. One advice for brands and retailers during an evaluation is not to compare static lists of features. Watch the motion instead.

What do I mean?

It's nonsensical to make a 7 to 10 year decision based on a particular set of features you value at any time. Instead, the decision needs to come down to three things:

1 - The platform meets all your basic security, data, and functionality requirements.

2 - Best-in-class partners are available, and integrations are commonplace to them.

3 - The list of system integrators is plentiful, referenceable, and experienced. It also helps if there are several of them at each level (complex, middle, and simple) so you can find the ones that meet your needs.

Another piece of advice? If you are having your existing system integrator run your RFP, I'll say that you are likely not running an RFP. Instead, you are more likely a part of a sales process by a primary vendor favored by the SI (which is easily discoverable).

Selecting the SI first is the same as tilting the scales... instead, choose the platform and SI as a matched pair. As part of this consideration, ensure that your ISV ecosystem partners match that pair.