Ecommerce vs Web Content Management: Which Should Power Your Digital Experience?

According to Forrester Research, ebusiness and channel professionals' top investment priorities this year include the ecommerce platform and Web Content Management (WCM), as many ecommerce sites, CPG brands and manufacturers selling direct to business and consumers seek to replace existing systems with best-of-breed tools to deliver the ultimate digital customer experience whilst freeing marketing and merchandising teams from reliance on IT.

Ecommerce and WCM are amalgamating

Over the years, both ecommerce and web content management vendors have been investing in “engagement features,” and there is a significant overlap between capabilities. Both can control navigation, search, presentation layer, merchandising, recommendations, support mobile, etc. But they each bring unique capabilities to the table as well. When you think about next-generation digital experience platform, it goes beyond just the platforms themselves. Controlling the on-site experience requires many different solutions and systems, from A/B testing and analytics to social platforms, recommendation engines, bid management and loyalty platforms.

It’s not uncommon to have over 20 different integrated solutions involved in delivering that online customer experience. Some are very complex, some are front-end, some are back-end, but every next-generation digital experience requires this integration.

Organizations looking to build best of breed solutions need to decide whether to invest in WCM, ecommerce, or both -- and which platform should drive which piece of the experience. And similar to a build vs. buy decisionwhen considering an ecommerce platform or replatform project, determining whether to run your digital commerce experience through WCM, ecommerce or both requires an understanding of your business’ characteristics and needs.

How to decide whether to use an ecommerce platform, WCM or both

In our webinar Building Tomorrow's Digital Experience, Forrester analyst Peter Sheldon discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each platform, and presents a decision-making model to help you decide, along with 3 integration options for an ecommerce-led, WCM-led or hybrid approach.

Our webinar with Peter Sheldon covers a range of FAQs about web content management and ecommerce, check it out on demand.