This week we reflect on the e-commerce trends that have taken shape in first half of 2008. Our clients have demonstrated great interest in e-commerce, being driven by an amalgamation of market trends such as economics, consumerization, Web 2.0, replacements of aging systems, increasing customer demands for easy-to-use sites, competition driven by the ease of finding sites via Google and much more. In this environment, organizations will be measured by how well they deliver an overall online customer experience.

Aside from the economic environment that is impacting most regions and industries, one of the most influential trends is consumerization. People desire easy-to-use Web experiences for any type of purchases, and they compare their personal B2C user experiences with the B2B sites they use in their daily professional activities.

Consumerization of the user interface has many B2B organizations puzzled as their distributors and partners ask for an "Amazon-like" shopping experience. Meanwhile B2C organizations are increasingly raising the bar for everyone as they seek new ways to make it even easier to move customers from simply browsing to actually buying. This is the embodiment Web 2.0's impact on e-commerce, and it is driving change in e-commerce tactics on how to drive more sales from the web (see "Key Issues for Web 2.0 and Beyond, 1H08"). One of the first places organizations are starting to address Web 2.0 is with the user interface (see "Nine Web 2.0 Tools Can Boost E-Commerce Sales") as organizations seek to differentiate themselves and to make it even easier to find, evaluate and purchase their products and services online.

Organizations want to continue to build on the brand they have established and to reach more new customers and they are turning the web and internet based marketing to do this. (see "E-Marketing Improves the Customer Buying Process").

Newly available software-as-a-service offerings for e-commerce are making e-commerce available to more organizations and we are now seeing the impact of this new model within the e-commerce market. (see "SaaS Impact on E-Commerce"). In fact, this year's e-commerce Magic Quadrant has several vendors offering SaaS e-commerce services, while one of the licensed software vendors offers SaaS as a third way to own e-commerce (the other two being hosted and traditional on-premise licensed software). These trends are reflected in the e-commerce solution market, with many vendors enjoying growth in their client base and a rise in the number of RFPs they are receiving. This year's e-commerce Magic Quadrant has 20 vendors, up from 11 last year (see "Magic Quadrant for E-Commerce"). Take the opportunity at mid-year to review your e-commerce strategy relative to these changing market conditions.