Commerce platforms provide the tools to power eCommerce, enabling online catalogs, shopping carts, and promotions. We recently published our updated Forrester Data: Commerce Platform Technology Forecast, 2016 To 2021 (Global).

The market has changed considerably since we last published this forecast in December 2014. The biggest surprise? How quickly the market for SMB platforms has grown. The SMB platforms offered by vendors like BigCommerce, Shopify, and Volusion offer low-cost solutions for smaller firms. In 2016, for example, Shopify reported revenue of $398 million, almost four times its 2014 revenue of $105 million.

In 2014, we estimated the global spending on SMB platforms to be around $240 million. This market grew to $1 billion globally in 2016. In our latest 2017 commerce platforms technology forecast, we expect SMB platforms to grow to 26% annually over the next five years, reaching $3.2 billion globally by 2021.

Related Research

For more on the topic, please see these recent reports: The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites For Midsize Organizations, Q3 2017; The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites, Q1 2017; and The Forrester Wave™: B2C Commerce Suites, Q1 2017.