Evaluating the Long-Term Viability and True Costs of E-Commerce Solutions

4. Ability to support future growth: Many online retailers are already pushing both the scalability and contractual capacity limitations of their existing e-commerce solution. As we fast-forward into the changing retail landscape and the inevitable increase in both load and expectations, 74 percent of respondents report immediate concerns that their current solutions will not scale to support the growth plans of the business. This is a considerable risk given the stakes that online retailers face during the holiday season, where margins from fourth-quarter revenues make or break annual goals, and online traffic volumes can exceed in one hour those normally seen in an entire month. To extend the life of these solutions to support both year-over-year traffic growth and international expansion plans, retailers must allocate resources to purchase additional licenses and hardware infrastructure.