Selling online has become an imperative for retailers and an increasing number of manufacturers. Recognizing that a 24 percent loss in customers can completely eliminate the profitability of their offline stores, retailers have raced to drive e-commerce growth to $77 billion in 2004 (6.8% of U.S. retail). By mid-2005, over 95 percent of the largest U.S. retailers (over $60 billion in annual sales) will be e-commerce enabled. And, for midsized retailers ($900 million to $60 billion in sales), over 85 percent will be selling online. Yet these adopters face a fundamental challenge: using the first generation buy/build architecture, many cannot make money at e-commerce, but none can afford to avoid trying. For most of them, owning and operating an e-commerce infrastructure does not make economic or operational sense.
Finally, next generation ECISPs make that ownership unnecessary. They leverage the Internet itself to deliver a complete online channel solution with guaranteed levels of performance quality. Companies contract for a fully branded online store, all of the applications and services required to manage it, and a partner committed to their ongoing performance improvement. Implementations of 4 to 13 months get accelerated to 4 to 14 weeks, and up-front costs are cut by 64 to 89 percent. From a profitability and reliability standpoint, businesses can now justify e-commerce to their shareholders and customers. By enabling companies to focus on their core business, ECISPs unlock the full potential of online sales channels. ECISPs provide the sustainable e-commerce solution that manufacturers and retailers have been seeking.