X.Commerce is full steam ahead at the Le Web show in Paris with the announcement of several new partners who have joined it’s global partner program. There are now over 500 companies and individuals who have pledged their support for the X.Commerce ecosystem which aims to build an open development platform for the future of commerce.
At Le Web X.Commerce announced a raft of new developers taking the X.Commerce pledge. One of our favourite developers, Stephen from Tradebox (the guys that make your marketplace and website accounting integrate with Sage), told us that every time eBay add a web technology to X.Commerce that gives them access to broaden the scope of what they can do for merchants. Because X.Commerce are using one platform with standardised code they’re really looking forward to getting to grips with it and integrating with more partners and are excited for the future.
Others such as Ed Monyneux from Freeagent said that the X.Commerce has the potential to become the holy grail of truly standards based integration across every kind of ecommerce function. He’s right – and I foresee a future where merchants no longer need to complain about the shortcomings of their chosen multi-channel management platform. Currently you have to select a platform based on the best fit for your needs, but there are always a couple of features missing that you wish you had. Now merchants will be able to select a main platform and simply add in a couple of “plug ins” from other developers to complete the solution that they require.
The Integrator Opportunity
Of course you could do away entirely with a multi-channel management solution and simply buy a plethora of X.Commerce plug ins to do the job for you. However I foresee that this will make management difficult and many merchants will still be better off with a fully featured solution with a single log in to their management platform and a single point for support.
Integrators such as Pentagon Interactive, Genie and the Geek and Imonline will be well positioned to provide managed services by using a selection of X.Commerce enabled solutions to truly tailor a solution on behalf of their client merchants. These companies use third party software in order to provide a full service offering to their merchants and X.Commerce will open the doors for them to provide an even more custom tailored solution for their clients.