Gartner defines digital commerce as the technology that enables customers to purchase goods and services through an interactive and self-service or assisted experience. The platform provides necessary information for customers to make their buying decisions and uses rules and data to present fully priced orders for payment. The commerce product must support interoperability with customer data, product content (e.g., price, availability) and order functionality and data via APIs. Digital commerce is commonly delivered as single or multitenant SaaS, or as single-tenant hosted or managed hosted (PaaS) applications. It could be offered for on-premises implementations in some circumstances. Digital commerce enables customers to purchase goods and services through an interactive and self-service or assisted experience, providing the necessary information for customers to make buying decisions.
Gartner defines marketplace operation applications (MOAs) as technology that enables organizations to operate marketplaces selling third-party products with optional first-party products. MOAs allow organizations to manage seller onboarding, product catalogs, promotions, orders, fulfillment and finance. Also, MOAs provide customer service and can monitor performance to ensure relevant customer experience and support the selling of physical goods and services — with digital goods as an option. MOAs can be deployed on-premises, single-tenant SaaS hosted or as multitenant SaaS. Marketplace operation applications (MOAs) enable organizations to operate their marketplaces by managing third-party sellers, products, orders, finance and overall performance. Additionally, MOAs enable sellers to manage their listings, pricing, orders, customer communications and finance so they can administer their sales through the marketplace. Organizations with existing digital commerce platforms can use MOAs to enable the marketplace’s business. Organizations new to digital commerce can use a total solution that includes a commerce platform and an MOA.