Ecommerce companies step up investment in hardware, software, site performance

[mandy]

With the web retailing industry expected to grow this year by more than 25%, online merchants across the board are purchasing more e-commerce hardware, software and services to keep pace with rising customer demand and consumers’ rising expectations. But unlike the days before the dot-com investment crash, when many retailers went overboard in purchasing technology, merchants in 2006 are being more selective in how they are spending their technology resources, focusing on underlying platforms and site performance...

...most web merchants are carefully studying their technology purchasing priorities and, first and foremost, purchasing technology that improves web site performance and customer retention. For example, 51% of all organizations say that replacing their e-commerce platform is their top priority, followed by 48.7% that list a web performance monitoring tool or service as their next most important purchase. Spending on programs that increase site search and help to measure customer behavior also will increase this year, with 38.5% citing a new search application as their third most important spending priority, followed by 31% that are planning to update or replace their web analytics program...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=19107