As digital ecosystems evolve, market growth platforms have gotten important instruments for scaling commerce, increasing attain, and enhancing companion collaboration. Forrester’s Purchaser’s Information: Market Growth Platforms, 2025, provides a strategic framework to assist tech executives align their market expertise with their inner enterprise fashions.
Market platforms will not be “one dimension matches all.” Tech leaders should align platform capabilities with their ecosystem technique to unlock development, effectivity, and innovation.
Forrester may help with the highest three challenges that tech leaders face when navigating market growth platforms:
Complexity in ecosystem-oriented market fashions. Tech leaders should navigate all kinds of market varieties (e.g., B2C atoms, B2B bits, hybrid fashions) that differ in complexity based mostly on what’s offered (bodily items vs. digital providers), to whom (customers vs. companies), and thru whom (direct vs. channel companions). To succeed, your market should allow all contributors to thrive. Patrons and sellers have to be first-class residents of the platform. You have to perceive them each and ship on their wants repeatedly. Every mannequin calls for completely different capabilities in pricing, success, companion administration, and buyer expertise. Forrester may help classify your market wants with our framework and hands-on steering to establish the appropriate market mannequin to your technique.
Governance of your market mannequin with vendor capabilities. Not all market growth platforms are outfitted to deal with the particular wants of a enterprise’s ecosystem. To make sure that all contributors thrive, that you must codify your insurance policies and automate governance, scorecarding contributors and nudging them towards the behaviors that deliver concord throughout the platform customers. For instance, platforms could fluctuate of their assist for subscription pricing fashions, negotiated phrases and personal provides, third-party vendor onboarding and compliance, centralized billing, and versatile success. Selecting a platform that lacks vital capabilities wanted by your technique can derail you. Forrester may help by shortlisting appropriate distributors. By way of our Panorama reviews and Forrester Wave™ evaluations, Forrester segments distributors based mostly on their strengths in supporting particular market situations (e.g., B2B bits, B2C atoms), serving to tech leaders discover platforms aligned with their wants.
Balancing differentiation, broad attraction, and operational and technical complexity. Integrating third-party sellers, managing catalog information, and making certain compliance throughout a distributed community of companions is operationally intensive. Distributors focusing on your use instances could have off-the-shelf capabilities you need to use reasonably than constructing what you suppose differentiates you. Supporting multitier gross sales channels (e.g., VARs, MSPs, distributors) and enabling seamless quoting, billing, and provisioning provides additional complexity. Forrester may help by evaluating platform capabilities. Forrester highlights vital platform options to evaluate, resembling versatile pricing and billing, personal supply and quote negotiation instruments, vendor onboarding and compliance administration, and order and stock administration.
The total Forrester report outlines 9 real-world use instances throughout industries — from SaaS distributors like Salesforce to industrial producers like ABB — every leveraging platforms resembling Mirakl, AppDirect, and CloudBlue to fulfill particular market wants.
For those who need assistance understanding the appropriate market growth platform for your corporation mannequin, let’s discuss.
Schedule an inquiry or steering session with me to speak about your market enterprise mannequin. We will choose the appropriate shortlist of distributors and make sure that it aligns together with your strategic dedication to the pursuit of repeatedly bettering enterprise outcomes by means of expertise. Within the meantime, Forrester purchasers can learn Purchaser’s Information: Market Growth Platforms, 2025.
