In addition, many more sites need the ability to fulfill orders electronically, which requires real-time order validation and download for applications such as software or content sales. Middleware technologies and object-oriented programming are used extensively to address these needs. For this reason, standards compliance is a key need, as companies need open and common methods for tying existing systems into their commerce platforms. Mergers and acquisitions continue to occur at a rapid pace. Companies in the Net economy are using their stock value as currency to make acquisitions in order to show top-line growth to Wall Street.
Heavy emphasis is placed on standards compliance to ensure integration among disparate products.
Abstraction of the application into an n-tiered model, where there is distinct separation between the data layer, the business layer, and the presentation layer, is also becoming increasingly important. There remains considerable variance among vendors with respect to the degree of compliance with such object standards. It is of paramount importance to get to the second and third levels of questioning with these providers of commerce solutions in order to architect solutions effectively for the long run. Finally, robustness and scalability are areas that all vendors claim to have addressed, but few have demonstrated. While evaluating architectures, companies should consider aspects such as load-balancing capability, connection pooling, clustering, and multiprocessing in order to determine whether the product has the ability to scale with their particular business requirements.