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In the never-ending quest to differentiate themselves from competitors, online retailers often turn to content to set themselves apart and enhance the quality of their Web contact with customers and would-be customers.

The need to automate the distribution of content has given rise to a fast-growing software niche of Web Content Management (WCM), tools that help organize and deliver content to Web sites, from intranets to dynamic e-commerce sites to sites in multiple foreign countries.

New Agendas
A Forrester research survey earlier this year found that the vast majority of major enterprises in the U.S. and Europe planned to invest in expanded WCM deployments this year and other firms have identified the niche as one of the fastest-growing enterprise software categories.

"As content grows increasingly important as a point of differentiation for online retail, content management requirements make their way to the top of manufacturers' and retailers' agendas," said Forrester analyst Tamara Mendelsohn

Growing Interest
And the market goes well beyond companies involved in business-to-consumer retail to include manufacturers, wholesalers and other business-to-business (B2B) companies.

Jeff Ernst, vice president of marketing at FatWire Software, said any industry that hopes to use the Web as a low-cost way of having rich customer contact can benefit from WCM, from financial services to telecommunications, retail to B2B.

"To maximize conversion rates, companies need the ability to manage unstructured content, rich media, product information, and campaigns within a single solution," Ernst said. Just as important, easy-to-use WCM solutions also put the control of that content "into the hands of marketers and merchandisers," enabling faster response to changing consumer demands.