Some of you may have noticed that Gartner’s analysts have begun posting interesting clips on YouTube recently – this week we found one entry particularly compelling. Gene Alvarez, a VP in the Gartner CRM research organization, is a recognized authority on retail and consumer packaged goods industry applications and practices; he’s also an international expert on e-commerce technologies. Earlier this year he released research on cost-cutting in e-commerce and this week he addressed the topic again, discussing the continued promise of e-commerce in these shifting times.

Here, Gene debunks the argument that e-tailers can cut costs by holding off on buying e-commerce software and services from vendors, instead letting their in-house development team handle building these tools. (This is certainly a topic we have also spoken out on quite a few times…the old “build vs. buy” debate…) He says those that build out e-commerce functionality like automated product recommendations features, click to call buttons, and site personalization capabilities are actually wasting internal resources that could be better spent elsewhere. We couldn’t agree more.

Related post: Would you build an ERP system? ok, well, how about an e-commerce platform?