Making the choice between traditional ecommerce and headless commerce starts with knowing your business needs and capabilities. Let’s talk about the main differences between headless and traditional commerce and how to figure out which is best for your company.
WHAT IS HEADLESS COMMERCE
The separation of an e-commerce application’s front end (your storefront and user experience) from the back end (your data and business logic) is headless commerce in its simplest form. Changes on one end of a platform do not affect the other when the front and back ends of the platform operate independently. That will forever change the face of e-commerce. This architecture offers brands freedom of expression to build whatever, and however they want. Most importantly, it enables brands to enrich the customer experience.
One hallmark of headless is the use of APIs, experience managers, and tools such as HerokuOpens in a new window and MulesoftOpens in a new window, as well as the importance of IT partners. These resources are a critical part of every company’s innovation strategy, delivering new functionality and experiences that engage customers and stay ahead of their expectations.
If you’re in ecommerce, you know that keeping pace with emerging channels and changing customer behaviors isn’t easy (and often requires a lot of coffee). In a traditional ecommerce model, building new experiences can require updates to both the front- and back-end system, which can turn even small projects into huge headaches. That’s where headless comes in.
BENEFITS
The adopters of headless commerce are typically bigger enterprises with larger development and IT teams along with a DIY attitude. This makes sense because the specialized programming required to consistently produce and construct a separate front end and back end can necessitate substantial development resources. These businesses often have months-long development queues and ambitious creative and marketing teams that are eager to rapidly test new designs, copy, and templates on the front end.
Brands need to embrace innovation like never before at a time when 80% of customers say that a company’s products and services are just as important as the experience they have with them. Speed-to-market is frequently linked to increased cash flow, so every developer hour is precious. If you’re thinking about switching to headless commerce, the advantages typically make it worth the effort if the process is well-planned. Here’s why:
Faster time to market
Businesses are able to quickly launch new front-end experiences with a headless commerce platform. Your teams can react to new market trends quickly without straining development team resources to make updates to the back end. A key point of differentiation for your business could be the speed with which you update your storefront. Only 5% of businesses are able to make changes in a matter of minutes, and 63% must wait days or longer.
Dev team and IT efficiency
Since changes to the front end can be made without requiring skilled development on the back end, developers save time on user interface changes. This is a crucial aspect of headless commerce when you consider that only 26% of IT teams can support all development requests from the business. Additionally, developers can launch commerce apps that boost conversions with just a few clicks and some light coding thanks to partner solutions and headless templates.
Better employee adoption
Some organizations can be reluctant to use new technologies due to steep learning curves. Having a modern commerce platform alongside the simplicity of headless commerce solves this problem, since everyone on your team can easily access and update the front end without advanced skills.
The right tools for the job
Brands can now create individualized experiences that customers can’t find anywhere else thanks to headless commerce. APIs, which are driven by common commerce services like promotions, inventory, product information, and more, are essential for ensuring coordinated, brand-consistent experiences across channels.
Cost savings
With headless commerce, you don’t need to rely on a long, arduous development process for every storefront change, which also means you eliminate the expenses involved. In the long run, Headless necessitates less investment in infrastructure and requires fewer licensing and hosting fees.
HOW TO GET STARTED WITH HEADLESS COMMERCE
Determine if headless commerce is right for your business
A headless solution has numerous advantages, but not everyone is a good fit for this kind of framework. Many businesses still use a traditional monolithic model, and many agencies still recommend a monolithic strategy for enterprise and well-established brands.
But if you’re looking for greater flexibility, scalability, and agility in your ecommerce platform, a headless solution may be worth considering. The following criteria can help you decide whether to switch:
- You’re a content-driven brand
- Because your brand is focused on the user experience, it needs the ability to use AI, augmented reality, or personalization. You want to make digital experiences that are consistent across all of your customers’ devices and touchpoints. You have multi-site or international selling needs, serving up multiple frontend experiences powered by the same backend
- You want to add commerce to a CMS you already use. You’re already selling online and have a separate site for content and need to be able to merge the two
Understand the necessary architecture for going headless
A headless solution has numerous advantages, but not everyone is a good fit for this kind of framework. Many businesses still use a traditional monolithic model, and many agencies still recommend a monolithic strategy for enterprise and well-established brands.
But if you’re looking for greater flexibility, scalability, and agility in your ecommerce platform, a headless solution may be worth considering. The following criteria can help you decide whether to switch: You’re a content-driven brand
Understanding how your headless architecture differs from a conventional commerce site is essential in order to maximize its value. On the backend, a headless commerce solution comes equipped with all the essential functionalities to run your store, such as inventory management, pricing, catalog, and checkout. Headless commerce, on the other hand, separates these backend components from the frontend of your website, giving your developers and business users the freedom to constantly innovate and create unique experiences across various customer touchpoints. This is in contrast to traditional legacy systems. Your teams will be able to create one-of-a-kind content-driven experiences that convert better thanks to this flexibility, which will result in increased revenue growth. Using headless commerce to achieve year-over-year goals that exceed your business’s objectives requires an understanding of this architecture.