The Future is Here With Headless Commerce

Among myriad buzzwords, you must have come across another – Headless commerce! A very happening topic being talked about. Many people have a vague idea of what it means so here’s a crystal-clear explanation-

The simplest definition of headless commerce goes like this- It is defined as an eCommerce architecture, that has its front end separate from the back end. This means any changes done in the front end would not interfere with the back-end processes. This approach allows users to experiment and test innovative ideas giving e-commerce companies more flexibility and freedom. It allows increased agility and adaptability.

An introduction

Customer experience for websites today is tailored for various channels, which was earlier restricted to just the desktop experience. Today, in the age of digitization, where people are spending gigantic amounts of money on online shopping, it’s very crucial for businesses to take even the smallest steps to ramp up their customer personalization for enhanced experiences. In a study by Google, it has been stated that buyers are 40% more likely to spend money when the experiences are better personalized for them.

The rise of eCommerce adoption has been driven majorly by the Covid-19 pandemic in recent years and so has the competition increased for businesses to grab the attention of their targeted segments in the market. The need of the hour for retailers and brands is to scale their digital channels for a better online shopping experience to win their customers who now have a plethora of options to buy from.

Prices have become competitive and almost all businesses follow the same content strategies. Conversions require extra effort now. Brands know now that among all strategies, user experience matters majorly, and it can be better achieved by having catchy customizations and ease of use on the front end. Hence headless commerce is gaining never-ending popularity and would not cease to do so in the coming years as well. It’s the future we are certain of.

Traditional commerce vs Headless commerce

Before anything else, it’s vital to know the difference between traditional commerce (also known as monolithic commerce) and headless commerce.

Traditional commerce

With platforms like these, there is little scope for customizations as the front and backend are firmly connected. Any updates in the front end require backend changes and hence this approach doesn’t allow a smooth workflow and is time-consuming.

Headless commerce

Here the front and the backend are separate which allows the possibility for developers to design innovatively without any restrictions as there are no changes that occur at the backend. With headless commerce, you can use the marketing content everywhere you want, unlike traditional commerce which is quite limited.

Why Headless Commerce is the future?

In this tech era with ever-booming online stores, the answer to the demands of modern markets is Headless Commerce. Traditional commerce might be a solution for small businesses with a single website but as the business grows and starts getting omnipresent, traditional commerce would offer nothing but problems. Whereas going headless has many benefits over playing traditional!

Let's take a deep dive into understanding what benefits headless commerce can bestow-

Limitless marketing

With headless commerce comes the possibility of using any technology a business wishes to give the developers freedom to make decisions on the technical side. This makes it easier for the marketing team to drive new campaigns and push new initiatives on multiple channels seamlessly.

Personalized user experience

A headless eCommerce setup has two principal components: 1) a headless CMS which is integrated into the 2) an eCommerce platform. Headless commerce allows an omnichannel presence through its centralized marketing content within the headless CMS as this content can be delivered to multiple channels maximizing the user experience.

Personalizations are not only limited to name personalizations but can be tailored to cater to individual customers, what they want to see, and the channel they come from to the website.

Easily modifiable storefronts for faster deployment

Headless eCommerce makes it hassle-free for the developers to create or modify the front without thinking about the backend restrictions for getting data all they have to do is call an API. Headless architecture provides this liberty to cater to the needs of eCommerce to enhance the user experience.

Refined developer experience

Monolithic eCommerce involves working with many different layers of eCommerce at the same time limiting the developers to choosing the modern JS framework. A better developer experience always results in great outcomes. When one can work comfortably, one can always provide great results.

Super-fast web performance

Frontend layers built with modern JS Framework happen to enhance user experience and improve the website performance significantly.

Scalability

System scalability by headless commerce allows businesses to have full freedom in working with any frontend or third-party extensions. This makes the process smooth avoiding delays that arise due to deployment processes.

Conclusion

Monolithic commerce has many drawbacks like limited customizations, time and

money-consuming, predefined UX, and cumbersome maintenance. In a world where people like personalization and fast processes, monolithic commerce seems to be dying soon being incapable of matching the pace of business expansions and paving the way to explore greater possibilities with headless commerce. Headless commerce has a humongous potential to reshape the eCommerce industry. Big names like Netflix, Amazon, and Uber were one of the initial companies to switch to headless commerce.

Key Takeaways-

Headless commerce undoubtedly can help boost your business in all the right ways as it provides-

●       Enhanced marketing without compromising on the backend processes

●       Lower costs of customer acquisition

●       Tailored site architecture without limitations

●       Better developer experience

●       Flexibility and freedom for frontend development

●       Faster websites with better performance

Headless commerce is surely the future! Do you believe it too?