Headless Commerce is the New Trend: Know Everything About It!

With the help of the web and the Internet of Things, today's digital landscape is focused on the consumers more than ever it was. If you’re an eCommerce store owner, you need to adapt to different things to have a competitive edge. It is one of the primary reasons why more and more businesses are transitioning to headless commerce to offer digital delivery to their consumers.

What is Headless Commerce?

Headless commerce refers to an eCommerce solution in which the layer of frontend presentation is decoupled from the functionality of backend commerce. You can change the head or the frontend, which includes social commerce, user interface, IoT, and more, without making any kind of interference with the backend.

Headless commerce enables businesses to provide consumers with brand-consistent and personalized experiences that seamlessly connect backend systems with the frontend. It provides businesses with enhanced flexibility in creating robust user experiences for visitors. It also enables businesses to customize the functionalities and features of their eCommerce platform. The eCommerce industry will have $6.5 billion in sales globally by 2023, hence, it is the right time to adapt to the required changes.

Headless Commerce vs. Traditional eCommerce Platforms

Conventionally, eCommerce companies used to manage their frontend and backend experiences with the help of a single platform. Since the system was monolithic, modifying the frontend without altering the backend was not possible. Such a model works well for startups temporarily that don't have large development teams.

Also, even when a minor update is needed, the project turns into a large one that ultimately needs more implementation time. Furthermore, the traditional eCommerce platforms have limitations because of the restrictions imposed on creative control. Traditional models also make it challenging to adopt new technologies to enhance customer touchpoints, and as a result, it impacts the overall competitiveness and agility of an organization. Alone, in the year 2020, eCommerce sales increased as much as it has increased in the last 5 years.

The eCommerce ecosystem is becoming competitive with each passing day. In the race to meet consumers' expectations and to knock out competitive pressures, you need to build your business on a scalable platform architecture. This is where headless commerce comes into the picture. It has a decoupled architecture with headless CMS, like WordPress or digital experience platform (DXPs), like the creative teams leverage the BloomReach as frontend presentation layers. The user experience and conversions, and interface customer engagement are optimized.

Your ecommerce website has so many things that include a payment gateway, inventory management system, an accounting system that manages bills and payments, the checkout process, and several other similar things on the backend. With the help of APIs, both the backend and frontend are connected, and communication takes place. Headless eCommerce platforms offer tools and APIs to build a brand-consistent experience across different channels successfully.

What Are The Things to Consider When Moving to a Headless Commerce Platform

The transition from traditional eCommerce to headless commerce is a big decision, and you will have to search for a platform that suits your business needs and matches your business's growth. Know more about the factors that you need to consider before choosing a headless commerce platform.

• Determine Scalability and Customization of the Platform:

As your business scales, the platform has to be scaled along to provide the necessary support. However, every business is unique, and so are their needs. Hence, ensure that when choosing a platform, you choose the one with fast and reliable APIs that enable you to customize your store and automate it.

• Ability to Provide an Omnichannel Experience:

If you want to succeed in an eCommerce business, you are required to have an omnichannel strategy in place since consumers look for products everywhere and can shop from anywhere they feel like. They can purchase from social media places like Instagram, Facebook, or marketplaces such as Etsy, Amazon, etc.

That said if you are not available at the place where your customer is, you are missing out on something great. Presence on several channels is recommended, and headless commerce offers centralized channel management so that the products and prices are all managed from one place.

• Ease of Use and Security:

One of the significant reasons behind moving to a headless commerce platform is that you will not have to spend a lot of time getting your store developed. Instead, you can focus more on enhancing the customer experience. Hence, choose a platform that is easy to set up, navigate, and scalable. Additionally, headless commerce platforms provide enhanced security.

• Dependability and Continuous Customer Support:

When selecting a headless commerce platform for your business, ensure that it provides a reliable hosting solution so that you don't have to face casualties of any kind. This way, your website will not crash even if it experiences high traffic. You should ensure that the platform provides 24*7 customer support and has easily understandable user guides and the required resources to help you set up.

The Benefits of Headless Commerce

If you want to scale up your eCommerce business, you will get a host of benefits with the help of headless commerce.

• Personalization:

The headless commerce approach is decoupled with the presentation layer of the front end. You can conveniently test all the customization strategies without inferring into the backend system. When you are looking to build a long-term relationship with your consumers, personalization will help you go a long way. Using customer data, marketers can establish unique offers and promotions to resonate with the specific needs of the consumers.

• Reduced Time to Market:

The demands of consumers are rising, and if you want to stay ahead of the competition, as a brand, you need to focus on the delivery of what consumers are looking for and where they want to get it delivered. Headless commerce comes to the rescue and enables businesses to keep up with the latest technologies and trends. At the same time, it enables the implementation of new technology at reduced costs and the time taken to market with conventional platforms. The decoupled architecture of headless eCommerce will make the integration of any system easy. Furthermore, it helps enhance conversions and reach customers faster.

• Rapid Experimentation:

When it comes to eCommerce, experimenting with different prices and user experiences works as a game-changer. You can choose to use headless commerce for your project in several ways. It ranges from rolling out new features and offers, testing with different promotions and discounts, playing around with innovation, creating different landing pages, and establishing engaging user experiences without altering anything in the backend.

• Unified Customer Experience Across Channels:

With the help of Headless Commerce, you can introduce new customer points powered by the same set of APIs. This will help you ensure consistency in functionalities and data. It will help you provide a unified presence of your online store across platforms. It also enables users to facilitate a transaction without having them visit your eCommerce store. For example, if you have an eCommerce account, you can convert your Instagram account into a storefront by adding a "Shop Now" button to your posts.

The Challenges of Headless Commerce

Though headless commerce has undeniable benefits, there are some drawbacks to using such a platform. Let us know them as well.

• Higher Ownership Costs: Most headless commerce platforms don't have a frontend. You will have to consider the total cost while investing in one. Also, the platform has a pay-per-use architecture, And the final cost of ownership increases with the increase in several integrations.

• Flexibility Comes with Complexity: It often becomes difficult for smaller teams to manage a distributed system instead of a single solution. When using headless commerce, you will have to deal with numerous vendors and have multiple teams concentrating on different blocks.

• Replatforming is Not Easy: No doubt, headless commerce offers long-term benefits when the conventional platform is transitioned to a headless platform. eCommerce re-platforming can turn out to be challenging and time-consuming depending on the number of backend integrations and frontend experiences you are looking for.

When to Opt for Headless Commerce and When Not To Do So?

We recommend all D2C brands, and online retailers use headless commerce since it is best suited for them. Also, people looking forward to selling their stuff across various channels can use this platform. Also, global brands who look forward to establishing a world-class experience for their users can use headless commerce. Moreover, when someone is looking for PCI compliance, headless commerce is the solution for them as well.

The traditional eCommerce systems have a built-in frontend, and they also help to reduce the time to market during the launch. However, it is still recommended that new businesses use the all-in-one traditional eCommerce systems to achieve quick wins in the initial days. Also, if you don't want your business to be present across different channels, using conventional systems is the best option.

Conclusion

Headless commerce is growing in terms of popularity, and it offers the brands more eCommerce platform options. Brands can see that headless commerce provides more opportunities for their store than eCommerce stores are concerned. Brands that are moving towards the trend of headless commerce are already reaping the benefits, leaving others scratching their heads.

Arjun Solanki is a Business Growth Strategist at a Leading Software Development Company. He has experience in developing and executing digital strategies for large global brands.