As online shopping becomes more popular, ecommerce's share of total retail sales is steadily rising. According to data, ecommerce websites accounted for 22.3% of global retail sales in 2023 (https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/global-ecommerce-statistics). Therefore, there's significant room to grow as an ecommerce business.
With the growth of ecommerce came multiple agnostic API first/API-only solutions providing services ranging from search to AI. However, with such solutions keeping up with the ever-changing market trends and customer needs can be challenging.
As a result, trying to make changes to your online store without affecting the back end is a challenge, and expanding into new markets or offering new products and services can seem impossible.
And it is from these challenges that composability and a headless approach came about. This cutting-edge approach to building and managing online stores involves separating the front end (what the customer sees) from the back end (all the technical stuff).
By decoupling these two components, businesses can make changes to the user interface without affecting the underlying infrastructure. In other words, you can give your store a fresh new look without worrying about breaking anything in the process.
The benefits of headless commerce also give you greater control over the look and feel of your online store, as you can use any front-end technology you prefer. As a result, you'll be able to create a unique and differentiated digital experience for your customers. And by using a headless approach, you'll save money by using existing resources more effectively and avoid the need to build and maintain a complete ecommerce platform from scratch.
In short, headless commerce is a powerful tool for ecommerce businesses looking to stay competitive in today's digital landscape. It offers a range of benefits, including improved flexibility, enhanced scalability, improved performance, greater control, and reduced costs.
If you're interested in learning more about how headless commerce architecture can benefit your ecommerce brand, keep reading.
By nature, functionally different elements such as the user interface, error processing, and data processing are interwoven in monolithic systems. As a result, presenting an exceptional user experience with components of inflexible monolithic systems is undeniably difficult.
Since the front end and back end are connected, developers must modify the database code when making alterations to the front end to complement fresh branding or marketing objectives. As a result, such a system offers no flexibility whatsoever. Therefore, monolithic systems can only work for you if your business does not require flexibility or scalability.
Conversely, headless approach decouples the front and back end and offers fully agnostic user interfaces. In so doing, merchants gain unprecedented freedom of choice. In addition, it allows you to quickly make changes to the front end of your store without affecting the back end. This means you can easily update your look, add new features and content, or adjust parameters such as pricing without having to rewrite code or rebuild entire systems.
When working with monolithic systems, many ecommerce companies need help to scale their businesses due to obstacles like entering new markets, introducing fresh brands, and creating product segments. Consequently, their growth is stunted as a result. Headless architecture is typically the go-to solution for vendors struggling with this.
As you grow your ecommerce business, you'll need a reliable tech stack that can accommodate the ever-increasing changes. That's why headless commerce platforms provide such a unique value proposition. As your business grows, a headless commerce platform can facilitate releasing updates quickly without disruption to backend infrastructure.
Headless commerce future-proofs the system by enabling you to add new channels or devices without rebuilding the entire system. This also allows you to expand into new markets and offer new products and services. In addition, it offers a simple, scalable way for ecommerce businesses to remain agile and competitive in an ever-growing market.
One of the benefits of headless commerce solution is it can lead to faster page loading times and improved performance without the burden of server-side rendering. In addition, when a website's front end and back end are separated, the risk of outages or other disruptions is reduced significantly.
Plus, if you have an API-first approach, backend processes can occur asynchronously while leaving the customers untouched. This means that customers won't be affected even if one particular process takes longer than expected.
Furthermore, with the benefits of headless commerce, you can leverage multiple sources of data. This will ensure business continuity when one service goes offline, as you can rely on others.
When using traditional, monolithic systems, businesses are often limited to specific front-end technology that the system supports. With headless solutions, however, companies can use any front-end technology they choose and create a unique online experience for customers. This makes it easier to manage the customer journey and ensures that customers have a streamlined and pleasant shopping experience.
Moreover, headless solutions allow businesses to use emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR). These features can add an extra layer of engagement for customers and make it easier for them to visualise products in different settings and make informed decisions about their purchases.
The initial cost of adopting a headless commerce approach varies based on needs. For example, the cost may be much higher for large projects than for a single system. But even still, headless commerce is more cost-efficient in the long run.
It allows businesses to use existing resources more effectively and avoid the need to build and maintain a complete ecommerce platform from scratch. This reduces the amount of money spent on development and saves time, making it possible for companies to focus on other areas of their operations.
As you know, the market's demand for optimal web performance and SEO is immense. Yet, surprisingly, many ecommerce websites are still not passing Google Core Web Vitals update tests. Though robust, all-in-one solutions may offer plenty of features in one space, they lack speed due to their front end being tightly connected to the backend system.
Legacy technology can lead to sluggish page loads, slower mobile experiences, and an overall reduction in customer conversion rates. In addition, out-of-the-box features often require extensive coding for processing speed which can slow your business down even further when trying to meet expectations quickly. This kind of lag affects not only user engagement but also SEO rankings.
Headless architecture is a decoupled front-end integrated with CMS via API (Application Programming Interface), so it doesn't require as much code by default. As a result, an online store built on this kind of stack runs significantly faster than other options, resulting in a higher Core Web Vitals score, improved SEO rankings, and increased conversion rates.
While adapting to market trends and consumer behaviour changes, you'll have to develop and launch new features. Unfortunately, if you're slow at it, you'll likely miss out on the benefits of being first to market.
Headless architecture is perfect for quickly rolling out new features and processes that are more customer-centric. A headless commerce platform allows marketers and content editors to add product updates without lengthy coding efforts and deploy changes with a few clicks. This helps you get new features to market faster and satisfy customers who expect a smooth and personalised shopping experience.
The primary benefits of headless commerce are that it separates the backend from the front end, allowing for improved user experiences and experimentation. There are fewer options for legacy systems with a monolithic architecture to design on the fly.
However, by joining in on this movement towards a headless system, you can create structures that prove better suited to long-term success without having to retrofit each time UX designs require updating.
Headless architecture offers product designers and front-end developers the advantage of releasing new marketing features and UX/UI changes to the front without compromising customer experience or platform stability. This offers a great degree of freedom while still ensuring complete security.
Your designers will have the power to construct beautiful user interfaces, high-performance omnichannel experiences using advanced tools. Moreover, they can set up different template options compatible with CMS systems; this gives content teams complete autonomy without having to depend on IT for their needs.
Furthermore, headless commerce allows merchants to swiftly launch a new product line, brand, or touchpoint with an optimised user experience across various devices in days rather than months. This means your business can move at your customers' speed, enabling you to stay competitive and ahead of the curve.
As an ecommerce platform getting more traffic is always welcome. However, it will not count for much if sales remain proportionately low. This is where headless benefits your business greatly.
Headless commerce websites load faster, provide users with a seamless experience across multiple devices, and make it easier to explore products and get the correct information quickly. As a result, customers are more likely to come back or finish their purchase journey without hiccups. This translates into higher conversion rates, more revenue, and better ROI.
Headless commerce has gained tremendous popularity in recent years as ecommerce businesses realise its benefits for delivering personalised experiences with minimal effort. With an agile development model, you can quickly interact with customers across multiple digital channels, launch new products and features in days, and increase your conversion rate.
If you're looking to take advantage of the benefits of headless commerce, contact rVise today, and our team can help you make the transition. We have extensive experience helping ecommerce businesses migrate from traditional platforms to modern ones without sacrificing customer service or brand experience.
to leverage the benefits of headless commerce to drive your business' success.