For the past three decades, eCommerce websites have evolved from simple tasks of buying products online to delivering niche shopping experiences. Technology has enabled retailers to provide seamless digital experiences customized for buyers’ specific interests.

Online shoppers are rewarded with membership benefits, same-day delivery, free shipping, flexible return policy and more. This approach to wooing customers has made them rely on online stores for all products ranging from clips to cars.

As the eCommerce market expands, the expectations of online shoppers keep evolving and so, there arises a need for digital experience management.

Now, let’s try to explore the various approaches to provide an immersive shopping experience for customers of today and tomorrow. Before that, let’s know the traditional eCommerce website architecture in the early days of eCommerce.

Traditional eCommerce website framework

A ready-made web store framework was used by merchants during the early days of eCommerce. Developers had to follow a specific template given by the eCommerce software vendor. Whenever customizations had to be done, the front-end releases had to be managed together with the backend release. So, the development and deployment took longer and adopting new technologies were a nightmare.

During those days when eCommerce was yet to go mainstream, the online buyers’ expectations were low. The customer journey was linear and they used desktop computers at home or work and hence, merchants were able to meet their expectations with a simplistic digital shopping environment.

Fast-forward a few decades and we are in the smartphone era. These pocket computers, along with internet connectivity on the go, are faster than desktops and laptops and have mobile apps that are simpler yet effective to use. They expect a similar user interface when they shop online like quick navigation, secure payments etc., and so, merchants had to go beyond the traditional, templated website framework.

To solve the existing limitations in operating with full-stack commerce solutions plus the customer expectations in the smartphone era, API-based, website architecture with decoupled front-end and backend systems, emerged. APIs allow developers to create customizable front-end applications that can fully access the data and features of the application, operating system and services.

There are three important approaches to digital commerce architecture based on APIs, namely, “Full Stack”, “Hybrid” and “Headless”. While the full stack is similar to the traditional website framework, the headless is future-ready while hybrid is a combination of both full stack and hybrid.

Full Stack Approach

This approach has a primary commerce platform and a partner-supported storefront for customizing user experience. To extend the commerce capabilities, for instance, native mobile apps, APIs are available. This approach doesn’t need in depth technical knowledge and is widely adopted by small to mid market businesses. However, it still doesn’t address customer experience management features like data analytics and personalization.

Hybrid Approach

This is a phased approach for headless commerce. A commerce API communicates with front-end such as a web content management platform and backend which is the core commerce engine. With hybrid approach, the front-end user interface is more customizable than in the full stack approach.

Headless Approach

Commerce APIs are used in headless commerce but the website’s front-end and backend are separated or decoupled. Headless approach is the best solution for challenges faced in an omnichannel commerce environment because, merchants have more flexibility and customize commerce-specific requirements irrespective of whether it is a system, IoT device or a mobile application.

Read more : Omnichannel Commerce

Further, headless commerce allows the developer to seamlessly integrate with other content management systems.

What Headless Commerce?

Headless commerce is a type of website architecture that provides the flexibility in delivering experience-driven commerce. Headless commerce has its front-end ‘decoupled’ from the backend.

Both front-end and backend can function independently in the website architecture while APIs communicate between them. With this architecture, retailers can have competitive benefits such as omnichannel experience, marketing initiatives and faster web development.

Read more : What is headless commerce? Why your business needs it?

Key Features of Headless Commerce

• Omnichannel – Enables merchants to deliver appropriate experiences on mobile devices and the web, enabling true omnichannel potential.
• API – The API-first architecture enables developers to integrate third-party systems.
• Customization – Flexibility over developing new frontend capabilities without disturbing the backend.
• User Experience – Personalize and deliver tailored experiences for all digital touchpoints.
• Security – Improved security by detaching the storefront from handling sensitive data.

Benefits of Headless Commerce

• Headless commerce is not limited by specific processes or workflows. Developers have complete creative control over user experience based on brand-specific requirements.
• Customer-facing content layers can be rapidly updated without affecting the logic-heavy backend. Similarly, backend codes can be developed and deployed independently without upsetting the front-end.
• Sending customer-specific promotions and offers is easy for merchants because the customer data is made available across every touchpoint.
• Merchants who want to scale their sites can do it faster in a headless architecture. Site updates will take less time and front-development costs will significantly reduce.
• The marketing team can freely access the front-end and include campaigns, promotions and launch new customer experiences without depending on the development team.

Who should consider Headless Commerce?

A headless approach can serve several requirements of brands of all sizes. Here they are:

• Custom Experiences – Businesses that want to build content-rich and experience-driven stores can opt for headless commerce, which provides the ultimate flexibility to customize the front end.
• Multiple touchpoints – Brands that deliver their business through multiple touchpoints like web, mobile, smart devices, kiosk and so on can benefit from headless commerce.
• Innovation – Brands that want to innovate rapidly through new technology adoption, experiment new features, venture into new sales channels can do so without constraints from the backend.
• Regulated Industries – Regulated industries like Cannabis, healthcare, chemicals, pharmaceuticals that must build storefronts that comply to their industry regulations and legalities.

Headless Commerce – Challenges and Considerations

Now that we’ve listed the benefits of headless commerce, here are the factors you need to know for a seamless hosting experience:

Your hosting platform (e.g., Magento) has to be compatible with other platforms.

Read more : Magento Managed Services

Front-end and backend combination has to be carefully chosen to meet commerce-centric requirements like:

1. Traffic Surges: Your website has to hold up to extreme traffic outbursts, especially during holiday seasons.
2. All-round Security: Both front-end CMS and backend platforms should be run in a highly-secure manner to avoid hackers stealing your customer data.
3. Continuous Monitoring: An experienced admin team is needed that can continuously monitor, be proactive in solving issues before they occur, and ensure that the site is up and running, 24×7.
4. Loading Speed: Site loading speed is one of the key aspects for improving conversion rates. Your choice of front-end and backend architecture must ensure fast loading speeds.
5. Tech Support: The support team must include account managers, admin teams to ensure smooth performance in all hosted platforms.
6. Customizations: Ensure that the platform you choose can cater to your specific needs and is flexible for future requirements as well.

Popular Platforms Supporting Headless Commerce

• Adobe Commerce (and Magento Open Source)
• CommerceTools
• Shopware
• Shopify Plus
• BigCommerce
• WooCommerce
• Salesforce Commerce Cloud
• Contentful
• Elastic Path

Examples of Headless Commerce Success

• Target – The retail giant faced a challenge as its customers used multiple devices throughout their purchase journey. With headless commerce, the brand delivered a consistent experience across web and mobile devices, resulting in more conversions.
• McDonald’s – The food chain with a global presence wanted to provide personalized experiences. With headless commerce, the brand was able to adopt AI and deliver personalization to its global user base.
• Samsung – Adopting headless commerce, Samsung was able to build and integrate live virtual assistants for its digital and in-store touchpoints. Customers in the USA can use the assistant to see up-close demos and technical specifications and purchase products.

Adobe Commerce for headless architecture

Adobe Commerce has innovative solutions to help merchants implement a headless approach into their eCommerce architecture. Here are the options that Adobe Commerce provides for headless commerce implementation:

1. Adobe Commerce integrates with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) for merchants to develop customizable front-end and also choose between a headless and hybrid commerce approach.

Read more : Adobe Experience Manager

2. Adobe Commerce comes with REST and GraphQL APIs with which merchants can quickly extend and adopt APIs for various customer touchpoints and integrations with third-party systems.
3. The PWA Studio is available for developers to create app-like immersive experiences for mobile browsers regardless of the backend processes.

Read more : Why PWA is needed for your eCommerce? What are the benefits of PWA Studio?

Conclusion

We have learned the headless commerce, its benefits and things to consider before choosing this approach. Now, it’s time to decide whether a headless approach will suit your business.

While mainstream eCommerce will mostly embrace headless technologies in the future, early adopters can integrate these technologies in a phased manner depending on their organizational maturity and how future-ready they want their business to be. Magento Commerce, with its readily available technologies, can be the first step in the process of adopting headless approach.

Thinking of headless Commerce but need more help to decide whether it’ll suit your business? Talk to our eCommerce experts today.

FAQs

1. What is headed vs headless commerce?

2. What is meant by headless commerce?

Headless Commerce refers to the decoupling of the front end and back end. In a headless eCommerce architecture, both layers are separated and communicate through APIs. The front end is the customer-facing layer, while the back end handles the business logic, transactions, and commerce logic. The API-first approach enables the storefront and backend to work independently with less dependency.

3. What is the difference between headless and monolithic commerce?

Monolithic – Monolithic eCommerce platforms have the front end and back end tightly integrated. This makes storefront customization highly dependent on the backend. Any changes on the front end demand backend customization or configuration to accommodate changes.

Headless – Adopting headless commerce for online stores allows stores to integrate any preferred third-party CMS at the front to facilitate content-rich and experience-driven buying. You can also build a custom headless front end. Other benefits of headless commerce include integration with third-party systems and technologies.

In the battle of headless commerce vs. traditional commerce, the former is the clear winner for brands with growth plans, innovation, and an omnichannel approach in mind.

4. What are the drawbacks of headless commerce?

Development challenges

Headless commerce requires custom development expertise. Hiring a development team or setting up your in-house team can be a daunting task. Moreover, your developers should have hands-on expertise in frameworks like React JS, Next JS and platform-specific headless frameworks like Catalyst (BigCommerce), Shopify Hydrogen etc.

Time to market

Turning your storefront completely headless requires a phased approach. To start with, your headless development partner agency will work on turning the static portions of your store (header, footer) headless.The dynamic pages and blocks across your store will then be built on headless frameworks. Connecting the front end and the back end through APIs and integrating third-party systems add to your headless transition journey.

Maintenance

The separated front end and back end (decoupled eCommerce systems) require communication established through API. Also, integrating third-party systems requires middleware development and maintenance and microservices governance, which makes maintenance a complex task. Remember, the best headless commerce platforms are mostly API-friendly or API-driven.

5. How much does headless ecommerce cost?

Headless eCommerce development cost is determined by various factors like the platform a store is operating on, customization needs, choice of headless framework, integration requirements, API connections, complexity of the microservices infrastructure, and so on.

The eCommerce platform choice includes the license fees it demands. It may be SaaS (Shopify, BigCommerce, Shopify Plus) or open source (Magento). Based on the headless commerce solutions you choose, the license and development cost will vary. The other key factors that add to your overall headless eCommerce development cost are as follows:

Hosting – Hosting charges for the decoupled frontend

Support and maintenance – Updates, customization, bug fixes and performance optimization

Integration – Based on the number of third-party systems and the complexity of the integration, your headless development budget will increase.

Design and user experience – UI customization and optimization for different devices (web, mobile, IoT)

Headless commerce features – The number of headless commerce features you develop will also add to your overall development cost.

If you have questions like ‘How to implement headless commerce’ and how much headless commerce costs, our experts can provide you with a consultation and devise a clear roadmap.

6. Is headless CMS good for ecommerce?

Using a headless CMS for eCommerce benefits in multiple ways.

Customization – Having a headless CMS allows you to customize and deliver unique frontend experiences. Personalization with headless commerce is highly possible if you have a flexible third-party CMS integrated with your backend.

Omnichannel experiences – With full control over UI, brands build device-specific UI and deliver a consistent user experience across every digital touchpoint, improving conversions. This means you can leverage headless commerce for omnichannel sales.

Scalability – Headless content management systems provide better scalability as they are built using modern frameworks. Scalability ensures smooth handling of high traffic volume and rendering content of content.

API – The API-first approach enables smooth integration of third-party systems with your frontend layer.

Performance – With the facility to customize code without dependency over the backend, a headless CMS can be optimized to render faster loading speed, resulting in better conversions.

7. Is Shopify a headless ecommerce?

Shopify has developed its own headless framework, Shopify Hydrogen. Shopify Hydrogen enables headless commerce through its React-based framework. The built-in hosting makes it one of the most scalable eCommerce solutions for headless.

Brands operating on Shopify can leverage it to build their headless storefronts. Shopify is an API-driven eCommerce platform that joins the league of Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, Commercetools, etc.

8. What’s the difference between headless commerce and composable commerce?

Headless Commerce and composable Commerce have several differences in their approach of building an eCommerce system. We’ll start from understanding ‘what is headless commerce’ and what composable Commerce is.

What is headless Commerce?

Headless Commerce separates the front end and the back end. The front end can be custom-built or can be any other third-party CMS.

What is Composable Commerce?

Composable Commerce brings in several components for different eCommerce functionalities (frontend and backend) and connects them to form an eCommerce system.

Headless vs Composable Commerce – Customization:

The Headless Commerce approach provides flexibility in customizing the front end.

Composable Commerce provides end-to-end customization from frontend to the backend. Different third-party systems and services can be used to build a store.

In short, the future of headless eCommerce is composable Commerce. Further innovations in headless eventually leads to composable Commerce.