Do you remember the good old days, when the only way we could access the online world was a computer with a desktop screen? It makes sense that the ecommerce platforms created in those days were conceived with the aim of providing solutions for desktop shopping experiences – that’s all there was, after all.
Few people back then could have predicted the future of shopping, which today includes devices such as mobile browsers, social apps, interactive home speakers, wearables. These technological innovations have led to a number of improvements for society but have also demanded a new approach to commerce.
Today, successful businesses are starting to develop a new mindset for commerce and rethinking the platform as a combination of all the available digital devices and channels used, instead of simply focusing on offering an answer solely for web ecommerce.
In other words, we are seeing the rise of headless commerce as an essential part of the modern online selling business. Previously, experimenting with various storefront presences facing customers would have been problematic when it came to core systems such as payment processing, product databases, or other backend functionalities. But by separating the commerce engine in the backend from the various frontend manifestations across platforms, devices and channels, the headless commerce approach provides an attractive solution.
Headless commerce offers numerous benefits both for commerce-oriented and content-oriented ecommerce strategies and also provides significant advantages to consumers.
Sellers can be faster, more precise, and adequate in responding to the changing needs of consumers and the market in the following ways.
1. Improves Rollout Speed
Businesses can work on an agile basis and work with new user interfaces faster, as there is no need for installing and managing any full stack software. Rather, dedicated teams can work simultaneously on the project and amendments can be implemented to the UI with no necessity of putting all the core logic in the backend to the test.
For example, companies can now launch a release to support the latest version of the iPhone without being obliged to redeploy the whole ecommerce platform.
2. Allows For Seamless Integrations
The continuing diversification of new tech demands quick responses from brands, and headless commerce is the perfect solution as it allows businesses to integrate with any system.
For instance, personalization engines and big data analytics on the backend can easily integrate with the commerce system to spread information that can be used for creating the ultimate customer experience. Integrating with digital marketing strategies is essential, and the commerce platform should be able to seamlessly communicate with your site’s publishing platform and other important systems.
3. Experimenting Is Easier
Testing new strategies is often at the core of business success. However, in most cases, experimenting can be costly and threatening. Imagine having the opportunity to experiment without risking jeopardizing your whole backend. Headless commerce provides the opportunity to run A/B tests on certain parts of your commerce websites, create an Alexa skill or a Progressive Web App without influencing the backend operations and ensuring that your customers will not be harmed.
With standard commerce engines, in order to test something, new changes must be made in the frontend and backend at the same time, requiring you to pause the whole application until changes are complete.
4. Serve Up Personalized Experiences
In today’s highly commercial world, personalization is everything. Consumers are already used to brands suggesting items based on “people who bought this product also purchased” and even expect this as a basic marketing strategy. Headless commerce makes it possible for businesses to truly understand their customers and show this across all the different touchpoints.
Regardless of the chosen device or time, the backend commerce platform can understand in detail what each individual customer has purchased and can then push this information to personalization engines, which can then send the signal to the CMS, the business’s social channels, mobile apps, POS and more. The customer receives a completely tailored, contextually relevant offer, and the backend remains unharmed and undisrupted at the same time.
5. No Wasted Time
Thanks to the fact that companies can add new touchpoints and make necessary changes without announcing a freeze on activity due to maintenance, consumers can complete their buying stages whenever they desire, with no time wasted on waiting.
Furthermore, the ability to fully customize and tailor the customer experience means that buyers will easily find the products they are looking for without any wasted efforts.
6. Consistent User Experience
Although the customer buying journey flows from one phase to the next, requiring a different approach as the consumers’ needs change, the overall experience with the brand should be consistent on all touchpoints. Today, consumers can interact with a brand from a number of devices and platforms, and it is essential from a business point of view to ensure that their relationship with you is dependable regardless.
Headless commerce allows for a consistent approach and a CMS which controls all the pieces, including interface, UX features or URLs. The solution gives all involved parties the ability to effectively work towards their targets in a unified way.
Hats Off To Headless
Headless commerce is the way forward considering the vast range of digital devices consumers use throughout today’s standard buying lifecycle.
It is no longer enough to adopt a commerce platform which is able to cover one device. The interconnected world we live in requires more, and headless commerce has all that it takes to provide the ultimate solution.
