The eCommerce landscape has been rapidly changing over the past decade as more and more players enter the market. Technology has changed and companies like BigCommerce and NetSuite make it easy to set up an online store. However, this diversity brings its own set of technical challenges. In this blog, we’ll be exploring headless commerce, how it works and the impact it can have on your business.
What is Headless Commerce?
Simply put, headless commerce is a separation of the front end and back end of an eCommerce application. This allows each to operate independently so that changes on one end do not require reciprocal changes on the other. The two applications communicate with one another through the use of APIs & experience managers.
It’s important to note that headless can lessen the IT dependency for UE and user interface projects. That way, user-centric changes, which only impact the front-end can happen faster because they don’t require changes to the back end.
Keeping pace with emerging touchpoints and experiences isn’t easy. In a traditional eCommerce model, new experiences can require updates to both the front- and back-end system, which can turn even small projects into huge headaches.
Headless & open SaaS eCommerce Model
Commerce-led or commerce-first models use APIs for data orchestration and give relative control to IT teams for infrastructure connectivity. On a SaaS platform, the number of API calls available is important to make sure this functions properly.
Open SaaS is a SaaS platform architecture choice. It includes the following:
- High or unlimited API call volumes.
- Multiple endpoints.
- Well-documented developer documents.
- A heavy focus on API development in product roadmap make.
Headless commerce takes open SaaS one step further, completely decoupling the presentation layer of the eCommerce platform.
API connectivity and robustness are important in ensuring data orchestration across the decoupled systems.
What Headless commerce provides brands
- Site customization and personalization options.
- Flexibility, familiarity and fund-savings for developers.
- Marketing effectiveness for innovation without hurting backend processes.
- Speed to market for international and omnichannel GTMs.
- Conversion rates and lower customer acquisition costs.
- Additionally, headless commerce opens up a world of possibilities with brands that are looking for a content-led strategy, to begin with. There are now truly no limitations to the customizations that can occur in the digital eCommerce space.