Do You Need Headless eCommerce?

As online commerce continues to grow at breakneck speed -- you'd think we would have hit the peak by now, but apparently not! -- omnichannel commerce becomes increasingly important for most retailers. Being able to connect with your customers only via your brick-and-mortar storefront (if you even have one) and your website, is no longer sufficient. To be able to compete, you need social media and email marketing at least. Now there are even more opportunities to reach your customers: in-game ads, gaming tie-ins, AR and VR channels, and kiosks. This need for an omnichannel approach is where headless eCommerce comes in.

What is headless eCommerce?

Traditional website architecture used to be monolithic in which the front and backend are tightly coupled. Before sophisticated frontend languages, such as Angular and React came on the scene, much of web development consisted of backend engineering with frontend styling. 

By contrast, headless eCommerce decouples the front and the backend, using an API to connect them. This allows for a variety of applications, third-party services, as well as your own custom frontend to be incorporated, each connected via the API to the backend architecture. This headless architecture pattern is what allows the omnichannel opportunities to stay in sync with your store's backend. It allows you to provide a seamless experience for your customers, whether they are visiting your site or buying from an Instagram ad.

Benefits of Headless eCommerce.

1. Customizability

Since the frontend and the backend are decoupled, it's easier to update your design and branding. Whereas before, major changes would require lots of testing and QA to ensure the updates didn't interfere with other parts of your site, now the backend remains intact, while the frontend gets a fresh coat of paint. 

2. Personalized Experience

With a headless approach, you can customize a seamless experience. You have full control over the design of your site. You can easily coordinate your branding across all of your channels, such as social media, email, kiosks, and ads. Headless commerce is a great option for integrating with any IoT device, such as smart watches, smart fridges, or voice shopping.

3. Seamless Integrations

It is easy to integrate additional third-party apps or platforms with your backend. There are dozens of tools from marketing suites to fulfillment that help you run your business with greater ease. Take the pick of your favorites and easily integrate them with your backend to improve your customer experience and your own peace of mind.

4. Conversion Optimization

Because headless eCommerce empowers an omnichannel approach, that means you are able to create more options to drive conversions. You can customize your calls to action, recommendations, or even ad delivery to optimize personalization.

5. Better Customer Experience

The landscape of eCommerce is constantly and rapidly changing. Headless eCommerce allows you adapt to those changes just as fast as they come. The backend with the data of your products or services and your customer purchasing history is the bedrock of your company that remains stable throughout the changes that may come. You get the best of both worlds: the flexibility of updating your frontend and channels with the stability of a longterm backend.

A headless eCommerce solution provides the benefits that the new landscape of digital sales requires. Mange your inventory, customer history, and fulfillment processes with ease and stability. At the same time, gain the flexibility to incorporate new sales channels, update branding and UX rapidly as needed, provide a better customer experience, and integrate with your favorite tools. It's a win-win solution.