As sought after as headless solutions are, business leaders still have questions about how and when to go headless. Let’s dive into what headless is, how it makes a difference, and specifically how a commercetools implementation can help.
Headless commerce is a hot topic right now, especially commercetools headless development - and with good reason. It addresses the challenges that brands face in providing omnichannel experiences for customers.
Today’s customers shop through multiple touchpoints, from social media to mobile phones to smartwatches and voice assistants, like Alexa.
As consumer shopping habits have evolved, so must eCommerce platforms. Headless commerce is a viable solution for businesses looking to stay innovative and continue to enhance their user experience, increase their revenue, and boost their bottom line.
Yet as sought after as headless CMS solutions are, business leaders still have burning questions: How do I know if headless is the right choice for my company? At what point should I go headless? What does headless implementation entail?
Let’s dive into what headless is, how it makes a difference, and specifically commercetools' benefits and how implementation can be a game-changer for your business, thanks to their unique approach to headless.
You’re familiar with traditional eCommerce platforms. Headless is different in a few significant ways. The most important differentiator is that headless eCommerce is far more flexible than its counterpart.
This is because headless commerce solutions are de-coupled, separating the front-end (or the “head”) and back-end systems. Each system can function independently of one another, allowing the front-end content presentation layer to stand apart from the back-end content management system (CMS).
By de-coupling the front-end experiences from the back-end functionality, front-end developers are no longer married to the infrastructure and coding that comprises the back-end. They do not have to use built-in templates and themes, and can create unique, customized user experiences.
Meanwhile, developers can focus on ensuring deliverability of content (everything from products, blog posts, product videos, customer reviews, and more) across multiple devices and screens.
Headless commerce works by passing requests between the presentation (front-end) and application (back-end) layers. It uses application programming interface (API) calls to communicate between the two layers.
Here' a commercetools example: a customer clicks “Purchase,” the front-end sends a commercetools API call to the back-end to process the order. The back-end sends an API call to show the customer that their order has been completed. This eCommerce API serves as the “body” of your system, to which you can attach many “heads” (or buyer touchpoints) as needed.
Your functionality (inventory management, payment processing, order processing and shipping) remains separate from your user interfaces, but the two communicate with API calls.
Consequently, headless commerce architecture is explicitly built for the new age of eCommerce.
commercetools is a visionary headless commerce platform. It’s 100% global, and many of its key features set it apart from other headless solutions:
The commercetools platform also offers a catalogue of 300+ API endpoints, which you can utilize á la carte. Its Merchant Center comes with PIM, and an intuitive user interface that lets you manage product data, orders, and customer data for all retail channels.
In fact, Forrester Wave B2B Q2 2020 noted that commercetools is a strong performer, while Adobe and Salesforce remain merely leaders. Additionally, commercetools was named a Visionary in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce. This marks its second consecutive year to that appointment.
Gartner awarded commercetools receipt of this top honor for a few reasons:
Equally important is the fact that commercetools headless has the fastest time-to-market, in part thanks to accelerators, which can cut the time to launch down to just a few weeks.
A few accelerators:
While commercetools is an incredible platform that pays off in the long run, it’s an investment of which you want to be certain.
So how to tell if it’s the right fit for your business?
Here are a few key questions to ask:
If this is the first time you’re reading about headless, if you aren’t planning to leverage cloud platforms, or if your teams aren’t working cross-functionally, you probably need to take a few other steps first.
But if you’re familiar with headless and cloud solutions, and consider your business to be intermediate or advanced when it comes to digital maturity, then you’re ready to consider commercetools.
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Let’s look at a few case studies of how a commercetools implementation immediately benefited businesses.
The Company: A global retail leader needed to bring 7 different brands and over 7,000 stores in 44 countries into one common platform.
The Company: A global leader in manufacturing and distributing, this business has 27 subsidiary companies worldwide.
In addition to case studies, exploring how some brand used commercetools to launch new and improved websites can help you determine if commerce tools is right for your business. Here are a few examples to consider . . .
Dawn Foods is an international partner for bakers and other food professionals, producing thousands of products, employing over 5,000 team members, and operating in over 100 countries worldwide.
Yet as their business grew, so did their customer base. With new customers came new customer expectations, and Dawn Foods realized that they needed self-service options for customers, so that they could easily manage their accounts, browsing, and ordering.
Dawn Foods worked with commercetools as their back-end solution, and Contentstack for the front-end, providing flexibility and meeting both business and customer needs.
B&S is a wholesaler and distributor that focuses on niche consumer goods. Because they offer such a wide variety of products, and have a broad customer base, they had websites for numerous brands, many of which were outdated and unpopular. B&S recognized that they needed to refresh their approach.
So, they used commercetools' headless solution, and Bloomreach's digital experience platform to create a sustainable omnichannel business model.
Interested in learning more about how a commercetools implementation can transform your business? Talk to the team of experts at Object Edge today.
