Composable and headless commerce: Shaping the future of digital retail

Highlights

You’ll learn how composable and headless commerce supports future digital retail

Composable commerce:

• Modularity: Integrates best-of-breed solutions for a better digital retail experience
• Personalization: Delivers highly customizable online shopping experiences
• Integration capabilities: API-first design enhances service additions

Headless commerce:

• Flexibility: Decoupled front-end and back-end for tailored user interfaces
• Scalability: Handles traffic spikes and new demands without affecting backend systems
• Future-proofing: Adapts to new technologies like AI and IoT to enhance e-commerce

Opt for the right technology for your digital retail strategy and step into future e-commerce success. Talk to us today!

Keep reading to learn more!

The future of digital retail looks promising, and much of it may be down to composable and headless commerce. 

Retail e-commerce sales have grown worldwide from $1.4 trillion to $6.3 trillion in the last 10 years. 2024 will see e-commerce sales grow by 9.8%, and Statista identified an enhanced online customer experience (CX) as one of the major growth drivers. 

How are e-commerce businesses able to provide the customer experiences that drive growth? Their underlying infrastructure may hold the answer. Composable commerce and headless commerce are two of the leading approaches that offer flexible and scalable solutions. That begs the question; which approach is right for your specific business?

What is composable commerce?

Composable commerce is a modular approach to building e-commerce systems using microservices and Jamstack principles. Unlike traditional e-commerce systems, businesses can build their digital retail technology from individual, interchangeable components.

In composable e-commerce, you divide the backend systems and front end into modular components. These components could be SaaS solutions, microservices, or packaged business capabilities (PBC). It all depends on what the retail brand wants to achieve.

You can mix and match additional solutions from multiple vendors like building blocks. It is like building a hi-tech Lego set for your online store. You can swap out and replace pieces as your business grows.

For instance, you might have separate providers for product management, payment processing, and customer experience. So, you can select from a range of tech solutions to build your e-commerce platform.

Benefits of composable commerce

Composable commerce offers several advantages that can enhance your e-commerce operations. Here are a few to consider:

• Flexibility: You can add, remove, or update individual components without impacting overall system performance. This allows you to adapt to the market changes or new technology.
• Future-proof and scalable: As your business grows, your e-commerce retail operations can grow with it because individual modules are easier to scale. This ensures you overcome the limitations of monolithic systems.
• Integration with PBCs: PBCs are cloud-native, packaged business capabilities. They are grouped microservices that retail brands can create or get from the market via plug-and-play options. They are easy to integrate and save time.
• Improved speed-to-market: With composable platforms, you are not tied to one vendor. So, you can build, customize, and deploy a module independently. That allows e-commerce platforms to launch new features faster.
• Cost-effective: With composable commerce, you only add modules on a per-need basis. There is no need to overhaul the entire system. This approach can lead to cost savings.

What is headless commerce?

A headless commerce architecture separates the front and back end, enabling greater flexibility and personalization of the user interface. It allows developers to build a retail storefront with any front-end technology to deliver engaging and unique shopping experiences. However, the back end remains as is and may restrict wider flexibility in e-commerce systems.

For instance, you have a back end, which is the engine. You can connect it to a website, mobile app, and voice-activated shopping assistant. Thus, e-commerce businesses deliver consistent shopping experiences on multiple platforms, making possible omnichannel sales.

Benefits of headless commerce

While composable commerce offers modularity, headless commerce provides flexibility in delivering exceptional customer experiences. Other benefits include:

• Scalability: Headless commerce allows the selective growth of some parts of a system. For instance, you can improve the front end of the e-commerce site to handle high traffic volumes throughout the day without straining other back-end operations such as inventory management or order taking.

• Flexibility: A business can integrate new solutions to improve various aspects of the shopping experience, such as AI-based product recommendations or blockchain payment solutions.

• Improved user interface: The headless setup allows for a customized shopping experience across various devices and channels used by the clients. For instance, you may surface a basic product catalog on a mobile app but use a full product description for a desktop.

• Enhanced omnichannel capabilities: Headless commerce eases sales management across multiple channels, like websites, mobile apps, and social media. It provides a single source of truth for product information and inventory.

Composable and headless commerce: How they differ

Composable and headless commerce both offer innovative solutions to the retail e-commerce future but in different ways.

Factors to consider when choosing between composable and headless commerce

The composable vs. headless commerce dilemma is common since they are both innovative solutions to digital retail. They also have some similarities. However, choosing a suitable one depends on your retail needs, technical requirements, and other factors we will explore.

Business needs 

Composable vs. headless commerce is about consistent multi-channel experiences or highly personalized shopping experiences. Businesses that need to deliver consistent front-end digital experiences can opt for headless commerce, while those that want highly personalized shopping should go with a composable commerce solution.

Technical requirements

Both require development teams with strong technical skills to manage and integrate different components. Headless commerce requires developers who specialize in API integrations, but it can be less complex than composing multiple tech stacks.

Cost 

Composable commerce can cost more for initial setup. In composable, you are putting together multiple disparate systems—so you may run up costs on multiple tech licenses and integration. With headless commerce, you only incur costs on API integrations, and the costs then depend on the complexity.

User experience

Both headless and composable commerce provide customized user experiences but in different ways. Composable commerce combines several independent services to deliver highly personalized experiences. With headless commerce, you design the front-end layer to provide a unified and consistent experience across multiple platforms.

Integration capabilities

Composable commerce excels in integration with its modular, API-first design, simplifying the addition of new services and tools. Headless commerce also supports integration with various front-end technologies, but not as deeply as composable commerce.

Future-proofing

Composable and headless commerce offer future readiness for digital retail. Composable commerce enables emerging technologies, including AI for recommendations, chatbots, and blockchain for trustable transactions. Headless commerce offers platform support for user interfaces and gadgets, like voice-commerce and IoT devices. This flexibility allows a business to meet new technological changes and the ever-changing needs of the customers.

Case studies

1-800-Flowers

1-800-Flowers relied on an inefficient CMS that needed extensive development work for different platforms. B2C desktop experiences needed full HTML, while mobile web needed proxied traffic to override the HTML.

They chose Contentstack's headless CMS to power its digital retail platforms. That resulted in better platform stability and unified management of 15 brands.

Hear from Matt McHale, Senior Vice President, Application Development. "Contentstack helps provide the foundation we need to scale efficiently, enabling us to manage multiple brands effectively and continue delivering high-quality experiences to our customers as we grow. It was a big shift for everyone, but we haven’t looked back."

Read more about 1-800-Flowers e-commerce success with Contentstack headless CMS.

Waltz Health

Waltz needed extensive integration capabilities to merge product data, pricing and branded assets for better digital retail experience.

Contentstack’s composable DXP offered that, which enabled them to integrate third-party services to boost patient care.

Sunil Kripalani, the Chief Technology Officer, spoke about the changes. "The flexibility that's baked into Contentstack isn't just enabling our staff to work more efficiently, it's a true business enabler that's helping us consider new service offerings. Using APIs, we can pull in new data streams and create unique experiences for our provider partners, as well as within niche markets." 

Read more about how Waltz Health powered its online marketplace with extensive DXP integration.

FAQ section

What is the main difference between composable commerce and headless commerce?

Composable divides both the back end and front end into modular, customizable blocks, while headless commerce focuses on front end and back end separation. 

Is composable the same as headless?

No, they are not the same. Composable is a more granular approach. Though it includes a headless principle, it extends to modular e-commerce components. Headless specifically deals with front-end and back-end separation.

What is the difference between composable and MACH?

Composable commerce is an approach to building e-commerce systems by selecting best-of-breed solutions, while MACH is a combination of technologies that provide a modular environment.

What is the difference between headless and microservices?

Headless refers to separating the front end from the back end, while microservices is an approach to building software as a collection of small, independent services.

Learn more

Understanding the differences between composable and headless commerce is crucial for future digital retail success. Composable commerce offers more customizable e-commerce solutions, while headless commerce supports a unified, consistent retail experience across multiple platforms.

Composable and headless commerce both offer the right platforms for innovation and future digital retail success. Choose the best option and empower your business to deliver seamless and engaging digital retail experiences. Talk to us to get started.