Composable commerce: The role of composable DXP in e-commerce growth

Highlights

You’ll learn how a composable DXP drives flexible, composable commerce.

• Personalized experiences: Leverages real-time data and AI for tailored recommendations
• Omnichannel consistency: Creates consistency across multiple touchpoints seamlessly
• Rapid innovation: Enables seamless integration of new tools and services
• Global scalability: Supports multi-language, multi-currency operations

Adopt a composable DXP to start building your e-commerce, one module at a time.

With e-commerce becoming more competitive than ever, online retailers must offer more than discounts, fast shipping and competitive pricing. 

According to Forbes, around 81% of customers now demand personalized experiences. Composable commerce enables you to bring that to life. However, it requires a shift in culture, technology and business processes. Would it be worth the investment? 

What is composable commerce?

Composable commerce is an approach to building online shopping platforms where you can integrate select digital tools to create a customized e-commerce solution. You build out your technology stack using modular blocks that perform specific business functions. 

This approach is a step away from traditional suites that house multiple solutions under one platform. Composable commerce enhances customer experiences, driven by the flexibility it gives you to integrate relevant tools and services.

Composable commerce vs. traditional commerce: How do they stack up?

What could it be missing out on if a business is already plugged into a traditional commerce solution? Here is a look at how both technologies compare.

• Architecture: Traditional platforms offer an all-in-one solution in a single system, while composable is modular. So, you can build your e-commerce stack by assembling specialized microservices.
• Innovation: Composable commerce allows you to try out new tools or business models to see what works. With traditional platforms, these may be more difficult.
• Ease of integration: Composable commerce is interoperable, which makes it easy to integrate existing systems, third-party services and APIs. Traditional platforms may have constraints and not offer that level of integration.

Importance of composable approach in commerce

Monolithic systems lack the flexibility to adapt and deliver the tailored experiences that customers now demand. A composable approach is different—you can assemble modular parts like CDPs, payment gateways, inventory systems, etc.

This flexible approach allows retailers to deliver personalized shopping experiences and adapt to new market trends, and it is powered by a composable DXP.

What is a composable DXP?

A composable DXP is a modular platform that allows businesses to create, manage and optimize digital experiences across several channels. You can integrate multiple tools and services that enable you to manage and personalize customer journeys. Composable digital experience platforms (DXPs) are built on the MACH principles. 

• Microservices: You can integrate self-contained modules to serve specific business functions. For instance, a payment module for all payment modes.
• API-first: You can try out new tools or third-party systems or integrate the latest technology to adapt to market shifts.
• Cloud-native: It is built in the cloud, giving you unlimited storage, high uptime and adequate computing power.
• Headless architecture: You can build a front-end experience with any framework or programming language of your choice.

How composable DXP supports flexible composable commerce

A composable digital experience platform (DXP) unifies real-time data, AI and workflows across touchpoints. This flexible approach supports dynamic commerce. It also supports:

• Personalized experiences at scale: It uses customer data to recommend tailored products, content and exclusive offers. This keeps customers engaged and leads to better conversion rates.
• Omnichannel delivery: A composable DXP allows you to integrate multiple digital channels within a unified commerce ecosystem, enabling you to deliver a consistent customer experience across all channels.
• AI-driven search and discovery: It integrates AI that learns from customer behavior and provides contextual results. This ensures that customers can find products quickly.
• Workflow automation: It automates relevant tasks, such as campaign launches, inventory data management and content updates.
• Real-time inventory management: It tracks inventory and orders to link front-end commerce interfaces with back-end ERP systems.
• Globalization and localization: It also supports the use of multiple global languages and currencies. That way, customers in different regions can get pricing and offers that are specific to them.
• Drives e-commerce innovation: A composable DXP allows you to experiment with advanced tech tools like AI stylists or AR try-ons. It enables fast adoption of trends like live shopping or voice commerce.

Benefits of composable DXPs for modern e-commerce

From scalability to ROI, composable DXPs deliver transformative benefits for modern e-commerce: 

• Ease of use saves time: Thanks to their no-code interfaces, composable DXPs are easy to use for non-technical users. Hence, marketers can update content without relying on developers, saving time.
• Measurable ROI: Composable DXPs allow you to integrate tools like headless CMS and marketing automation. These tools streamline digital operations, save time and cost and enable you to push new products and features faster. This leads to revenue growth.
• Better platform performance: It allows you to build your platform with the most suitable framework. This is critical for mobile commerce, as 77% of shoppers use mobile devices to find products online.
• Faster time-to-market: Given its modular architecture, marketers, developers and other teams can work simultaneously. This speeds up the time it takes to release new products and features.

How to use composable DXP to build flexible e-commerce

It is all about the modular approach, where you build one piece at a time. You choose specific tools, ensuring you are not tied to a pointless vendor solution or an outdated service. Here are the steps.

1. Define your goals: Identify your priorities and what problems you need to address. For instance, to scale to a global audience, you may need tools to handle global payments, a CDP to create new customer profiles for other regions, etc.
2. Streamline omnichannel commerce: Integrate a headless CMS to centralize content in a unified hub. That ensures consistent branding and content across all channels, be it social media, mobile app, mobile and web.
3. Enable globalization and localization: Configure multi-language and multi-currency support to cater to diverse markets. Adapt pricing, offers and content to align with regional preferences and regulations.
4. Integrate personalization: Integrate tools like a CDP to collect customer data and build profiles. Then, use the data to create real-time targeted content and offers or customer retail experiences.

Case studies

Wavin

Wavin struggled to implement new growth strategies as its legacy system was time-consuming and costly to upgrade. It decided to replace its monolithic system and move to a MACH-based approach.

Contentstack enabled them to personalize account summaries that include pricing, orders and design visualizations. It also reduced order processing time and accelerated customer acquisition.

“We have been able to add technology into the existing relationships quite easily to improve the service delivered, as well as make Wavin more attractive in new markets.” Stephanie Devine said.

Read more to see how Wavin built world-class e-commerce capabilities with Contentstack. 

1-800-Flowers

1-800-Flowers’s legacy system was slow and unable to support an integrated e-commerce approach. Updates to layouts were time-consuming, requiring constant HTML snippets.

The choice of Contentstack’s composable DXP allowed them to create a unified approach, with the modular blocks enabling them to filter zip codes to create same-day deliveries. The changes have led to platform stability, marketing autonomy and brand unification.

Matt McHale, Senior Vice President, said, "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.

How to choose the right composable commerce strategy

Choosing a composable strategy means aligning technology with growth, personalization and performance. Here is how to choose the right composable commerce strategy:

1. Outline core objectives: The primary question is, why do you want to adopt a composable strategy? 
2. Align your budget: Consider the costs of the tools you need, ongoing maintenance and integration. Also, consider value return and internal capabilities to determine if you would need external partners.
3. Evaluate technology partners: Prioritize partners that are MACH-compliant. Ensure the vendor offers robust security and APIs, detailed documentation, reliable technical support and active partner ecosystems.
4. Pilot test and optimize: Focus on small improvements on critical components, like payments, search, etc. Use a phased approach, test features and get feedback from real users. Use the insights to improve the platform.

FAQ section

Why are composable DXPs essential for flexible e-commerce?

Composable DXPs enable brands to adjust to trends like social commerce without rebuilding their existing systems. The module approach allows them to try out new features or integrate new services to meet customer expectations.

How do composable DXPs compare to traditional platforms?

Monolithic systems are difficult to customize. They are also neither flexible nor agile, while composable DXPs are flexible, agile and scalable, so you are never stuck with a vendor solution or specific technology.

What role do API integrations play in modular e-commerce?

API integration ensures your data is in sync across modules like orders, payments and inventory. It also allows you to add or replace features or connect with third-party services.

How can a business measure the ROI of a composable DXP?

Businesses can track several KPIs, such as customer engagement, churn rates and lifetime value. They can also look at time-to-market and IT expenses to see if the numbers are moving in the right direction.

Learn more

A composable DXP enables businesses to integrate the right tools to drive their e-commerce strategy. It supports omnichannel consistency, reduces time-to-market and ensures your integrated modules are in sync. This makes it a suitable tool for composable commerce excellence.

Built on MACH principles, Contentstack’s composable DXP empowers your teams to experiment, iterate and lead markets. From AI-driven commerce to metaverse storefronts, automation, to personalization, all without costly system overhauls. Contentstack keeps you a step ahead of your competitors. Talk to us to get started today.