Headless Commerce: A Comprehensive Guide to Sell in 2022

Headless commerce is bringing new opportunities and revolving around the business. In the past, businesses used to focus on driving more traffic to the website and turning it into sales. But, in today’s digital time, businesses are moving towards adopting a headless commerce model to run the business effectively.

This is the time when the user’s experience is not constrained by the disadvantages of using a traditional e-commerce solution for developing the website. Therefore, in this blog, we will help you explore more about the rise of headless commerce in 2022. So, scroll down and further what headless commerce is all about.

A Brief Description of Headless Commerce

In the simplest form, Headless commerce is an e-commerce solution that decouples the store’s front-end and back-end processes. It allows the online store to have customization as well as flexibility at the front without touching the back end.

In Headless commerce, the head refers to the front end. Therefore, headless is a store that keeps frontend and backend independent from each other. The buyer also gets flexible features after the two processes are separated. The headless commerce architecture provides developers the freedom to build whatever they want and enable customer experience.  Before, we dig more into headless commerce; let us know what frontend and backend are.

• Front-end

A front-end is the customer-facing site that is also known as the presentation layer. This can be the online website comprised of mobile applications, social media, and other devices that we use for IoT such as vending machines, smart wearables, and voice-assistance technologies such as Alexa.

• Backend

The backend includes the system, processes, and other tools that work in the background to handle the business operations. The backend process helps the business to run smoothly and helps with several services such as checkout, data storage, integration, and merchandising.

The separation of frontend and backend is essential for headless commerce because traditional e-commerce platforms combine both elements and work accordingly. Hence, headless commerce helps the organization to convert their ideas into an incredible customer shopping experience using all devices and channels without any boundaries.

The work of Headless Commerce

Application program interface or API is the secret to headless commerce. API is the connection between the frontend and backend processes that communicates information between the two using real-time.

Customer-related queries are solved on the backend platform such as the content management system. And, headless commerce frontend helps in leveraging backend systems according to the requirements.  Some of the backend systems are-

• Progressive web app or PWA
• Content management system or CMS
• Digital experience platform or DXP

The SaaS or software as a service tactic helps in building touchpoints for the customers, such as vending machines or mobile applications. When a touchpoint is provided to the frontend, an API is used to send information through the backend. Customers cannot see the headless commerce backend, online the front-end interface is used to deliver the right customer shopping experience.

The key benefits of Headless Commerce

Headless commerce is known as anywhere commerce as it quickly evolves according to the latest technologies and commerce leads.  Amazon is one of the top platforms that show us the true value of integrating headless commerce into the business and how it helps retailers to experience the frustration of using a traditional commerce platform.

A study found by Salmon showed that 60% of the customers require a service such as Amazon Prime that cannot be achieved using traditional commerce. Therefore, a business can shift to headless commerce, and below are the top reasons to clarify.

Headless commerce benefits for e-commerce websites

1. Fast scaling and more control

Headless commerce is good for every system that is new or existing and focuses on providing a great customer experience. Almost 57% of e-commerce leaders said that their platform is capable of supporting their business for only 12 months.

So, using powerful APIs, headless commerce lets the business owners integrate the existing system to give a new shopping experience using your chosen programming language. It can protect you from the new shifts in technology as well as give you the power to move at a pace and adapt quickly to headless commerce.

2. Increased product customization

Using headless commerce, the web developers can be extra flexible about how they want to provide the data to the customers on any device they are on. Headless commerce allows the developer to perform a split test on whatever has been built to optimize the conversion rate and the experience of the customers.

The web developers at Indglobal, one of the best e-commerce website development company in Bangalore said that they can spend more than planned when the shopping experience is customized. The company chose headless commerce to let the brand keep up with the changes in customer trends.

Headless commerce benefits customers

1. Gives an Omni-channel experience

The journey of the customers is becoming complex as 74% of the customers are using multiple channels to complete a business transaction. And, the other 76% prefer different channels depending on the need. Therefore, headless commerce paired up with Omni-channel as a shopping experience is available for both offline and online customers.

Headless commerce can be an IoT device such as smart wearable, voice shopping, or a web app and it can be a mobile application too. And, headless commerce can turn a customer touchpoint into a great sales opportunity as the commerce side can be managed through the backend process.

2. Builds trust and loyalty toward the brand

Every customer is eager to know if they can rely on the company, they buy products from and do business with. There are some organizations that cannot build customer loyalty which leads to huge payoffs for both the brand as well as customers.

So, when the customer trusts a brand, then there is a relief in meeting their needs and requirements related to the products. The customers will be happy with the brand when they get the product without spending many hours on the site and get proper assistance from customer service.

Overview of the headless commerce process

There are two basic approaches to headless commerce- building your headless commerce framework from the start or using platforms that have headless commerce architecture available.  Let us look at how the business can start with the headless process.

• Determine the idea to keep or switch the headless commerce platform

If you are a small business enterprise, then adding APIs to the existing headless commerce platform is the best option. And, for medium and large companies, switch to a SaaS solution that provides flexibility and scalability for a longer time.

Choose a website development platform to use APIs that can help you use headless commerce without disturbing the existing commerce platform functionality you are using.

• Use a headless content management system

To deliver content to visitors on different channels, a headless commerce content management system is used. You can also use a single CMS to develop specific content for a channel and provide a great user experience.

The API syncs the frontend and backend processes to send the right content to the right touchpoints.  One can choose an open-source CMS or get a SaaS provider to provide flexibility to the business using specialized knowledge to build the system.

•  Sync the APIs and CMS

You can sync the API and the content management system of your headless commerce using a process to run the system smoothly integrating both frontend and backend processes. If you are shifting from a traditional commerce business, it is recommended to take small steps toward using headless commerce.

Try syncing APIs with the headless CMS to add smaller sections to the website such as blog posts on the web page. The web developers should test, optimize, and scale the process accordingly to shift the business from traditional commerce.

Difference between Traditional Commerce and Headless Commerce

If you are still searching for this pointer, then here is a comparison between headless commerce and traditional commerce according to their key aspects-

1. Front-end development

In traditional commerce, there are design constraints without any API call for the website. You get ample time to edit the database and source code with a massive platform.

There is no design constraint in headless commerce, you have to just make an API call and use it. It is essential to build a front-end presentation from scratch for the customers’ will back-end process to run.

2. Adaptability and flexibility

The front-end process in traditional commerce is fully coupled with a back-end which means there is little room for the personalization of products to occur.

Endless customization can be seen in headless commerce. One can easily make changes in the front-end process without disturbing the back-end process.

3. Customization

You will get a pre-defined experience for both the admin and users in traditional commerce. You can get little room for customization giving more power to you.

The web developers can create their own experience for the users as well as the admin. They have control over the look of the e-commerce platform and have control over the user experience.

Conclusion

Headless commerce is indeed the future of the e-commerce and information technology world. It is one of the most exciting and innovative ways to create websites for business in a digital world where everything is working at our fingertips.

But there can be some issues with headless commerce such as the increase in development costs and the need for web developers, so hire an e-commerce web development Bangalore-based company to get the right solutions. Also, to make effective use of headless commerce, consult a company providing the eCommerce website design in Bangalore to help the business build websites according to their needs.