How headless is changing the future of e-commerce?

The world of ecommerce is evolving and so are the rules of the game on the market [especially compared to previous years]. Content marketing, mobility, and usability now take first place in terms of conversion and user engagement. Omnichannel is gaining ground – today, it is not limited to only Amazon marketplace uploads, but has extended to Progressive Web Apps, IoT devices, AR, XR, and even the VR experience.

The standards for displaying content, especially on mobile devices, are rising with every year, and most users already expect to have a mobile-like experience with no delay in data transmission.

Today, it is increasingly challenging to compete in the market if you’re stuck with old technologies, such as classic ecommerce platforms with Backend-dependant content display.

What Is Headless Ecommerce?

Headless technologies separate data management and data display by transferring all data to the Frontend through the API, Rest API, or a new format that is gaining popularity – GraphQL. The Frontend is written using modern a Javascript framework, such as ReactJS, with server-side rendering [LINK] or JamStack [LINK] libraries.

It enables websites to stay on top of the challenge, use all the benefits of current technology, and evolve much faster than the competitors.

4 Main Business Opportunities Headless Technology Can Provide to Your Business

Modern consumers want more in terms of usability, seamlessness, and user-friendliness of online shopping. To meet these demands, your website needs to have an up-to-date Backend capable of complex transactions.

Flexibility

Thanks to theFrontend being separate from the Backend in the Headless system, you can update your customer-facing content layer without disrupting your whole business infrastructure. You can launch new promotions and add new goods without disturbing your developers or reconfiguring the entire system. 

Personalization

Striving for innovation through personalization, you’ll be able to experiment on your platform with target markets and delivery techniques to your final consumers that focus on the Backend of your site. 

Headless systems allow you to experiment without fear of crushing or slowing the Frontend of your website for your users. 

Speed

Due to a decoupled architecture, you can make quick changes to your Frontend without disrupting the Backend, and vice versa. What is more, you can apply new integrations, make rapid updates, and introduce functionalities to your business with much less energy, cost, and time.

Customization

Forget about buying in bulk and ending up with extra software. Thanks to Headless CMS architecture, you no longer need to look for package deals. Feel free to work closely with your technology team or SI to find out which integrations you need to make on your website.

Who Will Benefit from Headless Ecommerce?

Many new content and ecommerce platforms have a well-designed API that allows you to separate the Frontend from the Backend.

If you already have a store on any of the platforms listed below and you want to take a modern approach to content marketing and provide an improved user experience, think of Headless development.

Any of these ecommerce platforms can easily be switched to Headless:

• Magento
• Shopify Plus
• BigCommerce
• WooCommerce

If you have content sites and wish to add ecommerce on any of the content platforms, such as WordPress, Drupal, or Contentful, start doing it Headlessly 🙂

It can save you a lot of time compared to custom development, as you get all the benefits of modern technology for your user experience while using an inexpensive, thoughtful solution to manage your content.

What Are the Extra Benefits for Business After Transitioning to Headless?

In addition to the benefits we have listed for your business, with server-side rendering and JamStack libraries – Next.js, Gatsby.js – you can benefit from the following:

Progressive Web Application

This state-of-the-art technology will give your store an experience-like web-based application and thus help you stand out from the competition and gain top positions in search engines.

JamStack Technologies

It is also possible to separate your solution from the server and generate static files based on the pages of your resource. JamStack technologies will allow your site to reach a rate of discovery that is only available to non-native applications, which will also set you apart from your competitors and increase your position.

Which of the Major Ecommerce Companies Have Switched to Headless? Cases

Major websites, such as Nike, Braun, Airbnb, GM, and Hopper, have already gone Headless, and many continue to do so, gaining immense benefits from the technology. 

Flamingo

A manufacturer of body care and hair removal products for women, Flamingo moved to Headless in 2018. 

They were looking to boost speed and performance with the improved page load times to increase customer loyalty and revenue. In the end, they increased at least 20% over their competition on the market. They have optimized the site for mobiles as it became the main source of traffic. Since there was little time before the launch, they needed rapid development with easy-to-learn tools.

StriVectin

Founded in 2002, StriVectin launched Magento Enterprise in 2011 for selling skincare products that are stocked in thousands of retailers all over the world. After their customer base radically increased by over 10x, they faced technical issues – the site started to blackout during marketing events and press releases and demonstrated poor performance. Overall, they needed to combine content and online shops with over 20,000 files on the database, so they moved to Gatsby.

Eventually, this resulted in:

• No site outages
• Successful shipping of code to production multiple times per day
• Hosting costs have reduced from $2,000 per month to just a few dollars per day
• Feature development and maintenance became much simpler
• The codebase went down from around 20,000 files on Magento to approximately 300 files.

Mediaсurrent  

Their site redesign started in 2016, and fascinated with the idea of separating the Frontend and Backend, they decided to move to Gatsby. They gained more flexibility when performing site redesigns and increased the agility they were looking for.  

The results: 

• Simplified separated architecture with no intermediates
• Frontend design updates can be done without fear of breaking the Backend
• Content previews thanks to Gatsby Preview
• Flexible plugin options 
• Build times are now much quicker compared to Jekyll – 4-8 minutes vs. up to 15 minutes. 

How Much Does It Cost to Transit to Headless?  

The cost and duration of the transition to Headless technology depend on the solutions and technologies you already use for your business. If they support modern APIs, your existing tech stack can become the basis for the transition. Otherwise, we have to rewrite the whole store on another platform using data migration.

In any case, before going to the development phase, you’ll need to do a detailed Discovery Phase first.

The development process itself usually takes 2 to 5 months, depending on the complexity.

Check for more details about our Headless eCommerce service.