E-commerce Tips & Tricks

5 min read

13 Oct 2021

What Should You Know About Headless Commerce (And Why You Need It)

Commerce is losing its head!

But, the good news is, it isn't losing its mind. In fact, it is becoming more smart and intelligent.

I am confident that you must've heard the term Headless Commerce. It is one of the most common buzzwords. Yet, the least understood word in the eCommerce world.

So, I've decided to set the record straight for you. In today's post, I will walk you through the following points:

What is headless commerce?
How does headless commerce work?
Benefits of headless commerce
Why do you need headless commerce?

We've got a lot to cover today so let's get started…

What is Headless Commerce?

Headless commerce is like making your front-end and back-end break up with each other!

But, trust me, in this breakup, each party is happy!

You can make changes to any side without disturbing the other side.

This means you can save time from tweaking changes. And deliver a better customer experience to your customers.

Did you know that this eCommerce structure helps you in so many ways? You can turn the latest technologies into your digital storefronts. And equip it with new commerce functionality, such as:

Social media
Mobile applications
Smart mirrors
Vending machines
Voice assisted technology (For example, Amazon Alexa)
Wearables
Self-serve kiosks

In simplest words, headless commerce is a unique eCommerce architecture. It separates the front end and the back end of the eCommerce application.

But wait, how does this work?

Let's talk about the working of headless commerce...

How Does Headless eCommerce Work?

Headless eCommerce systems are like headless Content Management systems.

Why? Because it connects your buyers' touchpoints with your back-end operation through Application Programming Interface whenever a customer purchases.

And you can use Content Management System, Progressive Web Apps, Customer Relationship Management, and digital experience platforms with headless ecommerce.

Without needing an ecommerce platform to manage them all.

To top it off, the SaaS or Software as Service tools create touchpoints for customers. Such as mobile app or vending machines.

Let's take an example here:

If your customer clicks the "Buy Now" button on his smartphone, the presentation layer of the headless Commerce system sends an Application Programming Interface calls to the application layer.

The purpose? To process your order.

Next, the application layer sends another call to the presentation layer.

For what, you ask? To show your customer's order status.

Let me explain this further.

Headless Ecommerce

(Source)

Based on this illustration, the customers cannot see this working from your headless back end, and they will only see the user interface you're using to provide a shopping experience.

Isn't it amazing?

Now, we'll have a look at the benefits of headless commerce for online businesses.

Key Benefits Of Headless Commerce For Online Businesses

1. Deliver Your Content Anywhere

With headless commerce, brands are free to test new technology. Developers can create different designs and features.

How?

Because the front-end and back-end are separate. They aren't confined to traditional Content Management systems.

Most websites have an eCommerce theme that acts as the 'head.' Just like human heads, it's what other people see first.

That's why headless commerce allows for more flexibility for businesses in delivering content. It can connect to a Content Management system, Digital Experience Platform, or Internet of Things without affecting the back-end operations.

The headless commerce houses content centrally. Hence, it can deliver it anywhere through API. This enables you to deliver content faster than traditional eCommerce platforms. It also leads to a better customer experience.

Think that's all? I still have more advantages of headless commerce to share! The next is...

2. Allows You To Be Competitive

Did you know that Amazon rolls out updates on average every 11.7 seconds?

Here's why:

The front-end system isn't coupled with the back-end. So, deploying updates is easy.

You only have to update a part of the system and not the entire system. It'll help you to be quicker than your competitors.

You'll also be able to give your customers what they want without taking much time.

Do you want to be one of those brands that use traditional eCommerce platforms? If not, then you can avoid deploying updates every few weeks.

With headless commerce, you can deploy quick updates without disturbing your back-end system.

You can easily tweak changes to your front end to keep up with the speed of consumer technology.

Let's discuss it more.

3. Increased Control And Faster Scaling

Have you heard that 57% of businesses reported that their existing platform wouldn't be capable of supporting their business for more than a year?

But with headless commerce, you can integrate all your systems in one place. You can create an amazing shopping experience without shifting to another programming language.

And, you can create the UX of your dreams!

Don't we all hate time-consuming things? Because if your system uses different languages, it's a tiring process to integrate with something.

The worst part? It harms your customer experience.

I'll give you an example.

TechCrunch rebuilt its website in 2018. They wanted an easier process in the future. So to achieve this, they decided to make a new front-end design, which is a single page style separated from its back-end.

The results? Easier to keep and faster loading speed.

So with headless commerce, you don't need to change your codes. You can integrate and tweak changes in your website.

Next up is that it...

4. Helps In Making Customer Experience More Personal And Consistent

Customer behavior is the North Star for all businesses.

And a headless commerce Shopify gives you the flexibility in how you can provide data to customers. Regardless of which device your customers are using.

Here's how it works:

You can split test your storefronts to optimize the user experience. And also personalize your buyers' entire journey.

All you need to do is pass data through the storefronts that your buyers are using.

By going headless, you can meet your customers' expectations. And make them spend more on your products.

Sounds good, right?

But that's not all.

Headless ecommerce also provides you with…

5. Seamless Integration

Headless commerce has APIs. It makes it easier for you to integrate your website with other platforms.

You can make your brand accessible to any device. This will help expand your outreach to more customers at the same time.

The best part?

It won't take you days or months to integrate your commerce platform into new devices. It'll just take a few hours.

This, in turn, will help you with…

6. Faster Marketing

Making a multi-channel retail experience with a traditional eCommerce platform is torturous. It's slow, and organic website marketing takes time.

But, not anymore with headless commerce Shopify!

Because you can focus on creating front-end experiences on different devices and touchpoints. Since the products and contents are centrally housed, APIs can deliver them anywhere. Thus, you can adapt to different channels quickly and enter new markets.

There are many other benefits of headless commerce for your business. But reaping these benefits isn't why you should embrace headless commerce Shopify

Have a look at the following reasons that explain why you NEED headless commerce.

Why Do You Need Headless Commerce?

Let's take a look at these reasons why your website needs to go headless:

1. Mobile eCommerce

Did you know that mobile phones generate 50% of internet traffic?

And I'm not even surprised! I mean, it's so easy and convenient to shop online via mobile phones, right?

It's rare to find people who switch in their desktop computers to shop online.

So it's high time for you to focus on their website experience for mobile shoppers. Sure, you can choose a responsive theme for your mobile visitors.

But, how does the idea of creating a fully customized mobile website sound? Especially without affecting your back-end?

Let me explain it further.

Headless commerce also enables you to use social commerce features, such as Facebook's Buy button. It will help you capture a massive group of social media users who use mobile devices.

Here's how it works:

API calls will transfer the data between your mobile website and your headless commerce platform.

Hence, you can sell on the platforms that mobile users use to buy products. But without altering your eCommerce back-end.

The next reason why you need headless commerce is that it has an…

2. Impact On Key Web Vitals

SEO is an essential part of marketing. You want your website to rank higher on the results pages, right? So you can receive organic traffic.

Lucky for you, because one of the advantages of headless commerce is making your website rank on Google.

Exactly how? It's quite simple.

Since the front end and back end aren't coupled. So, only the front end needs to load for site visitors and search crawlers to index the page.

So if you want to rank on Google, page speed is an important ranking factor. It's to make sure that users are getting relevant and better results.

Apart from decreasing loading times, headless commerce also enables you to…

3. Provide a Personalized Experience

Customers love brands that personalized the shopping experience for them. When a website shows products that customers like or need, it results in more conversions.

Did you know that 90% of customers are willing to share their data with brands? So if you can give online users a personalized experience, they do not mind sharing their data.

If you have access to a customer's data, you can create a better customer experience for him. Headless commerce allows you to collect your buyers' data and share it cross-platform.

Let's say your customer creates an account on your website using his laptop. Then the next day, he continues his shopping journey through a smartwatch. In that case, the headless architecture syncs its data across 2 devices.

This will enable you to: