5 Reasons Why You Should Switch to Headless Commerce

The ecommerce business has been evolving dramatically over the past few years, and headless commerce is a hot topic that it sometimes feels like everyone is discussing.

More traditional ecommerce platforms have structured their technologies around one system that controls both the commerce side of things (payments, shipping, inventory, etc.) and the storefront side of things (the website where people can browse content about products before placing orders).

Headless commerce, which has begun to gain momentum over the past two or so years, takes a different approach by separating the two sides into distinct systems.

Let’s put this trend into context. We once thought that all online shopping would occur on desktop computers, using web browsers. As time has passed, plenty of other sales channels and online ordering functionalities have emerged as market forces.

People have started shopping more on their phones, so many retail brands offer apps for shopping. Today’s merchants also often use satellite microsites to sell products around timely campaigns.

And in the last ten years, channels like product marketplace platforms, IoT uses of ecommerce, social commerce functionality and direct sales through price comparison portals have all gone mainstream.

Ecommerce success today demands that sellers be able to act quickly, try new things and make their products available in new contexts – without running the risk of compromising the integrity of their commerce engines.

This massive change will continue to evolve over time, and now is no better time to get in on headless commerce and make it work for you. 

Here are five reasons why you should consider making the switch.

1. It Improves the Customer Experience

Customers enjoy adopting new tech and using different interfaces to make their purchases. For many, it’s become so commonplace that they will ditch customer loyalty for a competitor who does offer new and innovative experiences that are more pleasant.

The one thing you don’t want to do is lose customers because you haven’t kept up with their wants and desires. They want the user experience to be fast, reliable, and easy to use. Headless commerce can fulfill their needs while also fulfilling yours and keeping you on top of the latest trends.

Any time a business makes a switch to new or different technology, it’s critical to know that we can customize it to our consumers’ needs.

Headless commerce takes it a step beyond simple customization; you can use it to create personalized presences according to each target market and their individual needs.

It’s important to remember that even though we are a tech-heavy society, your customers are talking about you to other people. If you are listening to their needs, employing a system that keeps you on top of your game, and they are happy about all of it, they are going to talk to their friends.

Opening up your customer experience with headless commerce also means your word-of-mouth marketing will be top notch.

2. Gives You Agile Marketing Options

Having your commerce engine decoupled from your content management gives your marketing team more power. It frees them up to take more control over updating geographical locations, divisions, portfolios, and different brands.

It used to be that adding a new division website would take months because the back end would have to be altered along with the CMS. Now, with headless commerce, a new division website can be up within a matter of days. 

Also, consider the way our technology shifts, seemingly every day. A headless commerce system will allow you to adopt new technologies as your consumer needs them.

It opens up a new, wider world into wearable and other IoT-connected devices. This is a system that allows you to grow as your consumer grows and with just a little bit of work.

3. Faster Integrations

If you want to connect and expose assets quicker, headless commerce is necessary. The headless commerce systems use APIs so that software systems can communicate with one another more easily. This translates into seamless connections and quick transfers of data. 

APIs open up the technological world to you and make it easier for you to find another API can solve any problem you have and do it quickly, without having to interrupt your back end. Matching APIs to one another is a much quicker way to find solutions to your problems, as opposed to traditional ecommerce sites.

 Why continue doing things the slower way?

4. Improve Time to Value

Think of all the time it takes to create custom software and all the resources you expend in that time. Since the front and back ends in most ecommerce sites are tied together, it can take a lot of time and you can lose a lot of business in that period.

Headless commerce simplifies the process with the separation of your front end and back end systems. You can solve all your problems without worrying about accidentally altering the back end.

Less time spent turns into less money spent, which in turn means a higher profit.

While it may cost a little bit upfront to change to a headless commerce system, the system will pay for itself in no time. A higher profit means you can accomplish more business growth goals, and faster, at that.

5. Easy to Scale

Many businesses are slow to switch because they believe it will be a long and arduous process. It’s actually very easy to switch because it’s very easy to scale. Remember, your front and back ends will now be separated so that you can make all the changes you need without losing momentum.

You can literally begin with switching and only making changes to what you deem crucial. 

Other functions that are of the least concern can wait. You move at your pace and complete your transition as you need to without losing. That is not something that traditional ecommerce sites can do when it’s time for them to make improvements.

It Will Hurt You More If You Don’t Switch

The longer you wait to make the switch, the further behind you will be with your competition. You don’t have to be a large corporation to acquire the benefits. All customizations and integrations are done as you need them and are done quickly. 

You are not only losing money now, you will keep losing until you are able to catch up.

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