Headless Commerce: why is it the future?

Headless commerce separates the front-end from the back-end. Liberating eCommerce brands from design or development constraints. According to data, 64% of large companies are developing new solutions to advance their eCommerce efforts. 76% of those plan to switch to a headless architecture within the next 12 months. With numbers like this, it’s hard to ignore that headless eCommerce is the future. 

In this blog, we will dive into the trends that are driving companies to switch to a headless solution and discuss whether or not you should go headless.

Trends shaping headless commerce

The benefits of headless eCommerce are clear, faster time to market, increased control, and personalization. But this doesn’t answer why it’s actually happening. Let’s take a look at the 5 biggest trends that are causing eCommerce brands to switch to a headless solution.

Mobile commerce is huge

The days where consumers buy products from only their desktops are over. The mobile-commerce market will hit $270 billion by 2025. It’s estimated that by 2022, 187.5 million consumers will shop using their mobile devices. 

With a headless commerce solution, eCommerce brands can capitalize on this trend. Instead of relying on monolithic themes, developers can build websites with custom front-ends for every device imaginable without impacting the back-end. 

With a headless commerce tech stack, you also have the option to sell on mobile platforms your customers are already using, for example, Facebook or Instagram. This way you can jump onto the trend of social commerce and sell where your customers are without compromising your eCommerce backend. 

The new rules for SEO

SEO is a key part of many eCommerce businesses marketing strategies. However, in June 2021 Google announced a big change to its algorithm. Page speed was going to become more important than ever. Now Google looks at the largest contentful paint, cumulative layout shit, and first input delay. In simpler terms, this is what Google’s algorithm uses to assess page loading speeds.

Headless commerce sets you up for SEO success. Since the front and back end are separated, it’s only the front-end that needs to load in order for site visitors to access it, resulting in faster page loading speeds.  

Personalization is vital

Privacy, privacy, privacy, we hear about it all the time. However, 9 out of 10 consumers are still willing to share data in return for a personalized shopping experience. Hence, a lot of eCommerce brands lay emphasis on collecting and using customer data to make the shopping experience easier for their customers. 

Headless eCommerce allows you to do just that. A headless solution lets you collect data and then share it across platforms and devices. Let’s say a visitor created an account on your webshop using her mobile while riding on the bus to work. Later that day when she finished work and sat at home she continued her shopping journey but now from her laptop. A headless architecture lets you sync that data across the two, resulting in an easier shopping experience. So say hello to, saving shopping carts across devices and offering preferred payment options based on your customer’s order history. 

The rise of the Headless CMS

When opting for a monolithic solution you need to use the CMS of your eCommerce back end. While these content management systems function on a basic level, they are not optimal for fast-growing and larger eCommerce businesses. With a headless solution, you, fortunately, don’t need to use the same CMS as your eCommerce back end. You can couple the best headless CMS that fits your needs to the eCommerce back end. 

A headless CMS is a back-end-only content management system. With it you can deliver personalized experiences anywhere you want simultaneously - web, mobile, social, IoT, and even VR. Besides that, chopping off the presentation layer of your content means you never have to worry about your content if you ever change your technology stack. 

At Story of AMS, we use Storyblok, the world's first headless CMS with a visual editor.  

Omnichannel commerce

The purchase journey is no longer as linear as it once was. 74% of customers have used multiple channels to start and complete a transaction. Headless and Omnichannel, therefore, make a perfect match. With a headless architecture, you can turn any customer touchpoint into an opportunity to sell something. You can build a webshop, mobile app, internet of things devices such as a smartwatch or mirror, create an Alexa skill, and many other things all from one single back end. This way you can show up wherever your customers are without increasing the complexity of your back end. 

Is headless commerce right for me?

It’s obvious that the future is looking bright for headless commerce, but how can you determine if it’s the right choice for you? Let’s start with the first point of consideration, the costs. A headless commerce project can cost anywhere between $50,000 to a few hundred thousand dollars. This depends on the complexity of your business and the level of customization. 

Creating a headless solution is no small investment. But you don’t have to switch to headless in one go, it can also be done in phases, making it more accessible in terms of costs. Some brands start with building a small section of their website on a headless commerce platform like Shopify Plus, such as a new product landing page. 

If costs aren’t really an issue and you can relate to any of the statements below, a headless solution might be a good fit for your business.

• You run on an established infrastructure and it’s not easy to integrate another tool into your existing technology.

• You feel like you're slowly running behind because you can’t make front and back end adjustments simultaneously. 

• Your storefront takes a long time to load, and the bounce rate is high.

• Your storefront theme or template doesn’t represent your brand anymore, it has a lot of restrictions in terms of customization,

• You don’t have a native mobile app for IOS or Android but you’d like one.

• You want to build a custom storefront and that isn’t possible with your current platform.

Ready to go headless?

If you experience any of the issues above, a headless commerce approach might be the next best decision you can make to future-proof your eCommerce business. At Story of AMS, we build headless eCommerce websites with Shopify Plus. If you want to take your eCommerce customer experience to the next level, check out this article to find out why Shopify Plus is the best solution for headless eCommerce.

And don’t forget to contact us if you have any more questions about whether you should go headless, we’re happy to help you.