What is Headless Commerce - Weighing the Pros and Cons
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rapidly change how customers buy products and interact with brands, more eyes are on headless commerce for its capacity to act quickly and stay current.
Unfortunately, the buzz may be driving a lot of well-meaning people in a direction they will deeply regret. While headless can be the right option for your eCommerce solution, when headless is wrong — it’s really wrong. Our goal in this article is to add clarity to the headless conversation so that you can make the right decision for your business.
Before we dive in, let’s go over the basics. In a traditional eCommerce model, the front and back-end of the system are connected. With this architecture, adding new experiences or making any edits requires adjustments to both the back and front-end. This structure can create slower to-market times and higher development costs, which decreases innovation and reaction times.
Headless commerce is an API driven solution to that issue. When you go headless, you are disconnecting the front-end presentation layer from the back-end functionality layer. Resulting is a platform where each side functions separately from the other. This allows you to change either end without having to adjust the other side. The marketing team can implement a new campaign while the development team runs functionality tests while the site is live. Often, neither team will be affected by the actions of the other.
Disconnecting the layers sounds simple, so why isn’t everyone doing it? Unfortunately, it’s not simple at all. Going headless isn’t just separating the ends from each other. You are essentially building both layers from scratch in an entirely new tech stack that will allow them to be separated. This process is expensive and demands larger development and IT teams who can handle the commitment, both in the creation and ongoing maintenance.
The simplest way we can describe headless is actually by describing the opposite. Think Shopify. You get a simple, pre-created eCommerce design for a monthly fee. The front and back-ends are already built for you and are almost exclusively handled by Shopify. Just plug in your bank information, choose a template, and you can have your store up and running in minutes.
With headless, you’ll get a blank canvas where nothing is given to you. You’ll have to design and build every aspect of the shopping experience from nothing. Want to add products? Those live in a PIM or a similar product management system. Want to run a promotion? Those are managed in your ERP. Want someone to log in for quicker checkout? That’s managed in your CRM. Even the most standard eCommerce features must be built from scratch.
However, once everything is successfully set up the benefits are significant. By implementing customized APIs, brands have the power to create consistently relevant experiences that consumers can’t find anywhere else. Here are some of the major benefits associated with headless:
Speed. Rolling out any new changes, new features, UI changes, business logic changes, promotions, cosmetic changes, is faster with headless. With a traditional architecture, small adjustments and minor tweaks to anything require testing major parts of the back-end to make sure everything is working properly.
More customization and personalization. Headless grants maximum customization freedom across the board, which allows the freedom to create industry-leading, personalized brand experiences.
The front-end is more accessible. Since front-end updates don’t have to be optimized for the back-end, they take less time to build and are cheaper to implement. Accessing, using, and updating the front-end no longer requires any advanced IT skills, so it’s easier to find people to do the job. You also no longer have to write JSPs to make cosmetic edits. You still can, but you can also use React and several other systems that are not usable under a traditional eCommerce model.
Integration of non-web channels. Through the focused use of APIs, brands can create a coordinated, seamless, and personalized brand experience across all channels. Future platform changes are easy as well. If Google Glass takes off, or Tik Tok comes out with a shopping feature, a shopping experience can be quickly created and implemented without changing the back end. Just plug it into an API and start selling.
Saved time and money across IT. Front-end changes no longer require significant IT support, so you save developers time on cosmetic adjustments. Commerce apps can be created and implemented faster than monolithic eCommerce platforms. Quick changes to be made to the front or back-end, without disturbing your taking resources away from the other side.
Room for experimentation. A headless structure allows your system to become much more open to experimentation. Marketers can test new designs without affecting the back-end. Developers can make changes and tests while customers are still making purchases. Brands can phase in innovations and prevent front-end errors in production environments.
Performance. When you control the front-end, you control performance. Shopify not loading fast enough? Tough cookies. They own the front-end and the servers. Your headless React code not loading fast enough? Just write better code and boost server performance.
Time to market. Businesses can swiftly introduce any and all front-end experiences with no back-end development required. Whether it’s reacting to a new trend, entering into a new device or channel, or adjusting to events like COVID-19, headless makes it as easy as possible.
The benefits of headless are attractive and relevant to any business. However, only a small number of enterprises can use this platform in a way that justifies the immense amount of resources that went into creating it. So, who are those businesses?
Larger development and IT teams. These teams can handle all of the custom programming and development hours that headless demands. Or, you will have access to a third party partnership on a long-term basis.
You’re a content-driven, experience-focused brand. Headless is a no brainer for innovative, content-heavy brands that require the flexibility to constantly change their content and the architecture of the website. Nike, TED, and GoPro are some good examples.
You want to create a seamless omnichannel brand experience. As new technology and platforms come out, you want to be one of the first to deliver a personalized brand experience on that as well. With an API driven layer, you can support native mobile apps like Instagram and Facebook commerce. If a new app comes out, you will be prepared because you don’t have to build anything new. You already have API’s built for cart purchasing, inventory checks, etc.
You have international selling needs with multiple websites. Staying relevant across cultures and countries requires a highly reactive system that is ready to change at any time.
You are using core-based licensing.
The downsides of headless:
Headless technology isn’t fully there yet. Headless commerce offerings right now lack key API endpoints and often require hitting the database for integrations. For an example of some leading headless solutions, look at Magento and Commerce Tools. Salesforce is rolling out its headless solution, but it’s yet to be proven. Shopify also has a headless offering, but it is not yet at the scale of some of its competitors.
It’s expensive to implement. Costs can get complicated as you are billed separately for everything you build, and you are building everything individually. This means that the CMS, ERPs, PIMs, apps, etc. are all billed as individual costs.
Headless truly is a massive undertaking. You are building everything from scratch. You will find yourself writing custom code and implementing custom APIs. How do you test the back-end now? How do you build all of these apps from nothing? There’s a lot of work involved that can only be completed by skilled developers.
Team and tech complexity. For many businesses, the front-end, back-end, and QA is all managed by a single team. A small team simply cannot handle headless. Building an API driven platform from the ground up requires using significantly more technologies than a traditional architecture does. Team members who specialize in each technology will be needed both in the development and ongoing maintenance process. If you have a small team, it’s most likely a no-go unless you leverage third-party partnerships. If you have a large team, you will still have to figure out how to delegate the immense amount of complex tasks to each member efficiently.
After reading this, if you are still realistically considering headless, here is a list of questions to ask yourself to determine whether or not it’s the right decision.
Core or Metric based licensing?
Do you have a small or large team?
Is your team skilled enough to build an entire eCommerce platform from scratch using custom APIs and a host of other technologies?
Is a third-party partnership an option for your business?
Do you have simple or complex future plans? Complex being an omnichannel brand experience, unlike any other brand on any platform.
Do you have the budget to support headless?
Do not navigate these waters alone unless you have a lot of experience in headless architecture. We are happy to offer some free advice to help guide you through this decision and to help you know what to watch out for. Just email us here.
Conclusion: Every business can benefit from the perks of headless. However, only a finite amount of enterprises are truly prepared for the massive demands of this eCommerce option. For the businesses that aren’t prepared for headless, this platform is a major distraction. For the right businesses, headless is the key to creating the brand of the future.