A Complete Guide To Headless Commerce

Thanks to the web and the Internet of Things (IoT), the current digital landscape is ultra-focused on the customer than ever before. With consumers getting used to buying from multiple touchpoints such as mobile, social, or other IoT channels, it gets super important to be available where your customers are.

In a nutshell, you don’t have “web”, “display”, “social” content anymore. You only have content (data) that needs to adapt at a moment. 

And the solution to this content adoption is “Headless Commerce”. So, let’s dive into what, why, and how it can help you grow your business online.

What Is “Headless Commerce”?

The rapid adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies has driven the headless approach in ecommerce. Headless refers to the decoupling of the frontend content and backend capabilities of the online store. Now, the separation of the “head” (consumer facing side) from the “body” (functionality side) gives freedom to use any technology and customize the features to enhance the shopping experience.

There are ample benefits of headless commerce as it gives the freedom to businesses to build their own content and commerce experiences. The same store can plug into multiple frontends, publish content to digital marketplaces, social media apps, mobile devices, and connected home appliances (to name just a few!)

How does it work?

When it comes to the working architecture, headless commerce can be named as “Everywhere commerce”. Yes, everywhere. Because it offers a new level of agility to online businesses. At the heart of the headless approach are the APIs that deliver the content from the decoupled backend to the storefront. The headless architecture focuses purely on the background processes and making the data available to frontend via APIs. The backend functionalities like pricing, security, checkout runs invisibly in the background while providing a seamless buying experience to the customers.

For example, if a retailer wants to launch checkout options through a wearable device or a connected car, it works simply through adding a new API call. When a customer makes a purchase, the headless commerce platform sends an API to the backend to process the transaction. And this API call brings together the product information, order, payment and other systems to complete the transaction.

Why has headless commerce become a buzzword in ecommerce?

Today, consumers have turned to online channels for almost everything. Be it groceries to entertainment, customers seek everything online. The increased reliance on ecommerce and home deliveries have accelerated the trend of launching direct-to-consumer storefronts.

In addition, Amazon has also changed the customer interaction game in the ecommerce industry. The online giant keeps adding new customer touchpoints that reach buyers through connected home and car devices. It has definitely increased the customer expectations for buying experiences and raised the bar in the industry.

If you also want to grow in this competitive space, your business needs to take an omni channel approach like headless commerce to provide an integrated shopping experience across all channels.

What are the benefits of headless commerce? 

1. High-end personalization

Give the freedom to create customer-led and tailored shopping experiences to deepen customer loyalty and increase conversions.

2. Omnichannel presence

The use of APIs allows you to build content consistency across multiple channels while offering personalized buying experience. A headless solution like StoreHippo allows you to create an unforgettable omnichannel experience with 300+ API endpoints.

3. Reach new markets with high scalability

Easily scale the frontend and backend of your store individually with decoupled headless architecture. Building rapid front end experiences will reduce the go to market time while offering native app-like experience on any device with Progressive Web Apps.

4. Next-gen technology for better conversions

Boost your conversions by giving the best shopping convenience to your customers. The cross-device buying experience, inevitable website speed and endless selling points is something a customer would never want to miss. The best-in-class headless commerce platform like StoreHippo uses MEAN technology stack. It makes your site lightning fast and effective in performance and ultimately, converts maximum customers.

5. Seamless third-party integrations

The integration with useful functionalities like payments, logistics, marketing automation tools and services are easier with the headless solution. And it can also be altered based on the business requirements. 

6. Paves the way for faster load speeds and improved website performance

With the decoupled architecture of headless, it is by default faster and more responsive as compared to the traditional setup. It only requires an API call to run backend processes unlike the whole backend system functionality in traditional architecture.

7. Enhanced security of your online store

Make it easier to monitor the whole ecommerce system by reducing the risk of data breaches. The functionalities are hidden under modular coding and APIs are set to read-only mode under the headless commerce to increase protection from malicious attacks.

8. Avoids the need for advanced coding or design skills

Since headless works on decoupled architecture and APIs, it does not require dedicated IT staff to code for backend functionalities or design new frontend of the store.

Headless commerce use cases

There are many brands that are reaping the benefits of headless commerce. The modern e commerce companies are leveraging headless commerce to showcase personalized content and improve customer shopping experiences. The headless ecommerce platform brings together data from its order management system, product catalog, traffic history, payment processing, and content management system. 

For example, the fashion industry can use the data to create amazing personalized experiences. The data like purchase history, order frequency, physical environment, and visits to the store locations helps in gaining the customer insights and offering the best-in-class buying experience. The brands are also leveraging headless ith mobile apps to offer in-app recommendations, exclusive content to enhance overall shopping experience and business outcomes.

Isn’t it amazing? Headless commerce covers it all to offer a seamless buying experience to the customers. This is the magic of headless commerce. Read on to understand how you can create this magical experience with a headless ecommerce platform and how it works best for you.

What is a headless eCommerce platform?

A headless platform is a software architecture that separates the online storefront from the ecommerce engine. These platforms use application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect the frontend and backend functionality. To reap all the amazing benefits of headless commerce, you need a flexible headless ecommerce platform that is fully customized according to your business needs.

Why is StoreHippo the best headless ecommerce platform for you?

Are you still exploring the headless commerce platform to help your unique brand identity? StoreHippo is a headless solution that helps you to scale your frontend as well as the backend as per the demands of your growing business.

Most of the major ecommerce platforms like Magento, Salesforce Commerce have responded to the headless trend by launching the tools to add headless elements. But working with a full-fledged headless solution like StoreHippo offers a one-of-a-kind experience. It offers 250+ API endpoints to create the most personalized, immersive and unforgettable omnichannel buying experience for your customers. Along with the benefits of headless commerce, StoreHippo comes with 300+ inbuilt features to help you build an omnichannel experience for your customers. It allows you to easily integrate third-party tools and offers mobile-ready stores to your customers. 

Explore all the headless features of StoreHippo by starting your free 14-day online trial store today.