Are you looking to build a custom, personalized shopping experience for your customers? If so, consider using a Headless storefront. Furthermore, a Headless storefront is a type of eCommerce system that separates the “front-end” (the part of the system that customers interact with) from the “back-end” (the part of the system that manages inventory, orders, etc.). This separation allows businesses to build custom shopping experiences using various technologies and tools. This article will explore the benefits of going Headless and how it can help you create a seamless, consistent customer experience across all channels with the Salesforce Composable Storefront.
What is Composable Commerce?
Thus, we already dove into “Headless”, but what is Composable commerce, also known as modular commerce? It refers to an eCommerce architecture in which the various components of the system (e.g., payment gateway, recommendation engine, etc.) are independent and can be easily plugged in or swapped out. This allows businesses to quickly and easily update and customize their eCommerce systems without performing extensive redesigns. Composable commerce enables businesses to deliver a consistent, personalized customer experience across all channels, including web, mobile, social media, and in-store.
The challenges
Going Headless or composable in a project can definitely be a challenge. For starters, it can be difficult to wrap your head around the new architecture and understand how all the pieces fit together. It’s like trying to put together a puzzle without the picture on the box – you must figure it out as you go along.
Another challenge is that Headless and composable architectures can be more complex than traditional eCommerce systems. There are more moving parts to managing and coordinating, making troubleshooting issues harder and ensuring everything works smoothly. It’s kind of like trying to fix a car – if you’re used to working on old-school engines with just a few cylinders, a modern, fuel-injected engine with a bunch of sensors and computer-controlled systems can be a real headache.
Finally, going Headless or composable also requires a mindset shift. Traditional eCommerce systems often have many pre-built features and functionality to turn on or off. With Headless and composable systems, you have to be more proactive and take a DIY approach – you have to build the features and functionality you need from scratch (or, at least, from pre-built components). It’s kind of like going from playing with legos to building with raw materials – it requires a different set of skills and a different way of thinking.
Or do you? We can take some of the challenges above off the board with the Salesforce Composable Storefront!
Removing the challenges by using the Salesforce Composable Storefront
It can be difficult to wrap your head around the new architecture.
Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud provides many features out of the box:
- CMS (Page Designer)
- Search
- Promotion and Campaign Management
- Personalization
- Identity Management
All of these features are also available in the Composable Storefront combined with FastForward, providing a simpler architecture to start with – but allowing the flexibility of switching out these built-in components with third-party services such as Algolia, Magnolia, Amplience, and many more.
There are more moving parts of managing and coordinating.
The Salesforce Composable Storefront offers a centralized, all-in-one solution for managing your Headless commerce system. Unlike Headless commerce offerings requiring multiple third-party services, the Composable Storefront allows you to manage everything from a single interface: the Salesforce Commerce Cloud Business Manager.
So, this means you can easily configure and update your system from one location without juggling multiple tools and services. And if you decide that a specific feature isn’t the right fit for your needs, you’re free to choose a different solution that meets your requirements.
You have to be more proactive and take a DIY approach.
The FastForward Composable Storefront is the perfect solutions if you want to get your touchpoints up and running as quickly as possible. With their standardized components and features, you can launch your storefront with minimal to no custom development. That means you can go to market faster and start reaching your customers sooner.
