Headless Commerce

Is Headless Commerce Right for Me?

What Does Headless Commerce Mean ?

Chances are if you’re reading this, you are thinking about making a headless commerce website. This should change the question of what does headless commerce means to what does headless commerce means for me? 

Headless commerce architecture describes the separation of the presentation layer of a website with eCommerce functionality.

Ecommerce web developers can utilize any framework or language they prefer to create their front-end technology to produce high-quality content experiences and plug in an eCommerce solution on the back that manages the logistical aspect of their website. 

As marketing changes to a relationship model spear-headed by content and based on experience, more brands than ever are resorting to a headless architecture to blend their content and commerce.

Providing consumers with both experience and eCommerce functionality is becoming the norm. In order to compete in this landscape, businesses have to adapt by creating an experience that engages with their customers in a meaningful way. 

eCommerce Landscape

Over half of Americans begin their product search on Amazon. With headless commerce, businesses are selling more than a product.

Websites are becoming less the destination to purchase and more the opportunity to tell your brand’s story; checking out without leaving your site is the cherry on top.

Psychographics is the study of consumers based on their activities, interests, and opinions. People looking for a brand identity should capitalize on this psychographics to draw consumers into their experience, tell them a story with their site, then sell them after establishing that connection.

Traditional eCommerce sites are not less valuable than headless but serve a psyche that is ready to make a purchase. Later in this post, we break apart the differences between traditional and headless, you can to that section by clicking here.

Headless solutions enable brands to be more alert to market trends and make changes quickly to stay current.

Businesses wanting to succeed need to diversify their marketing strategies and create great experiences for their customers that drive loyalty

Big box stores lack the feeling of community that the newer generation of consumers wants to feel. These same box stores lost brand recognition because of the tens of thousands of digital brands creating a lasting connection with their customers. 

Digitally native brands grew in part with SaaS which allows a rapid build of a modern eCommerce site. These digitally native brands have mastered advertising that consumers don’t even know is advertising, known as digital native advertising.

These brands also mastered social media advertisements and grassroots marketing (targeting a very specific audience or niche). Though the effectiveness of advertisement placement has decreased, the cost to advertise continues to increase

The use of headless eCommerce and this diversification of your business will bring in organic traffic and capture the attention of potential customers through content and experience.

If you want to diversify your marketing strategy or need some help creating your dream website, reach out today and let us help you.

Headless Commerce Strategy

While we talked about grassroots marketing and digital native marketing, it may not be clear how to approach these things. With headless commerce seamlessly integrating commerce and content; driving traffic and creating connections with the consumer base becomes less challenging.

Creating an enjoyable, user-friendly experience within an eCommerce store is important for creating brand loyalty.

Best Headless Commerce

Headless commerce is different from traditional eCommerce SaaS platforms as the front end-user experience can be built with any framework. This cuts out the curve of learning a new developmental language and creates more confidence in development because the developer can use whatever they are most comfortable with.

Through the use of any front end website development, there is nearly unlimited customization and personalization opportunity. This allows for the creation of a theme that encapsulates your brand without restrictions you may encounter on monolithic eCommerce platforms.

Content-Driven Marketing

Using headless commerce to create content and experience-led strategy can provide brands with increased site customization and personalization options leading to an effective and unique marketing strategy without disrupting any back-end processes.

The headless commerce architecture also allows for faster speed to market, higher conversion rates, and lower customer acquisition costs.

Why Headless Commerce

Brands that have lived on a content management system, like WordPress, no longer need to re-platform to integrate eCommerce into their digital experience.

In a recent blog post, we discussed who should use WooCommerce and how the platform integrates into WordPress and the benefit of having a more custom user interface and experience.

That blog can be found here along with other informational blogs about eCommerce. 

Benefits of Headless Commerce

Not to overstress; the customization and personalization to create a rich user experience are infinitely greater than with traditional eCommerce models. The ability to build with any framework or language cuts the cost of development and maintenance.

Costs can also be cheaper because traffic spikes lead to independent scaling to handle the rush and then scale back down during quieter times.

The ability to swap out parts and make them more modern without making changes to your full eCommerce stack also makes maintenance and upgrades easier and more cost-effective. 

The headless commerce architecture also makes optimization easier.

Headless commerce makes it really easy to deploy changes based on tests and optimize based on results as quickly as you like giving you the ability to constantly improve on your eCommerce experience. 

Headless commerce websites tend to work faster and often have greater website functionality. 

Headless Commerce Website Example

There are currently a few great examples of headless eCommerce websites but one of our favorites right now is beam. The first thing in this site you’ll notice is the video playing that isn’t selling you a product but telling you a story.

This immediately draws you in and makes the average session duration -an important metric for eCommerce websites, higher. Through this whole website, it feels like beam is telling you about their story and letting you decide on your own if their product is right for you, all while leading the viewer to their store. 

Should I Use Headless Commerce ?

Do you have a content-driven brand? Is your eCommerce store experience-driven? Do you want to have AI or AR capabilities? Do you have multi-site selling needs to deliver different front end experiences while maintaining the same backend functionality?

Are you already using a Content Management System and want to add commerce or you already have both but want to merge them? 

The most important question to decide if you should think about switching to headless commerce architecture: do you want a commerce-led or an experience-led website?

An eCommerce-led website will feel more like a traditional online store. While this is neither good nor bad, it can be seen as boring or get lost in the saturated market of eCommerce. An experience-led website will feel less like a store and more like a community. 

Conclusion

One of the most important keys to creating a profitable eCommerce website is to create an online experience that encourages them to stay while generating online sales.

One way to keep customers engaged and buy from you is valuable, engaging, and easy to find content. After providing that content the site then needs to convert these visitors into customers with a seamless digital journey. In a commerce landscape that is driven by experience and content; the ability to be agile and adaptable is necessary to thrive in the ever-changing marketplace.

If you want to create a beautiful user experience to drive your business forward but are unsure about how to go about it, contact NuEthic and let us help you. Everything from SEO, development, and increasing your website speed and content bandwidth can be made easy with our expertise and help.