Headless Commerce for Global Brands: Benefits & Opportunities

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January 25, 2023

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Headless Commerce

Headless commerce allows B2B and B2C businesses to break free from the constraints of tightly coupled all-in-one software restraining their growth and flexibility. By separating the frontend and backend layers of the system, they can finally enter new markets, build a multi-brand strategy, and scale without limits. What are the other benefits of headless commerce for global brands?

Headless Commerce 101

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What is headless commerce?

Headless commerce is a software architecture that decouples the frontend and the backend part of the system so that they can work fully independently. To ensure seamless and fast information flow, both layers communicate via API.

Headless commerce is a part of a broader concept of composable commerce , which decouples not only the frontend and the backend, but all the microservices comprising an eCommerce stack.

Benefits of headless commerce for global brands

Decoupled architecture helps to improve web performance, control user experience, and reduce time-to-market for new features. However, the benefits of headless commerce for global brands go far beyond that:

Scalable tech stack for fast growth. Fast-growing, progressive companies need to secure a scalable tech stack that wouldn’t constrain their expansion and growth. Flexible and scalable headless technology provides a future-proof solution for years to come so that building new brands, expanding to new markets, and introducing new product categories can happen without limits.

Best-of-breed technologies. While legacy software offers a wide array of inbuilt features, they are usually pretty basic. To win the competitive edge and deliver the ultimate customer experience, brands need to ensure that their tech stack is composed of the best-of-breed solutions on the market. With headless commerce, thanks to its API-first approach, they can easily plug in their technology of choice and change them with time if needed.

The flexibility of a start-up. With headless commerce architecture in place, adding new features to the frontend or testing new services happens fast without interfering with the system’s integrity. Decoupled architecture welcomes continuous innovation and iteration, so even big, global companies can quickly adapt to ever-changing customer needs.

Easy updates on the design. Limitless capabilities of updating the presentation layer are another benefit of headless commerce for global brands which want to ensure a modern, customer-oriented look and feel of their website. Marketing teams can bring their ideas to life and test new copy, images, videos, and features, using a headless CMS. It means there is no need to engage developers whenever they need to update or upload new content.

Lower IT costs. Because the frontend and backend layers are separated, individual developer teams can work independently without jeopardizing the entire system. They can test, develop, and fix bugs without waiting for another team to finish their tasks. Additionally, as marketing teams are equipped with headless CMS, they can manage simple frontend updates on their own, without asking for developer’s help. It means huge savings on development costs.

Fast web performance and improved customer experience. Site speed influences customer experience and drives conversion. This is why “faster web performance” is one of the most appealing values that global brands focus on when deciding to go headless. Fast, decoupled underlying frontend architecture is a key to providing top-notch customer experience and driving sales. This is why a customer- and revenue-focused transition to headless commerce should start with a performant Frontend as a Service .

Read: Start with Frontend: 5 Reasons to Begin Your Headless Journey with the Presentation Layer

Examples of global brands opting for headless commerce

Berlin Brands Group

Berlin Brands Group (BBG) is a pioneer in the D2C business that has been creating, building, buying, and scaling brands globally for over 17 years. The company distributes more than 4,800 items to consumers in 28 countries. Products are sold across 100+ channels, including direct-to-consumer eCommerce, online marketplaces, and wholesale.

“Our passion lies in kitchen appliances, garden & living, sports, and HiFi. BBG's largest and best-known brands are Klarstein, auna, blumfeldt and Capital Sports. These are just a few examples within our portfolio that is rapidly expanding. (...) The idea was to have a ‘construction kit’ to assemble the various stores.”

Andrés Cuevas

IT Product Owner, Berlin Brands Group

Read the full case study: Berlin Brands Group

Tamron Europe

Founded in 1950, TamronEurope is one of the world's leading lens manufacturers. The company offers its customers worldwide high-quality products for a wide range of industries and applications. Tamron Europe is the Group's European headquarter with over 70 employees, located in Cologne, Germany.

"We wanted to integrate an eCommerce solution within a website. So for all our future plans, we decided to go to a composable tech stack because of the flexibility it gives. Composable architecture makes it easier to combine storytelling, huge amounts of brand content, and the eCommerce part."

Simon Rabente

Director Digital Business, Webmatch GmbH

Read the full case study: Tamron Europe

Tally WeiJL

TALLY WEiJL, over a decade after their launch, started their global expansion, and by the year 2000 had over 50 stores across Europe. Over the next several years, TALLY WEiJL developed into one of the top international players in the fashion retail industry.

“TALLY WEiJL needed to find a solution that would bring together Gen Z’s expectations regarding the look and feel of the online shopping experience and limit the time and resources needed for maintenance and future development of any additional CR boosters.”

Matylda Kłoda Senior Digital Manager

E-commerce, TALLY WEiJL

Read the full case study: TALLY WEiJL

Start with the frontend

Because the entire customer journey happens on the frontend, a customer-focused transformation toward headless commerce should start with the presentation layer. Brands need a fast, mobile-friendly frontend to accommodate customer needs, grow conversions and sales.

Download the whitepaper and learn how to start frontend-first!