The world has changed, as has how organizations connect with their customers.
Gone are the days when traditional, website-only experiences were enough to convert customers. However, things are different today! Business owners want to give individual customers a unique experience, allowing them to form better personal connections and improve sales.
Interestingly, that’s where composable commerce steps into the picture. It’s changing how nearly 72% of US retailers do their business.
Therefore, in this blog, we will examine the different aspects of composable commerce and understand its importance in improving operations.
Table of Contents
What is Composable Commerce?
Composable commerce is a method for creating distinct digital shop experiences across several platforms and touchpoints. With a composable commerce solution, you may mix several technologies that best meet your company’s objectives and goals. In other words, it’s modular, allowing brands to pick and choose their preferred technologies to create a distinctive online experience for customers.
This is an alternative to traditional commerce, where a single software suite provides most commerce-related operations within a single framework. While a full-stack, all-in-one application may be an easy solution to provide digital commerce, it may not always meet business requirements for scalability, customization, and flexibility. Such a unique perspective is one of the primary reasons business owners actively focus on migrating to composable commerce.
The Four Fundamentals of Composable Commerce
- Modularity: Solutions are loosely connected, deployable separately, and replaceable over time. This makes them a great option for composable commerce for B2C brands.
- Openness: Composable commerce functions in an open ecosystem. The solutions are simply customizable and compatible with other IT components.
- Agility: Companies may become more flexible and respond swiftly to changing markets, reducing time-to-market, for example, by incorporating new features or channels into their contemporary technology stacks.
- Business-centricity: Companies with a composable architecture have greater potential for business innovation and cost-effective deployments of composable commerce for B2B operations.
How Does Composable Commerce Work?
A composable commerce environment resembles a Lego brick structure.
Each brick symbolizes a distinct component, which, like Lego, can be mixed and matched to build a unique and bespoke eCommerce solution.
These foundational components form a strong and versatile eCommerce environment that suits your company’s requirements.
To fully understand this technology, you must first understand the various components and how they may be connected.
Microservices
The eCommerce platform comprises smaller, independent services known as microservices. Each microservice is responsible for a specific component of the eCommerce process, such as managing the product catalog, processing orders, processing payments, and managing customers. The microservices-based strategy makes designing, scaling, and maintaining individual components easier.
API-First Approach
APIs enable the smooth connection and integration of many microservices. An API-first strategy prioritizes the design and documentation of APIs like Adobe Commerce Partner from the start, making connecting and expanding the system easier.
Composable Commerce Engine
This is the fundamental component that orchestrates the numerous microservices and ensures that they function together. Its responsibilities include combining data from several services, routing consumer requests, and managing session data.
Experience Layer
This architecture section is in charge of user interface design and customer experience. To produce a personalized and engaging user experience, it may employ front-end technologies such as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), Content Management Systems (CMS), Headless CMS, and front-end frameworks.
Commerce Services
These services encompass all eCommerce tasks, such as product catalog pricing, inventory, promotions, management, and order fulfillment. These services may be chosen independently and integrated into the architecture as required.
Payment and Checkout Service
Any eCommerce platform must be able to securely handle payments and streamline the checkout process. Composable commerce enterprises select and integrate the checkout systems and payment gateways that best suit their requirements.
Analytics and Personalization
Understanding consumer behavior and tailoring the purchasing experience need data analytics and customization technologies. These components may collect data and deliver tailored product suggestions, content, and marketing.
Third-Party Integrations
Composable commerce platforms frequently offer interfaces with various third-party services, including shipping and fulfillment services, CRM systems, marketing automation tools, and others, to increase overall functionality.
Scalability and Cloud Infrastructure
Composable commerce relies on scalable hosting solutions and cloud infrastructure to address expanding company demands. This enables businesses to scale their platform up or down based on traffic and demand. True composable applications are always cloud-native.
Security and Compliance
Any eCommerce platform must have robust security measures and follow data privacy rules. Composable commerce designs should incorporate components that secure client data, maintain payment security, and adhere to data governance standards.
What to Check When Developing a Composable Enterprise?
If your firm has deployed Adobe Commerce Partner or other flagship solutions, you are on the right track to launch a composable commerce initiative.
However, if you are feeling a little lost, here are two suggestions to get you started correctly.
- If you are still at the beginning of your adventure, start with the cornerstone and progress to MACH architecture. Before you begin, you must prepare the entire organization for digital transformation, provide support, and strive for tight collaboration between business and IT departments.
- Next, map your API documentation and development tools to prepare for tech stack customization and composition with best-of-breed components. Creating a composable enterprise requires testing skills. The digital shift from monoliths to microservices may be done progressively, including platform, system, and application testing and deployment.