Don’t Lose Your Head Over Headless Commerce

If you have spent any time lately researching ecommerce development, you might have come across the phrase ‘headless commerce’ and wondered what it’s all about. Headless commerce is a relatively new concept, but it’s already taking the ecommerce development world by storm.

In this blog, we take a look at what headless commerce is and how it could benefit your business.

Things are constantly changing in the world of ecommerce, and as digital capabilities expand and develop, there is often something new to explore as an online business. This is where headless commerce comes in, and it’s especially important for businesses that want to provide customers an improved and advanced shopping experience. So, what is headless commerce?

Headless commerce centres around providing an unbeatable shopping experience to every customer, in a way that isn’t hindered by design and development limitations. Whereas some ecommerce stores are restricted by what the back end is capable of, headless commerce focuses on making sure that anything is possible, regardless of what the website developer has created. This is achieved by separating a website’s front and back ends and allowing the two to function individually. By doing this, retailers are able to fully customise and update the front end of the website without having to worry about the back end being impacted.

Whereas traditional ecommerce stores combine the front end and back end as one, headless commerce does not. This allows brands and businesses to create customer experiences that go beyond what they’ve been capable of before without being limited by website development. They can get creative and build with their individual customer experiences in mind. There’s a lot more flexibility and fewer boundaries, meaning customer expectations can be reached and surpassed.

• Fully Customisable –  With headless commerce, you can completely customise your ecommerce website, creating a look and functionality that works for you. Whereas standard ecommerce platforms are ideal if you want to get started quickly, there are limits on how branded the website is, and it’s not always possible to create a fully customised brand experience. Instead of having to sacrifice a design element or settle for the second best, headless commerce provides you with everything you need to customise everything from the moment your online store is built.

• Making Changes is Less Risky – If you have ever changed something on your website’s front end, you know there’s a high chance that it will impact the back end, even if you don’t want it to. This can have a significant impact on the website’s functionality, and it could even result in the developer having to get involved. With headless commerce, changing something on the front end is much simpler. You can customise the website without worrying about accidentally changing something on the back end. 

• Pages Load Faster – Customers have a lot of businesses and brands to choose from, so you only have a few seconds to engage them when they visit your website. If your pages are slow to load, it’s highly likely that they will go elsewhere. A lot of older websites haven’t been built with speed in mind, which means that a lot of time is spent waiting for pages and images to load, and visitors start to head elsewhere. Not only does this impact your sales, but it also increases your bounce rate. With headless commerce, this isn’t a problem, as page loading speed is a priority. This is because the front end is separate from the back end and so isn’t ‘bogged down’ by the technical side of things. 

• Less Reliance on Developers – With headless commerce, launching a website quickly and efficiently as possible means less work for website developers. It’s also possible to design, develop and launch a website without needing to rely heavily on a team of experts. Changes and customisations can be made by the brands themselves without needing the experience of an expert front-end developer. This frees up a lot of time for developers, allowing brands to control more of the website themselves.

• It’s Easier to Scale a Website – It’s a lot easier for a headless commerce website to support a business for the foreseeable future, as the website is easier to scale. As the business grows, so can the website. As headless commerce lets you integrate all of your existing systems into one, adapting the website to a growing business is simple, which isn’t always the case with traditional ecommerce websites. This is important for any business which is likely to grow in the future, such as startups and those in developing industries.

• Faster Website Design and Development – It’s not always possible to solve front-end and back-end issues simultaneously, and working on both systems at the same time can be complex. With headless commerce, the two are separate, making it much easier to implement website changes. Everything on the front end can be done without having to think about the back end, and everything on the back end can be done without thinking about the front end. There is no need to wait to complete one before starting work on the other.

There is always something new happening in website development, and keeping up with the changes is vital to ensuring that your website is performing at its best. At Quickfire Digital, we specialise in building ecommerce websites, and we know all there is to know about headless commerce. Regardless of what industry that you work in or the products that you sell, you can rely on our experts to provide a flawless website development service. To find out more about headless commerce at Quickfire Digital, get in touch with our knowledgeable team.