Headless eCommerce Platform

A headless commerce platform is software that has the front end and the back end separated at the architectural level. Headless platforms currently occupy almost half of the market, and this share is constantly growing. Legacy ecommerce platforms that do not have a front-end and back-end separation are called monoliths. Accordingly, the number of monolithic solutions offered by vendors is decreasing.

In a headless approach, the front-end application (also called a user interface app or touchpoint) has access to the back end via the network through an API (Rest API, GraphQL) using a specific software protocol. The touchpoints are usually called “heads,” while the back end of the system is called “the body.” When the work of the front end is separated from the body, the approach is called headless solution.

Headless software technology assumes decoupling the back-end code from the user interface (UI) application, so the same back end can work with many front-end applications. This is like connecting just one desktop unit to several monitors in your workplace for better productivity.

The ultimate goal of headless commerce is to provide the perfect customer experience to each audience sector. This means that a company needs to have a variety of different channels with unique business logic on the same back end, and it should be possible to add and change these channels quickly and at no risk. Headless commerce software is the only known way to 100% fit to your customers’ worldviews and to achieve the desired level of flexibility in multi-store, omnichannel, and multi-experience B2B/B2C/D2C and other selling models of the ecommerce world.

The operation of a headless commerce platform is based on using APIs (Application Program Interfaces) for front-end and back-end connections instead of point-to-point calls within the application code. Headless ecommerce platform allows you to decouple the business logic of the sales process from the implementation of the user interface. 

Think about headless ecommerce if you struggle to improve customer experience and personalization, intend to support multichannel/omnichannel sales, need faster integrations with third-party services, and want new UIs and innovative touchpoints like chatbots, IoT, messengers, etc. All of these fast-paced changes to the ecommerce platform are much easier to achieve in headless architecture than with traditional ecommerce.

The transition to headless ecommerce is definitely a business decision, but it is impossible to achieve without a strong team of in-house developers. Another option is a collaboration with a reliable integration partner or acquisition of a third-party with experience in headless software development.

In general, there are two ways to implement headless commerce solution. The first one is developing your own headless software architecture for an online store and migrating from the current ecommerce solution. This takes a lot of time (months, if not years), is very expensive, and there are no guarantees you will get a successful result. The second way is migration of the online store to a new headless ecommerce platform like Virto Commerce, in which the headless principle has already been implemented.

It is unknown who coined the phrase, "headless commerce," but it quickly became popular. Most likely, the word headless comes from the stand-alone technology of the Chrome browser. In the context of a browser front end, it is an important developer tool that allows you to test code, check the quality and consistency of the layout, and perform tasks much more efficiently. Another version of the origin of the term “headless” refers to developer slang — touchpoints are usually called "heads" and the back end of the system is the "body."

The headless architecture of an online platform provides flexibility and scalability for businesses because it allows you to separate code that performs front-end tasks, such as storefront interactions with clients, from back-end work like ERP software, which may involve API calls in order to combine several different heads into one body without understanding how they operate individually.

There are at least four benefits to adopting a headless approach in ecommerce: front-end speed, infrastructure flexibility, interface personalization, and scalability based on microservices. Consider the ability to manipulate the infrastructure as a primary headless benefit, which is directly related to the fact that the front end and the back end are separate. With a headless system, the deployment of architectural changes can be done much faster. For example, when the back end needs maintenance, the front-end interface will not be corrupted because it is completely separate.

The main disadvantage is that a headless architecture requires more complicated software development than traditional commerce platforms. Transitioning to headless ecommerce is impossible without an experienced in-house software development team. Building your own headless commerce platform is one way for CX-oriented companies with a strong technical vision to implement a solution. The prize for doing it yourself is complete flexibility and customization. Another option is to work with a trusted integration partner who has a background in developing headless solutions.

Headless solution is a technologically advanced and creative way to solve omnichannel sales problems. It helps avoid any disruption of synchronicity between channels and provides more options for a client’s user experience. Headless ecommerce solution has many advantages over the outdated software architecture called monoliths, which require complex steps to synchronize data across channels.

Customers want different types of interfaces (website, mobile app, social media sales, etc.) that feature the latest trends in UX/UI functionality. Supporting this means updating the front-end technology quite often. Only headless solution allows you to maintain this continuous pace; otherwise, you will have to update the back end, which takes longer and is more expensive.

Headless software development makes the best use of developer skills and experience and speeds up the development process itself. Work on interfaces can be performed by developers on separate teams or even be outsourced to a third party. Each group on the IT team will have its own roadmap, allowing you to accelerate development and implementation.

Customizing a platform with a headless software architecture requires an experienced development team, which small businesses generally don't have. That's why SMBs and startups often choose monolithic ecommerce solutions with customizations implemented through plug-ins and widgets.

On the Virto Commerce blog, we talk about headless commerce in a series of articles from our team. Visit pieces like What is Headless Commerce? and Is Headless eCommerce Right for Your Business? for a more in-depth understanding of headless commerce solutions.

If we compare the Virto Commerce platform with nopCommerce and Optimizely B2B Commerce, the two closest open-source competitors that also use the ASP.NET technology stack for ecommerce, only Virto provides you with a headless ecommerce solution. Today's front-end technologies are changing at a much faster rate than back ends, which means you’ll need to update your UI technology more often. Headless architecture avoids outdated software monoliths, which could frustrate users. Rather, headless solution enables you to keep pace with the latest changes and keep users engaged while they shop on your site.