Enterprise e-commerce architecture

Architecture matters for e-commerce platforms. The architecture dictates what is achievable within the platform in terms of business, time and cost. The wrong architecture leads to long, painful projects and missed business opportunities.

The wrong technologies block a company's e-commerce

Platforms with monolith architecture

Monolith architecture means that components of the software are interconnected and interdependent; if any program component must be updated, the whole application has to be rewritten. It is impossible to scale a development team and delegate responsibility for the development of features. Ultimately, it turns into the uncontrollable constant growth of your technical department.

SaaS solutions

SaaS (Software as a Service) is a software licensing and delivery model where software is licensed on a subscription basis and hosted centrally by the provider. This approach is perfect for small businesses with simple business models but does not allow any growth to change the business model. It is impossible to change the solution according to specific business needs, challenging to implement your scenarios, control performance, continuity, and security.

Closed code platforms

Closed software products are software where only the original authors of software can access and alter the software's code. In this case, all innovations are totally dependent on vendor roadmaps. In this instance, it is more difficult to innovate, as the vendor is more interested in delivering uniform functionality required for thousands of customers, rather than the innovative technologies only a few of their clients need. It is also important to note that it is challenging to find experienced people who are specialists in one particular type of closed software.

A robust B2B ecommerce platform with well-thought platform architecture helps you manage your digital and physical products. Here at Virto Commerce we believe in scalability, agility and outstanding platform performance!

How does the wrong technology impact a business?

Changing or extending the system is too expensive or impossible

Impossible to increase market share through a complex business model

Closed code software locks you into one vendor

It is essential for mid-market companies and enterprises, to quickly develop new functionality and be able to react to market challenges rapidly. The above-listed architecture models make it either too expensive or impossible to stay ahead of your competitors. For monoliths, the more features were delivered, the more expensive the next one is to create. Monolith architecture does not support fast development cycles; each change becomes too long and too expensive. In SaaS platforms, changes are not applicable at all, and customers are forced to follow the vendor.

Regarding closed software – people who work with closed software have to adopt all of the business to be aligned with the closed software. Eventually, a company gets locked in with a particular vendor, which is a very expensive situation to resolve.

All listed technical issues have critical business implications. Selecting an e-commerce platform with the “wrong” architecture creates long run risks for the business. E-commerce is a speed-driven industry. Even though we cannot say that e-commerce is a young industry, it is still rapidly evolving due to continuous technological and social changes which are closely interrelated and quite unpredictable. It is impossible to predict which trends will become crucial in the next few years. The only thing a company can do to be prepared is to create an infrastructure for constant and rapid changes. If the e-commerce platform its rigid infrastructure makes this impossible, the company is in trouble.

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How does Virto Commerce architecture resolve these problems?

Modular architecture and focus on architectural excellence

Customizable & extensible platform by design

Open source code

The modular architecture of Virto Commerce's platform resolves the risks associated with monolith architecture. The platform of Virto Commerce is very adaptable to changes, to adding new functionality and discarding obsolete features. You may deploy Virto Commerce on-site or in the cloud and do your own installation. Having direct access to the database and code, feel free to add new features by extending new functionality and new modules, or integrate the platform with any other apps to meet your specific business needs.

We aim to deliver a platform that is easy to customize and extend. Reducing project implementation efforts is one of our core values. We want our customers to add functionality on top of the Virto Commerce platform that fits their business requirements for 100%.

The Virto Commerce platform's architecture was designed and is constantly improved according to the feedback we receive from multiple customers – including Fortune 500 companies. We do the core critical things right and deliver functional enablers allowing our partners and customers to build required functional features on top of the platform without the risk of lockin your business into the wrong technical decisions.

Virto Commerce's platform is an open source product. Our code is in GitHub. No hidden problems, no hidden technical departments. We are open. Developers can read the code and make their decision based on what they see. Extend the system and adapt it to your business needs.

Looking for an ecommerce platform that has it all?

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