7 Benefits of Headless eCommerce for Business Owners

Headless content management systems (CMS) for eCommerce have become increasingly popular in recent years. In fact, you may be using a headless CMS without even knowing it — many of the world’s most well-known brands use headless eCommerce platforms such as BigCommerce and Shopify. 

So what is a headless platform? And why are so many businesses turning to this approach? In this article, we’ll share with you the Top 7 benefits of headless eCommerce. 

What Does Headless eCommerce Entail?

Headless commerce is the separation of your website's front end (client side or user interface) and back end (server side or background operations). Going headless enables organizations to power their websites with a combination of content management systems (CMS), customer relationship management solutions (CRM) apps, and eCommerce platforms that are tailored to their business objectives and customer needs.

No downtime

When you're working with headless ecommerce, you don't have to wait for a page to load or render. Headless ecommerce is fast and agile because it cuts out the need for a full-page load.

When a company adds new content to its front end, the changes are reflected practically immediately. Meanwhile, traditional commerce architecture-based websites might take minutes, even hours, before the customers can see any changes.

This speed is one of the biggest benefits of headless ecommerce for business owners, who always have customers waiting on their pages to load—and then may click away when they take too long. With headless ecommerce, there's no waiting!

Better user experience

In a recent survey, 83% of consumers claimed they prefer to browse items using search engines rather than brand websites. This suggests that people desire additional options and ease when it comes to discovering products from their favorite shops.

In order to provide a better user experience, businesses can employ headless eCommerce to make it easier for customers to discover the products they want.

Since they'll have more control over everything people interact with, companies can get more creative with the content they post on their websites and explore new design concepts.

Furthermore, headless commerce's universality guarantees that websites perform flawlessly and as intended across all devices and viewing formats. Traditional ecommerce website managers, on the other hand, need to think about responsive design so that elements don't disappear or show up wrong on different devices.

The power of personalization

One of the most significant advantages of headless eCommerce is personalization. It's an effective method for increasing conversion rates and keeping your customers satisfied. The success of an eCommerce business depends not only on how quickly it can respond to technological advances but also on how effectively it aligns its strategy with customer demands.

In many ways, headless eCommerce makes personalization easier for businesses. For example, stores launching in new locations can easily integrate that area’s popular payment methods without having to re platform, interrupt current payment systems, or wait for their eCommerce platform to accommodate more gateways.

And because the backend system is linked to numerous channels and devices, businesses can provide consumers with more tailored recommendations based on their purchases and subscriptions on other platforms.

Using backend data, stores will be able to tailor offers and features with the preferences, profile, and transaction history of their recurring customers, resulting in a more personalized customer experience.

Backend speed

Headless ecommerce is a powerful tool that allows you to grow your business by maximizing the efficiency of your back end.

This can be done by improving speed, scalability and security.

Since headless ecommerce works with APIs (application programming interfaces), it connects directly with your database instead of requiring a server-side application.

This means that instead of having many different steps for each request made on the website, all requests are sent directly to the database layer where they can be processed instantly. Because there is no overhead processing time due to unnecessary requests going through multiple layers, headless ecommerce offers faster response times than other frameworks do.

Custom integrations for unique needs

Going headless can be beneficial when developing a custom ecommerce solution.

Custom integrations offer you complete control over your storefront, allowing you to build only what you need. It also lets you add functionality that are lacking from existing platforms like product catalogs or order management systems.

The freedom to customize is one of the key benefits of headless eCommerce. It overcomes many of the limits that come with other platforms by offering total control over every aspect of your store's functioning.

On the other hand, some developers may be unable to meet your business's requirements due to their lack of experience working with headless. But more time spent on features means more freedom on devising solutions for customers with specific requirements.

Full control over your content and the codebase

The headless approach allows you to take control over your own content, which means that you can make changes in real-time without having to wait on a developer or agency. This is especially valuable if there are multiple people working on a website and each person has different needs and requirements.

Headless also gives you full control over the codebase. You’re no longer dependent on developers creating custom solutions for every single problem that arises because now, it’s all up to you! It may seem like an intimidating task at first but as soon as someone figures out how something works, they should be able to easily create similar solutions by using existing libraries (like jQuery).

Better conversion optimization

With a headless commerce platform in place, businesses can experiment with multiple templates and methodologies. They may, for example, try out a new back-end search solution while still running the same front-end search.

As a result, headless commerce makes it possible to perform continuous tests and optimization cycles, providing a way to gain a deeper knowledge of customers while boosting your rate of learning faster than other merchants.

Consistent CX

More than just maintaining the same colors, typefaces, and designs across all media, consistency in customer experience involves consistent functionality. For example, when customers search and navigate your website, the experience should be the same regardless of the device used.

This consistency enables your audience to effortlessly navigate your content or feel more at ease, while simultaneously boosting the time they spend on your website and increases the possibility of a conversion.

The API layer that is implemented into a headless system sends information from the commerce platform to all touchpoints. Adding a new frontend will have little impact on the backend system, allowing consumers to get a consistent experience across all channels. This is regardless of the application or device customers use to interact with the brand.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it! Headless ecommerce is amazing and it is only going to get better. With more custom integrations and a ton of new technology being developed every day, the sky’s the limit. The most important thing to remember is that you need to choose an ecommerce platform that allows you to grow with your business. It needs to be able to scale easily while providing superior customer experiences on all fronts.