Introduction to Ecommerce Microservices Architecture

Digital commerce is on a boom today. The pandemic has accelerated eCommerce growth in most countries and this is expected to only increase. Ecommerce sales are expected to reach 19.2% of all US retail spending by 2024. This indicates that customers increasingly prefer to shop online.

Global corporations that hit hurdles in terms of scalability, speed, and agility first resorted to using microservices. Amazon, the online commerce provider, was one of the earliest among them. The earliest version of microservices in Amazon was constructed to shorten the development pipeline. However, this approach revolutionized their application software and other eCommerce companies soon jumped into the microservices bandwagon. Today eCommerce microservices architecture is helping to build and run online stores along with the surrounding digital experiences. 

In the following paragraphs, we attempt to have a peek into microservices help to power modern eCommerce stores and satisfy rising customer expectations.

What are Microservices

Microservices architecture constitutes a set of modular services that are loosely coupled and which communicate via APIs. Each of these services can be designed, developed, deployed, and maintained by independent teams. Other advantages are: 

• Simplified and shortened development and deployment process while keeping the existing system stable
• Replacement of legacy software with individual services
• Multiple developer teams can work together on a single application 
• Microservices systems are easy to understand, maintain, and modify
• Increased productivity of team members
• CI/CD is possible
• Unlimited scalability wherever required
• Possibility of using emerging technologies for different services

Benefits of Microservices for eCommerce

Microservices is proving to be the ultimate way to prepare eCommerce platforms for traffic peaks, and implement and test out the latest trends, such as new touch-points, new payment methods, PWAs, and voice assistants, without significant risks. Many eCommerce giants have introduced microservices to get over typical eCommerce challenges, like traffic peaks during holiday seasons and festival discounts. 

Newly introduced eCommerce solutions are built with the headless approach and these fit perfectly with systems that are built using a microservices architecture.

Read our blog “Why eCommerce Microservices and Headless Are the Future of Online Retail”.

Microservices allow the setting up of complex omnichannel systems. To help your customers derive the full benefits of omnichannel commerce and satisfy their expectations (which are running sky-high), you would have to all the information about products, stock, shipments, and orders up to date always. Microservices also enable to successfully use of API gateways to integrate and synchronize ERP, POS, or WMS best-in-category solutions with existing processes.

The latest eCommerce solutions make use of modular API-based solutions. These help to decouple the components in the tech stack, remove unnecessary code, and prevent the different services to become vendor-specific.

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The power of APIs is what allows the enhanced performance of eCommerce solutions. This is the glue that connects the back end to multiple frontend touch-points/ IoT devices.

APIs help to add new functionality without having to create brand new code. Moreover, APIs make your current platform extensible to the latest technologies thus allowing businesses to stay flexible and agile. That is, they are similar to plug-ins helping to enhance the functionalities of the front and the back ends. 

Are Microservices the best fit for your eCommerce Platform

Microservices have a lot of advantages if applied to an eCommerce business. However, these would be some pointers to keep in mind to check out if they are the best fit at all.

• The needs and business priorities of your customers change so quickly that you need to be able to bring about changes in a matter of days, not months or years.
• You need a customized eCommerce solution that you can easily integrate with your legacy systems.
• Your products are unique and complex, and so are your sales process and checkout; therefore, a one-size-fits-all product would not do.
• Your business has an in-house technical team or you are planning to use an SI for your implementation. This has to be taken seriously as microservices are more technical to build and implement. However, an efficient technical team or SI can help you derive the best and leverage the microservices. If your organization has only a medium or low level of digital maturity, it is best to work with a partner for implementation; this would help to eliminate the need for an in-house technical team.

Microservices may not be a good fit for your eCommerce business if:

Download and read our eBook “E-COMMERCE SYSTEMS IN 2030 – WHAT WILL BE NEW”.

• Your digital commerce operations and experiences stay relatively static and there is no requirement to update them regularly. You can consistently handle and keep up with your supplier and customer demands using your regular application architecture (non-microservices).
• You would function well if all your eCommerce software was from a single vendor or you use an “Out-of-the-Box" solution. You would save resources if you reduce time and effort managing multiple vendors.
• Your products sales and checkout processes are relatively straightforward and there is no need for customization.
• You do not have any in-house technical team and do not have plans to hire an SI to support any system implementation. It may also be that you have only a small tech team that currently cannot manage a microservices solution.

End Thoughts

An eCommerce microservices architecture provides the compliance that can help an eCommerce business to promptly respond to market trends and customer expectations. However, business owners need to be aware that with every microservices implementation that is added to your application landscape, the overall requirement for resources and overheads increases.

There will be requirements for vast containerized hosting clusters and deployment of new code requires advanced orchestration. This may result in the teams losing track of the knowledge as to which service is handling what process. 

How SayOne can help

At SayOne, we offer independent and stable services that have separate development aspects as well as maintenance advantages. We build microservices especially suited for individuals' businesses in different industry verticals. In the longer term, this would allow your organization/business to enjoy a sizeable increase in both growth and efficiency. We create microservices as APIs with security and the application built-in. We provide SDKs that allow for the automatic creation of microservices.

Our comprehensive services in microservices development for start-ups, SMBs, and enterprises start with extensive microservices feasibility analysis to provide our clients with the best services. We use powerful frameworks for our custom-built microservices for different organizations. Our APIs are designed to enable fast iteration, easy deployment, and significantly less time to market. In short, our microservices are dexterous and resilient and deliver the security and reliability required for the different functions.

Are you looking to outsource microservices development? Call us today!