Why eCommerce Microservices & Headless Are the Future

Gone are the days when monolithic applications were the only choice for online stores. As technology is advancing, online stores have completely transformed to provide quick and seamless services. All of this is enabled by emerging technologies, using eCommerce microservices and headless commerce. 

These technologies have now become buzzwords, and are being used interchangeably. But before jumping on the trend, it is essential that you understand what are they, how do they work, and what benefits you and your business can gain from it. We will unlock and spell out everything there is to know and point you in the right direction. Stay tuned, and read on.

What are Microservices?

Microservices consists of a collection of services that make up an application. These services are highly maintainable and testable, loosely coupled, organized to improve business capabilities, independently deployable, and owned by an independent small team.

That means, with microservices, you can be as dynamic as you wish. Develop new features, deploy them and test them quickly. How will it help in your online business? A one-size-fits-all approach is no longer sufficient for today's online businesses. With more competition and higher customer expectations, brands must be quick and adaptable.

Microservices architecture for eCommerce helps businesses to adjust fast to market demands and stay ahead of the competition. A microservices-based e-commerce platform can deliver flexibility to the enterprise, making it easier to adopt new features and capabilities, during major growth phases as well.

Traditional Ecommerce – Wrath of Monoliths

Monolith architectures serviced the majority of eCommerce platforms until recently. These are the original jack-of-all-trades, self-contained, self-hosted systems. They offer a centralized, on-premise, feature-rich solution to satisfy the needs of enterprises.  

A monolith appears to be simpler in some aspects. A single system contains all of the necessary components. These systems, however, can be slow and difficult to expand as a firm becomes more complicated. 

Read our blog “Microservices at eBay-What it looks like today” 

Let’s take a look at what are the potential problems with a monolith system.

1: Complicated Customizations

The backend and frontend of monolith systems are tightly coupled. That means if you want to make any changes, trivial or major, developers need to alter the code. Whether it is changing how your application looks, or how your data is stored, changing the source code of your entire application is a time expensive process. But you can’t get away with it if you’re using a monolith system.

2: Jumping on Market Trends is Slower

In order to grow in the market, you should always stay relevant to the ongoing trends. Is it a Black Friday sale, and do you need to slash prices off your products? If you have a monolith system, keeping up with market trends can be incredibly slow, as customizations are complicated. This will make it harder to roll out newer updates and keep your customers engaged with your platform.

Key Considerations for a Modern Ecommerce Platform

1. Scalability: An ecommerce platform must be able to scale up or down as needed to meet changing customer demands. It must be able to handle more transactions and customers as the business grows.

2. Security: The platform must be secure and reliable to protect customer data and transactions. It should have multiple layers of security, including encryption, authentication, and other measures to keep customer data safe.

3. Mobile-Friendliness: More and more customers are using mobile devices to shop online. The platform must be optimized for mobile devices so customers can have a seamless shopping experience.

4. User Interface: The user interface should be intuitive and easy to use, so customers can quickly find the products they’re looking for without having to fumble around multiple menus and options.

5. Payment Processing: The platform should have support for multiple payment options, including credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and more. It should also be able to quickly process payments and provide refunds when needed.

6. Integration: The platform should be able to integrate with third-party services, such as marketing and analytics tools, to provide a comprehensive shopping experience.

What is Headless Commerce?

Headless commerce is typically a system in which the frontend and backend are separate in the eCommerce application. This architecture allows brands to develop whatever they want, whenever they want. Moreover, it helps businesses enhance the consumer experience.

According to Gartner, by the year 2023, approximately a third of commerce organizations are going to appoint API product managers to modernize digital commerce applications. This is where headless commerce is headed.

Download and read our ebook "Porting from Monoliths to Microservices – Is the shift worth it?"

Headless microservices is a method of implementation wherein the frontend and backend of the ecommerce platform communicate via API calls. You can change the ‘head’ or the frontend of your website any way you want, without affecting your backend. You can serve content on your pages via a Content Management System(CMS), or a digital experience platform as well. This will enable flexibility to implement richer user experiences, and in turn, retain your customers.

An example of a headless CMS:

Headless architecture decouples the frontend and backend within the CMS. This makes it easy for users to store data in a repository and simultaneously send it across different channels and services.

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

How Is Headless Different from Microservice Architecture

With a headless system, some parts of your platform will be decoupled, like the frontend and the backend. But if you want to achieve true microservices architecture, every service in your application needs to be decoupled and independent of each other. If you are using a CMS, the data can be stored in one place while multiple channels can access it. This is truly headless. 

Why Should You Move To eCommerce Microservices & Headless 

The growing trend toward microservices and headless architecture has several compelling reasons. 

The most important aspect is speed

High growth companies require rapid and agile expansion and shifting from monolith to eCommerce Microservices and Headless commerce can do wonders. The decentralized nature of microservices or headless systems development makes it easy for developers from different teams to cooperate and alter the code base, allowing them to go to market faster.

Scaling is Easy and Efficient.

A microservice design has the advantage of allowing the front-end and back-end to scale independently. Developers can add new services where they're needed without having to change the entire system. This means that increased front-end traffic will have no effect on back-end operations.

You can get best-in-the-market solutions.

Rather than relying on a single system to handle everything, you may pick and choose the services and service providers who specialize in exactly what you require. Picking the best vendor for every service you require will allow you to focus on the functionality that is tailored to your specific business requirements.

Can Microservices and headless Architecture go wrong

Well, with so many advantages to count, there are certain roadblocks you may face while migrating to headless and microservices.  

You may have to make changes in your infrastructure to accommodate the microservice system. You will need to closely monitor your services and maintain them as and when required. 

You may also need to make organizational changes. Since every microservice is independent and developed by self-contained teams, you will have to restructure your teams to enable them to work parallelly on different features. 

Microservices can get costly at times. You will need to plan your budget for your services, analyze your traffic, and scale the ones that are the most popular. 

How headless Commerce works.

Headless commerce is a type of ecommerce architecture that decouples the front-end (the user experience or “presentation layer”) from the back-end (the data and business logic). This allows businesses to create a seamless, unified digital shopping experience across multiple touchpoints (web, mobile, IoT, etc.) without being limited to a single platform.

In a headless commerce setup, the front-end is powered by a JavaScript-based presentation layer, such as a web framework or a mobile app. This layer can be customized and optimized for each channel and device, providing customers with the best possible experience. Meanwhile, the back-end handles the data and business logic and is connected to the presentation layer via an API. The API makes it easier to create a unified shopping experience by allowing the presentation layer to access the data and business logic in a consistent format across multiple channels.

Read our blog :  Do what the eCommerce giants do to stay on the top

Headless commerce also enables businesses to quickly respond to changing customer needs and preferences, as the presentation layer can be easily updated without affecting the back-end. This makes it easier to create a personalized shopping experience and new features can be added quickly and efficiently.

The Takeaway

eCommerce Microservices and Headless Commerce are not the only solutions for online retail, but they are the ones that provide the most growth and flexibility. If you plan to scale your business rapidly, microservices and headless systems will enable you to create powerful platforms. 

We have demonstrated everything you need to know before switching to online shopping microservices architecture. Consider components that have an immediate need to grow if you wish to expand autonomously, and you can reap the benefits of the modern microservices architecture.

How SayOne Technologies Can Help

At SayOne, one of the premier application development companies in the US, we offer customized solutions to our clients around the world. Our developers have the expertise to help you seamlessly migrate to microservices architecture and move to the cloud platform with minimum disruption of work. Besides, they are adept at building robust new services to meet your specific requirements.  

Further, we employ the DevOps approach when it comes to building cloud solutions that cater to the needs of your business. Additionally, we abide by all international regulations to ensure data security.

Finally, our developers have the experience to help businesses in different industry verticals from start-ups and SMBs to large enterprises to transition to microservices architecture. Moreover, we offer flexible engagement models when they choose to hire our developers for their projects.

Do you want to learn more about microservices architecture? Call and speak to our team today!