We have all heard the term “decoupled” used in connection with ecommerce. What does that mean? The easiest way to think about it is that decoupled systems give you more flexibility when it comes to integrating your site with third-party services like payment processors and shipping companies. In other words, it allows you to choose which providers you want to use without having them built into your codebase from the start (or at least before they’re needed). However, there’s another approach called headless commerce that can provide similar advantages but without requiring any changes at all!
Headless Commerce
Headless commerce is a website design approach that allows you to start with a simple web page and customize as needed. It is also called decoupled commerce because the content management system (CMS) is decoupled from the eCommerce front end. This means you can build your eCommerce site on top of an existing CMS, such as WordPress or Drupal, without having to customize it to fit your brand’s needs.
Headless commerce has been around since at least 2010, when former Apple engineers Matt Mullenweg and Mark Armstrong launched WordPress as an open source project. Today there are many companies offering headless commerce services either via in-house development teams or software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms like Shopify and Magento Enterprise Cloud (MEC).
Headless Is Not Decoupled—Or Is It?
Decoupled is a term used to describe the separation of the front-end from the back-end. In decoupled commerce, your website is not coupled with your shopping cart. Your site’s pages are built without a checkout page and even without forms for collecting customer information. You can then use services like Stripe or Braintree to handle payments on your behalf (more on those later).
When you build an ecommerce site that isn’t coupled with any kind of shopping cart, it’s called headless commerce—but why does it matter?
Why Headless?
Why Headless?
This approach is often considered an ideal option for businesses with a lot of content or complex product catalogs. With headless commerce, you can start with a simple web page and then add details to it as needed through the API (for example, by changing prices or adding additional products). This makes it possible to build your online store more quickly using fewer resources than traditional ecommerce solutions would require.
The Pros and Cons of Headless Commerce
Headless commerce is good for small businesses because it allows you to grow your business without having to invest in an expensive ecommerce platform. As a small business owner, you don’t want to be restricted by the capabilities of an off-the-shelf solution. Instead, you want the flexibility and customization that comes with building your own ecommerce site.
Headless commerce is also good for businesses that want to be agile. If your company has a lot of change happening within its industry, headless commerce allows you to quickly adapt how your company sells products or services without having to overhaul its entire software infrastructure.
Does Your Business Need Headless Commerce?
- Does your business need headless commerce?
Headless commerce is a good choice for businesses that want to start with a simple web page and then add functionality as needed. Headless commerce is not a good choice for businesses that want to start with a complex website with lots of functionality.
Conclusion
Headless commerce is a great option for businesses that want to start their own ecommerce sites without having to manage all of the overhead. It’s also a great way for small businesses with limited budgets to get started selling products online. Modern headless commerce providers like Shopify and BigCommerce are constantly innovating and making it easier than ever before for merchants to start an ecommerce store with little or no technical expertise. They have many features that make it easy for merchants to manage their inventory, apply discounts and promotions, collect payments, process returns and much more.
As you can see, headless commerce empowers merchants with many tools they can use right away at no cost – regardless of whether your business focuses on B2C or B2B transactions!
Headless commerce lets you begin your business site design with a simple web page that allows you to customize as needed.
Headless commerce allows you to start with a simple, quick-to-build website that can be easily customized as needed. This means that the design of your site will be determined by the content and functionality of the pages themselves—not by the technology or tools available to you.
By designing for content rather than technology, headless commerce gives you more control over how your website looks, where users go and what they see when they get there.
