Composable Commerce: The Future of eCommerce

As the end-to-end customer experience becomes a key differentiator in eCommerce, companies can’t afford to fall behind. A composable commerce approach makes it possible to deliver the latest features and functions to buyers — and do so up to 80% faster than competitors.

Unlike traditional commerce platforms that rely on monolithic systems to provide a standardized experience, composable commerce take a modular approach, allowing companies to adapt as new trends emerge.

Composable Commerce: The Basics

Composable commerce is a flexible design solution that lets companies adapt to changing customer needs and expectations. It accomplishes this goal thanks to three key traits: It is cloud-native, component-based, and tech-agnostic.

Cloud-native refers to software that runs in the cloud, with all functionalities natively integrated with major cloud computing providers such as Google Cloud and AWS. This allows automatic      scalability during traffic peaks at a lower cost that on-premise infrastructure.

Component-based refers to the fact that composable commerce solutions are made up of building blocks rather than massive applications. Each module — such as content, payment, customer service, or fulfillment — is maintained independently using APIs. This allows businesses to mix and match the set of services that work best to meet their requirements.

Finally, composable solutions are tech-agnostic. This means they don’t rely on a single, proprietary software tool or code library. Instead, the use of APIs allows tools of any type to interconnect and interoperate. With a tech-agnostic approach, developers have freedom of engineering to code in programming languages of their choice, which increase productivity.

The Benefits of Going Composable

Going composable offers several benefits for business, including:

Optimized Investments

Choosing a composable strategy allows companies to invest in the tools they need, when they need them, rather than spending more for proprietary solutions that offer too much — or too little — for the price.

Infinite Scale

Because composable commerce is cloud-native, businesses have access to effectively infinite scale. If new services are needed, companies can simply pay for additional resources.

Complete Flexibility

Businesses can leverage whatever combination of commerce APIs works for them and deploy them on their tech stack with complete freedom.

Improved Customer Loyalty

Great experiences bring customers back. With composable solutions, businesses can deliver a true omnichannel experience that meets buyers where they are to convert sales faster and increase loyalty.

Making the Move

For companies considering the move to composable commerce, starting with clearly defined business goals is crucial. The component-based nature of this approach means there are a host of options available to migrate from traditional platforms to composable. By clearly defining key needs, businesses can replatform efficiently and accelerate time-to-value.

It’s also worth considering a phased implementation plan to minimize complexity. While composable commerce is built around simplicity and speed, conflicts with existing legacy architecture may still arise. With a phased approach, also known as the strangler pattern, companies can ensure each component is implemented step-by-step and working as intended before moving to the next.

Finally, businesses should take time to evaluate and find the right commerce platform for their brand. Key features to prioritize include composable-friendly design and an API-first approach to integrations.

The Future of Commerce is Composable

In a rapidly changing eCommerce market, businesses face a paradox — they must be prepared to adapt ASAP but can’t afford to continually rip and replace systems and solutions. Thanks to its modular nature, composable commerce offers the best of both worlds: Companies can build stable systems that deliver key functionality and easily modify these systems to incorporate new features.

Put simply? Composable commerce is the future of eCommerce. Learn more in the accompanying resource.

Infographic created by commercetools, a composable commerce platform company