Course Content
M2: Headless Commerce
The world of eCommerce is changing. You might even say that it has lost its head. With consumers getting used to consuming content and making purchases through various touch points — from IoT devices to progressive web apps — legacy eCommerce platforms are struggling to keep up with the demands of the customer.
0/9
M4: B2B eCommerce Platform Features
Business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce platforms cater to companies that sell their own products or services to other businesses. B2B eCommerce platforms are popular with companies looking to diversify their revenue streams.
0/21
M5: Adobe Magento Commerce
Adobe commerce (formerly Magento Commerce) has proven to be a popular choice for enterprise eCommerce brands. According to Salmon, Magento accounts for 31.4% of top 100,000 eCommerce sites.
0/5
M6: Adobe Magento 2 Migration
Adobe Magento powers around 9 percent of the world’s eCommerce sites — and a great number of those users are at a crossroads: Should we go through the process of migrating to Magento 2, or should we explore pastures anew?
0/8
M7: Speed Up Your Website and Applications
Site speed is critical for a successful website. Speed affects everything from a website's visibility on SERPs to conversion rates, engagement, and overall customer satisfaction. Needless to say, optimizing your website's speed is a necessity, but that doesn't make figuring out how to do it any easier.
0/14
M8: Panama Papers: 2 Key Breaching Open Source Platforms
The hacking of Mossack Fonseca’s client portal leaked over 11.5 million documents, 4.8 million emails and 2.6TB of data - the largest leak in history. Prime ministers have resigned, business people are being scrutinized and over 30 countries have launched investigations against individuals and companies.
0/4
M9: Contentstack
Deciding on your next content management system can depend on several factors, including your current tech stack, the requirements of different departments, your current priorities and where you see your business heading in the future.
0/10
Case Study 1: Did You Start Up a New Media Behemoth in 2005? These Guys Did…
Does the year 2005 feel like yesterday to you? Can you believe we’re now laying on the nostalgia about the events of just over 10 years ago?!
0/6
Case Study 2: What Does Adobe Acquiring Magento Mean For..?
“Adobe to Acquire Magento Commerce” was the straightforward headline of the press release that popped up in my news alert. Just five simple words. And yet, their impact could be tremendous. An impact that will be felt differently, depending on your role and relationship with these two software companies.
0/7
Case Study 3: Music Streaming No Longer Just For Men on Pirate Ships
You know it’s an election year when every face on your TV is suddenly an expert in human psychology.
0/1
Case Study 4: Core dna vs BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus: Platform Standoff
This lesson will analyze BigCommerce, Shopify Plus, and Core dna to see which platform best suits forward-thinking online retailers looking to provide experiences, not just products.
0/1
Case Study 5: Acquia Acquired For $1B: What Does It Mean For Their Future?
The acquisition (or should we say, Acquiasition) may not come as a surprise to those who have followed Acquia’s story closely over the past few years. In a 2018 article for Xconomy, CEO of Acquia, Michael Sullivan, hinted that the company might end up selling “to accelerate (growth) even faster.”
0/1
Case Study 6: The Amazon Survival Guide: Thriving in The Age of Amazon
Amazon’s dominance over the eCommerce market is almost scary. 44% of all product searches, in fact, start with Amazon. They own 43% of all U.S. online retail sales. That’s almost half the market!
0/5
Case Study 7: Ascedia – Providing A Headless Solution For Standard Process (Case Study)
How Ascedia helped nutritional supplement giant, Standard Process, rewrite the way they engaged with their customers.
0/4
Assessment + Professional Diploma Certificate
eCommerce Platform Strategist
    About Lesson

    Headless commerce vs traditional commerce

    If you’re still scratching your head *ahem*, here’s a comparison between headless commerce and traditional commerce. I’d say there are three key differences:

    Headless vs traditional commerce

    1. Flexible front-end development

    Traditional commerce

    Front-end developers working on a traditional commerce system encounter a number of constraints when it comes to design and the overall process. Any changes made would require a great deal of time to edit the database, the code, and the front-end platform as well. Developers are also limited to what can be updated and/or edited without the risk of voiding a warranty or preventing any future upgrades.

    Headless commerce

    With the removal of the predefined front-end platform, headless commerce enables front-end developers to create a user experience from scratch which fits nicely with their core business needs. Front-end developers don’t need to worry about modifying databases in the backend as all they have to do is make a simple API call. In other words, front-end developers are set free from the shackles usually associated with a traditional commerce platform.

    The only drawback is that, with no front-end presentation layer at all, front-end developers are marketers are left to build everything from scratch, from product pages to landing pages. And getting eCommerce web design right is no mean feat.

    That’s why a decoupled solution is superior to a headless solution, but more on that later.

    2. Customization and personalization

    Traditional commerce

    Traditional platforms are equipped with a predefined experience for both your customer and for the administrative user. But these platforms provide little room for customization or personalization. If you are happy with the experience provided by these traditional platforms, then more power to you.

    Headless commerce

    Traditional commerce platforms constrain developers and users to what they define as the correct user experience. With headless platforms, since there is no front-end, developers can create their own user experience from scratch. You have more control over the look and feel of your commerce platform and you also have control over the user experience for both your customer and your admin users.

    3. Flexibility and adaptability

    Traditional commerce

    In traditional solutions, the front-end is tightly coupled with the back-end coding and infrastructure. This leaves little or no room for flexibility to make any desired customizations. To make a single customization, developers need to edit multiple layers of coding between the front-end right through to the database layer that is buried in the back-end.

    Headless commerce

    Since headless commerce has already decoupled the front-end and the back-end, this creates endless possibilities for customization as and when required. To make any changes, you simply need to have a front-end developer. You can make changes either big or small, from implementing a custom checkout flow to adding a new field to customer account — both are very straightforward to execute with a headless commerce architecture.