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:
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.