The dynamic landscape of B2B commerce constantly evolves due to changing shopping habits and new technology. The evolution from legacy, on premises e-commerce platforms to the cloud has marked a pivotal shift from monolithic architectures to more flexible, composable commerce solutions that offer best-of-breed applications to quickly adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs. While composable commerce represents the future of B2B commerce, it’s important to understand that not all composable solutions are created equal. Businesses need to strike a balance between flexibility and complexity.
I spoke with Andy Stanis, EVP and Managing Director at Intershop North America, to discuss key considerations for businesses to navigate the future of B2B commerce.
Monolithic vs. composable commerce platforms
1. Monolithic commerce platforms have been around since the beginning of the digital age. Many consider them ‘all-in-one solutions’ that tightly couple the front and back ends. Monoliths offer simplicity and coherence but struggle with agility and scalability as businesses need to evolve. Any change to one component can affect the operation of the entire system.
2. Composable commerce describes an approach to e-commerce architecture that emphasizes the use of modular, independent components to create customized e-commerce solutions. In composable, the traditional monolith is broken down into separate functions such as catalog and product management, payment processing, shipping, and others. This allows businesses to integrate various best-of-breed solutions for different functions via API-driven microservices. While this approach offers higher flexibility, it requires more integration work and therefore more maintenance as teams need to support multiple vendors simultaneously.
With numerous integrations cobbled together into what one hopes is a well-oiled machine, composable commerce adds complexity and can pose challenges for effective management and orchestration as different tech stacks and microservices are incorporated. To create a fully composable, customized e-commerce experience, businesses need to invest the time and resources to orchestrate essential technologies. This inevitably slows down time to market, especially for businesses already facing resource constraints or deadlines.
To sum up, monolithic commerce platforms, seen as all-in-one solutions, tightly couple the front and back ends, offering simplicity but lacking agility. In contrast, composable commerce uses modular, independent components enabling the integration of best-of-breed solutions via APIs for greater flexibility. An overly modular approach can add unnecessary complexity and increase integration and maintenance efforts, which calls for the right level of granularity.
The time is ticking!
Composable commerce is a business imperative moving forward! However, be cautious about the hype around it. Don’t lose sight of your actual requirements. Be realistic about your skill sets, bandwidth, and goals before embarking on a fully composable commerce project. Yet remember, time is ticking in a world where more manufacturers and distributors are increasingly selling online and taking greater market share. Digital leaders can’t afford lengthy projects. Instead, they must ensure a quick time to value (TTV) and a steady ROI to capitalize on e-commerce.
Getting the best of both worlds
Consider composable commerce a business strategy (rather than just a type of tech). Choose proven, top-tier solutions over complex DIY systems with endless technology vendors. Find a commerce platform that offers core B2B functionality to get you quickly selling online, and that has the flexibility to easily add new business capabilities and, just as importantly, swap out the old ones.
Three steps for successful composable commerce:
1. Start with the right level of granularity.
There’s a widespread misconception that to achieve flexibility, platforms must be pieced together with dozens of best-of-breed point solutions (“microservices”). Intershop’s platform disproves this notion! It is designed for B2B commerce and inherently composable, yet we don’t require a composition-first approach to offer limitless possibilities. Instead, Intershop streamlines the entire commerce operation while giving digital teams the ability to extend the platform as needed via APIs and microservices. This allows for rapid TTV and growth at your pace.
2. Go headless, not brainless.
From a 10,000 foot view, there are typically three main components to an e-commerce architecture:
1. Frontend layer: This is the customer-facing interface where users browse products, place orders, and complete payments.
2. Backend layer: Often referred to as the 'back-end', this component handles the retrieval, processing, and transfer of information from the database.
3. Database: This is the central repository for all e-commerce data, including product details, prices, images, and more.
A headless e-commerce architecture separates these components within the platform.
One goal might be to build an omnichannel storefront experience that is tailored and adaptable. This can be achieved by separating your storefront from the backend, a concept commonly referred to as ‘headless commerce’. This approach allows you to utilize various frontend technologies, all seamlessly connected to the e-commerce system via APIs. It enables faster implementation of changes without risking backend disruptions. A key feature of headless technology is its capability to support multiple sales channels, which is crucial for companies looking to develop an omnichannel strategy. With a single e-commerce platform, businesses can manage a website, mobile app, connected IoT machines, scanners, and more, offering customers a unified shopping experience across various devices and channels.
Make sure your solution is open, flexible, and seamlessly integrates with composable Content Management Systems (CMS). Anchor your commerce experience on a robust commerce nucleus to ensure steady operation and optimal usability.
3. Keep in mind – your goal is to SELL.
Perhaps it’s common sense, but the business of business is business. Your primary goal is to sell goods and services. If your e-commerce solution consumes so much attention that it distracts you from focusing on this, it’s time to take a step back. Technology should exist to enable your business requirements, not the other way around. Analyze your organization’s resources and check how a specific solution and its expected impact will support long-term business goals. In short, embrace composability, be cautious of the hype and keep your eyes on the prize – revenue!
Making the shift to composable commerce – a case study
To meet the demands of an evolving customer base, handle traffic peaks, innovate and expand, a leading manufacturer headquartered in the North America sought to retire their rigid former e-commerce solution and decided to replace it with Intershop’s Commerce Management. The company wanted to provide an accessible and modern B2B user experience that meets customers where they are and offers the self-service capabilities they need. Having already invested in a composable CMS, the company opted for the flexibility of a headless commerce approach to retain familiarity in the creation of the user experience.
After careful evaluation, the company found the perfect solution: combining Intershop’s commerce platform, a composable CMS, and a progressive web app (PWA) based storefront to drive the user journey. This full-featured B2B commerce platform equipped the company with a flexible solution to go live quickly, without early-stage complexities or heavy up-front investments into custom development. Intershop’s composable nature, along with the flexibility to expand and adapt the solution through APIs and microservices, allowed the company to retain its preferred CMS system, which was seamlessly integrated. The team used many out-of-the-box APIs, with a limited number of custom APIs developed as needed.
Case-specific composable commerce strategy: Just the right building blocks for innovation
Building the way forward for tomorrow’s B2B commerce
There are several factors to consider when searching for the best solution and balancing tradition and innovation is crucial in the commerce landscape. Traditional (monolithic) solutions are well integrated and easy to manage initially, but become rigid and challenging to scale or modify. Fully composable commerce, although highly flexible and customizable, can be complex and resource-intensive to implement and maintain.
But why settle for less when you can speed up value, cut costs, scale easily, AND be more agile?
Intershop’s approach to digital commerce combines essential B2B commerce features, ready to use, with unlimited flexibility to address specific business needs. By leveraging pre-built components for core B2B functionalities and allowing for customization where necessary, businesses can realize a quick time to value, manage costs, and remain agile amidst market changes. This hybrid strategy ensures that companies can innovate continuously while maintaining operational efficiency, thus striking the perfect balance between stability and scalability.
Interested in diving deeper into composable commerce and discovering the right balance for your business? Visit our site or see our solution in an online demo.
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This interview firs appeared in the B2B E-commerce Handbook, published by Digitalcommerce360.com and Intershop.
The customer project mentioned above was implemented together with our esteemed Partner Slalom Consulting.
