Headless Commerce vs. Traditional eCommerce: A Comprehensive Guide

Prasenjit Dey

Brands & Communications

Share on :

Retailers seeking to consistently innovate and enhance their customers' commerce experiences likely have encountered the term "headless." However, what exactly is Headless Commerce, and how does it set itself apart from a conventional monolith platform? Moreover, which approach is most suitable for your business?

According to Statista Report, the current e-commerce expands at a CAGR of 6.9% and the market size is expected to cross $3.5 trillion by 2025.

Choosing the appropriate technology model hinges on your business's unique goals, capabilities, and resources. While the implementation of traditional eCommerce is relatively straightforward, opting for a headless approach provides greater opportunities for omnichannel personalization. By grasping these fundamental distinctions, you can make a well-informed decision regarding the optimal eCommerce platform for your business, both in the present and for future considerations.

What Is Traditional eCommerce?
The traditional eCommerce model combines the front-end user interface with the back-end infrastructure on an all-in-one platform. In this monolithic structure, the front-end code, handling design, and the back-end code, managing core functions, are tightly integrated. When a shopper visits a product page, the front and back-end code collaborate to fetch data from the database and present the page. While the platform's templating system simplifies customization without altering the core code, the downside is a limitation to the platform's templates and capabilities, requiring advanced development skills for highly customized experiences.

What is Headless Commerce?
Headless Commerce involves the segregation of the storefront from the business logic infrastructure. Instead of consolidating all components into a unified platform, the front end and back end operate independently. The front end is dedicated to visual presentation and user experience, usually constructed using contemporary web development frameworks such as React, Angular, or Vue.js. Meanwhile, the back end is responsible for hosting the essential business logic, data storage, and APIs for data access.

According to Zipdo, adapting headless commerce enables businesses to reduce time to market by 50%.

The flexibility of Headless Commerce hinges on API technology. APIs serve as a bridge, facilitating the connection between the front-end and back-end, enabling seamless data exchange and access to functionality.

Read more about: How Headless Commerce Works?

In headless architecture, API proxy play a crucial role as intermediaries, facilitating the decoupling of components. This decoupling empowers independent evolution, allowing two interconnected elements to progress autonomously. The term "proxy" here refers to a dynamic agent, fostering seamless communication and flexibility within a headless system.

Difference between Headless Commerce vs. Traditional eCommerce
When considering traditional versus headless eCommerce, several key factors typically influence the decision-making process. Choosing the right option is contingent upon the specific needs and capabilities of your business.

Key Factors	Traditional eCommerce	Headless Commerce
Development	UI or any data, the entire database, frontend, and code needs to get changed. Thus, development process becomes hectic.	UI or any data can be easily changed without affecting other component. Thus, development process becomes easy and faster.
Flexibility	Lower flexibility as one single change can impact the entire system.	Higher flexibility due to its modular components that are independent.
Agility	Provides less agility as the components are dependent with each other.	Provides higher agility as developers can quickly adapt to new tech and latest trends as per market demands.
Performance	Performance can be affected due to the system complexity and dependent with each other.	Provides better performance as each component can be optimize separately.
Merchandising Workflow	Difficult for developers to adjust theme or use them according to content and product.	Easy with headless as retailers can simply drag and drop or build landing page as per their products and content without any developers.
Omnichannel	Traditional eCommerce provides retailers to deliver consistent shopping experience but only through limited channels.	Headless architecture provides retailers to deliver consistent shopping experience across various touchpoints such as sites, apps, smart devices, IoT devices, social media platforms, etc.
Control	Limits control as the choice of tech and architecture depends on various factors.	Full-fledge control to choose ideal stack and architecture.
Speed to Market	Implementing and testing of new features is time consuming.	The entire development process is independent, as a result it is speed to market.
Customization	With minimal coding, it offers limited customization.	Offers endless customization but requires more integration work and significant upfront development.
Complexity	Higher complexity.	Lower complexity.
Maintenance	Requires low to moderate maintenance.	Requires high-level of maintenance.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)	Affordable and good for beginners, but it may limit growth in future.	Higher implementation costs but enables long term innovation.
Experience	As there are various limitation, sometimes it fails to provide a better experience.	There is no such limitation and headless is future-ready, thus provides a better experience.

When Traditional eCommerce is a Good Fit for Your Business?
Here are some scenarios when traditional commerce is a good fit:

If your business is operating on a tight budget, traditional commerce platforms often have lower upfront costs and may be a more cost-effective solution.
For businesses with straightforward product offerings and a relatively uncomplicated sales process, traditional commerce solutions offer streamlined and easy-to-manage operations.
If your business follows a standardized and well-established e-commerce model without the need for complex customization, a traditional approach can be suitable.
Traditional platforms are generally designed to be user-friendly, making them a good fit for businesses with limited technical expertise or resources for extensive development work.
If your business doesn't require highly customized website design and can make use of pre-built templates, traditional commerce platforms offer ready-made solutions.
It's important to evaluate your specific business needs, goals, and resources to determine whether a traditional commerce approach aligns with your requirements.

When Headless is a Good Fit for Your Business?
Consider these scenarios where headless commerce is a more fitting choice for your business:

Your business has expanding and intricate requirements, such as managing multiple brands.
You seek a tailored solution that seamlessly integrates with existing systems.
You aim for enhanced opportunities to personalize the customer experience, leading to increased conversion rates.
You are in search of a solution that is both developer- and admin-friendly.

End Note
Traditional and headless commerce offer distinct technology approaches, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The choice depends on aligning with your business goals, resources, and capabilities. Smaller brands often favour traditional platforms for a quick online presence, while larger brands choose headless solutions for advanced flexibility and omnichannel personalization.

As eCommerce technology grows, both options are expected to become more customizable and business friendly. Brands should assess their circumstances to determine whether traditional or headless aligns best with their current innovation and future growth goals. By aligning goals with either model, merchants can establish an optimal foundation to meet customer needs today and enhance experiences in the future.