Composable vs. Headless Commerce: Key Differences & FAQs

Traditional monolithic architecture has offered one-size-fits-all solutions to businesses and organizations. It provides good integration, but the ability to evolve and offer custom experiences to clients is pretty challenging. Even with the integration of third-party applications, some solutions lack the functionality to offer a superior user experience.

Composable commerce highlights flexibility by integrating best-of-breed components like cart, checkout, and payment processing, enabling custom and scalable platforms. Headless commerce decouples the front end from the back end, allowing independent updates and seamless experiences across devices.

Verdict

For Businesses looking for agility and customization: Composable Commerce offers a superior solution with its modular architecture, flexibility, and scalability. It’s ideal for businesses wanting to adapt quickly to market changes and offer customized experiences to their customers.

For Businesses Focused on user experience and innovation: Headless Commerce provides the flexibility needed to control user experiences across various touchpoints. It’s suitable for businesses prioritizing innovation in their digital experiences while maintaining stable backend operations.

Contents

Composable Vs. Headless: Key Differences

The global retail eCommerce sales are expected to surpass 8 trillion dollars by 2027. So, businesses need better ways to adapt to dynamic changes in the eCommerce domain and make their space in the vast market.

Both headless and composable commerce allows businesses to evolve and adapt to new changes with seamless integration. However, which approach is best suited for your business? This is a key question before you proceed with one of them.

In this blog, we will review the basic definitions and explain the key differences between composable and Headless Commerce so that you can choose the best approach for your business.

Key Differences	Headless Commerce	Composable Commerce
Flexibility	Separate front-end from backend, offering tailored user experiences across multiple touchpoints.	Enables building custom storefronts with building blogs, providing full control over how your store looks and works.
Architecture	Decouples front-end from backend, facilitating innovative digital experiences via APIs.	Breaks the platform into smaller components (microservices), promoting the optimal selection of services for a complete ecommerce site.
Vendor Lock-in	The front end and back end can be independent of vendor lock-in to some extent, communicating through APIs.	Aim to reduce vendor lock-in by using microservices from various platforms, allowing choice based on business capabilities and needs.
Degree of Scalability	Improves overall scalability by enabling backend modifications without affecting the front end, which is advantageous during peak traffic events.	Leverages modularity of microservices to offer higher scalability and agility, facilitating adaptation to modern technologies and market trends.

Let’s break down the key differences between them for your clear understanding.

1. Flexibility

Headless commerce architecture splits the front-end presentation layer from the backend layer. It enables businesses to offer custom-tailored user experience across various touch points like desktop websites, mobile apps, etc.

ecommerce businesses can offer a unique user interface for front-end modules using any technology or framework. For example, companies can use ReactJS, Angular JS, or Vue JS to create the front end and enjoy greater flexibility.
Composable commerce architecture takes flexibility to the next level. It enables online retailers and companies to assemble custom ecommerce sites that cater to the specific needs of their customers.
They can select and integrate numerous microservices that will cater to specific functions in their ecommerce systems like inventory management, payments, order processing, etc.
The modular approach offers greater control over customization and promotes agility for businesses.

2. Architecture

The basic difference between headless architecture and composable commerce architecture lies in the architecture. The headless solutions decouple the front-end layer from the backend side.

The separation in the headless architecture allows retailers and companies to offer innovative digital experiences to their customers.
In this architecture, the front end interacts with the backend via APIs which allows seamless integration across various devices and channels.
Composable architecture is based on the concept of modular architecture. It takes modularity to the next level by breaking the entire platform into smaller components.
The smaller components are the specialized services known as microservices. This new architectural pattern allows online retailers and companies to use the best available services to create a complete ecommerce site.
This promotes the selection of the best eCommerce services for the ecosystem to cater to unique needs like content management, product catalog, inventory, payment, etc.

3. Vendor Lock-In

With headless technology, the frontend delivery part of your ecommerce setup and backend functionality can be independent of the vendor lock-in to some extent.
Both modules have to communicate through APIs so businesses have to be dependent on some ecommerce platforms of the APIs.
When it comes to composable architecture, the ecommerce strategy aims to reduce vendor lock-in by using microservices from various platforms.
You can choose different systems according to your business capabilities, market conditions, and customer needs.
This is a more modular approach that even allows you to build your own reusable components.

4. Degree Of Scalability

With the headless approach, business users can improve overall scalability by modifying the backend without affecting the front end.
They can add any backend service provision or modify the front end without affecting the complete eCommerce system. This provision of scalability is a huge advantage during the growing demand in peak traffic events.
The composable architecture leverages the power of the modularity of microservices to offer higher scalability and agility.
As the business requirements rise, retailers and companies can evolve their systems without affecting their overall performance.
They can adapt to modern technologies and the latest trends in the market.

Composable Vs. Headless: Key Points To Consider Before Opting For Any Approach

1. Objectives Of The Business

Business objectives play a vital role in picking the appropriate ecommerce platforms.
If organizations wish to improve their level of adaptability with a higher degree of customization, they should opt for composable commerce platforms.
It allows simple addition and removal of services and components.
On the other hand, if the business focuses on better control over user experience across various channels, then headless commerce platforms are the apt choice.
With the headless approach, the front-end and back-end split of an eCommerce website can offer better control.

2. Performance And Scalability

Both approaches offer scalability and performance perks to organizations. Headless commerce solutions offer independent scaling of the front-end and back-end layers.
Composable commerce promotes a selection of services that offer high performance in their domains for example content management systems, order processing, payment, etc.

3. Flexibility Level

Composable commerce offers an innovative approach to selecting the best option according to business needs and market trends.
It allows the companies to enjoy a dynamic business practice where they can grow with the changing technology trends. They can modify their ecosystem without altering everything.
With the headless approach, a business model can enjoy flexibility in the front-end layer.
There are some limitations when it comes to the integration of back-end systems.

4. Cost

The composable commerce approach allows online businesses and startups with tight budgets to enjoy better functionality.
It is a practical choice as it allows one to select the required services that are best-in-breed.
It offers the freedom to add or remove components based on overall IT costs, business needs, and other factors.
On the contrary, headless commerce solutions require heavy investment in the back-end layers for any modifications.

5. Turnaround Time

With composable commerce, an online business can launch new features with less turnaround time.
The modular approach allows quick addition and removal of components from the ecommerce ecosystem.
However, headless commerce requires more time to incorporate changes in the system’s backend architecture.

6. Need Of Resources And Expertise

Composable architecture requires technical expertise and higher development resources to integrate the components in the system.
You will need skilled developers to create the whole ecosystem.
If you don’t want to get involved in a complex implementation process, you can opt for headless commerce.
You can offer high performance with limited resources without the need for skilled technical expertise.

7. Overall Maintenance And Support

With headless commerce, you work with specific commerce platform vendors as per the APIs. They will offer updates and support whenever necessary.
When it comes to composable commerce, you will require more regular maintenance and support for all the individual components.
There are several dependencies and multiple integrations that need to be maintained properly for the smooth functioning of the eCommerce system.

8. Future-Proofing

You have to consider the long-term plans of your business before picking any architecture for future-proofing.
You have to see whether the architecture aligns with your business needs or not.
Composable commerce will allow you to adapt and evolve quickly with ease. It is perfect when the business needs to change over time. On the other hand, headless commerce is better suited for businesses with stable requirements.
You can enjoy a good extent of flexibility with better control over various channels.

Recommended Read: 13 Best Compossable Commerce Examples in 2024

The Rise Of MACH Architecture

The MACH architecture is one of the in-demand business models gaining popularity in the market. It stands for Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless architecture. It allows the business to modify the components of the online store quickly.

They can adapt to new changes quickly while offering a seamless digital experience across all the channels. Several companies are future-proofing their stacks by moving to MACH architecture from traditional monolithic architecture.

Here are some of the key characteristics of the architecture:

Microservices-based architecture: The MACH architecture allows businesses to create an ecommerce ecosystem that comprises multiple components that serve a specific purpose. All the microservices are coupled loosely together.
API-First Approach: With the API-first architecture, MACH offers smooth integration between all services. Moreover, businesses can interchange the components easily.
Cloud-Native: The architecture takes advantage of cloud technologies and offers higher flexibility, scalability, and agility in building digital experiences.
Headless: The architecture decouples the front-end and back-end layers that offer greater control over all touchpoints for the business to offer an excellent user experience.

In short, the MACH architecture takes advantage of the headless features to better benefit businesses.

How Does Klizer Offer Bespoke Headless/ Composable Commerce Solutions?

Klizer delivers custom headless/composable commerce solutions to merchants so that they can cater to their customers’ needs and offer outstanding user experience. The experts at Klizer will tailor custom solutions based on your specific requirements.

With headless solutions, you can adapt to new market trends and technology upgrades without facing any downtime on your online store. It is high time to ditch the lagging sites and offer a consistent shopping experience to attract new ones and retain the existing ones in the long run.

Get in touch with the in-house team at Kilzer to know all the details and harness the power of headless technology for your business.

FAQ

What Is Composable Commerce?

Composable commerce is a modern approach to building eCommerce solutions that takes modularity and flexibility to the next level. It focuses on offering a unique customer experience by using the best available components for the eCommerce ecosystem.

Offering a brand new modular strategy for digital commerce solutions, the term composable commerce was first introduced in the Gartner research in June 2020.
The beauty of the approach lies in its agility factor and modular design that allows businesses to mix and match different components for the best quality final product.
They can use components from multiple vendors to have the best quality in all components. With this higher degree of flexibility, businesses can scale more quickly. Moreover, they can replace any component without affecting the whole ecosystem.

In simple words, the approach allows businesses to assemble, arrange, and create bespoke solutions for their customers like Lego bricks.

What Is Headless Commerce?

The headless commerce approach focuses on decoupling the front-end website layer from its back-end. The traditional eCommerce platforms come with coupled front-end and back-end components. So, business owners find it challenging to scale and introduce new features in the system. Headless commerce counters this issue by separating the presentation and back-end functionality.

What advantage does Headless Commerce offer compared to traditional ecommerce architectures?

Businesses have the freedom to create engaging and personalized experiences for their customers through this approach. The front-end and back-end communicate through APIs which act as intermediaries between them.

Developers can use any framework or technology stack to manage the eCommerce storefront. Businesses can use this approach for omnichannel strategy, delivering experiences across the website, apps, social media platforms, and smart IoT devices.

Composable Vs. Headless eCommerce [Key Differences & FAQs]