Webinar replay

Why B2B Manufacturers Need Headless Commerce

Matt Gomez and our CTO Shawn McCabe dive into why headless commerce is the digital transformation answer that B2B manufacturers have been waiting for. Watch the session replay now.

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Welcome & Introductions
• 02:15 - What is headless?
• 03:12 - Headless commerce explanation
• 03:50 - Monolithic ecommerce examples
• 04:25 - Headless is the future
• 05:15 - What does API access mean?
• 06:10 - What are some benefits of headless architecture?
• 07:40 - Headless commerce allows B2B to leverage and modernize their existing systems
• 09:00 - Headless commerce is the launchpad for larger digital transformation projects
• 11:20 - What are the benefits of a headless setup from a customer perspective?
• 15:40 - Improved speed & performance of your website
• 18:30 - Decoupled vs. Headless
• 22:00 - Example of a simple use case for headless in B2B manufacturing?
• 23:55 - The value of headless is the ability to tackle one change at a time
• 26:00 - What kind of resources does a B2B manufacturer need to go headless?
• 29:00 - Why should a B2B organization consider a headless architecture in a digital transformation project?

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Key talking points

What is headless?

Headless is the idea that you have a system with data and functionality, but it doesn’t have a display of that data attached to it. Generally speaking, in a traditional or monolithic setup, one system would handle the display, data and functionality all in one. The downside is that the monolith is usually best at handling data and functionality, and the look and feel of the display are limited. Headless allows for greater flexibility: the systems that handle the data and functionality can be best-in-class, and the system that handles the display can deliver leading-edge output.

Headless is the future

Most traditional platforms are transitioning to headless: either they have gone exclusively headless or at least can be headless. Finding a platform that cannot function in a headless configuration is rare. Only old legacy systems won’t have API (Application Programming Interface) access to be headless.

What does API access mean?

By having no API access, a platform is less adaptable. You are limited to the features and functionality the system was built with. The ability to open up the system using APIs allows you to enhance that functionality by sharing data with outside systems. 

What are some of the benefits of headless architecture?

Freedom to customize the front end to meet B2B needs beyond basic product pages such as complex pricing tables, complex product configuration, bulk orders, or other specific business workflow requirements.

Headless commerce allows B2B to leverage and modernize their existing systems

In mature organizations, there are often established systems and procedures that may not be changeable. A headless front end with an API integration can allow the data from those systems to be accessed and displayed in a modern fashion. This is more cost-effective and, in many ways, easier than moving off legacy systems completely.

Headless commerce is the launchpad for larger digital transformation projects

A headless commerce setup allows organizations in manufacturing and B2B to present a modern ecommerce experience on the front end while working in the backend to modernize and update other systems or move away from them completely when they are ready to. 

What are the benefits of a headless setup from a customer perspective?

Provides a modern, streamlined, retail-like digital shopping experience that younger and post-Covid buyers are looking for. Plain and simple, buying has changed. People want to research and shop online without having to talk to anyone. Headless commerce allows B2B buyers to get that experience while respecting the clients who still want to shop and transact purchases offline. 

Improved speed & performance of your website

Using a headless front end can speed up your page load speed and performance metrics, but the greater benefit is that if you have slower legacy systems that take longer to load data, that delay can be masked by caching or other tactics, so the customer experience is as quick as possible compared to accessing the data in real-time from the legacy system. (Shawn explains this really well, so please watch the video if this is of special interest.)

Decoupled vs. Headless

Headless is a term often used in conjunction with decoupled architecture. Headless refers specifically to a system that does not have a front end, whereas decoupled means a system that doesn’t have to have a head or can be split up into two parts, the front end and the back end. 

Example of a simple use case for headless in B2B manufacturing?

Our most common setup to start digital transformation is to build a headless front end attached to a CMS and an ecommerce platform. Two headless platforms connecting to a front-end display. It allows you to get lots of robust content management that the ecommerce platform may not support and allows you to get all the ecommerce functionality that the CMS does not offer, presented homogeneously to the front-end user in a seamless experience. You avoid the old way of doing it, where you have a website for content but then link off to a “store” page to get the ecommerce functionality. 

The value of headless is the ability to tackle one change at a time

Overhauling all of your business systems at once would mean significant downtime and greater investment for an organization, whereas using a headless and decoupled architecture project to iteratively make changes to one system at a time allows for greater control over budgets and next to no downtime. You can choose the systems you want in your time frame.

What kind of resources does a B2B manufacturer need to go headless?

You will need different skill sets to pull off a headless commerce development project. For example, a developer team configures how the front end displays data from the CMS and ecommece platforms and teams that work on the ecommerce or CMS backend exposes the data to push and pull it to the front end. In this, smaller teams can work on multiple projects, focused on just their tasks, not a single monolithic application. Problems are isolated to one section and are worked through faster without affecting the whole system.

Why should a B2B organization consider a headless architecture in a digital transformation project?

It allows businesses to keep the legacy pieces of their business that a monolithic or all-in-one system won’t allow. Headless will speed up the digitization process and supplement existing systems by giving the digital experience a headstart while modernizing other systems. 

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Questions about headless commerce for B2B? 

If this informal webinar piqued your interest in learning more about headless commerce, please use the contact form below to chat. No obligations, no pressure. Just answers.