Ecommerce Marketing
Adding an online shop to existing retail strategy can be simple with the right platform
WHY CHOOSE XGATE ECOMMERCE SOLUTION?
Retail brands are fast adopting ecommerce strategy and they strive hard to provide customers with the best omnichannel experience. As marketers struggle with new touchpoints (mobile, social, web etc.) to reach customers, the adoption of a "headless commerce" solution becomes key to successfully transform retail marketing.
HEADLESS & API-DRIVEN COMMERCE ARCHITECTURE
Traditional commerce platforms have predefined front-end that is tightly coupled with the back-end systems, hence, it is confined to using the inherent commerce systems to deliver storefront content in the form of websites and maybe native mobile apps. A headless commerce architecture delivers a platform using APIs to connect the backend and frontend systems (CMS, CRM, Loyalty, OMS, WMS, ERP, POS etc.). Since the platform is not tightly coupled to systems, retail brands can have the best of breed solution for their ecommerce architecture.A headless ecommerce system works by passing requests between the de-coupled presentation layer (Frontend) and application programming interface (API) layer connected vertically and horizontally (Backend). This means when a user clicks a “Buy Now” button on his smartphone, the presentation layer of the headless ecommerce system sends an API call to the application layer to process the order. The application layer sends another API call to the application layer to show the customer his status – order confirmation, loyalty tier discount, points earned for the sales order etc.
Here’s an overview diagram of how XGATE’s API-first headless commerce architecture is designed to support content distribution, loyalty marketing and commerce operations.
FIVE BENEFITS OF HEADLESS COMMERCE
Without the constraint of monolithic software, you can design storefronts that offer the best customer experience for your diverse target segments. Additionally, new storefronts connecting to the de-coupled CMS can be personalised for different devices and platforms.
When you design your headless commerce architecture, you can pick and integrate the best of breed solutions (CRM, Loyalty, OMS, WMS, ERP etc.) to enhance business operation without jeopardizing the whole commerce ecosystem.
With frontend and backend systems connected using APIs, each system can be individually scaled to support increasing demand. This means even when frontend experiences heavy traffic, the backend systems will not be impacted as they are technically de-coupled.
With headless commerce, online store integrated with loyalty can be implemented as fast as two weeks. Importantly, product information and customer details can be updated instantly in storefront using APIs and applications.
Headless commerce allows marketers to have more control over the elements influencing ecommerce user experience. Hence, they can experiment with new design and personalised customer journey to create unique buying experience.
Consumers have largely adapted to the new normal since the pandemic for everything remote – home office, online classes, grocery buying, food delivery, shopping etc. Everyone wants to be able to access and accomplish tasks in a couple of clicks. This pressure for retailers to be digitally everywhere (omnichannel experience) has driven brands to integrate brick and mortar business with online store. By adopting headless commerce architecture, brands can truly offer an omnichannel retail experience and the benefits of doing so outweigh that of traditional commerce system.
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