Headless Commerce Will Change The Way You Sell Online
Online shopping will never be the same. The time has come for a new approach. Brick & mortar stores have been around for a long time, but selling online quickly catches up. It’s now a $1 trillion industry, and it’s getting more competitive every day. In fact, the number of active online sellers in the U.S. has grown from 1.2 million in 2008 to 2.4 million in 2017. The era of headless commerce is here. We’ve seen what headless commerce does for e-commerce, but what does it mean for retailers and buyers? Here’s what you need to know.
What is headless commerce?
A headless CMS (Content Management System) does all the hard work for you by handling the back-end, leaving you to focus on what’s on your front page and/or making orders. There is no need to update code or install any packages on your website. Headless technology can help improve website speed and keep user experience high.
Headless CMS offers so much flexibility, and it’s best to start small. You can start by visiting the open-source CMS of your choice.
Why is it important?
We’re at a turning point in e-commerce. Many new initiatives help retailers succeed and grow their business, but it’s not easy to navigate. Each channel has a different set of technical needs, which is a massive problem with so much competition. Headless commerce can solve this problem and take advantage of it when many channels and devices explode. Also, with the decline of big-box retailers like Best Buy and Sears, we need new ways to buy stuff that don’t involve entering passwords and credit card information into their websites. It seems like there should be a better way. Headless commerce can help us find a solution. How does it work?
How does it work?
Headless commerce is a system that moves the guts of the sales process and analytics away from the website and toward the backend. It doesn’t mean that the website is gone; it means that the website will function as a place for your customers to browse, but ultimately they’ll be funneled to one place: the selling engine. This should be big news for the industry because moving the sales process is key to creating digital channels. For example, if I want to buy something from you, I want to do it without leaving your website. I want to take my email address and sign up for an automatic reminder for my shipment. This could be just a text message, a call from my smartphone, or perhaps it’s the sound of my home’s doorbell.
How does it affect retailers and buyers?
Gone are the days of clickable links, “welcome to,” “click here to view your orders.” Headless commerce removes all those unnecessary pieces and replaces them with a consistent user experience that allows for an amazing consumer experience, increased conversions, and a better ROI.
Today’s consumer has grown more comfortable with online shopping. So, what happens when you have to speak to a chatbot? Consumers often have the same fear when they want to buy from a website, but that’s a thing of the past with headless commerce. Shopping experiences are now seamless and, in many cases, are highly engaging. And as more consumers embrace the convenience of online shopping, we’ll see fewer of them visiting stores to make a purchase.
The result is a more streamlined experience, with a seamless experience for all parties. So what does this mean for buyers and sellers? Customers no longer have to wade through text to make an online purchase. Instead, they can use a focus group of their own to decide whether they like a product before they even start browsing it. This helps save valuable time while also giving a higher conversion rate. It’s a win-win for both sides. Buyers no longer have to deal with poor customer service.
Is Headless Commerce Secure?
One of the greatest benefits of headless commerce is enhanced security. A few inherent qualities of headless architecture make it much more resilient to cyber threats than coupled software.
- Headless CMS is much easier to monitor and control with one uniform data structure, decreasing the risk of a critical failure.
- APIs used to provide content to a headless CMS come mostly in the read-only mode, further reducing the risk of cyberattacks.
Conclusion
You’ve probably seen headless commerce in action in the past year. Salesforce has been one of the industry leaders in this new paradigm. Salesforce’s solutions are easier to use than ever before. You can build customer personas, run A/B testing, and create sentiment analytics.
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