The commerce technology landscape has evolved over the past decade. A survey revealed that 95 percent of eCommerce practitioners believe composable commerce is the best approach businesses should take.
Unlike traditional e-commerce, which is built around static product pages and a one-size-fits-all checkout process, composable commerce allows shoppers to create their own unique experiences. With composable commerce, there are no limits to what shoppers can put together.
However, it can be tough to know where to start with composable commerce; fortunately, this guide is here to help. Following the simple steps in this guide will put you on your way to a more efficient, streamlined e-commerce operation.
What is Composable Commerce?
Composable commerce is an umbrella term to describe a new type of digital commerce solutions that enable retailers to create custom experiences tailored to individual customer needs.
These solutions offer more than just products; they offer services and functionality. The key software components of a composable commerce solution are APIs, microservices, distributed architecture, and real-time integration.
Composable commerce empowers retailers to quickly and easily create customized experiences incorporating analytics, payment options, customer service features, and more. This approach gives customers the power to shop for what they need in the best way and allows merchants to adapt quickly to changing customer needs.
This digital innovation is ideal for retailers who need a scalable and customizable solution. It’s also great for those who want to create a data-driven customer experience that allows customers to shop anytime, anywhere, with the same experience, no matter their device or platform.
Tenets of Composable Commerce
1. Modular Architecture
Composable commerce is modular because it consists of multiple software components of the architecture assembled and rearranged in different ways, depending on the needs of the situation.
This arrangement gives businesses much flexibility and greater control over their commerce operations. Think about it like this: when you build a house, you start with the basic frame and then add on different rooms and features as needed. The same is true for commerce architecture.
You can start with a core set of modules and then add on more specialized features as needed. By designing our architecture in this way, it becomes easier to create reusable components that can be used in multiple situations. This helps to reduce complexity and improve efficiency.
2. Open Ecosystem
Composable commerce is an open ecosystem that allows for exchanging of information and ideas between businesses and customers. It’s a system where everyone has a voice and can contribute to the conversation.
This openness is what makes composable commerce so powerful. It allows businesses to work together to create better customer experiences and gives customers the power to make choices based on what’s best for them.
It’s also worth noting that composable commerce is built on collaboration, not competition. Businesses can create more value for customers and generate more sales when they work together.
3. Flexibility
Flexibility is another tenet of composable commerce. With this approach, businesses can create a custom shopping experience for every customer.
If a customer wants to buy a shirt and a pair of pants, they can mix and match the items to create their unique look. Or, if they want to return an item, they can do so without any hassle.
The beauty of composable commerce is that it allows customers to shop the way they want. And for businesses, it means increased sales and more happy customers.
4. Business-Centric Solution
What makes composable commerce a business-centric solution? Well, the software components and functionalities make composable commerce better for businesses.
For example, modularization: composable commerce allows companies to break down the traditional monolithic approach to commerce into small, specialized pieces, making customization and scalability easier than ever.
Integration is another feature of this system that emphasizes its business centricity. It encourages connecting parts rather than creating them from scratch, allowing for a seamless connection of data and services between different silos in the enterprise for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
Leveraging APIs as the core engine of communication between multiple systems, composable eCommerce encourages real-time communication that drives decisions in the business. This type of API integration allows for easy experimentation and rapid product development.
How Does Composable Commerce Differ From Traditional Commerce?
To understand the concepts of composable commerce, it is important to consider how the approach differs from traditional commerce. Though related, the two are distinct in terms of core principles.
Composable commerce is an omnichannel approach that blurs the lines between marketplaces and physical stores. It enables a much deeper customer engagement as customers can interact with businesses across multiple platforms and channels such as online, mobile, in-store, or even virtual reality.
Whereas, traditional commerce generally keeps these channels separate, which can create a disconnected customer experience.
Composable commerce is built on customer-centricity, whereas traditional commerce is product-centric. Businesses using a composable commerce approach are focused on creating a personalized experience for each customer.
They do this by leveraging data and customer insights to design customer journeys that are unique and tailored to the needs of each customer. In contrast, businesses operating under a traditional commerce model are more likely to design their customer experience around the products they sell rather than the customer themselves.
Finally, composable commerce enables businesses to be more agile and responsive to change. This is because the modular nature of the approach means that businesses can quickly and easily make changes to their customer experience without having to overhaul their entire operations.
On the other hand, traditional commerce is generally more rigid and can be difficult and time-consuming to change. In a nutshell, composable commerce differs from traditional commerce in terms of its focus on omnichannel engagement, customer-centricity, and agility.
Benefits of Composable Commerce
1. More Customization
Customization is king in eCommerce, and that’s because consumers today want the ability to personalize their shopping experiences. They want products that are tailored to their specific needs and preferences.
This growing demand for customization is where composable commerce comes in. With composable commerce, businesses can give their customers more options for customization than ever before. These options include product configuration, personalized recommendations, co-creation, and social media.
Product configuration allows customers to build their products by making specific requests from the sales engineer. Personalized recommendations provide an individualized shopping experience based on past purchases and browsing behavior.
Co-creation lets customers work with the brand to create new products or customize existing ones. And social media allows customers to share their favorite products and customize them according to their own unique style.
2. Improve Scalability
With composable commerce, you can manage your inventory and orders more efficiently. This means you can handle larger volumes of transactions with less effort and create a more streamlined experience for your customers.
And when you’re ready to expand your packaged business capabilities, composable commerce makes it easier than ever. You simply add new modules to your system as needed and go from there. This method allows you to scale your business at your pace and avoid unnecessary headaches.
Additionally, composable commerce can help you increase your revenue by streamlining the ordering process for your customers and making it easier for them to find what they’re looking for. This system leads to a better customer experience and more sales for your business.
Finally, you can reduce your costs by automating most of the tasks involved in running a composable commerce platform. This leaves you with more money to reinvest in your business or use for other purposes.
3. Get a Competitive Edge
With a reliable eCommerce platform, you can quickly launch new products and services without having to rebuild your entire website. This approach allows you to get new products and services to market faster than your competition. And it increases your efficiency too.
The technology enables you to decouple your website from your product catalog and make changes to your website without affecting your product catalog. This feature increases your competitiveness as it saves you time and money.
At the same time, composable commerce gives you the flexibility to create new customer experiences and product variations that meet the specific needs of your customers. This gives you the agility you need to stay ahead of the competition.
Finally, it increases your sales by enabling you to offer a wider range of products and services to your customers. By offering a more comprehensive product offering, you can attract more customers and capture a larger market share.
4. Respond Rapidly to Changing Business Needs
One of the main benefits of composable commerce is that it helps you respond rapidly to changing customer needs. This digital innovation allows you to create and launch customer experiences quickly with the power of APIs and microservices.
Hence, you can be agile and adapt quickly when the customer needs change without having to rebuild or redevelop your entire platform completely.
With a reliable system, you can quickly test and iterate on different customer experiences and integrate with other platforms. This way you can quickly and seamlessly add new applications or services to your platform as needed.
Composable commerce also makes it easy for businesses to leverage pre-built components, so they don’t have to spend time reinventing the wheel when they need a specific feature or functionality on their composable commerce platform.
5. Improve Customer Experience
Composable commerce allows you to customize the shopping experience by quickly adapting your offerings and services to meet customer needs. This flexibility encourages higher rates of customer engagement, retention, and satisfaction.
For example, a good composable commerce platform provides a more streamlined checkout process by allowing customers to input their shipping and payment information on a single page. Better still, they can save their information for future purchases, which makes subsequent checkouts even faster.
Enhanced customization means you can personalize the shopping experience by targeting customers with specific offers tailored for them. This helps increase customer loyalty and trust in your brand.
The bottom line is: with composable commerce, you can collect data from every customer interaction, giving you greater insights into customer behavior and purchasing habits. These insights enable you to better serve customers and refine product offerings to meet their needs.
6. Reduce Customer Acquisition Costs
With composable commerce, customers can find what they’re looking for easier and faster. This makes them more likely to make a purchase and repeat purchases, reducing overall marketing costs.
Moreover, the ability to customize product offerings and deliver services quickly makes customers more likely to be satisfied with their purchase. This results in fewer refunds or customer service requests on your end, which keep your customer acquisition costs low.
Using an excellent composable commerce platform enables businesses to offer upsells faster since they don’t have to go through a long process of feature customization for each product or service offering.
Consequently, businesses optimize their pricing strategies and reach their target market efficiently without extra costs associated with advertising or marketing.
How to Get Started With Composable Commerce
1. Prepare Your Team
The first step to getting started with composable commerce is preparing your team. This means arming them with the right knowledge and tools to be successful.
Ensure everyone understands the concept of composable commerce. It would help to have an expert break down the concept into easily understood terms and explain how it will benefit them personally and professionally.
The expert may also train your team on the new tools and technologies used in composable commerce. This orientation would help them understand the importance of anticipating customer needs and desires and how to use this information to create more personalized experiences.
Finally, remember to encourage team collaboration. The best customer experiences are created when different team members work together to create a unified customer interaction.
2. Identify Business Goals and Solutions
What do you hope to achieve with composable commerce? Are you looking to increase sales, streamline operations, or improve customer satisfaction? These questions will help you identify your priorities, after which you can consider what composable commerce solutions are available to help you achieve your goals.
Once you’ve identified a few potential solutions, compare and contrast their features to see which is best for your business. After careful consideration, you can choose the composable commerce solution you’ll be implementing.
3. Choose a Composable Commerce Platform
When choosing a composable commerce platform, you must consider its ease of use. A composable commerce platform should be easy to use, both for development and for end users. It should have a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create and manage online stores.
Additionally, the platform should be able to scale easily to meet the needs of your business. It should be able to handle large amounts of traffic and data without experiencing any performance issues.
Reliability is another key consideration. A composable commerce platform should be able to handle sudden spikes in traffic and keep your online store running smoothly. Above all, it should be affordable and offer good value for money. Even if it’s costly, it should offer features that justify the price.
Is Composable Commerce Right for Your Business?
Deciding if composable commerce is the right fit for your business depends on various factors, including the size and scope of your operations, the complexity of your offerings, and the goals you want to achieve.
If you’re an established business with a wide array of products, services, and experiences to offer, then composable commerce may be just what you’re looking for.
On the other hand, if you’re starting out or have a minimal array of products and services, then composable commerce may not be right for you at this stage. Instead, consider exploring more traditional e-commerce models such as Shopify or WooCommerce to get your feet wet before taking on a more complex platform.
Ultimately, composable commerce aims to break down the barriers that have traditionally existed between buyers and sellers. It’s about giving buyers more control and flexibility over the products they purchase.
It also involves giving sellers a more efficient way to sell and manage their inventory. It’s a win-win solution for everyone involved, and we’re excited to see where it will take us.