Composable commerce: the path to a resilient e-commerce platform

The demands placed on e-commerce platforms are constantly increasing. Customers expect a personalized, seamless and secure customer experience, while companies are increasingly faced with the challenge of quickly adapting their systems to new market conditions.

Composable Commerce offers a modular architecture for these challenges that meets precisely these requirements and at the same time enables greater flexibility and resilience.

The idea behind composable commerce and why it promotes resilience

Composable commerce and MACH architecture(microservices, API-first, cloud-native, and headless) describe the construction of e-commerce systems from independent, modular components or microservices. These enable specific functions such as payment processing, product information management or customer service to be separated and combined or exchanged as required. This ensures increased flexibility and adaptability in an increasingly dynamic and uncertain business world.

By decoupling individual functions, a system becomes more robust and resistant to unforeseeable changes. This flexibility is particularly crucial in times of crisis, as it then becomes necessary for companies to be able to adapt quickly without having to overhaul the entire system.

The ability to replace individual components independently of each other also increases the ability to respond to new market requirements. In an increasingly volatile environment in which technological developments and customer requirements change rapidly, this represents a significant advantage. Companies can not only react more quickly, but also integrate innovations into the platform in a targeted manner without taking major risks.

The modular approach of Composable Commerce: measures for implementation

In order to successfully implement composable commerce, it is necessary to switch from a monolithic system approach to a modular architecture. This can be implemented with a MACH architecture, in which flexibly combinable modules can be put together individually and quickly adapted. Practical examples of the modular approach include Algolia and Contentstack. Algolia integrates AI-supported search functions for fast and intelligent product searches into e-commerce platforms; as a headless CMS, Contentstack offers the option of creating content centrally and distributing it flexibly to various channels via APIs. Both systems can be integrated into a modular architecture, creating a customizable infrastructure that adapts dynamically to business requirements.

The transition to such an architecture offers the opportunity to specifically optimize individual components and make them more flexible. To this end, existing systems should first be evaluated and analysed to determine which components function independently of each other and can be modularized.

Finally, composable commerce allows companies to implement the so-called best-of-breed approach . Companies can select the best available solutions for certain functions of their e-commerce platform from the best providers and combine them with each other. This avoids relying on a single provider or becoming dependent on a single provider and its monolithic solution. This increases the degree of independence and reduces the risk of technological bottlenecks.

API-first architecture: the key to flexibility

A central pillar of composable commerce and MACH architectures, alongside microservices, cloud and headless, is the API-first architecture. Standardized APIs therefore play a key role in the implementation of composable commerce: APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) make it possible to smoothly integrate various microservices and new functions into existing systems and to develop and manage individual modules of an e-commerce platform independently of each other. This opens up the possibility of quickly expanding an existing platform without extensive system adjustments and without having to set up the system from scratch. This offers companies the opportunity to remain flexible and adaptable and to integrate new services or functionalities as soon as they are needed.

The use of APIs also creates a future-proof basis that makes it possible to respond to future technological developments. This architecture promotes greater agility and makes it possible to add new functions or replace existing ones with more efficient solutions at any time.

The flexibility of this architecture is particularly evident in its scalability. Companies can selectively expand only those modules that are necessary for the company’s growth without affecting the overall system. This not only saves costs and resources, but also ensures that the system remains more agile and robust.

Customer centricity and fast innovation cycles

One of the biggest advantages of composable commerce is the improved customer centricity. Thanks to the modular structure, companies can develop customized solutions for their customers and address specific needs in a targeted manner. The flexibility of the modular approach therefore makes it possible to better personalize the customer experience and respond to individual customer requirements.

In addition, the modular architecture of Composable Commerce enables shorter innovation cycles. New functions and services can be integrated more quickly, which reduces time-to-market and increases competitiveness. The ability to test and adapt innovations quickly without jeopardizing the stability of the system ensures long-term customer loyalty and increases business success.

With composable commerce, companies can therefore increase their innovative strength while remaining flexible and agile in order to take advantage of new market opportunities more quickly. This also helps to ensure long-term competitiveness by responding to customer requests more quickly and continuously optimizing the platform.

Checklist: Criteria for composable readiness

Before switching to a modular composable commerce architecture, however, companies should clarify important questions to ensure that their systems and processes are suitable for such a structure. A clear strategy and evaluation of the existing IT infrastructure are crucial to mastering the transition. A checklist for evaluating composable readiness must therefore include the following points:

• Long-term strategy: Does the composable commerce approach support the company’s long-term business goals and future growth?
• Best-of-breed strategy: Is a strategy already being pursued that allows the best solution to be selected for each e-commerce function?
• ROI assessment: Has a cost-benefit analysis been carried out to justify the investment in Composable Commerce?
• IT infrastructure: Is the existing infrastructure compatible with an API-first architecture? Can new modules be integrated smoothly?
• Scalability: Is the system capable of scaling only the components required for growth?
• Data architecture: How well is the existing data architecture organized to seamlessly integrate different data sources?
• Security requirements: Are the security and data protection requirements integrated into the new architecture?
• Flexibility: How quickly can existing systems be adapted without jeopardizing stability?
• Resources and expertise: Does the team have the necessary skills to implement and manage a modular architecture? Is there a need for external partners?
• Change management: Is a clear change management strategy in place to support the transition to a new system architecture?

However, such a readiness check can itself become an organizational hurdle and challenge for a company. It is not uncommon for a company to lack the necessary know-how for successful implementation. In such cases, the support of external partners is advisable and useful, as they can bring experience from a variety of best practices of similar implementation cases and apply it to the company. Last but not least, this also reduces the company’s own expenditure and increases the chances of a successful system changeover.

Conclusion

Composable Commerce offers companies the opportunity to make their e-commerce platform flexible, scalable and resilient. The modular architecture makes it possible to quickly integrate new innovations into the system, personalize the customer experience and respond to market changes without having to adapt the entire system. In summary, companies that invest in composable commerce now are laying the foundations for long-term innovation and increased competitiveness.

This approach not only supports the current business strategy, but also forms the basis for future-proof growth. Composable commerce is thus becoming the key technology for remaining successful in the dynamic e-commerce market in the long term.

However, companies should rely on the expertise and best practices of external partners for the readiness check and system changeover in order to reduce their own project costs on the one hand and to benefit from the experience of previous implementations on the other. In tandem with external support, e-commerce companies can ultimately safely and successfully embark on the path to a future-proof composable commerce infrastructure.

Author: Tim Schüning, Strategy & Business Consultant at SQLI