Referring to eCommerce platforms as “headless” might at first seem counter-intuitive. In reality, though, a headless eCommerce platform is one designed to allow more creativity and lenience in accomplishing your eCommerce needs.
Some eCommerce Definitions
When referring to eCommerce we are referring to commercial transactions conducted on the Internet.
For a company to carry this out, an electronic sales platform is required. Obvious examples are Amazon and Ebay that allow sellers to use an already existing infrastructure to transact business.
When referring to traditional eCommerce platforms and headless ones, though, we are not talking about Amazon or Ebay or other online marketplaces such as those.
What is being referred to are the platforms used by individual businesses who are selling their own products on dedicated sites.
To do this, they would use plugins or software such as Shopify or Magento. These eCommerce platforms combine their frontend (the display and what the user sees) and the backend (the code and commands that make the front end behave).
Having the frontend and backend inextricably connected poses certain difficulties and limitations ranging from usability by the consumer to integration issues with other stores or software.
As a user you’ve experienced this adversely when attempting to log in and browse certain websites on your mobile phone. The result is frustration and fleeing to a site that is more mobile user friendly.
The problems encountered by the administrator of such a store can be much more significant due to the inability to connect traditional eCommerce platforms to other sites or software needed to expand and market.
What Being Headless Can Do For You
In eCommerce, becoming headless means separating the frontend from the backend in a platform. Even if you understand nothing about software or development, it’s simple to understand how the division of two features could lead to a freedom to create and expand.
Without having a dependency of one to the other, this makes it possible to execute design and content changes without adversely affecting the backend and allows you to connect other stores and software programs without throwing a wrench in your system and creating havoc.
Both Shopify and Magento have come out with headless eCommerce solutions to cater to the changing online world and the transition into omnichannel commerce that has been kicked into gear in recent times.
Connections
MindCloud specializes in connections between all forms of software including those relating to eCommerce. Transitioning from a traditional eCommerce platform to one that is headless is an important decision that deserves careful analysis. But by doing so, it does open the door to a wide array of freedom in choice when it comes to connections to your platform and integration with other services.
