Headless ecommerce Architecture for B2B

B2B Businesses have multiple target groups and business needs

Even within a single enterprise, global companies have multiple target audiences and business needs in various divisions. Therefore, it is rare that a single storefront and user interface can match every audience. It is possible for different divisions to need different functionalities, utilise different channels and build their own experiences, in line with the expectations of their target groups. The headless approach makes it easy to create unique experiences, based on the needs of a particular country or segment.

Outdated legacy systems add complexity to commerce projects:

Manufacturing and heavy industry are full of outdated IT systems. This makes it challenging to retrieve information in real time—and frequently, to retrieve information at all! The ability to integrate and upgrade one part of a solution, without affecting the rest of the solution, is important. For example, you might want to work on a pricing module, independent of order-tracking. Decoupling solutions generally requires microservice, or an API-based, headless-solution approach.

Another approach is monolithic, a more traditional way to look at ecommerce. For many B2B companies, monolithic, all-in-one platforms offer a good way to begin in ecommerce. When standard products or spare parts are sold and integrations are not complex, standardized monolithic architecture is a quick and easy way to implement portals and commerce solutions. Monolithic platforms offer all functionality from a single platform. This way, organisations don’t need to acquire or manage multiple applications separately. Headless architecture tries to find optimised applications and solutions for specific purposes.

The retrieved data is normalised in the Portal Accelerator layer, which means it can be shown to customers without the need to connect to website content management systems. It is possible to have either traditional CMS or a headless solution in place. This creates additional flexibility for marketing and IT organisations.

The best way to get started, or to improve existing services, is to map features that customers really need and get a solid understanding of which functionalities make the highest impact. Understanding the long-term vision behind what you want to achieve, in terms of customer experience and digital services, is key.

Next, create understanding of the type of commerce solution that would carry you to the next level of digital maturity. Let's discuss the commerce possibilities - so you can create your digital vision.