Why Is Headless eCommerce the Way of the Future for Your PrestaShop Store?

In 30 Days, Create a Headless PrestaShop eCommerce Website to Boost Your Online Business

Discover how headless commerce functionality enables your company to optimize eCommerce experiences more quickly, cost-effectively, and with greater personalization.

Today, online shopping is ubiquitous, which complicates the purchasing process due to the variety of new devices to choose from and the interface requirements for each. When the front-end and back-end are linked, web developers struggle to create personalised experiences while maintaining consistency between their general website customer experience and the limitations imposed by their ecommerce back-end. The solution is headless commerce.

Key Benefits of Choosing Headless PrestaShop eCommerce

Several factors have contributed to the dramatic rise in the popularity of headless commerce. The most noticeable factor is consumers’ rapidly changing online shopping behavior. Unlike in the early days of the eCommerce boom, consumers are not primarily shopping online on a desktop computer. Headless commerce gets you ready for that shift.

Enhanced customer experience You can significantly improve the user experience on your site by separating the front-end and backend. Headless commerce allows you to modify databases through simple APIs. Frontend developers devote their entire attention to making the website user-friendly for customers and merchants.

Optimization of content and design Some of the most fundamental aspects of headless commerce are user-oriented content and immersive design. Because headless online stores are decoupled, the store’s backend functionalities no longer interfere with frontend design or content. With headless commerce, optimization becomes faster.

eCommerce with multiple channels The demand for omnichannel commerce is skyrocketing. It is difficult to transition from a traditional eCommerce website to a multichannel eCommerce website. However, the headless commerce approach simplifies and streamlines omnichannel operations. Websites can be quickly deployed to multiple platforms.

Personalization: Headless architecture gives developers and key business stakeholders greater freedom and control over customizing and personalizing customer experiences. This is critical given that 72 percent of consumers only engage with marketing messages tailored to their specific interests. 

Flexibility: The needs and purchasing habits of today’s customers change quickly, and consumer technology evolves at a rapid pace. Changes to the interface experience can be made instantly to improve the customer journey and meet new demands by decoupling the front-end from the back-end with headless commerce platform options.

More Customization Options: Traditional eCommerce platforms force developers to work within the constraints of their systems, limiting key business stakeholders’ ability to create a truly frictionless experience for their customers. Businesses are not limited by the capabilities of their back-end tools when using headless commerce, allowing them to create a completely bespoke interface with their customers in mind.

Greater Speed: Working with a headless commerce solution saves time for developers and digital marketers. A front-end developer and some basic coding are all that is required to launch a new customer touchpoint (such as personalized promotions, discounts, quizzes, and other interactive content), which increases conversions for an online store.

More Omnichannel Sales Opportunities: While traditional eCommerce platforms claim to provide an omnichannel experience, they may be slow to adopt new digital sales channels. Headless commerce architecture enables your web developers and designers to quickly introduce new sales channels and touchpoints, such as interactive out-of-home signage or kiosks, without worrying about whether the eCommerce platform supports it. Headless commerce enables businesses to adapt to new technology and channels more quickly.

What exactly is Headless eCommerce?

“Headless commerce is a modular approach that requires loosely coupled application capabilities to improve flexibility in composing new commerce functionality and experiences to be more responsive to business needs,” according to a Gartner analysis of headless (also known as composable) commerce. 2020 (Shen)

Developers and designers can freely modify the look and feel of their online store, payment processing, order and inventory management, and shipping using this type of decoupled architecture.

Making Headless Prestashop eCommerce Work for Your Business?

Traditional eCommerce platforms have limitations when it comes to cross-device purchasing, so headless commerce architecture presented an unbeatable solution to bridge the gap and maintain consistent customer experiences across devices.

The Future of Commerce Is Headless

Creating your own purpose-built headless eCommerce solution is easier than you might think, thanks to a variety of best-of-breed solutions with APIs that allow easy integration. To begin, you’ll need to become acquainted with a broader range of APIs and microservices that will allow you to effectively decouple the front end and back end of a website.

Choosing API-Enabled Solutions

The ability to pick and choose APIs provides web developers with advanced flexibility, allowing them to design beyond platform constraints. Customer interaction with APIs and microservices hyper-personalizes each interface they encounter at each stage of their customer journey.

While implementing APIs and microservices may appear daunting, keep in mind that digital transformation is a process. According to Gartner’s 2020 Digital Commerce Report, digital transformation leaders should create a roadmap to gradually replace their existing eCommerce platform, noting that “API-based commerce can be executed with an API layer on top of a monolithic commerce platform.” (Lowndes and colleagues) This means that business leaders can build on existing infrastructure as long as the eCommerce platform supports decoupled, headless commerce capabilities.

Using Your Existing Prestashop eCommerce Platform with a Headless Commerce Approach

Headless commerce solutions are available for business leaders looking to make the switch by integrating a wide variety of plugins for existing eCommerce systems, such as Prestashop.

Business leaders and developers should choose plugins from companies that have API integrations to other platforms and channels. According to Gartner, when developing a roadmap for headless commerce, business leaders should “consider the components you will need to develop to optimize experiences across multiple channels, as today’s customers frequently bounce from channel to channel during a purchase decision.”

Headless Commerce allows you to scale quickly and strategically.

Headless commerce, regardless of the size of your company, can help developers and teams keep up with emerging technologies and digital sales channels without limitations. When it comes to making changes to the front-end of a website, headless commerce architecture, APIs, and plugins give web teams more flexibility, speed, and ease. Adopting APIs and microservices can also assist you in enriching and improving the customer experience wherever your customers interact with your brand.