{"id":20309,"date":"2020-11-04T14:22:17","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T14:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/?p=20309"},"modified":"2020-11-04T15:48:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T15:48:14","slug":"understanding-headless-solutions-as-a-tool-for-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/views\/understanding-headless-solutions-as-a-tool-for-your-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Headless Solutions as a Tool for Your Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n\n  \n\n\n<section class=\"hero    hero--light \">\n  \n  <div class=\"hero-content-holder\">\n    <div class=\"hero-content container\">\n              <div class=\"hero-breadcrumbs\">\n          <a href=\"\/\" class=\"hero-breadcrumb\">BORN<\/a>\n                    <a href=\"\/Views\/\" class=\"hero-breadcrumb\">Views<\/a>\n        <\/div>\n      \n      \n      <div class=\"hero-title no-tagline\">Understanding Headless Solutions as a Tool for Your Business <\/div>\n\n             <style>\n        div.hero-title\n         {\n        font-size: 70px;\n        font-family: big-caslon-fb,serif;\n        font-weight: 400;\n        line-height: 1.1666;\n        }\n        h1.hero-tagline \n        {\n          font-family: proxima-nova,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,segoe ui,Roboto,helvetica neue,Arial,sans-serif;\n          font-size: 18px;\n          font-weight: 300;\n          line-height: 1.5666;\n        }\n        <\/style>\n\n          <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p>In the early 2000s, enterprises were implementing monolithic architectures as their eCommerce solution as it fulfilled their business requirements within a single location. As times have changed and technology developed, brands looked for more flexible solutions that would meet the needs of the consumer along with ever-changing market demands. While a monolithic architecture may work for some, it can oftentimes be challenging to scale these types of solutions as well as make updates. Thus, the microservices or \u2018headless\u2019 architecture was born.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since its inception, headless has gone beyond a trend to become a route for online retailers looking to create a future-proof platform that can adjust with their business. According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/documents\/3874598\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/documents\/3874598\">recent study by Gartner<\/a>,\u00a0 56% of enterprise organizations have adopted microservices architecture solutions or have planned or budgeted to deploy API-based or headless commerce architectures in the future. Nonetheless, headless commerce is here to stay.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is Headless?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a headless approach, the front end of your eCommerce shop and the back end are independent from one another or \u2018decoupled.\u2019 Thus, the content and experience management system is separated from the business logic and functional layer (existing eCommerce stack, integration and commerce management). This architecture paves the way for \u2018Experience Driven Commerce\u2019 applications that are heavily focused on the use of customer data to optimize and personalize the customer experience and rapidly increase conversions without compromising the integrity of your eCommerce build.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a headless approach, businesses have the ability to commerce-enable any system, application, or IoT device, and seamlessly integrate with other content management systems. In addition, this type of structure gives businesses the opportunity to remain nimble as they\u2019re able to pick and choose what features and functionality they need to run their business. Additional benefits of this structure include:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Speed:<\/strong> With a headless architecture you\u2019re able to make rapid changes to the back or front of your build without disrupting the entire system. Design changes, testing and optimization can be done without impacting the stability of your eCommerce solution. In addition, in a headless scenario you\u2019re free of operating constraints, making it easier for front-end developers to work efficiently (this means lower operating costs + accelerated site updates).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Flexibility &amp; Adaptability:<\/strong> Parts of the system can be delivered without impacting the core commerce functionality since they\u2019re decoupled, making it easier to make developments and updates over time as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Personalization &amp; Customization:<\/strong> With a traditional or side-by-side structure the ability to customize or personalize a UX on the fly is nearly impossible. Integrating a personalization solution allowing marketers to offer relevant promotions and offers to customers across each touchpoint. In addition, a headless solution empowers the marketing team as it enables constant content updates that support marketing campaigns without IT restrictions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Omnichannel: <\/strong>In today\u2019s day and age, it\u2019s critical to offer users a complete omnichannel shopping experience, from in-store to online to over the phone. The ability to identify users across many devices and using consistent ID\u2019s for online and offline behavior allows for a seamless experience, and is critical in retaining and attracting customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Elements of a Headless eCommerce Environment&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To ensure adaptability and flexibility, it\u2019s critical to have the ability to innovate swiftly. In order to do this, brands must have a \u2018swappable\u2019 architecture which is only possible in a headless environment, where your applications are decoupled. Below you can see how headless comes into action, as each piece acts as a swappable lego.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1437\" height=\"905\" src=\"https:\/\/static.borngroup.com\/uploads\/2020\/11\/architecture-Headless-Webinar-Presentation-v.3.001.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.borngroup.com\/uploads\/2020\/11\/architecture-Headless-Webinar-Presentation-v.3.001.jpeg 1437w, https:\/\/static.borngroup.com\/uploads\/2020\/11\/architecture-Headless-Webinar-Presentation-v.3.001-300x189.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/static.borngroup.com\/uploads\/2020\/11\/architecture-Headless-Webinar-Presentation-v.3.001-1024x645.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/static.borngroup.com\/uploads\/2020\/11\/architecture-Headless-Webinar-Presentation-v.3.001-768x484.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1437px) 100vw, 1437px\" \/><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/machalliance.org\/mach-technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/machalliance.org\/mach-technology\">Headless Architecture Framework<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is Headless Right for Your Business?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While a headless solution is a great option for many retailers, it isn\u2019t a one-size-fits-all solution. There are some additional factors that you should consider:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Retailers looking to get online fast at a low price point may not be the best fit for a headless implementation. You\u2019d have to consider multiple additions including an eCommerce solution, Search and CMS as opposed to a one-stop stack that fulfills all of these needs under a single umbrella.&nbsp;<\/li><li>In addition, a headless implementation can require additional team members and developers to manage and execute, also affecting your total cost of ownership.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Retailers would lack the technical support from a single software vendor.&nbsp;<\/li><li>While headless solutions have been available to the market for some time now, the ecosystem of partners is still maturing. Retailers must be cautious in selecting third-party plug ins as they may not be suited for a headless environment.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Scaling your Headless Return via ROX (Return of Experience)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, understanding return of experience, or ROX, is key to gauging how successful a headless opportunity could be for a potential brand, and how best to scale the opportunity. ROX is the metric with which we measure the purchase experience of consumers. While Return of Investment (ROI) measures the amount of return on one\u2019s investment, ROX goes beyond to assess multiple facets of a business to determine correlations that have decisive influence on customer experience, and ultimately affects your company&#8217;s bottom line. It\u2019s our perspective that most organizations need to invest beyond customer experience (CX). Understanding how changes to customer experience impact your customers (in a positive or negative way), is critical in making informed choices in the development of your digital solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With a headless implementation, businesses have the ability to build their \u2018perfect\u2019 solution in a lego-like, plug and play format. Choosing what pieces are most valuable to drive your business and what you can live without. Understanding and achieving a high ROX is an important key to understanding what you should invest in, and how to review your potential headless solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information on BORN\u2019s headless solutions, please contact Mackenzie Johnson, <a href=\"mailto:mackenzie.johnson@borngroup.com\">mackenzie.johnson@borngroup.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a headless implementation, businesses have the ability to build their \u2018perfect\u2019 solution in a lego-like, plug and play format.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,53],"tags":[90,91,89,88],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20309"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20321,"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20309\/revisions\/20321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.borngroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}