commercetools coined the term ‘Headless Commerce’. What does it mean and what is its impact on the region?
Headless commerce is an advanced eCommerce technology architecture that exposes all functionality and data through individual APIs, ideally operating on top of microservices. By decoupling the front-end from the back-end, this architecture enables businesses to build flexible user interfaces (UIs) that can support multiple touchpoints and business models. This allows developers to update or edit their front-end commerce experiences without interfering with the back-end, so brands can easily customise their experiences for any of their commerce needs.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has witnessed significant growth in the eCommerce sector as the internet, social media and online shopping have taken risen globally. As a result, the region offers huge potential for B2B, B2C and D2C online businesses to increase revenue. An increasing number of customers in the UAE have become digital converts and intend to continue buying everything online. This trend has encouraged businesses to ensure an enhanced online experience for customers by adopting advanced eCommerce solutions, such as headless commerce, or risk falling behind. Our headless commerce solutions have been driving business growth in eGrocery, retail, cosmetics and fashion, lifestyle services, and telecommunications, among many other industries in the region. We count well-known brands such as selfologi, Alghanim Industries, and Trolley as our customers.
How have customers’ eCommerce preferences evolved?
Customer shopping habits have changed significantly over the last few years, thanks to the evolution and easy accessibility of the internet coupled with the mass acceleration of online purchasing due to the global pandemic. The ease of online shopping allows consumers to make purchases whenever and wherever they want while allowing them to pay most conveniently and have their packages delivered right to their doorstep. Unique and amazing experiences easily draw customers, and eCommerce can provide the ease that today’s tech-savvy customers are vying for. Additionally, the increasing popularity of digital payment options, such as Equal Monthly Instalments (EMI), one-click checkout and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) have changed consumers’ preferences over time.
How can digital commerce solutions enable business growth?
Nowadays, whether a company is an enterprise or mid-market-size, its success often depends on its ability to rapidly and easily scale to offer the cutting-edge, distinctive experiences that customers want. For this to occur, the company needs a highly flexible commerce solution. Besides providing an edge over its competitors by driving omnichannel sales, a more digital approach to commerce can help businesses reduce costs, particularly in real estate.
Although more retail space is available now due to increasing shop closures, the rent/rates haven’t dropped in line for a brick-and-mortar business, leading to high costs. On the other hand, when it comes to digital commerce, business expansion can be comparatively more straightforward as there are no physical limitations on the customer base with the right commerce technology enabling seamless service that reacts to market changes and scales as the business grows.
What are the challenges of the eCommerce market being tackled by commercetools?
The front-end, which enables online businesses to communicate with customers, and the back-end, which controls all the information about costs, special offers, product photos, order information, and fulfilment, have historically been linked. Thus, the platform can only distribute content through one portal. As a result, companies have frequently struggled due to delays and significant downtime when any updates were needed and ultimately disgruntled clients. But with the help of commercetools, organisations can provide customers with omnichannel shopping experiences across various platforms, including social media, mobile devices, bots, apps, voice assistants, AR/VR, IoT devices and more. commercetools provides the highly scalable and flexible technology that growing and innovative companies need to build outstanding and customised commerce experiences.
With our MACH (micro-services, API first, cloud-native, headless)-based architecture, commercetools provide organisations with a genuinely open, modular environment that helps them embrace innovation and adapt to change more rapidly without risk.
Alghanim Industries, one of the largest privately owned companies in the Gulf region, is a good example. The company was facing challenges in enhancing customer experience and felt the need to create new improved omnichannel commerce experiences for customers of its Costa Coffee concessions and X-cite electronics retail businesses in the region. We supported them in the development of cloud-native software stacks for multiple channels, including mobile and web, to enable faster updates and new features. Our software modules, such as the product catalogue, customer data management, promotion engine, carts/orders, and payments, are being used by Costa Coffee and X-cite to provide their customers with a better digital experience.
