Composable commerce: The strategic imperative for brands who are serious about e-commerce success

By Carole Breetzke, Senior Business Analyst. Originally published on WARC.

E-commerce monoliths have long been the foundation of online retail. However, as consumer expectations soar and personalisation becomes top-of-mind for 71% of them, brands must modernise to stay competitive. By updating all or part of their e-commerce architecture, brands can stay better attuned to the evolving needs of shoppers.

Composable commerce enables businesses to combine best-of-breed components into a customised technology stack. This unprecedented flexibility and scalability makes it easy to surf the turning tides – no more overhauling your entire system or tallying up missed opportunities.

This is more than just a technological upgrade; it’s a strategic pivot towards agility, innovation and resilience. Composability cuts out the complexity so that B2B and B2C enterprises can focus on the most important part of business: delivering truly exceptional customer experiences (CX).

Why composable commerce matters

Brands stalling their transition to composable architecture risk missing out on growth opportunities. Those dominating the digital commerce landscape right now have gone ‘headless’. According to statistics, these companies are:

30% more likely to deliver projects on time

Reducing their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by 40%

Retaining 89% of customers due to stronger omnichannel experiences

Headless architecture is the key tenet of composable commerce. This is a modular approach to building ecommerce platforms, leveraging microservices, APIs and cloud-native technologies to enable brands to compose an e-commerce solution that meets their exact requirements.

The uptake of composable commerce is growing rapidly

Four years ago, Gartner declared that the future of business was composable – and it was right. Today, 99% of retailers have either adopted or are planning to adopt a composable approach to commerce. Still, only 2% of retailers claim they’re fully composable, suggesting that while the vast majority of retailers recognise the significant advantages of composable commerce, many are still in the process of fully realising these benefits.

This transition phase signals exciting opportunities for growth – early adopter brands are already seeing impressive results, but imagine what brands could be yielding when composable architecture becomes the norm. As composability becomes more widely adopted, organisations without it will soon be outmatched.

Composable commerce is a strategic imperative

Customer expectations are continually evolving, demanding more personalised and seamless online experiences. Traditional monolithic platforms can benefit from modernisation to better meet these demands and address challenges related to rigidity, complexity and cost. The strategic importance of composable commerce lies in its ability to provide agility and resilience in a market where today’s high-flying star could be tomorrow’s old hat. Enterprises with multiple brands across different markets will be the biggest beneficiaries of composable commerce architecture, which allows them to:

Effectively manage complex product catalogues with dynamic pricing rules

Scale their architecture across multiple brands and markets

Drive personalisation at scale and enhance their product offerings

There are five key ways composability keeps businesses in the ring:

By accelerating the implementation of new features by 80%, brands can reduce their time to market and rapidly respond to new trends, demands and competitive pressures

Composable commerce enables brands to deliver highly personalised experiences to customers by cherry-picking components designed for specific tasks

Composability eliminates expensive upgrades and reduces technical debt. By only paying for the components they need, brands can manage costs more effectively

Brands can effortlessly scale operations in real time to accommodate multiple markets, channels and business models

Consumers today expect seamless omnichannel experiences. Composable commerce facilitates this by decoupling the front-end and back-end systems, allowing brands to manage multiple touchpoints efficiently

All of these come together to give customers stand-out experiences – and this has a huge impact on the bottom line. For example, through composable architecture, New Balance was able to maximise product visibility, foster growth and scale, and ultimately gain a 29% increase in ROAS across all markets.

Implementing composable commerce requires five considerations

While the benefits of composable commerce are clear, brands must consider several strategic factors to maximise its potential and circumvent possible challenges:

1. Choosing components that align with business objectives and integrate seamlessly with existing systems ensures the composable architecture delivers the most value. Brands should consider factors like scalability, security and vendor support.

2. Seamless integration is critical to the success of a composable commerce strategy. Brands must ensure that selected components communicate effectively and work together to deliver a cohesive experience.

3. Planning for change management. Transitioning to a composable architecture requires a shift in mindset and processes. Brands should invest in training and support to help teams overcome the learning curve.

4. Data silos are a possibility due to the decoupled nature of headless and composable architectures. To ensure seamless data integration across different microservices, brands need a robust data integration strategy.

5. Composable architecture increases management overhead. To avoid straining resources or creating performance bottlenecks, brands can invest in sophisticated monitoring and management tools, which have the added benefit of keeping teams zeroed in on business-critical tasks.

Key trends and best practices shaping composability

As composable commerce becomes increasingly popular, several key trends and best practices have emerged. These serve as excellent guides for organisations that are just getting started on their composability journey.

a) An emphasis on holistic CX management

Brands today are placing a premium on delivering unified and personalised experiences across all touchpoints. This involves integrating advanced content management systems (CMS), product information management (PIM) systems and search functionalities that support dynamic pricing and AI-driven recommendations.

b) Vendor partnerships are make or break

Choosing the wrong vendor, or relying on a single vendor, undermines the agility of composability. To avoid vendor lock-in, organisations are prioritising open standards and interoperability. Leading platforms like SAP Commerce Cloud, BigCommerce and Adobe Commerce offer robust features and integration capabilities. These platforms support complex B2B and B2C needs, making them ideal for large enterprises.

c) Optimising the technology stack is front and centre

A well-optimised technology stack is essential for operational efficiency. Front runners in the composability race are integrating specialised tools for storefront management, product discovery and content management to create a seamless and efficient e-commerce ecosystem.

d) Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) are on the rise

As CX becomes the top priority for 45.9% of businesses, DXPs are rising up quickly. These are set to enhance composable commerce strategies by providing integrated tools for creating immersive customer journeys across all channels. This synergy fosters agility, personalisation and seamless digital interactions.

e) Enhancing e-commerce security

E-commerce security is rapidly improving thanks to recent innovations, including advanced encryption techniques, NLP-driven fraud detection, AI-powered security protocols, biometric authentication and multi-factor authentication. These collectively enhance the robustness of composable architecture, ensuring safer transactions, enhancing data protection and increasing customer trust.

How organisations can thrive in today’s digital era

With all its benefits, composability is the secret weapon organisations need to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. As the uptake of composable commerce continues to rise, forward-thinking brands will leverage this strategy to navigate the complexities of modern e-commerce, drive sustainable growth and become leaders in the digital commerce landscape.