There was a time when both B2B and B2C eCommerce brands would conduct their business exclusively through websites accessible through desktops, smartphones, and tablet devices. But today, the average online shopper expects that, and much more.
Whereas a traditional CMS—which tightly intertwined content and products to the front-end delivery layer—used to do the trick, eCommerce brands now need a headless content management solution to reach customers through new channels and touchpoints including digital signage, smart speakers, and kiosks.
The short answer is: Consumers are demanding more convenience—and the biggest players in the market are meeting that demand.
Thanks to the rapid development of Amazon and its Dash Buttons and Alexa-based ordering, consumers now enjoy the convenience of ordering anything, at any time, and at any place, and through a broadening spectrum of devices and channels.
According to a 2018 report by OC&C Strategy Consultants, it has been predicted that voice commerce alone will be worth over a staggering $40 billion in 2022, up from a $2 billion valuation back in 2018.
This paradigm shift has left many eCommerce brands playing catch-up. The solution? A headless CMS, which is the fuel required to keep pace.
For brands to remain competitive, it is imperative for them to be available on the same devices and channels, and more importantly, to ensure that their digital experience is not siloed, and instead draws from a single source of truth to provide a truly omnichannel eCommerce experience.
To achieve the above, brands are turning to headless commerce.
A headless commerce solution brings together a headless CMS and an eCommerce solution via APIs. The headless CMS acts as the centralized content hub, distributing product information, inventory data, documentation, videos, and any other relevant content to any device or touchpoint. The eCommerce solution facilitates shopping cart and checkout functionalities and may act as the front-end delivery layer (or, developers can build their own front-end templates).
The benefits of moving to a headless commerce platform can benefit other branches of the business outside of the IT team. Some of the benefits include:
As we have discussed in our article on pure headless CMS vs Hybrid CMS, a pure headless solution can ask cause as many problems as it solves.
A hybrid CMS, like dotCMS, offers true headless functionality, without hanging marketers out to dry. dotCMS features an intuitive WYSIWYG editor, inline editing, drag-and-drop, as well as Edit Mode Anywhere, enabling marketers and non-technical users to edit content in-line, even when that content is being managed in a headless environment.
dotCMS also offers:
Recommended: See dotCMS’s Hybrid CMS in action
There’s no doubting that Amazon’s ability to reach customers across all major devices and touchpoints is helping to fuel its growth. eCommerce brands stuck using traditional content management systems will, by default, never catch up.
But with a headless commerce solution (and a Hybrid CMS as the core of that solution), your brand can build an omnichannel eCommerce experience that’s worthy of your customer’s time, attention, and money.
With dotCMS’s marketer-friendly and API-first philosophy, brands are taking advantage of commercetools and other integrations to build those experiences.
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