Building a Customer-Experience-Centric Ecommerce Platform
Strategically, there is no other way for development and growth in today’s ecommerce environment than to transform a business ecosystem to the headless, composable approach. It is not some fashionable new trend; instead, it is now mainstream technology.
Every company should understand there is a risk that competitors will start this transition sooner, and as they move forward, they will increase the speed of the transition, gain new ecommerce experience and insights, leaving the competition behind.
Here are some thoughts on how to make the digital transformation can run more smoothly.
- Use legacy code as a knowledge base
Since the legacy software served the business for years, it is valuable. Although with nearly all the tools needed to serve customers, the problem is that these tools can be somewhat outdated, slow or difficult to integrate into the new architecture.
Still, this legacy software offers all the answers to today’s business needs. It should not be just discarded; it should be decomposed by the values it brings with it, those values must be understood, and the new platform must learn from and build upon them.
- Do not replace; extend instead
Keep everything that works. The composable paradigm is based on building an ecommerce platform from modules, and the legacy software can and should be used in these modules. If an existing service is too slow, or outdated, or does not have all the features needed in modern times, do not just replace it with another solution.
Try to recreate it first, make sure that the new, faster and better version can deliver the same value to the customer and then extend it by adding new functions.
- Find and integrate the best available services
One of the main advantages of the composable approach is being able to use the best solutions available. Many developers create software that is tailored to specific tasks. Such software can prove to be a competitive advantage because it can better understand the needs of the business and its customers and provide a unique experience.
A business should not lock itself into a certain familiar and comfortable niche. The world evolves, and the needs of customers evolve with it. No one can say with certainty what challenges the future will bring: whether people will start ordering things with their PlayStations, whether they leave desktop web in favor of mobile applications, whether they will switch exclusively to sat-nav or some other future technology.
Essentially, it is important that an ecommerce platform can support any channel and form of business relationship, now and in the future. The composable approach provides this support: just add a new module, and you are in.
- No out-of-the-box 'magic' solution
The upcoming trend, mentioned and supported by Gartner, is to shift the focus from 'platform-centric' to 'customer-experience-centric'. Companies need to stop looking for a 'magic' solution that solves everything and focus on composing digital commerce that consists of applications that collectively deliver the best possible customer experience for clients.
Modern ecommerce software supports this trend, so the customer experience can be extended with new functions, channels and data sources without sacrificing what has been done before.
Read our white paper to learn about the six most essential principles of transitioning to a composable ecommerce platform.