A Guide to Headless vs. Monolithic Ecommerce

The architecture powering your online storefront is much more than a technical detail – it can be the cornerstone of a smart marketing strategy. Increasingly, eCommerce businesses are migrating from monolithic to  headless eCommerce platforms  to power deeper engagement with customers, speed integrations with emerging technologies, and respond to changing marketplace needs.

What is Headless Ecommerce Architecture?

Headless eCommerce is a software architecture characterized by independent front-end and back-end functionality. This structure provides valuable flexibility and customization for retailers, enabling them to change elements of the public-facing customer interface without needing to make wholesale code changes on the back end. 

What is Monolithic eCommerce Architecture?

Monolithic eCommerce architecture is a unified software design where front and back ends are tightly integrated into a single platform. Any updates to the front end need to be  made directly into core code on the back end. While less flexible than headless architecture, the simplicity of monolithic architecture can be a benefit for retailers who need a straightforward solution. 

Headless Vs. Monolithic: What’s the Difference?

Both headless and monolithic eCommerce architectures serve as software development frameworks guiding how eCommerce features are built and managed. But they diverge in how code is constructed, significantly influencing the flexibility and timing of marketing activities and the ability to launch new features.  

Monolithic eCommerce architecture is based on traditional software development, with a single set of code controlling functions of a single data source as well as the front-end user interface. This unified approach simplifies maintenance and management, and provides a low-cost and low-complexity solution for new or smaller eCommerce businesses. But on the flip side, introducing any changes to a monolithic eCommerce system means rewriting the core code – a potentially time-consuming and expensive process that vendors may not want to undertake for individual retailer customers. Merchants increasingly find monolithic solutions challenging when it comes to iterating customer-facing features or integrations with third-party services.

Enter headless architecture, which separates handling of product, payment, and fulfillment data from the design and presentation of the content shoppers see. The user interface is separate from inventory management and other typical back-end functions, such as order processing, enabling rapid deployment of new offerings without needing to rewrite the entire code base.

Rather than governing the end-to-end experience from a single set of code, the modules of a headless system communicate via application programming interface, or API. eCommerce API integrations  handle real-time updates, bridge data transfers, and integrate third-party services. 

Using this modular approach enabled by APIs, merchandising, user experience, and store teams can introduce new features on the front end without impacting other code modules. And marketing teams can run their A/B testing software on front-end features such as layouts, promotions, or interactive shopping features without needing to wait for IT resources to rewrite the entire site’s code.  

For example, consider a retailer who wants to implement advanced personalization features to enhance the customer experience. If they have a traditional monolithic eCommerce system, they would need to rewrite the core code to accommodate dynamic product selections. But with headless architecture, they can integrate a personalization module relatively quickly via APIs.  Not only can they rapidly improve the customer experience, but they can experiment with different personalization strategies and make adjustments in real-time, based on customer interactions and feedback – without needing to touch the code governing other parts of the website.

The one caveat with headless eCommerce is its complexity. Managing a headless architecture requires careful implementation and extensive testing to ensure modules hitch together and work seamlessly. 

Site speed is one example of how headless complexity can impact the user experience.  A headless framework enables rendering pages on the fly to conform to design specifications for mobile sites, adjusting for device and browser type. But if the medley of APIs used to create the experience fail to work in perfect harmony, shoppers could experience page load delays that cause an uptick in site abandonment. 

What to Consider When Choosing an Ecommerce Architecture

While eCommerce technology is trending toward headless solutions, monolithic platforms can still be the right fit for some retailers. When choosing between monolithic and headless eCommerce architecture, consider your needs in the following areas: 

1. Customization and flexibility: If you need to rapidly deploy changes to the customer-facing elements of the site in response to trends or changes in demand for specific product categories, then a headless solution enables a high degree of agility. On the other hand, if your product line varies little from season to season and your marketing requirements are simple, a monolithic solution can be a stable solution that’s straightforward to update. 
2. Integrations: If you already use a suite of marketing tools, social media platforms, and customer relationship management systems, study how seamlessly prospective vendors can integrate their solutions, whether headless or not. 
3. Customer experience: Every retailer wants to offer an engaging customer experience, but if you have thousands – or even dozens – of SKUs, it may be difficult to present individualized browsing options without automated solutions for features such as product recommendations and cross-sells. Those tools may be easier to implement and optimize within a headless framework than if incorporated into a monolithic solution. 
4. Speed and performance: Not only can slow page load times impact the user experience but also your organic SEO ranking and, by extension, digital marketing effectiveness. An overload of headless APIs can worsen performance – but so can monolithic architecture whose code has accumulated add-ons that cause conflicts or errors. Regardless of the platform, rigorous site speed testing is in order; Google’s free site speed tools are one way to assess whether site code is configured correctly to minimize lag time.
5. Technical resources and expertise: Whether in-house or provided as a service by your eCommerce technology partner, access to developers and IT staff eases implementing and maintaining a headless architecture..
6. Business Size and Complexity:  As eCommerce technology evolves, ease of use is improving and prices are dropping for headless solutions. Still, smaller businesses may find monolithic simple to implement and straightforward to maintain within their budgets; larger businesses may not mind the complexity and initial setup investment headless requires. 

Benefits of a Headless Ecommerce Platform

While there are pros and cons to both types of eCommerce platforms, a headless architecture brings definite advantages.  Consider these benefits: 

Momentum

The headless eCommerce market is forecast to grow 22.5% from now through 2030, according to research firm Market Digits, so adopting a headless architecture helps maintain a competitive edge. Technology researcher and consultancy Gartner went so far as to say that “Being 100% API-enabled or ‘headless’ ready is now table stakes” for eCommerce software providers. 

Flexibility

With a headless architecture, you can activate individual site features according to your specific audience’s needs and swiftly integrate the  third-party tools that make sense for your business.  For example, if your customers prefer using “buy now, pay later” credit options, you could run tests on an enhanced checkout offering, refine the presentation and flow, and launch – without needing the time and resources involved in a top-to-bottom code rewrite. 

Superior Optimization and Performance

The ability to optimize the site for high-traffic events without back-end constraints ensures a smooth customer experience, reducing bounce rates and abandoned carts during critical sales periods. With a headless architecture, you can toggle resource-intensive features on and off and adjust workflows without affecting other site functions.

Future-Proofing

It’s impossible to know what will happen in the retail industry a year from now, much less five, so evaluate how adaptable your platform is to future trends and technologies. The ability to connect with audiences on new channels and devices that emerge is crucial to long-term success. A headless architecture can provide the framework for continual evolution.