Give us a call, jump on a chat or come by our office in London. Our door is always open.

Want us to help grow your business?

We're a London based digital agency who deliver digital transformation and growth for our clients.

We are Unified

Welcome to Unified

<h2>What is Headless?</h2>
Once upon a time all we had to worry about was our website.  As a result, life was simple.  You bought your ecommerce platform, designed your desktop website for desktop and just like that your ecommerce business was online.

Today, ecommerce is very different.  Mobile is of course the priority but as if that isn't enough, many more touchpoints now need consideration.  Voice, social commerce, shoppable video, AR/VR, chat…even in store digital are in play.  Many ecommerce touchpoints means a huge range of options from which brand owners can create a unique and engaging ecommerce experience.  Unfortunately developing multiple front-ends on a legacy ecommerce architecture brings a degree of complexity that increases costs and lengthens development cycles.

That’s where headless comes in.  A headless architecture is an ecommerce stack where the front-end is decoupled from the back-end systems that power the ecommerce business.  All the stuff a customer experience designer needs from the ecommerce platform – ecommerce functions like shopping carts, inventory management and customer management, and their related business processes - are provided to the front-end by APIs in a set of headless microservices, leaving designers free to focus on designing a great customer experience.
<h2>Why Headless?</h2>
An ex-M&amp;S ecommerce executive perfectly describes the difficulties that headless overcomes, in a recent article “<a href="http://retail-innovation.com/why-retailers-need-headless-commerce">Innovating without Headless was Hard – my Experience at M&amp;S</a>".

In a nutshell, retail innovation is harder and slower on a legacy ecommerce stack and it’s almost impossible to avoid ending up with a Frankenstein-like stack.
<h3>A truly differentiated experience</h3>
Digital apps as different heads:  As a designer you can create different experiences to do anything you can think of, plug them into the body and away you go.  Headless solves the problems inherent in legacy ecommerce systems built only for one front-end.  With a headless architecture digital apps get what they need from the platform APIs.
<h3>Headless opens up new touchpoints</h3>
Consider some of the newer ecommerce touchpoints on your wish list that are perhaps low priority because integration might be too expensive.  A headless approach allows your front-end designers to create what they want in the confidence that they'll be able to access what they need from the back end.
<h3>Quicker, faster, more seamless</h3>
To quote Under Armour: “The entire customer journey from the moment they enter is objectively better, it’s faster, and they can move through the journey much quicker and more seamlessly. It’s almost painless to navigate from product pages to categories. We have double digit revenue growth, 3x return rate, 65% less pre-bounce.”
<h3>Rapid Agile Development and Innovation</h3>
Headless makes it faster, simpler and therefore more cost effective to build working prototypes rapidly.  It significantly lowers the bar on trying something new.
<h3>Design Flexibility</h3>
Headless allows designers more creative freedom.  No more of your legacy ecommerce platform dictating what's feasible or having to build bolt-ons to cover gaps.  With the services data you need delivered as a microservice your designers are free to create the experience you need.

Shorter and simpler development cycles, easier to innovate, greater freedom in design and the opening up of new touchpoints.  A headless approach could free you to design a truly unique ecommerce experience.

There’s a great <a href="https://www.logicspot.com/tech/the-benefits-of-headless-commerce/%20">headless explanatory diagram here</a> in this article by our friends at Logic Spot.
<h2>Who’s using Headless?</h2>
M&amp;S are in good company! Zalando, Michael Kors, J Crew, Netflix, Nike, Feel Unique, Under Armour, Lancôme and many more large brands are already dabbling.  Not all of them are using headless across their entire digital experience, but all of them are showing positive results from headless in some aspect of their online business.
<h2>Where can I find Headless?</h2>
Headless is not new and there are some great API-first and headless-focused platforms around.  Designed for headless from the ground up, platforms such as CommerceTools are well worth a look.

While the established ecommerce platform providers’ suitability for a headless approach varies, many – like Magento and Salesforce Commerce Cloud - have invested heavily over the last 2 years in ramping up their APIs.

One of our favourites, Magento is a great fit as the back-end of a headless development.  You can take either a framework approach or use a headless CMS with the likes of Vue Storefront, DEITY, Contentless or Prismic.

For online businesses looking for more of an out-of-the-box solution, Shopify can work well in a headless approach via their Storefront API.
<h2>Where can I find out more?</h2>
If your ecommerce architecture is stifling your ability to innovate perhaps a headless architecture is the answer. To find out more about headless, <a href="https://diligentcommerce.com/contact/">click here to get in touch with us</a>.  We’ll happily spend some time explaining how it works and answering questions.

Off with its Head! Is Headless the Key to Creating a Truly Unique Ecommerce Experience?

Off with its Head!  Is Headless the Key to Creating a Truly Unique Ecommerce Experience?

Creative Commerce and Why It’s Important for Brands

3 Tips to Boost Conversion for Your Lingerie Store

Art Direction & Product Photography Basics for Ecommerce

Over the last few years Shopify has risen through the ranks to become one of the world’s leading ecommerce platforms, powering nearly two million stores. And while there are many ingredients that make it such a popular choice its wealth of dedicated plug-and-play Shopify apps is certainly a front-runner. With just a few, easy-to-connect modules you can turn your store into an ecommerce juggernaut. But with so much diversity it can be difficult to know what app is going to give your site the cutting edge. As a specialist <a href="https://www.logicspot.com/about-us/partners/shopify/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shopify agency</a> with dozens of projects under our belt LogicSpot has invested a lot of time working with our customers to find those true gems that will make your life easy and your ecommerce store shine. Below you will find those special apps that we find ourselves recommending time and time again. <h3>Algolia - Search</h3> There's no shortage of powerful Shopify apps for Search but <a href="https://www.algolia.com/search-solutions/shopify/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Algolia</a> is our top pick. It plugs in seamlessly to deliver relevant AI-driven search results and spotlight the items you want your customers to see. What’s more, its powerful built-in analytics tool means you can constantly tweak and optimise your marketing strategy. <h3>Klaviyo - email marketing</h3> When it comes to direct-to-customer marketing, <a href="https://www.klaviyo.com/ecommerce-integrations/shopify" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Klaviyo</a> is the clear leader on Shopify. Supported by its robust CRM which keeps all your customer data in one place Klaviyo will send your customers tailored messages via email and SMS based on individual behaviour and preferences. And as a truly scalable platform Klaviyo can help your Shopify store flourish whether you’re a startup or a global empire. <h3>Cookiebot - cookie policy</h3> Cookie policy and GDPR in general can be a real thorn in the side of ecommerce businesses, and a costly one at that. And sorry if you're someone that's helped push legislation on this, or have instigated getting them in place everywhere - can we be done with them already, please? For now, we have to make sure we're handling cookies and policy and permission correctly. This is where <a href="https://www.cookiebot.com/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cookiebot</a> is a genuine saviour. Plugging straight into your Shopify site, it produces a customisable consent banner as soon as a customer lands on your site. And crucially, it regularly scans your cookies to make sure everything is above board and in line with current guidelines. <h3>Elevar - hooking up Google Tag Manager and more</h3> Another exclusive Shopify app, <a href="https://www.getelevar.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elevar</a> takes the hassle out of tagging and tracking data. Consolidating all the many channels you rely on to maximise conversions - from Google Analytics and Tag Manager to Facebook and TikTok - Elevar allows you to manage everything from one place. And underpinned by the leading data layer app on Shopify, you’ll get accurate trustworthy results as well as convenience. <h3>Matrixify - bulk import and export</h3> Being able to bulk import and export data is a godsend to anyone managing a busy eCommerce site. But on the flipside, it can be a frustrating process with inflexible file formats throwing up hundreds of errors. Want our advice? <a href="https://matrixify.app/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matrixify</a> is the app you need to make data management a pleasure. Using simple file formats you can manage all site data from a forgiving and intuitive interface, where you only need to import or export the fields you need. <h3>Wishlist King - wishlists done well</h3> For anyone lamenting a native Shopify wishlist, <a href="https://apps.shopify.com/wishlist-king" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wishlist King</a> perfectly plugs that gap. With a free set up that customises the app to blend in with the rest of your site, customers can manage their own wishlists, both when logged in and out. It also integrates with Klaviyo and Google Analytics, can work across multiple languages, and even allows for wishlist sharing across social channels. <h3>Globo Forms - forms, simplified</h3> Even with Shopify’s intuitive CMS, creating and embedding contact forms can be tricky without some coding knowledge. <a href="https://globosoftware.net/powerful-contact-form-builder/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Globo Forms</a> can be easily plugged in to do the heavy lifting here with forms made easy through a simple drag and drop format. Even complex forms with multiple fields and file uploads can be built and embedded wherever you like in minutes. And on the subject of <a href="https://apps.shopify.com/partners/globo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Globo</a> they have some handy stock management tools too. Pre-Order can boost sales by allowing products to be ordered while you’re waiting for stock to be replenished. And Back In Stock lets customers sign up for alerts when an item is out of stock and receive an email or SMS the second it’s available again. An invaluable tool when we’re still in the midst of a supply chain crisis. <h3>Loqate - address verification</h3> <a href="https://www.loqate.com/en-gb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Loqate</a> is the market leader when it comes to address verification. Quick to install and cheap to operate, it’ll save your customers valuable seconds at the Checkout. And in turn increase your conversions by allowing them to select their correct address as soon as they start typing. It will also help reduce annoying typos in delivery addresses and the detective work or returns that come with them. <h3>Stockist - store locator</h3> If you have traditional bricks and mortar stores, it’s well worth investing in <a href="https://stockist.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stockist</a>. The Stockist Shopify app offers you an out of the box but fully customisable store locator, complete with interactive map. It can help improve your retail sales around the world. And it can give you valuable insights into where your customers are shopping and what they’re looking for. <h3>Loyalty Lion - loyalty</h3> And finally, <a href="https://loyaltylion.com/uk/integrations/shopify" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Loyalty Lion</a> is up there with the best. From simple free packages to monthly payment models it engages your customers across a range of side-wide activities. From purchases and sign ups to referrals and reviews, Loyalty Lion rewards customers with points that can be redeemed for products and promotions. If you need any more convincing, just check out some of the<a href="https://loyaltylion.com/uk/customers" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> case studies </a>documenting seriously impressive results.

Our Top Shopify Apps for 2022

Getting on board with GA4, the next level of web analytics

Magento Uncovered: Strengths and Weaknesses

5 GDPR Changes to Consider for Your Ecommerce Website

 Four Ways to Successfully Sell Luxury Goods Online

How To Improve Ecommerce Customer Retention

A Guide to Magento for Fashion & Lifestyle Ecommerce Stores

Why Luxury Brands Need an SEO Strategy

Why Luxury Brands Need an SEO Strategy!

Turning Conversations into Conversions

Magento Imagine 2019

We have been extremely busy these past few months on what is possibly our biggest project to date. Now that we have dotted the i's and crossed the t's, we could not be any more excited to announce that... LogicSpot has joined forces with design powerhouse and long-time collaborator <a style="color: #000000;" href="https://diligentcommerce.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Diligent Commerce</a> The acquisition follows a successful partnering on a number of joint projects and gives us the capability to offer a full-service solution and provide our clients with a top-tier range of services and expertise - bringing together our in-depth ecommerce knowledge and technical development, with Diligent's luxury style and passion for designing seamless shopping experiences. We are really excited to start this new chapter and grow as one agency together - continually evolving, introducing new ideas, skills and knowledge to help our clients achieve their digital commerce goals. Watch this space! LOGICSPOT NEWS PRESS RELEASE 20th September 2021, London, UK Perfect pairing: E-commerce agency LogicSpot acquires design specialist Diligent Commerce to pack a punch for future online retail <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li3">Acquisition merges two leading industry talents, LogicSpot and Diligent Commerce</li> <li class="li3">£5 million combined value unlocks rapid growth potential for e-commerce market</li> <li class="li3">Development is in response to market demand and client requirements</li> <li class="li4">New vision to be launched in early 2022</li> </ul> London-based, E-commerce agency, LogicSpot has completed a deal to acquire award-winning design and brand agency Diligent Commerce. Both established firms traded well throughout the Covid year and are long-term e-commerce collaborators, already providing scalable innovative solutions to well renowned, luxury fashion, lifestyle and high street brands. The transaction creates a combined £5 million worth with an expected 20% growth rate year-on-year. The current 12 month period is predicted to yield a 30%+ growth rate due to pandemic bounce-back for client demand as well as soaring online consumer purchasing. Online shopping is one of the most popular internet activities worldwide and, according to <a href="https://www.statista.com/aboutus/our-research-commitment/1654/stephanie--chevalier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stephanie Chevalier on Statisica</a>, this market is predicted to grow to $5.4 trillion globally in 2022. In a market so competitive, it is essential that brands, whether bricks, clicks or omnichannel, streamline customer journeys but also work harder to differentiate themselves online. This deal is central to this. The union brings together one of the UK’s strongest e-commerce design agencies with one of its leading Magento and Shopify strategy and development companies. With 30 years of experience between them, this combo catapults LogicSpot into the e-commerce premier league and is ideally poised to drive the market forward. Commenting on this development, James White, Head of E-commerce for <a href="https://www.tomdixon.net/en_gb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tom Dixon</a>, said: “LogicSpot have always been strong in technical build and performance; now they have an excellent brand and design team. Exceptional experiences that bring brands to life online supported by slick, robust technology is where the market is heading which means this is the ideal tie-up.” The acquisition will result in a new vision to be launched in the New Year as the businesses meet expected market demand for the online luxury goods retail sector in 2022 and beyond. Work has also started on a White Paper outlining the future of e-commerce, online behaviour and brand experience, and conversion. Talking about the deal, LogicSpot Founder and Co-Director, Mark Haller said: “Marrying the Diligent and LogicSpot teams makes us a world class player and allows us to answer all client needs under one roof. In short, strategy, brand, technology and growth.” Haller continued: “We see significant growth in superior brand experiences on headless solutions. Diligent is fantastic at design and UX so this tie-up makes us an extremely potent proposition in a growing sector of the market. Between us we have tons of experience of both Magento and Shopify projects, so I firmly believe we now have a very compelling, next generation e-commerce offering that sets us apart from others.” From Diligent’s perspective of brand experience, Managing Director, Simon Bell commented: “This is an ideal pairing. Diligent is renowned for excellent design with a unique proposition of bringing brands to life online, reflecting my 20 years as a client and a marketing pro. LogicSpot is a long-standing technology expert producing outstanding solutions and high-performing transactional e-commerce sites. Now clients can get the best of both. And we’ve worked well together on several projects recently, so I know that culturally it's a great fit.” The acquisition takes the combined team to more than 40 people based in LogicSpot’s Richmond offices. The two agencies have complementary clients and a strong roster of lifestyle brands. LogicSpot’s clients include The Conran Shop, Boodles, Tom Dixon, with Diligent adding the likes of Johnstons of Elgin, iCandy, LSA International and others. ------ For all press enquiries and to arrange an interview, please contact: Nicola Finn Head of PR OggaDoon PR and Digital Media <a href="mailto:nicola@oggadoon.co.uk">nicola@oggadoon.co.uk</a> About LogicSpot At LogicSpot, we have been helping clients unlock their ecommerce potential for more than 25 years. Over time, we have gathered a superb team of experts, from strategists to designers, developers and web analysts, to create and build website solutions that just work for our clients. Contact: Mark Haller Email: <a href="mailto:mark@logicspot.com">mark@logicspot.com</a> About Diligent Commerce Since 2011, Diligent has been designing and building premium e-commerce websites for premium brands. With its ‘Emotional Commerce’ proposition, the agency’s mission is to put the ‘E’ into e-commerce; creating engaging emotive digital experiences that boost product desirability, inspires loyalty and generates sales. Because if your audience feels more, they’ll buy more! Contact: Simon Bell Email: <a href="mailto:simon@diligentcommerce.com">simon@diligentcommerce.com</a>

Diligent Commerce & LogicSpot are now Unified

Diligent Commerce & LogicSpot are now Unified.

Magento Commerce 2.4.1 Release Notes

It will come as no surprise to anyone that from March of 2020, our online ordering levels have increased significantly as we spend more and more time at home unable to shop in the way that we used to. Lockdown has hit bricks and mortar retailers, hard, and the loss of countless, well- loved high street brands has had a devastating effect on the industry. However we're seeing an impressively quick turnaround of offerings in response to our ever changing spending habits.

With Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and (a very welcomed) New Year approaching at the speed of light, online retailers who have already had a very busy year, are about to get a whole lot busier. An unexpected spike in traffic can leave your site slow to load, unresponsive and altogether not that happy. An unhappy site = unhappy customers, and unhappy customers = an unhappy you.

The crucial dates to look out for this year are:

<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/primeday/?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=googhydr-21&amp;hvadid=366575522321&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvexid=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=7026143722262917854&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvdev=c&amp;ref=pd_sl_9em14cilft_e">Amazon Prime Day</a> 13th-14th Oct

Black Friday 27th Nov

Cyber Monday 30th Nov

Christmas Need we tell you?

Boxing day sales 26th Dec

January Sales
<h4>So, are you prepared?</h4>
If your site isn't prepared, this can lead to unresponsive pages (or even crashes), leading to your customers having a poor user experience. And what do angry customers on the phone lead to? Yes, they will be costing you money... and multiple grey hairs.

Shopping on the go becomes more and more common every day, more pageviews on mobile devices leading to fast increases in transactions and revenue. More than half of Google's searches are made on mobile, and last year only over 26% of Black Friday orders came through a mobile device. This means that you must focus your attention on this and optimise your site properly for mobile devices. And this doesn't just mean the homepage, but throughout the site, and most importantly, the checkout page!

If you don't know where to start, here's what you need to do: make sure your site speed is under 3 seconds, to prevent your impatient customers from leaving before the content is fully loaded, and that you don’t have any functionality issues with your checkout, so they don’t run away before finalising the purchase. If the checkout is not optimised, it can seem 'clunky' and hard to navigate, making it difficult to complete their order and producing holiday sale losses for you.
No one likes error messages. You know you don't and you know your customers won't either. When that little pop-up makes its way onto your customers' screen, frustration will take hold and carts will be abandoned, and abandoned carts = abandoned money, and no one likes that.
Instead, try this. Errors happen when the order processor is overloaded, with a CDN (Content Delivery Network) implemented you can put a 'waiting room' feature in place which detects when the processor can't keep up. So instead of going ahead and jamming the order through, a page containing a message of your choice, for example, 'Sorry to keep you waiting', will appear. This can include features such as a waiting time, 'you may also like..', or some other offers to tempt the customer. The main goal is to get them to stick around, so even if you have to show a video of dancing cats wearing elf hats, as long as it keeps them engaged, do it. While dancing cats entertain your user, the page will regularly refresh in the background, and will let the order through as and when the processor becomes less loaded. The main goal is to make the experience quick and easy, if you give people any excuses to hit and run, they will.

Black Friday customers have no tolerance for slow or tedious processes. They know what they want and they want it quickly. If your checkout involves registration forms, questions, and multiple stages, chances are they may get frustrated and leave. To speed things up for them and maximise engagement, try removing the compulsory registration step and allow people to checkout as guests. This will attract those who are in a rush to get a quick deal, and will instantly increase your holiday sale rates. If you're worried about not gaining customer insights this way, maybe try an extra deal for logged in customers, for example, an extra 10% off for VIP customers.

Last year the abandoned cart rates were as high as 68% on average, and up to 78% on mobile. This could be due to various reasons, most common being customers simply changing their mind, or it could be due to a slow site speed, confusing checkout steps or site crashes. Try your very best to avoid these in the first place but don't worry because although these figures are pretty high, a large portion of these customers can be nudged along nicely to finalise their order with some persuasive cart abandonment emails... sneaky. Last year these emails generated an average conversion rate of 17.6%, which is some easy added revenue if you're prepared.

During the festive period, people will be much more receptive to your ads compared to, say the 3rd Monday in April. So... MAKE. IT. COUNT. Plan your ads and ad creative ahead of time.
If you're not a regular paid advertising user, now will be the time to become one. Keep the content relevant and engaging and before you know it you'll have customers flooding through the gates (metaphorically speaking of course..).
But if you’re already advertising on Google, but looking to expand your online advertising reach, a quick win would be using Bing CPC, and it’s very easy now to import your campaigns into Bing in one-click. Also, you could start promoting your business imagery in Pinterest advertising, as sessions from Pinterest tend to have a high AOV already, or increase your customer engagement using Twitter advertising.

We bet you are thinking about, and maybe even prepared, your PPC holiday campaigns already. But do you have the tracking in place to measure everything?
If you use Google Adwords, Facebook Ads or any form of paid advertising, then you should place the tracking code (pixels) on your site - make sure you implement and manage them via Google Tag Manager, so that you don't overload your site pages code with scripts, and negatively affect the performance. By doing this, you are able track and see detailed metric reports on all impressions, page views, social media conversions and email opens, as well as targeting your specific holiday sale audience using targeted advertising. In other words, you'll make sure your carefully crafted adverts are not going to waste by falling on deaf ears.
You will also be able to target your previous visitors, to reach those who have been on your site that one time last year, or that person who left your site in a rush and forgot to ever come back. It is a well known fact that it is much easier to sell to existing customers, or people who vaguely know about you, than it is to target brand new customers... so these people are the ones to target as they will be much more receptive to your advertising, especially during the Christmas season.
On a similar note... check how you could customise your Google Analytics in order to get the most out of it.

<h3></h3>
<h3>In Summary</h3>
Sure, some of these are big and risky pieces of work - replacing a 5-step checkout process with a single page, single step approach in the next 2 weeks when you've done no work is going to be tough to achieve. Even making a decision that this is the best approach for your site based off heuristic data, video/mouse recording and getting management buy-in could swallow up the next 2 weeks - but there's probably steps you can take.
If you haven't got abandoned cart emails setup (and the number of clients we meet that have a great relationship with vendors such as dotMailer, Ometria and others that don't have this in place) then you can set this up really easily - just get it done, tomorrow!
Get a good number of your own staff and trusted clients to try and shop and checkout on mobile. If you haven't done it for a while, see if there are any dead ends, errors, or actions and text falling off the screen that can be fixed easily.
If you haven't got good metrics and user interaction tracking in place, speak to someone who can do this for you - whether it's us, or your chosen ecommerce or digital marketing agency - it's simple work and even if it doesn't make a difference in the first few hours or days of this manic period, you can make informed decisions of changes as you move through the whole period.
Try load testing your site to see how it performs under pressure, if you're not sure. "Hoping it works" may work but we prefer real numbers. Something like <a href="https://loadimpact.com/">LoadImpact</a> is cheap and cheerful and gets the job done well. If your site is struggling under load, speak to your ecommerce agency or hosting partner - they should be able to scale your kit accordingly.
&nbsp;
If we can be of help to you, either for some simple advice, a site review, CRO or user journey recommendations or anything else, feel free to <a href="https://www.logicspot.com/about-us/contact-us/">contact us</a> - we're here for you!

How to get your eCommerce site ready for sale season

In the tech industry, the term “headless” first appeared a few years ago but now the early adoption phase has passed it is becoming the norm for CMS sites and especially eCommerce platforms. The industry is at a turning point, with all the major players, whether it be <a href="https://magento.com/blog/best-practices/headless-commerce-digital-differentiator">Magento</a>, <a href="https://www.shopify.co.uk/plus/solutions/headless-commerce">Shopify</a> or <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/headless-commerce/">BigCommerce</a> promising that headless is the future of eCommerce.

The need to go headless comes from modern customers demanding more online shopping capabilities and expecting the many benefits provided by a headless solution. Once we explain these benefits you will see the need to get ahead of your competition and future proof your online platforms with a headless approach.

<h3 class="p1">What is a Headless website?</h3>
A headless website means separating or “decoupling” the presentation layer of your website that your customers see from the underlying backend engines that handle your data. 
To understand how having a headless site can benefit your business, we must first understand the traditional way eCommerce sites were built when they were first released back in the early 2000’s.
&nbsp;
<h3 class="p1">The old way, monolithic systems</h3>

In a traditional eCommerce system, the backend technology is tightly coupled with the frontend templating. In this setup your backend systems, integrations, content editing and frontend UI templates are bound together, updating one usually means affecting the other.
This approach involves using the methods determined by the vendor such as Magento, usually heavily relying on their processes, templates and their choice of technology. This also creates a dependency where frontend development is constantly tied together with the backend, leading to a slower development process and issues when wanting to adopt new technologies.
Magento is a prime example of this, comprising a huge file structure containing layer upon layer of abstraction. This means that even simple updates can be time-consuming and the development process is staggered.
Bear in mind this technology was developed to meet the needs of the era, back then, most users would likely only be using desktop devices and following a basic customer journey. The mobile era had not hit and eCommerce had not fully taken off compared to the engagement it is receiving today.
Due to the demands and expectations of the modern consumer, it is time for a change..

<h3 class="p1">The modern way, headless solutions</h3>

The modern approach is to divorce the backend architecture and the frontend UI, essentially removing the head of your application, i.e the frontend traditionally provided by the vendor, while still using the backend engine to store and provide endpoints for your data.
This shifts towards an API centered environment which connects the two ends of your application, allowing an improved development process, quicker time to market and a faster, more personalised experience for your customers. Let’s take a deep dive into the benefits a headless site can provide your business.
The benefits of going headless: A need for speed
Website speed is a vital criteria for SEO rankings, user satisfaction and conversion rates, especially on mobile where most of your customers will be viewing your site. Speed is critically important for eCommerce sites, the faster your website is, the higher your conversion rate will be. A recent study found that website conversion rates dropped by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time. 

(source: https://www.portent.com/blog/analytics/research-site-speed-hurting-everyones-revenue.htm).
Headless sites provide a faster experience as they do not depend on whatever technology the platforms such as Magento or BigCommerce choose. With headless you have full control of your tech stack, so you can use the latest and greatest tools, enabling you to create modern websites that can produce amazing performance results. As you are no longer constrained to the vendor system, you can quickly adapt your site to keep up with the constantly changing criteria Google and other search engines use to judge your website performance.
Being able to improve your site speed will not only increase the conversion rate on your eCommerce site but will also decrease the number of customers who leave your site to go to a competitor.
 
<h3 class="p1">Flexibility with microservices</h3>

Headless allows a microservices-based approach, meaning you can add extra services to your platform without needing to rely on 3rd party integrations or heavy customisation just to get started. Because headless commerce works through a system of APIs, it’s possible to integrate with virtually all third-party tools. (Perhaps a list of microservices here, such as Akeneo, Klevu etc)
For example, eCommerce sites are not renowned for having quality Page Builder solutions out of the box, and adding 3rd party offerings comes with several risks. With a headless site, you can simply add a headless CMS like Contentful or Storyblok for feature-rich content management.

<h3 class="p1">Mobile and beyond, the Internet of Things (IoT)</h3>

Mobile eCommerce is growing year on year and by 2021 up to 73% of sales will be through mobile devices (<a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/13139/estimated-worldwide-mobile-e-commerce-sales/">https://www.statista.com/chart/13139/estimated-worldwide-mobile-e-commerce-sales/</a>). 
As the shift to mobile continues, the number of devices your customers are purchasing products on is ever growing. Think voice-powered speakers, kiosk screens, wearable tech i.e smart watches or even shopping from your Tesla dashboard (it could happen!), whatever the future may hold, be ready for it with headless. According to Google, 85 percent of people start shopping on one device and finish shopping on another.
A headless site allows for quicker adoption of new technologies, enabling you to have an omnichannel environment, providing seamless customer experience no matter what device they are using. Customer data is available across every touch point, letting merchants offer relevant promotions and offers to customers, and creating personalized, meaningful shopping experiences.
Headless supports PWA technology
Headless sites go hand in hand with the technology required to offer a Progressive Web App to your mobile users. The benefits of a Progressive Web App deserve their own post but here is a summary of what having a PWA can offer:

<ul class="ul1">
 <li class="li1">Increased security</li>
 <li class="li1">Native mobile app-like experience</li>
 <li class="li1">Send push notifications to your visitors</li>
 <li class="li1">Ability to display content to your users even when they’re offline</li>
 <li class="li4">Can be installed on a user's home screen for easy access to your products</li>
</ul>
Faster time to market and smoother deployments
As mentioned previously, a decoupled architecture means frontend changes can be made without disrupting the backend systems and vice versa. For example a new promotional page could be rolled out by the frontend team without needing to rely on the backend team at all.
Traditionally, commerce brands using a monolithic platform usually roll out an update every few weeks. However, deployments are streamlined with a headless site as it is no longer necessary to redeploy the entire system every time a change is made. This means little to no downtime for deployments so they can happen much more frequently.
Did you know Amazon deploys updates on average every 11.7 seconds.
Talk to us

Get in touch with us <a href="https://www.logicspot.com/about-us/contact-us/">here</a> if you would like to discuss building a headless website.