Composable Commerce architecture

What is Composable Commerce?

Composable Commerce architecture means that the digital ecosystem is assembled from individual and independently functioning components (microservices) rather than using a single monolithic system. Each component has a clear task: for example, product management, customer management, orders, search functions, payment solutions, or payment processing.

Analogy of "building your dream home"

Instead of a ready-made house package, you can design your dream home exactly the way you want. Composable Commerce gives you similar freedom in building an online store: only the "pieces" that are truly beneficial and support your business objectives are assembled.

Why choose Composable Commerce?

The market is changing rapidly, and customer expectations for online stores are constantly increasing. Traditional, large-scale, and hard-to-update e-commerce software often cannot keep up. The Composable Commerce model offers:

• Flexibility: New features can be created or old ones updated without needing to overhaul the entire system.

• Rapid innovation: Partners and developers can introduce new extensions as independent microservices and publish them to users swiftly.

• Ease of maintenance: Each component is a clear entity. When solving problems, it is known where to look for faults.

• Competitiveness: You can leverage new technologies more agilely – for example, search engines, payment solutions, or analytics services.

Key components of Composable Commerce architecture

One of the most important advantages of the Composable Commerce mindset is that the company can choose exactly the technologies that best serve its business. Examples of "pieces" include:

• PIM (Product Information Management): Management and enrichment of product information.

• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): Inventory management, pricing, and order processing.

• Headless frontend: Decoupling the user interface from the backend, improving performance and flexibility.

• CMS (Content Management System): Management of the site and content.

• Checkout and payment systems: Smooth payment and customer experience.

• Analytics and reporting tools: Measuring and developing business with data.

• Marketing automation: Managing the customer journey and executing targeted marketing.

Traditional monolith vs. Composable Commerce

Monolithic e-commerce is one large "system package," where all functionalities – inventory management, customer management, product data, payment solutions, analytics, marketing – are intertwined. This may initially seem easy (a bit like a "ready-built house package"), but:

• Updates and modifications can be costly and slow.

• Changing one small piece can break the whole.

• Implementing extensive integrations is laborious.

Composable Commerce breaks the whole into microservices that communicate with each other via API interfaces. Each service is developed and maintained independently, allowing:

• You can choose the services that best fit from the market.

• It is significantly easier to update and extend the system.

• Different teams or partners can develop their own segments in parallel, without the need to coordinate a "massive" publishing rhythm.

Composable Commerce vs. Headless Commerce

Although the terms are often mentioned together, headless commerce essentially means that the frontend or user interface of the online store is separated from the backend. The backend handles the logic and data storage, while the frontend (e.g., React, Vue, or Svelte application) fetches the needed data via interfaces.

Composable commerce, on the other hand, takes the headless model even further:

• Each component (e.g., product management, search function, marketing features) can be selected or replaced individually.

• Updating or replacing a single component does not collapse the entire e-commerce.

Thus, headless is a kind of "first step" towards a complete Composable Commerce architecture.

Benefits for the business

1. Modularity: Each component functions as an independent service, making the adoption of new features and replacing old ones fast.

2. Flexibility: If requirements change, the whole scales and adapts – components can be added or removed as needed.

3. Open standards: Composable commerce is based on API interfaces and microservices, making integrations with third-party systems easy.

4. Business-driven focus: The solution is tailored entirely to the company’s strategic objectives, not the other way around.

5. Fast time to market: According to Gartner, users of the Composable Commerce model can achieve up to 80% faster feature adoption than competitors using traditional models.

6. Vendor independence: The company is not tied to one technology provider, but can choose and switch the most suitable solutions without the risk of vendor lock-in.

Summary

Composable Commerce is the future e-commerce architecture that offers:

• Flexibility to develop and release new features rapidly.

• The opportunity to leverage exactly those technologies that best support the business.

The Serverless Lambda development environment provided by AI Commerce allows your partners to bring in new logic and extensions without touching the core code. Everything operates as a unified system, providing the end customer with a seamless, high-performance user experience.

The Composable Commerce model is like building a dream home. Even the smallest details can be freely chosen – and when the business expands or changes, extensions can be made to the house without breaking existing structures.

If you want to ask more about the Composable Commerce model, contact us. Our experts will gladly help you get started and ensure you get the most out of the Composable Commerce solutions for both current and future needs.