Implementing a Headless E-Commerce Platform

Why should organizations look to implement a headless e-commerce platform? Well, reaching customers today is becoming increasingly complex. Their customer journey now extends over numerous channels and devices, making it a high priority for marketers and merchandisers alike. And with an almost exponential increase in the volume of content, channels, devices, and data, companies have a series of complicated problems on their hands.

Luckily, however, they also have access to a pretty advanced technology landscape that should help them break the silos that keep content and transaction tech solutions separate. It leads to fragmented digital experiences, which lowers brand loyalty and the company's bottom line. And even if legacy patterns will continue throughout the next several years, headless solutions, cloud deployments, and various operating models will be the way forward regarding digital experience strategies.

What is a Headless E-commerce Platform? 

When we are talking about a headless e-commerce approach, it's important to remember that the front-end and back-end of the digital shop are disconnected. It means they stand independently from each other. The content presentation layer, the CMS and experience management systems, are separated from the functional layer. It comprises the e-commerce stack, integration, and commerce management. 

Within such an architecture, customer-facing features and system-facing concerns are divided. It allows for more flexibility and a better-tailored development of the individual pieces. In this scenario, the part of the e-commerce website that users interact with is known as the glass. The glass will be served up and operated by the e-commerce solution, the CMS, or both in combination. 

A Drupal – Magento Headless Integration

An excellent example of a headless e-commerce platform is a combination of Magento and Drupal. While Magento will handle product management, Drupal will control the content. This way, it will be easier to manage commerce and content independently from each. This integration process will assign a series of task for both Magento and Drupal, bridging the two platforms together. 

As far as Drupal is concerned, it will provide an admin configuration that will choose the content type to return to Magento. It will also support return formats such as JSON or XML, among others. It allows various request methods such as get, post, etc. 

Also, it will provide Magento with services such as the listing of selected content-type like selected fields, format, and order. It will also detail the content in the preselected form. 

The Magento extension, on the other hand, will include admin configuration, which involves a configuration section in the Magento admin panel. Likewise, on Magento's front-end the Drupal listing will appear on the frontend URL configured in the admin panel. Furthermore, the material will be displayed in a layout predefined in the admin panel. 

So, when a user clicks on a link (a Drupal node) within the listing page, the detail page will open. That page displays in a format that is defined in its exact configuration, based on what was set in the admin panel.   

If you need any help in dealing with your headless e-commerce platform, Ameex is here to help. Our years of experience will make this process seamless for you. For more information contact us directly.