Is Composable Commerce for everyone? The reach of modularity
Composable Commerce has become a new alternative for brands, mainly those that put a significant effort into their digital sales channels and are looking to scale up to meet their needs.
Most of us have already stopped comparing it with the classic monoliths. At least at Reign, we believe that this type of discussion is no longer relevant since, instead of making things clearer, it slows down the speed at which companies keep advancing in their digitalization.
Composable Commerce: gaining traction in the digital environment
Have you seen how the drops move on the windshield of a moving car? It seems that each one has its own course, but as they approach each other, they unite as if by magnetism, and at the same time, they accelerate their journey. This phenomenon is called cohesion and creates a flow from a small drop.
A similar situation is happening on digital platforms, where brands understand that carrying a big water-filled pool slows down the speed of their growth. Instead, gaining traction drop by drop seems to be the key to managing high sales volumes while also driving cohesive scaling across different components.
On the other hand, when defining composable commerce, experience customization is a crucial factor, allowing the teams in charge to unleash their creativity. Of course, this entails a new degree of complexity, but it is not unlike learning a new framework, mastering a new language, or cooking a new recipe.
Sure, not everyone can be comfortable with a platform like this; in fact, you have to know when for example, if your brand embraces new things and is looking to leap to the big leagues (or consolidate), composable commerce is the best option.
Where is the monolith in this context?
At Reign, we say that the discussion between composable and monolithic architecture is over, but not because the former crushed the latter or because we think that the old should be discarded. We believe it is outdated because brands today have a much better understanding of the digital strategies they could use and require.
What we mean is that both architectures can meet different brands’ demands. For example, if we talk about a small company seeking to maintain digital operations of low complexity, either because its focus is on the store and face-to-face service, or because they do not have the right IT team, a monolithic e-Commerce is a good alternative. All the functions that the brand might need are available in that large pool of water.
However, for large and growing brands trying to reach international markets, a monolith limits them and prevents them from developing their web abilities. Rigid integrations, trouble in unifying channels, high maintenance costs, and many other difficulties only are revealed when the brands raise their operations to a higher level.
So basically, it is about knowing where you are and what your potential is, and if a monolith fulfills your needs in e-Commerce, well, that’s excellent. The idea is that it satisfies your requirements.
Instead, we like big challenges; we work with brands and corporations of global reach, having multiple interfaces in many regions and hundreds of thousands of operations per year, for which composable commerce advantages excel.
Composable means constantly evolving
When we talk about composable, we can think of the beginning of a new journey.
Brands are discovering new ways to plan and develop digital strategies on the journey. As the cloud solutions ecosystems grow, new features and services are available to companies, freeing them to tackle different aspects of the platform autonomously, leaving behind the idea of a unified whole to move to a modular way of doing things.
The modular approach allows teams to focus more on the experience they are looking to deliver. Whether it’s a new search system, a multi-currency payment system, or creating a new touchpoint for just one of the regions the platform manages, the decision is based on the dynamics we want to give.
It’s also worth mentioning that working with multiple vendors involves challenges. For instance, the initial implementation cost of composable commerce may be higher than the cost of creating a monolithic platform. But, once composable commerce is deployed, future adaptations and maintenance of its components cost much less because, for example, the integrated services optimization it’s the vendor’s responsibility.
Since your platform’s packaged business capabilities (PBCs) interact with each other in the same language (API), it facilitates the merger of communications, letting you unlock the full potential of an omnichannel strategy.
If we tell you about it, it's because we know what we are talking about. At Reign, we are experts in developing modular platforms and allies of the best partners in eCommerce services globally, such as Big Commerce and Commerce Layer. We know the challenges, and we have the best experts to guide you on your journey.