apidays LIVE Australia 2021 - Accelerating Digital September 15 & 16, 2021 Composing a Headless and Composable Commerce Architecture Yi Zhuang Chew, Solutions Engineer at Commercetools

1. Composing a
Headless & Composable
Commerce Architecture
Yi Zhuang, Chew
Solutions Engineer
commercetools

2. Microservices- Based
Commerce Engine
Cloud-Native
SaaS Solution
Recognised as a
Leader by All Analysts
and many more...

3. Agenda
A B C
Key Trends in Commerce Architectures
Composable Headless MACH
How to Compose a
Future-Proofed Modern Commerce Architecture
that follows these Key Principles

4. Key Trends in
Commerce
Architectures

5. New York
JULY
Australia
SEPTEMBER
Singapore
APRIL
Helsinki & North
MARCH
Paris
DECEMBER
London
OCTOBER
Jakarta
FEBRUARY
Hong Kong
AUGUST
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India
MAY
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6. A: Composable (1/2)
How did Composable Architectures come about?
A
Composable
Commerce Platform
Commerce Content
Payment Service...
Data
Web Frontend
Commerce Platform
Commerce Content
Payment Service...
Data
APIs
Digital Touchpoints
Other Systems
Commerce
Platform
Digital Touchpoints
Commerce
APIs
Data
Content
APIs
Data
Payment
APIs
Data
Service
APIs
Data
Others...
APIs
Data
1990s
Monolith Suite
Early 2000s
Monolith with APIs
Onwards
Composable Commerce
To provide capabilities to sell
online during the .com era
To deliver innovation and adapt
to the accelerating pace of change
Added APIs to connect
touchpoints & back office
systems
By 2023, organizations that have adopted a composable approach
will outpace competition by 80% in the speed of new feature implementation.
- Gartner

7. A: Composable (2/2)
What is a Composable Architecture?
A
Composable
Digital Touchpoints
Commerce
APIs
Data
Content
APIs
Data
Payment
APIs
Data
Service
APIs
Data
Marketing
APIs
Data
Other
Systems...
APIs
Data
Headless
Packaged Business
Capabilities
Building blocks made up of
composable applications
containing independent
capabilities to perform specific
business functions reusable
across the touchpoints
A Future-Proof Commerce Architecture Composed of
Modular Best-of-Breed Packaged Business Capabilities (PBC)
Decoupled Head(s)
The experience layer is
decoupled from application
logic to support the growing #
of touchpoints and a true
omni-channel experience

8. B: Headless (1/3)
Proliferation of Touchpoints
B
Headless

9. B: Headless (2/3)
Go Headless to Achieve the Right Experience
B
Headless
In the Past: Commoditised Onwards: Experience
• Legacy commerce platforms
• IT-controlled
• Expose purchase functionality to customer
• Difficult to differentiate
• Build the Right Experience for the Business
• E.g. Retail Brands: Build an emotionally engaging
experience which is marketing-controlled to achieve
high margins
• Only possible with headless

10. B: Headless (3/3)
Headless and API-First Commerce was hence Invented
B
Headless
“We built commercetools to be
API & Microservices -first, because the
only certainty we have is that the future
will be full of change.
APIs can and will forever be able to be
consumed by any consumer device,
front-end, or other application.”
—Dirk Hoerig, CEO / Co-founder, commercetools

11. C: MACH (1/2)
What is MACH?
C
MACH
M A C H
Microservices-Based
Individual pieces of business
functionalities that are
independently developed,
deployed and managed.
API-First
All functionality and data
exposed through an API.
Cloud Native
Real SaaS that leverages the
cloud, beyond storage and
hosting, including elastic
scaling and automatic
updates.
Headless
Front-end presentation is
decoupled from back-end
logic and is framework,
channel & language
agnostic.
The MACH Alliance is a group of independent, future-thinking tech companies
advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems that have the capacity
to propel current and future digital experiences.

12. C: MACH (2/2)
Why MACH?
C
MACH
MACH technologies support a composable enterprise
in which every component is pluggable, scalable, replaceable, and can be
continuously improved through agile development to meet evolving business requirements
Commerce Platform
Commerce Content
Payment Service...
Data
Web Frontend
Commerce
Platform
Digital Touchpoints
Commerce
APIs
Data
Content
APIs
Data
Payment
APIs
Data
Service
APIs
Data
Others...
APIs
Data
In the Past: All In One Monolithic Suite Onwards: Best of Breed MACH Technologies
● Allows for modular introduction/ swapping of
technology components
● Deployed rapidly based on changes in needs
● Derisks future changes
● Functionalities limited by what the suite provides
● Biz needs changes and tech might become outdated
during the process
● High risk when making changes to the monolith

13. Composing a
Modern
Commerce
Architecture

14. A Modern Commerce Architecture
Front End(s)
API Management
Microservices Serving Different Business Capabilities
Commerce
Identity
Access Mgmt
Content
Search &
Personali
-zation
Payments
PIM
OMS &
Fulfilment
Promotions
Marketing &
Communi
cations/
Tax & Fraud
Prevention
Data &
Analytics
CRM/ CDP/
Service Tools
Others... (POS, Marketplaces, Localizations, Gift Cards, Loyalty, Reviews etc.)

15. Considerations for Picking the Technologies...
All-In-1 Solution Custom Build
Many features out of the box
MACH Technologies
E.g. commercetools
Less complex implementation
Limitations during customization
Not meant for complex businesses
Upgrades usually required
Comprehensive commerce
functionalities OOTB
Flexible, modular microservices ready
to be plug-and-play
Drastically lower costs than
custom build
No forced upgrades
Most flexibility, no limitations
Extensive implementation program
High level of technical resources
required
High maintenance costs
Highest TCO

16. 15
There are many options...

17. 16

18. Fitting Technologies into the Modern Commerce Architecture
Front End(s)
API Management
Microservices Serving Different Business Capabilities
Commerce
IAM
Content
Search &
Personalization
Payments
PIM
OMS & Fulfilment
Promotions
Marketing/
Communications
Tax & Fraud
Data & Analytics
CRM/ CDP/
Service Tools
...
DXP FaaS Custom
API Proxy/ API Gateway/ IPaaS

19. Thank you!
Feel free to contact me for
questions & comments, to find out more
about modern commerce architectures &
technologies within the space & other
considerations to make when building out
one of your own.
Yi Zhuang, Chew
Solutions Engineer
yizhuang.chew@
commercetools.com

21. Disclaimer
This document is created and owned by commercetools. The contents of this document are confidential and intended
solely for the addressee(s). If you are not an intended addressee, you must not disclose, copy, distribute or take any
action in reliance upon this document. If you have received this document in error, please notify commercetools,
http://www.commercetools.com.
20

22. New York
JULY
Australia
SEPTEMBER
Singapore
APRIL
Helsinki & North
MARCH
Paris
DECEMBER
London
OCTOBER
Jakarta
FEBRUARY
Hong Kong
AUGUST
JUNE
India
MAY
Check out our API Conferences here
50+ events since 2012, 14 countries, 2,000+ speakers, 50,000+ attendees,
300k+ online community
Want to talk at one of our conferences?
Apply to speak here