Traditional monolithic ecommerce platforms are struggling to keep pace with the increasing demands for flexibility, customization, and speed. In response, a new architectural approach has emerged: composable commerce.
Composable commerce breaks down ecommerce functionalities into independent, interchangeable components, allowing businesses to create highly customized and scalable solutions.
While Shopify offers simple and intuitive ecommerce experiences to merchants under its regular and Plus plans, the ecommerce leader also offers its own answer to composable commerce architecture to Enterprise-level retailers as Commerce Components.
In this article, we’ll break down everything you need to know about Shopify’s approach to composable architecture as well as discuss the benefits of composable commerce to enterprise-level companies looking to adopt a composable approach to their stores with the help of Shopify.
What is Composable Commerce?
Before we break down Shopify’s offering in the composable space, let’s quickly go over how we got to composable commerce experiences and how they differ from the headless architecture many merchants may be familiar with.
Composable commerce is a concept that revolves around a collection of loosely coupled, independent components known as “packaged business capabilities” (PBCs). Think of these as building blocks that work together to create a comprehensive and customized ecommerce platform.
Each PBC has a specific function, features, and functionalities, such as payments, inventory management, cart, checkout, or order fulfillment, and can be assembled to meet a company's unique demands.
The integration of specialized systems like CRMs, ERPs, PIMs, CMSs, etc., enables organizations to build a stack of services, each individually vetted and selected to best meet their specific business needs rather than having to find a single platform that may or may not meet every requirement their business has as well as many connected systems could.
This commerce solution differs from headless commerce, which involves decoupling experiences from services or, more specifically, separating the front-end presentation layer from the back-end commerce functionality.
While headless ecommerce solutions allowed for less rigid shopping experiences, businesses faced issues as the ecommerce landscape evolved. The demand for things like BOPIS programs, subscription options, and same-day delivery made it difficult for retailers with headless platforms to keep up.
Additionally, as businesses grow, the need for more customization and special integrations also grows. Companies enter the enterprise space, where flexibility, speed, and originality become more important. This is where composable commerce and Shopify’s Commerce Components come into play.
What are Shopify Commerce Components?
Shopify’s composable commerce offering, Commerce Components, allows enterprise businesses to access the underlying components that Shopify is built on to build their own custom stack of tools to fit their businesses' needs. They can add or remove components as their needs change without being tied to any singular service.
The benefits of using Commerce Components lie in their ability to be either a low-code or custom-coded environment that seamlessly integrates with whatever third-party services you need.
Shopify’s goal with Commerce Components is to future-proof your commerce stack and empower your development teams to be more efficient so that they can focus on building things that speed up your time to market and improve your conversion rates.
Their almost endless list of component APIs is now available to brands looking to integrate Shopify’s trusted features and tools into their complex backends. Brands can pick and choose which Shopify technologies they need to build the customer experience they want and leave out the rest.
Who Would Benefit from Shopify Commerce Components?
While businesses of any size can contact Shopify to discuss using its Commerce Components, this configuration is targeted more at enterprise-level companies. For example, Shopify lists brands like Mattel, Steve Madden, and Staples as users of this service.
Commerce Components are built to help some of the biggest companies, with both retail and online presences, thrive. They are created to integrate into complex stacks of custom tools and third-party technologies. Due to this complexity and the higher entry price of Commerce Components, the recommended Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) for businesses looking to use them should be around or over $100 million.
Generally speaking, if you’re a larger business and you’d like access to an incredible amount of tools, features, and customizability without having to essentially build your store from the ground up, we’d suggest subscribing to Shopify Plus and leveraging an ecommerce agency like Blue Badger to help you achieve more custom store functionality.
On the other hand, if you’re growing to the level of the bigger brands we discussed earlier, such as Tommy Hilfiger or Banana Republic, we’d suggest contacting Shopify to get started with Commerce Components under their Shopify Enterprise Commerce option.
What Commerce Components Are Available?
Today, Shopify’s modular approach offers over 30 components for enterprise-level businesses to leverage to use or integrate with other third-party services. These components fall under six categories:
- Storefront: These enable users to build custom storefronts using their chosen framework and hosting provider. They include Shopify’s Headless APIs, SDKs, and hosting, as well as low-code storefronts, custom data models for content, and AI-enabled search.
- Cart and Checkout: These components exist to implement some of Shopify’s trusted checkout platform features into any store you choose and include tools such as Shopify payments, checkout & tax platforms, the cart itself, and built-in fraud detection.
- Core Commerce: These are the essential components of any high-performing ecommerce store, including product catalog, cross-border selling, B2B sales, discounts, customer data, subscriptions, and more.
- Data and Compliance: Shopify offers components built to help drive more sales with customer data. These components are data analysis with ShopifyQL, marketing insights, card data and vaulting, and security & compliance.
- Shipping and Logistics: These components should help any enterprise streamline its order logistics. This section includes components related to fulfillment, order management, inventory, and returns.
- Omnichannel: Since Commerce Components are built with enterprise-level businesses in mind, omnichannel components are offered here to help users maintain a unified view of their business with point of sale (POS), social commerce, and chat & support integrations.
Interested in more details on each component? Shopify breaks down what each one does here.
Why Choose Shopify for Composable Commerce over Other Options?
If the beauty of composable commerce is that businesses can choose from an infinite variety of services and tools to build their ultimate stack, why simply choose Shopify for all?
The answer lies in the fact that as one of the world’s most popular and intuitive ecommerce platforms, being able to leverage the exact components that power Shopify to create your own custom ecommerce experience means that you can truly benefit from all that you need from Shopify and nothing you don’t. This offers you the ability to create a truly unique experience for your customers while also benefiting from Shopify’s features, developers, and support instead of having to source and maintain that yourself.
Additionally, while you can run your entire store with these components, you’re still free to find other features and functionality elsewhere, if you’d like, giving you the ultimate freedom to build out exactly what you want.
Conclusion
Shopify Commerce Components offer enterprise businesses a powerful toolkit to build custom, scalable, and future-proof ecommerce solutions with greater flexibility. By providing access to core Shopify functionalities through a modular approach, businesses can leverage the commerce platform's strengths while integrating seamlessly with their existing technology stack.
Whatever your business requirements are, as a Shopify Plus Partner Agency, we at Blue Badger are available for all your composable – or not – needs. From integrating all your systems to developing custom themes for your store, we offer everything an ecommerce business needs to meet customer expectations and thrive in this always-changing industry. Contact us today to learn more.
