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Author: Peter Sheldon

  • Headless Commerce: Why E-Commerce Is Losing Its Head

    Headless Commerce: Why E-Commerce Is Losing Its Head

    How headless commerce is changing the way commerce platforms are designed and services are offered

    Within the last 15 years we’ve seen commerce technology evolve at a breakneck pace. In the early nineties, online shopping was limited to simplistic webstores built around self-contained, all-in-one software solutions. And with consumer engagement restricted to web browser access via at-home desktop computers, many assumed e-commerce would never find its way to mainstream acceptance. Fast forward to the present: E-commerce is ascendant and traditional retail has been toppled from its throne. Immersive online shopping environments establish a sense of belonging, transforming casual shoppers into lifelong brand loyalists. Seamless e-commerce experiences are tailored to specific individuals, complimented by lightning-fast fulfillment, next-day delivery and 24/7 customer service.

    As a result of these changes, self-contained software solutions have surrendered to agile commerce platform architectures offering a more open, granular approach digital customer experience management. In particular, “headless” commerce has drawn significant hype for its unique approach to commerce architecture, involving separation of a commerce platform’s front-end customer experience from back-end business processes. But just how much of a game-changer is headless and who stands to benefit most from it as this approach becomes more widespread?

    Separate the Front and Back

    Historically, the front-end and the back-end of commerce platforms were intrinsically tied at the hip. Headless commerce allows a brand to separate the front-end experience from the back-end business processes such as management of the merchant’s catalog, product pricing, promotional offers and day-to-day management activities. This separation enables marketers to embrace new channels and new customer touchpoints by removing any dependencies of new front-end releases having to be developed, deployed and managed together with the back end. It gives the front-end UX team complete creative control over what the experience should be and can be based on the needs of the brand. This is opposed to being prescribed a commerce experience that has to follow specific processes and workflows. When done effectively, headless opens up and gives the front-end customer experience designers freedom to think outside the box and build experiences that aren’t constrained in any way.

    5G is Bottom Line

    With the evolution of 5G networks and the ability to put low-cost transmitters into any device or product, the number of things in the workplace or products we own that are connected to the internet has increased significantly. A few years ago, only a few items things such as your laptop and your phone were connected to Wi-Fi. Now it’s a list of 30 or 40 things in your house that are permanently connected to your Wi-Fi. Eventually, Wi-Fi will become obsolete and everything will connect over 5G, leading to the possibility of having hundreds of connected devices just inside your home. All of those connected devices will ultimately fuel business models that can only benefit from a headless approach.

    Many of the products we buy today are becoming more connected. By being connected to the internet, businesses can provide a value-add service, whether that’s a paid subscription or something freely provided by the brand. For example, if you buy a NEST home security camera from Best Buy, you pay a one-time fee of $400. However, once you buy it there’s also a subscription for recording and storing all the video footage. This scenario is ideal for companies looking to profit from a headless commerce business model, as the product needs to continually call home to determine if it has entitlements, if the customer is up to date on their paid subscriptions and so forth.

    Headless in the Future Means Preparation in the Present

    While headless is the future, everyone isn’t fully ready. It requires budget and teams capable of using headless commerce technologies. Generally, it’s a fit for larger, well-funded enterprise organizations that have significant in-house technical capabilities, architects and their own development teams versed in building their own custom, front-end experiences. For smaller businesses, a lot of it is about future-proofing their platform technology to prepare for a solution that supports headless in the future.

    With much-misunderstood hype around the topic, headless is still a growing term and concept within the industry. It’s going to take a push from those who are creating demand for headless such as a chief architect or CTO. If you don’t have a strong IT organization that really understands the vision of how your company is going to be more agile with a headless approach, then it’s kind of a non-starter.

    Traditional commerce is becoming a thing of the past. Headless is the future and it’s going to take everything we have to pave the way.

    — Peter Sheldon

  • Progressive Web Apps are Taking Over the Mobile Web

    Progressive Web Apps are Taking Over the Mobile Web

    Consumers now spend most of their time on their mobiles, that’s no secret. And with 4G networks now the norm in both developed and developing markets, people have every reason to expect their mobile experiences will be as good as PC-based ones.

    But they aren’t for the most part. Mobile web is 49% of all online traffic, but mobile conversions remain painfully low at only 1.7%. This is a sobering statistic, particularly for companies who are under growing pressure to stay relevant as customer behavior continues to evolve.

    Part of the issue comes down to limitations in the user experience on mobile (i.e. smaller screens), but the bigger factor is speed. According to Google, 53% of users will bounce off a web page that takes more than three seconds to load. And yet, the average homepage still takes 15 seconds to load on a mobile phone.

    Unless a customer feels an extreme sense of urgency to make their purchase, it’s unlikely they will endure the pain of waiting for page after page to load as they try to get through a purchase selection and checkout process on their phone. Neither are they likely to immediately put down their phone and dig out their laptop to complete the transaction.

    Welcome to the Progressive Web

    Enter progressive web apps (PWAs), the future of mobile web experiences.

    While responsive web design (RWD) made most websites usable on a phone sized screen, the actual experience of interaction has proven too slow and clunky when compared to the same website on a PC. In response, many brands have developed their own mobile apps, hoping to win customers over with a smoother and more convenient service. However, aside from niche businesses with a high-touch, loyal customer-base, such as Starbucks and Facebook, most brands have spent a great deal of time making apps that are moderately successful at best, not to mention the hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars in development costs.

    PWAs represent a significant leap forward because they allow companies to deliver the user-friendliness and page load speeds of a native app, but directly from the company’s mobile website. PWAs also make it possible for developers to create online experiences that don’t just adjust to different screen sizes but can interact with device features (such as Camera, GPS and push-notifications) creating streamlined experiences that are optimized based on which device a customer is using. The result is a more consistent experience across devices, with no features lost.

    Most importantly, at a time when the war for attention has never been more intense, with PWAs, web pages load in a fraction of the time, keeping customers engaged rather than testing their patience and driving them to competitor sites.

    Take the Financial Times, a company proving PWAs can have a major impact on conversion. The FT recently went the PWA route to keep pace with surging web traffic.

    “One of our key metrics was speed. We determined if we made the site just one second faster, it increases engagement by 5%, and would ultimately add millions of dollars to our bottom line due to increased ad views,” said Cait O’Riordan, chief product and information officer at the FT.

    Analyst houses Forrester and Gartner are also bullish on PWAs. Forrester went as far as to say there is no longer a point in arguing over which kind of mobile app is best–native or hybrid–because with PWAs taking off, nobody will bother using apps soon. Even among airlines, whose apps are some of the most useful and commonly downloaded, progressive web is seen as the future.

    “Apps are a temporary necessity in the development of better mobile experiences,” admitted Scott Wilson, vice president of eCommerce merchandising at United.

    Democratizing Mobile Access

    In addition to supporting faster and more responsive mobile experiences, PWAs also make access to these experiences more democratic. This is particularly relevant in emerging markets such as India and Indonesia, where consumers have limited data allowances on their phones due to high costs.

    Until now, this has stopped customers from downloading multiple apps. It has also limited people’s ability to engage with brands because, for many, mobile is their only portal to the internet. This is all set to change with PWAs.

    PWAs demand a fraction of the data compared with traditional apps while offering nearly the same quality of experience, eliminating the access barrier and delivering a win-win for merchants and customers alike.

    Why Now?

    It’s no surprise the world’s leading brands, from BMW to Starbucks, have already deployed PWAs or are on the verge of doing so. Starbucks’s mobile app has long been viewed as a gold standard for customer experience and loyalty programs, but even the world’s biggest coffee chain understands PWAs are the way forward.

    The wider move toward progressive web will begin in earnest over the next year. More organizations have come to appreciate the revenue risk of getting left behind and have begun to prepare for a PWAs push between now and 2025. Five years from now, mobile will easily account for 60-70% of web traffic, and customers will not hesitate to funnel towards mobile sites that work quickly and reliably. As the disruption of the past decade has shown us, heritage is no guarantee of loyalty when it comes to digital experiences.

    Of course, the transition to PWAs can’t be accomplished overnight. It is a major strategic transformation that requires brands to take on a front-end rebuild of their websites. It’s also worth noting PWAs development costs can be on-par with those for a mobile app. However, unlike apps that need multiple versions for iOS and Android and require frequent updates on their respective app stores, PWAs are simply an evolution of existing open web technologies that make the web a better place both on mobile and desktop. The opportunity cost of becoming a laggard on the web is much higher than the investment cost of building a PWA.

    PWAs will soon be the foundation of all digital commerce globally, and the rollouts planned over the next few years will see leading brands set a new minimum standard for customer experience. Google already added a mobile speed score to its search result rankings algorithm in 2018, and there is widespread consensus that page load times and PWA compliance will only carry more weight in Google’s rankings as more people abandon their PCs for mobile devices.

    Customers around the world are also ready for better mobile experiences. With PWAs, brands will gain access to technology that will help them satisfy their customers’ appetite for speedy web experiences–and the race to capitalize has begun.

    — Peter Sheldon