What are the Differences of Headless Commerce, Composable Commerce and MACH?

As an ecommerce professional, merchant, or vendor, you’ve most likely been evaluating the ecommerce technology landscape over the last few years and have encountered the terms Headless, Composable, and MACH. So what are they and how do they differ or relate to each other?

Headless commerce is certainly one of the newer and more innovative approaches to building and maintaining ecommerce websites, and it has the potential to offer a number of benefits in terms of flexibility, performance, and scalability. However, it's important to note that headless commerce is not the only option available for building an ecommerce site, and it may not be the best choice for every business.

One of the main advantages of headless commerce is that it allows the frontend and backend of the website to be developed and maintained independently of each other. This can make it easier to make changes to the site and to scale it as needed. However, it's also worth considering that this separation can make it more difficult to manage the overall integration of the site, and it may require a higher level of technical expertise to implement and maintain a headless commerce solution.

Ultimately, the decision to use headless commerce (or any other technology) will depend on the specific needs and goals of your business. It's important to carefully evaluate your options and consider the pros and cons of each approach before making a decision.

Below we’ll talk about 3 hot topics in ecommerce which continue to have overlap into each other.

What is Headless Commerce?

Headless commerce refers to a type of ecommerce architecture where the frontend of the ecommerce website (i.e., the part of the website that the customer interacts with) is decoupled from the backend (i.e., the part of the website that manages the data and business logic).

In a headless ecommerce setup, the frontend of the website is typically built using a JavaScript framework such as React, Angular, Next.js, or Vue.js, and it communicates with the backend through an API (Application Programming Interface). This allows the frontend and backend to be developed and maintained independently of each other, which can make it easier to make changes to the website and to scale the site as needed.

Headless ecommerce can offer a number of benefits, including:

• Improved flexibility: Because the frontend and backend are decoupled, it's easier to make changes to the frontend without affecting the backend, and vice versa. This can make it easier to iterate on the design and functionality of the website.
• Improved performance: By using a modern JavaScript framework on the frontend, it's possible to build a fast and responsive ecommerce website that delivers a good user experience.
• Improved scalability: By separating the frontend and backend, it's easier to scale each component of the website independently, which can be helpful as the site grows and the volume of traffic increases.

Overall, headless ecommerce can be a powerful approach for building and maintaining an ecommerce website, and it can offer a number of benefits in terms of flexibility, performance, and scalability.

What is MACH?

MACH is an acronym that stands for Microservices, API-first, Cloud Native, and Headless. It refers to a set of architectural principles for building and maintaining modern web applications, with a focus on using:

• Microservices as independently deployed business functions that allow for
• APIs which allow all applications to speak with each other for data interoperability.
• Cloud Native for a hosted SaaS model that allows for infrastructure capabilities, security, and scalability.
• Headless Commerce, as described above, the architecture of decoupling frontend from backend services and business logic.

The MACH architecture is designed to be flexible, scalable, and modular, and it can be used to build a wide range of web applications, including ecommerce sites, content management systems, and other types of sites.

What is Composable Commerce?

Composable commerce is a type of ecommerce architecture that involves bringing recipes of best-of-breed solutions, vendors, and partners into packaged assets which can be deployed for your architectural build. It brings together building the frontend of the site using microservices, which are small, independent units of code that can be combined to build a larger application. In a composable commerce setup, each microservice is responsible for a specific function or feature of the site, such as product listings, checkout, or customer accounts.

One of the main advantages of composable commerce, which lends itself to offer a high degree of flexibility, is that it allows different parts of the site to be developed and maintained independently of each other. This can make it easier to make changes to the site and to scale it as needed.

Overall, composable commerce is an approach that can offer a high level of flexibility and scalability for ecommerce websites, and it can be a powerful tool for building and maintaining complex, feature-rich sites.

At JIBE, we develop our eCommerce using Composable Commerce architectures on Next.js with best-of-breed solution partners like BigCommerce, Saleor, Fabric, Prismic, Contentful, Yotpo, Klaviyo.

Learn more about how we help brands transform their site into beautiful ecommerce experiences.