Your mini encyclopedia of composable commerce for 2025: Composable vs headless explained

Getting into something new is always challenging, whether you’re a marketer promoting a company’s new expertise that’s fresh to the market, a technical expert onboarding on a project that’s unique to their portfolio, a business owner considering new technology, or even a business analyst offering your expert opinion on atypical consumer trends that are difficult to predict. All of the concepts, terms, and technologies you need to understand to form an opinion — and, even more importantly, to make confident decisions — can make your head spin.

We’re pretty sure that for many eCommerce businesses, composable commerce poses such a challenge. Why? Because we’ve been there and done that. And it’s not just us — our clients have faced this challenge too. The main difficulty is that composable commerce involves many components — architectures, software interaction concepts, development approaches, and so on — that have been developing together for years.

However, composable eCommerce is the future of the industry — and reputable sources like Gartner, Forbes, and Deloitte agree. So online retailers have no choice but to delve deeper into this concept.

We’ve created the following guide to help you tackle composable commerce.

Let’s dive into the first section and figure out what composable commerce is all about.

What is composable commerce?

To give you a comprehensive understanding of composable commerce, we’ll provide several definitions from reputable sources:

• MACH Alliance: “Composable commerce is a development approach that enables organizations to activate their entire product record across every channel by leveraging best-of-breed commerce vendors composed together into a singular, custom-built application.”
• Forbes Contributor: “[Composable commerce is] a modular approach to software architecture that leverages API-first, cloud-native applications to enable retailers to build a flexible tech stack that can be customized to their specific business needs.”
• Deloitte: “It allows you to select and integrate commerce capabilities in a ‘building blocks’ fashion—adding or subtracting capabilities faster using microservices, connecting to standard SAP solutions through APIs, and integrating with 3rd party partner solutions via connectors, to suit specific or evolving needs. This means you can take advantage of a wider choice of individualised solutions and vendors—for a full range of needs covering product information management (PIM), content management, search, baskets, checkout experience and more.”

DINARYS EXPLAINS:

Composable commerce is an approach to developing eCommerce platforms from both the technological and business perspectives, with a focus on flexibility, customization, and adaptability to customer and market demands.

FROM A TECHNICAL STANDPOINT, composable commerce means that an eCommerce platform is built on a modular architecture that allows for packaged business capabilities to be integrated as independent modules that can easily be updated, changed, scaled, and so on without affecting the performance of the entire system.

Moreover, with the flexibility of a modular architecture, companies can choose any packaged business capability that meets their business needs and customer demands.

In addition, if no solution on the market satisfies your business needs, with a modular architecture, you can easily integrate a solution written from scratch. Through an API, you can make it work perfectly with the rest of the platform and easily modify it without compromising the performance of the rest of the system.

FROM THE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE, composable commerce allows businesses to design their strategies with flexibility and potential changes in mind. With technological flexibility, businesses can easily plan for tool and data migrations over short periods of time. The same applies to integrations and partnerships, as modular architectures and API-based integrations with third-party services within your business ecosystem enable seamless front-end and back-end enhancements.

In short, composable commerce is an alternative to the traditional (and often flawed) monolithic method of developing eCommerce platforms.

If you want to get deeper into all the intricacies of composable commerce, read our article “What is composable commerce?”

Mini glossary of terms:

• Modular architecture — An approach to designing software in which individual modules are responsible for independent functions or services. These modules are built in a way that prevents them from affecting each other’s performance and are connected through APIs.

• Packaged business capabilities (PBCs) — Components or third-party services that provide specific functions or services you want to integrate into your eCommerce platform. These can include payment processing, order management, content management, inventory management, customer relationship management, and more.

• Monolithic architecture — A software architecture in which all components are tightly integrated and cannot be independently upgraded or replaced. In this model, all components of the application — such as the user interface, business logic, and database interactions — are tightly integrated and run as a single program or service.

• Application Programming Interface (API) — A set of protocols that enables different software applications to communicate with one another. Composable commerce enables businesses to select best-of-breed solutions for different functionalities, relying on APIs to allow these discrete systems to communicate and work together.

How exactly does composable commerce allow for technological flexibility? Answering this question brings us to our next chapter on the MACH framework.

The MACH framework: Reconsidering a classic approach to building future-proof eCommerce platforms

To build flexible and future-proof composable commerce platforms, businesses use the MACH framework.

MACH Alliance: “MACH technologies enable a flexible enterprise tech stack where each component is modular, scalable, and easily replaceable. This allows for continuous improvement through agile development, ensuring the technology can adapt to evolving business needs.

MACH - microservices, API-first, cloud-native SaaS, and headless architecture - underpins modern enterprise technology. Designed for seamless integration, these modular solutions empower businesses to detach from legacy tools and freely choose the best-in-class technologies available. With a composable, swappable architecture, companies can continuously evolve their digital ecosystems, piece by piece, without the need for major replatforming efforts.”

• What is the MACH Alliance? The MACH Alliance is a non-profit association and a globally recognized authority that sets standards and certifies companies capable of delivering transformative digital commerce solutions. It was founded in 2020 by organizations including Amplience, commercetools, Contentstack, EPAM Systems, and Valtech.

DINARYS EXPLAINS:

The MACH framework comprises well-established technologies that, when combined, form a perfect solution for flexible eCommerce.

Microservice architecture

A microservice architecture is a type of composable commerce architecture.

Miscroservices is an approach to building a solution architecture where the application, platform, or system runs on multiple microservices, each of which is responsible for a certain feature or business service. These independent services communicate with each other using APIs.

API-first

An API-first approach presumes that all communication between system components in composable eCommerce systems is conducted through APIs. It’s especially important in a microservice architecture.

APIs are the most appropriate way to build communication channels because by using APIs, developers can decouple different parts of an application. This means that each component or microservice can be developed, maintained, and deployed independently, reducing the risk that changes in one part will negatively impact other parts.

Mini-glossary of terms:

• Decoupling refers to the practice of separating different components or layers of a system so that they can operate independently of each other.

How do APIs work?

Let’s break down how APIs work using a step-by-step example:

1. When you use a web application (like an online store) in your browser, you interact with the user interface. When you click a button to view products, the web app needs to get data from the server.
2. To get this data, the web app sends an API request over the internet to a web server. This request asks the server for specific data, such as a list of available products.
3. The web server receives the API request and processes it. The server knows how to handle the request because it has predefined routes and functions associated with the API.
4. To fulfill the request, the web server interacts with a database, which stores the data needed (in this case, product details). The server asks the database to retrieve the requested information.
5. Once the server gets the data from the database, it sends this information back to the web app as an API response over the internet.
6. The web app receives the API response and displays the list of products requested.

Cloud-native platform development

Cloud-native platform development refers to building and deploying eCommerce applications specifically designed to operate in cloud environments. This method uses cloud computing principles (such as a microservices architecture, containerization, and APIs) to create scalable, flexible, and resilient online shopping platforms.

Cloud environments offer many benefits for businesses, such as:

• Agile methodologies, which focus on a flexible, iterative approach that values customer feedback and teamwork. By breaking projects into smaller chunks and using continuous integration and deployment, eCommerce teams can quickly introduce new features and adapt based on what customers want.

This way of working enhances flexibility, improves customer satisfaction, and increases the innovative potential of online businesses, helping them stay competitive.

• DevOps is a set of practices that unites software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to improve collaboration and efficiency in the software delivery process. With a focus on automation, continuous integration, and user feedback, DevOps helps organizations deliver high-quality software more efficiently and adjust to changing customer demands.

• Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) is a software development practice aimed at improving the quality and speed of software application delivery:
  • CI is about regularly combining code changes from different developers into one shared system, where automated tests check code for issues. The idea is to catch and fix problems early, keeping the code in good shape.
  • CD takes CI a step further by automatically sending those code changes to the live system once they pass the automated tests. This way, new features, updates, and bug fixes get to users quickly and without hassle.

• Containerization is a way to package applications (and everything they need to run) into containers. Containers are lightweight, portable units that package an application along with all the necessary libraries, dependencies, and configurations, allowing it to run consistently across different environments.

Containers are separated from each other and the main system, which makes it easier for developers to build, deploy, and manage apps in different environments. The most popular containerization tools are Docker and Kubernetes.

Headless

Headless technology refers to a decoupled architecture where the front end (the “head”) of an eCommerce application is separated from the back end (the “body”). This means that the user interface, which customers interact with, operates independently of the backend systems that handle business logic, data management, and integrations.

Separation between the frontend presentation layer and the back end gives businesses:

• Design flexibility. Businesses can create highly customized and personalized user experiences tailored to their brand and customer preferences. The front end can be designed independently, allowing for experiments and implementation of modern technologies without impacting the back end.
• Omnichannel experiences. A headless architecture allows businesses to deliver consistent experiences across multiple channels, such as an eCommerce website, mobile apps, social media, and even IoT devices (smart beacons, smart speakers, smart fridges, etc). The same back end can power various frontend interfaces, ensuring a cohesive customer journey.
• Enhanced user experience. With more design flexibility and customizability, businesses can build more engaging and user-friendly interfaces that meet customer expectations.
• Best-of-breed solutions. Businesses can choose the best tools and technologies for each part of their eCommerce stack. This means they can integrate specialized solutions for payment processing, inventory management, customer relationship management, and a content management system, enhancing overall functionality.
• Improved performance. Decoupling the front end from the back end can lead to improved performance and loading times, as each component can be optimized separately.

Mini glossary of terms:

• An omnichannel experience strategy refers to a seamless and integrated approach to customer engagement across multiple channels and touchpoints. In an omnichannel strategy, businesses try to provide a consistent and unified experience for customers, whether they interact with the brand online, in-store, through mobile apps, or via social media.

Real-life example:

However, to fully understand the concept of an omnichannel experience, we need to understand two related concepts: cross-channel experience and multichannel experience:

• A cross-channel experience strategy refers to a marketing and customer engagement strategy that involves interacting with customers across multiple channels such as email, social media, websites, and physical stores, allowing customers to switch between these channels during their buying journey.

Unlike an omnichannel strategy, which focuses on providing a seamless and integrated experience across all channels, a cross-channel strategy focuses on the ability to reach customers through various touchpoints while maintaining some level of integration.

Real-life example:

• A multichannel experience strategy reaches customers across multiple channels, allowing them to interact with a brand through them.

However, unlike cross-channel and omnichannel strategies, a multichannel strategy doesn’t necessarily ensure a seamless or integrated experience across channels.

Real-life example:

Let’s compare each of these strategies to see why composable commerce opened a way to more easily communicate with customers and increase their loyalty:

Conclusions on the MACH framework:

The MACH framework represents a shift from a traditional commerce platform, offering businesses the flexibility to choose the best tools for each part of their platform. By embracing microservices, an API-first design, cloud-native infrastructure, and a headless architecture, companies can create an eCommerce system that adjusts quickly to changes, integrates easily with new technologies, and provides customized, future-proof solutions.

This approach gives businesses the freedom to innovate quickly, create tailored customer experiences, and keep full control over their technology choices.

We often see the following questions on websites dedicated to eCommerce or the MACH framework:

• How can I choose between headless or composable commerce?
• What are headless commerce solutions vs. composable commerce solutions?
• Are headless and composable commerce the same or different?
• What are the dependencies between composable and headless commerce?
• What do headless commerce platforms offer to businesses?

Let’s figure out the answers.

What are the differences between composable commerce vs. headless eCommerce?

First, let’s clarify what exactly headless commerce is:

• Headless eCommerce refers to an architecture where the front end is separated from the back end. It’s called headless eCommerce rather than just a headless architecture because the focus is on enabling business transactions and customer-facing experiences that are central to online shopping.

It’s not entirely correct to compare composable commerce and headless commerce. Composable commerce is a broader concept that focuses on building an entire eCommerce platform by assembling independent, modular components.

Headless commerce is an element of composable commerce. Headless commerce refers specifically to the decoupling of the front end and back end, whereas composable commerce refers to the modular assembly of the entire platform.

Moreover, composable commerce includes not just the front-end flexibility that headless commerce offers but also the ability to customize and adapt every part of the system. In a headless commerce platform, the back end can still be monolithic.

What is composable commerce vs MACH architecture?

We can’t truly compare these two concepts, as composable commerce is an approach to building eCommerce platforms in a way that components are independent of each other, easily updated, and assembled using a modular architecture.

On the other hand, the MACH architecture provides the technological foundation that allows composable commerce to achieve this level of flexibility and adaptability:

• A microservice architecture for independently working eCommerce components
• APIs for seamless data exchange between those components and integration with external systems
• Cloud-native platform development, enabling cloud computing and the creation of SaaS-based systems
• Headless architecture for frontend and backend independence

Basically, composable commerce and the MACH architecture work together for the same purpose — to create flexible and highly adaptable eCommerce solutions.

Throughout this mini encyclopedia, we’ve discussed monolithic architectures a lot, but haven’t covered this concept in depth. In the next section, we’ll talk about the intricacies of this approach to developing traditional eCommerce platforms.

Monolithic architecture and the struggles it poses for eCommerce businesses

According to Dirk Hoerig, founder and CEO of commercetools, “about 85% of the enterprise retail market runs on monolithic systems that are end-of-life, or soon to be end-of-life.”

Why are monolithic systems (architectures) dead-ends for eCommerce businesses? Because they result in inflexible code.

Mini glossary of terms:

• Legacy systems are older eCommerce platforms, applications, or infrastructures that were built using programming languages, frameworks, and database management systems that are now out of date. They are still in use because they have been heavily customized and are deeply integrated into business operations. Over time, these customizations can create a complex web of dependencies that becomes hard to manage.

Additionally, maintaining these systems can be costly and resource-intensive, especially as the original developers or vendors may no longer support them.

What do companies lose by staying on monolithic platforms for too long? Their ability to stay technologically aligned with the market and meet customer demands. Specifically, compared to composable eCommerce platforms, monolithic platforms cannot:

• Easily scale resources on demand as enabled by cloud-native infrastructure
• Use content delivery networks (CDNs) for faster content loading (using the nearest servers to a customer’s location to accelerate content delivery)
• Personalize content based on customer preferences with the help of third-party services such as Segment
• Integrate with third-party services quickly, with minimal development and deployment time and with no negative impact on the platform’s performance
• Implement real-time data-driven decision-making, since monolithic setups don’t allow for gathering and analyzing data as quickly as tools integrated with APIs and microservices do
• Adopt advanced technologies such as AI and ML, as they won’t run effectively on an outdated setup that can’t support complex analysis of large amounts of data

To enjoy this list of technical advancements, businesses running their eCommerce platforms on a monolithic architecture should consider migrating to composable commerce.

What’s the technological difference between composable commerce and traditional monolithic commerce?

Let’s compare these approaches based on their core technological characteristics:

Wrapping up: Is there more to learn?

Definitely. There will always be things to learn when it comes to:

• Tools you can use for your eCommerce platform to extend your eCommerce services and enhance the customer experience
• Third-party services you can integrate for marketing and sales to scale your business and attract more partnerships and customers
• Technological decisions you can make to extend your business into new geographies and industries

With composable commerce, you will be able to easily implement opportunities you discover that may be hard to take advantage of with a monolithic eCommerce platform.

In this mini encyclopedia, we’ve covered the essentials of composable commerce, which will prepare you to dive deeper into more complex topics. If you have any remaining questions, we will happily guide you on your journey.