Understanding How BigCommerce fits into the Composable Commerce Landscape

Composable Commerce- A term coined by Gartner in a June 2020 report refers to a modular approach to digital commerce known as composable architecture. While businesses are hunting for best-in breed solutions for each of their unique needs, modular approach helps them in doing so with this modular approach along with assembling a customized tech stack.

Per Gartner: "Using the composable application approach, digital experiences are assembled as required, depending on the customer and touchpoint requirements, and delivery of an "ecommerce site" may be just one of these experience types."

The question to ask is, How does an Open SaaS platform like BigCommerce enable Composable Commerce?

BigCommerce's Open SaaS combines the best of both open source and SaaS through a modular approach to ecommerce. Does that mean it enables what Gartner is referring to as composable commerce? Based strictly on Gartner's recent definition, perhaps not exactly.

After all, many BigCommerce customers use out-of-the-box platform features to run their businesses. That said, Open SaaS is built via an approach that aligns with the philosophy and perspective of the MACH Alliance around open and connected enterprise technology.

BigCommerce is not a fully decoupled microservices system like Elastic Path or commerce tools. Still, the platform's philosophy of openness means that you can build integrations into nearly any other application you wish for near-limitless customizability. That includes giving merchants the choice of whether or not to take a headless commerce approach.

Over 90% of the platform is exposed to APIs, BigCommerce merchants can take a best-in-breed approach to their vendor selection. APIs enable merchants to connect third-party integrations, mobile applications or a front-end CMS or DXP to create a headless storefront.

With BigCommerce, the open API back-end allows you to create a unique and tailored front-end experience. And you can add all of the kinds of turnkey integrations and tools we need on the back end either natively or through other composable components.

Delivering personalized commerce experiences at scale requires flexibility. Many brands are moving towards headless builds to maximize their customization ability without taking on the extra work of maintaining a back-end platform.

We are seeing increased requests from brands who want to understand how we can build composable architecture using BigCommerce as a foundation. 

To recap, even though BigCommerce is not a fully decoupled microservices system, it can still be a composable architecture component. BigCommerce has made composable commerce a critical strategic initiative to drive the platform's future growth, making BigCommerce a good bet for composable. It's not a fit for every brand, and evaluating all options is essential.

While composable architecture is still a relatively new concept, it has huge potential to help businesses achieve agility and resilience, especially amid our world's digital transformation.

As we saw with the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions are inevitable — and this is especially true for digital businesses, in which technologies are constantly updating, and consumer behaviors are forever changing.

By taking a modular approach and breaking down systems into smaller, more manageable components, you'll be able to focus on the best solutions for each part of your ecommerce business and quickly scale your IT footprint.

In Sum

If you are interested in learning more about Composable Commerce and BigCommerce, schedule your complimentary no obligation workshop with one of our Digital Commerce experts for a personalized roadmap to take your company on the composable journey. Drop a Hi! at marketing@altudo.co and our team of experts will reach out to answer all your queries.