The shift toward composable commerce in retail represents more than an architectural choice; it fundamentally transforms how retail technology capabilities are conceived, implemented, and evolved.
This approach, built on MACH principles (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless), enables retailers to assemble their technology landscape from best-of-breed components rather than relying on monolithic solutions.
But what makes a composable commerce solution worth exploring? And how can retailers implement modular infrastructure without upsetting the apple cart?
What is composable commerce?
At its core, composable commerce delineates basic business operations into separate building blocks – each with its own interfaces and dependencies. In retail, these modular blocks might be things like checkout functionality or inventory management tools – the nuts and bolts of modern, unified retail.
Piecing together a retail service this way has a few key benefits. Businesses can choose which modules will work best for them – and scale things up and down as their needs change – with innate agility and adaptability that won’t topple every other system in the stack whenever change occurs.
What’s more, the API-first approach inherent in composable commerce solutions creates a clean separation between front-end experiences and back-end services. That enables retailers to rapidly iterate on customer experiences without disrupting the tech underpinning the business – or requiring wholesale system replacement.
For example, a retailer can update their mobile shopping experience or add new payment methods without requiring changes to the underlying inventory or order management systems.
The business impact of composable architecture
While the technical capabilities of composable commerce systems are wide-reaching, there’s also inherent business value in adopting a modular approach to retail:
- Rapid innovation: organisations can quickly test and implement new, competitive capabilities by adding or modifying specific components.
- Risk management: component isolation reduces the impact of change, enabling gradual and cost-effective system evolution.
- Vendor independence: best-of-breed solutions for each capability free retailers from being locked into single-vendor platforms.
- Cost optimisation: businesses can scale individual components based on real consumer demand, rather than scaling entire systems arbitrarily.
Be disruptive, without disruptions
Moving to composable commerce isn’t a silver bullet. It requires retailers to carefully consider a range of business, technical and operational factors:
- Integration management: while individual components act independently, they must also work together seamlessly. This requires robust API management and integration planning.
- Data consistency: with functionality distributed across components, maintaining data consistency becomes crucial. Organisations must implement data management practices and event-driven architectures that standardise access across different functionalities.
- Organisational impact: composable commerce requires new approaches to technology governance, team structure, and skill development. Organisations need to evolve their operating models to match new ways of working.
Key stages of successful composable commerce implementation
Frameworks are key to tackling these challenges; outlining ironclad processes can enable systematic evolution while maintaining operational stability. But retail tech frameworks need to address risks and challenges in a fairly structured way, with careful staging.
We see this requiring three separate phases, where progression begins with stabilising core systems, moves through the modernisation of key capabilities, and ultimately allows innovation in customer experience and business models:
Stage 1: Foundation building
- Establish API management capabilities
- Implement integration architecture
- Develop component isolation patterns
- Build operational monitoring capabilities
Stage 2: Capability modernisation
- Identify high-value capabilities for modernisation
- Implement new components alongside legacy systems
- Gradually shift traffic to new components
- Validate performance and stability
Stage 3: Innovation enablement
- Leverage component independence for rapid experimentation
- Implement new capabilities as independent services
- Enable rapid iteration of customer experiences
- Measure and optimise component performance
The key here lies not in the speed of progression, but in ensuring each stage creates sustainable value – all while building a foundation for future advancement. In effect, each stage builds upon previous capabilities to enable the next.
Exploring the future of retail technology
Composable commerce is one part of the solution to a larger puzzle in retail technology.
While emerging retailers can fully capitalise on the benefits these systems bring, more established organisations have a battle on their hands – one that involves maintaining legacy solutions while they implement new tools. This is a tricky balancing act, but it’s not an impossible task so long as the right frameworks are in place.
That means navigating the transition from old to new in the tech retail sector and outlining the practical steps underpinning the movement to a more agile, independent infrastructure.
Discover how to bridge digital divides in retail in our latest whitepaper and learn how updating outdated systems can also mean transforming the customer experience.
