How to Explain Headless to a 5-Year-Old
By Rick Watson, RMW Commerce
People visit websites to learn about products and efficiently buy them. Standard ecommerce platforms have limitations that cause challenges in the buyer’s process. If you’re hearing the word “headless,” your customer’s online experience has room for improvement and could be limited by your current ecommerce platform’s capabilities. These limitations can apply to any significant platform depending on your needs: Shopify, Adobe, Salesforce, etc.
Remember that “Head” equals “User Experience,” or UX. In other words, “head” is what you first see when any webpage loads.
Takeaway: Most websites do not need a headless approach because standard platforms work just fine and they are improving all the time! If someone — even an employee — is trying to sell you a headless approach, be persistent in your questioning about why it is required; there may be a more straightforward way to reach your goals. In most situations, simplicity will save you money.
How Does Headless Work?
Instead of using the off-the-shelf design system built into a standard ecommerce platform, the headless approach takes the “head” (the UX) off your ecommerce site and replaces it with one of two things:
A Digital Experience Composition (DXC) platform or Content Management System (CMS) software allows you to pull together data and user interface components to create a personalized experience for your online customers. This is probably the most straightforward way to go. Using a CMS is often the simplest way to start; if more flexibility is needed, a DXC might be required.
Some agencies will recommend creating a completely custom front end based on CSS, JavaScript and/or HTML and hosting it on Amazon Web Services. However, this has a high degree of difficulty.
Takeaway: When a more customized, dynamic or faster user experience is needed, these systems can be beneficial. If you the extra complexity and functionality is not required, however, website infrastructure is simpler and cheaper without them.
Continue reading at Retail TouchPoints.