Top Barriers to Composable Commerce and How to Overcome Them

The Composable Commerce approach is the way forward for businesses looking to transform their eCommerce user experiences quickly, efficiently, and with reduced risk.

By 2023, Gartner predicts that organizations who’ve adopted a composable approach will outpace competition by 80% in the speed of new feature implementation.

We recently hosted a webinar alongside our partners Algolia and Contentful, to answer top questions about Composable Commerce in practice, and provide use cases from brands who are embarking on eCommerce solutions and expanding their footprint.

First things first, the data. A recent survey of over 400 eCommerce practitioners reveals businesses are on the right track to adoption:

• 95% believe the composable approach is the way forward in modern commerce
• 82% anticipate a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) with adoption by as much as 25% in savings

These numbers indicate confidence in the approach, however there are significant questions stemming from the how-to.

Top Barriers of Composable Commerce and How To Overcome Them

Barrier 1: I am concerned about my team working in many different solutions

When using a monolithic approach, it’s common to have one team in charge of all aspects of commerce. With a Composable Commerce approach, we must change the expectations of how our teams work, and how they work together.

Rather than one team own all of commerce, we see sub teams focused on a specific area of commerce. These smaller teams can work independently, and in concert with the greater commerce strategy. While the flexibility of the technology enables this, it becomes critical to spend time defining responsibilities and workflows, so teams feel empowered to embrace this new way of working.

Historically, if product information needed to be updated, often the development team would be asked to update. But, with this approach the development team can focus on ensuring all the process flows work, the performance objectives are met and the teams that are responsible for product information can work independently and manage the information.

While there are different interfaces in a multi-solution commerce platform, the data is open and able to be visible across the tech stack, so most teams will only be interacting with one.

Barrier 2: My technical team doesn’t have experience with this approach

No matter your level of digital maturity, there is a solution to achieve your eCommerce goals. Other points to consider: how far along are you on the digital journey? Do you have systems in place? If you have a seasoned system integrator on board, they can guide you through and alleviate pre-launch stress.

You may also consider pre-built functionality such as Elastic Path’s Pre-Composed Solutions™ that offer the convenience of multiple integrations and vendors in a single business-ready package.

Is Composable Commerce Right For You?

It can be a difficult question to answer. Check out our comprehensive guide on the modern approach to learn more about the architecture, benefits, and if it makes sense for your business.

Barrier 3: I need to be able to make changes

For those businesses worried about the overall lift, composability provides the foundation to launch what you need, when you need it, and to adapt as you go. You don’t need to make changes to the entire system to launch new products, new channels, or a campaign.

Barrier 4: I’m worried about the cost

There is no one-size-fits-all figure for implementation cost.

You’ll be looking at a few key factors when evaluating a provider and your own unique requirements such as subscriptions, third party licensing fees, business and developer tooling, if you’ll require an SI to assist with migrations, etc. It really does depend on your business needs and what systems and partners you currently have in place.

Cost is a common misconception in the buying process. When purchasing a multi-vendor solution it’s often thought you’re paying for functionality you’ll never use.

With the composable commerce approach you are paying for and leveraging the services you use. You are free to use vendors within the open ecosystem as they apply to your specific business needs and not be locked-in to vendors or solutions.

Barrier 5: I expect a lengthy implementation

Aside from flexibility once you’ve deployed, the composable commerce approach offers speed to market. Your launch can be a staged process by functions as you need them within weeks not months. Much like the discussion around cost, you leverage what you need, when you need it.

Interested in learning more? Watch the full webinar below!