Composable commerce is all about flexibility, adaptability and innovation, encapsulated in three core traits: Cloud-native SaaS, component-based and tech-agnostic. Let’s explore the importance of the “component-based approach” and how it empowers businesses to create tailored experiences, upgrade effortlessly and maintain a competitive edge.
What is a component-based platform?
A component-based system combines independent and interchangeable building blocks, such as product catalog, search and checkout, that can be added, swapped or dropped at any time. This modularity is at the heart of composable commerce — an approach that enables innovation with independent, interchangeable components, granting the creative freedom to experiment and adapt.
Built on architecture that provides an open environment, a component-based architecture allows you to build (or buy) individual best-of-breed components, and mix and match them however you want to create customized, upgraded and integrated digital experiences.
That means you can develop components in-house, procure them from best-of-breed vendors, or strike a balance between the two. At the heart of this flexibility lie APIs, which serve as the glue that facilitates seamless communication between different components. Like rearranging puzzle pieces, you can effortlessly unplug components that no longer serve your needs and plug in those that do.
Think of it as producing a car. An automaker buys wheels and tailpipes from experts and builds what gives it an edge, be it the engine, design, safety features or digital driver experience. At the same time, automakers choose best-of-breed vendors that excel in particular specifications instead of settling for a so-so component from an in-house factory. The automaker's role is to get those top-notch components and craft the best possible car experience in terms of comfort, safety, speed and more.
When composing your stack, you can integrate the building blocks that best suit your strategy, as well as expand, contract or even swap them entirely for other solutions without affecting other applications or being locked in with a particular vendor. Best of all, you can also mix third-party applications with DIY ones, connecting commerce APIs with your own ERP, OMS, etc., and find the ideal mix of building and buying that best suits your company’s needs.
In summary, you can leverage unparalleled flexibility to respond faster to changing business needs, experiment with new capabilities without overhauling your entire system and scale specific services independently based on demand. This modularity reduces risk, shortens innovation cycles and empowers teams to iterate continuously without being constrained by legacy systems or monolithic platforms.
Why traditional commerce platforms fall short
Traditional commerce platforms — especially monolithic and all-in-one systems — have a tightly coupled architecture that makes it difficult to adapt or innovate quickly. Even small changes often require updates across the entire system. While these platforms may include multiple features, they lack the modularity to tailor solutions to evolving business needs.
Headless platforms offer a step forward by decoupling the front and back ends, but still fall short in offering true flexibility. They typically don’t provide the level of granular control needed to swap or scale specific functions independently.
Composable commerce goes further by leveraging components that can be developed, deployed and replaced independently, allowing businesses to mix and match best-of-breed solutions. This modularity means you’re not locked into a single vendor or forced to compromise on functionality.
In contrast to traditional platforms, composable commerce empowers companies to innovate faster, respond to market changes more effectively and create truly customized digital experiences, without being held back by outdated, inflexible architectures.
The top 4 benefits of component-based technology
From best-of-breed freedom to unparalleled flexibility, your business can reap many benefits with a component-based approach.
In composable commerce, everything is a component — a shopping cart, product catalog, payment gateway or recommendation engine. This modularity allows you to create and customize your digital commerce experiences by assembling and reusing these components as needed.
This means you can assemble different components to build unique eCommerce solutions. If a component needs to be updated or replaced, it can be done independently without affecting the entire system, enhancing scalability and maintainability.
While traditional monolithic platforms often require extensive development work to introduce new features or make significant changes, the component-based nature of composable commerce allows businesses to easily and quickly swap out or add new components to adapt to evolving customer expectations and emerging technologies.
For instance, if a business wants to implement a chatbot for customer support, they can integrate a component into their existing composable architecture without overhauling the enture system.
Composable commerce encourages the integration of third-party services and APIs as components. This means businesses can leverage the best-in-class solutions available in the market (or in our Solutions Hub) without being tied to a single vendor. For example, they can use a specialized payment processing component from one provider, a recommendation engine component from another and a content management component from yet another.
This integration capability enables businesses to stay competitive by harnessing the power of diverse technologies and services. It also reduces vendor lock-in, so you can pivot or switch providers whenever necessary.
Composable commerce, with its component-based approach, excels at delivering personalized experiences. By assembling components like customer profiling, recommendation engines and content management, you can create unique shopping journeys for each customer.
Furthermore, businesses can experiment with different combinations of components to A/B test and continually optimize the customer experience. This data-driven approach enables you to make informed decisions and deliver superior customer-centric solutions.
Real-world examples
Harry Rosen harnessed composable commerce to revolutionize customer experiences in three ways. Firstly, the company transformed personal style consultations into digital outfit recommendations, resulting in 10% of digital sales and fewer returns. Secondly, it made fashion images shoppable, boosting content page value by 300% and page views by 150%. Lastly, Harry Rosen achieved a seamless online-to-in-store transition by linking eCommerce and in-store systems, prioritizing customer relationships over technology. These strategies contribute to a predicted 40% increase in digital sales by 2025.
Interflora UK turned to composable commerce to modernize its digital infrastructure and better meet customer expectations in a highly seasonal and time-sensitive business. Thanks to commercetools, Interflora decoupled its frontend and backend systems to integrate specialized services for checkout, order management and personalized gifting experiences.
This modular setup enabled faster development cycles, easier third-party integrations and greater agility in rolling out new features during peak periods like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. As a result, Interflora improved site performance, enhanced customer satisfaction and built a flexible foundation for future growth.
How to get started with composable commerce
Getting started with composable commerce begins with a mindset shift: From rigid, one-size-fits-all platforms to a flexible, modular ecosystem built around your unique business goals. Start by identifying the parts of your current commerce stack that are creating bottlenecks — whether it’s checkout, product search or promotions — and evaluate whether best-of-breed alternatives could deliver better performance or customer experiences.
From there, focus on building a strong foundation with cloud-native, API-first technologies that support interoperability. Partnering with a platform like commercetools lets you gradually adopt a composable architecture, replacing components one at a time, rather than overhauling your entire system simultaneously. This incremental approach reduces risk, minimizes disruption and allows your teams to learn and iterate along the way.
Finally, assemble the right internal and external expertise to guide your transformation. Whether you build in-house, buy off-the-shelf components or work with system integrators, success depends on aligning your technology roadmap with your broader business strategy — and staying agile enough to evolve as customer expectations and market demands change.
To learn more about composable commerce, download our white paper Why composable commerce will change the way you run your business.
Manuela Marques Tchoe is a Content Writer at commercetools. She was a Content and Product Marketing Director at conversational commerce provider tyntec. She has written content in partnership with Facebook, Rakuten Viber and other social media platforms.