Today's eCommerce has evolved where customers do their shopping across a variety of channels. The commerce platforms built to support traditional online shopping can be limiting when it comes to delivering the high-impact engaging experiences that customers have come to expect. The digital world has evolved beyond this traditional platform setup, and more flexible solutions have emerged.
It may sound confusing, but the concept of a headless CMS is simple: you detach the "head" (the presentation layer, such as a website) from the "body" (the backend functionality, such as the cart). Going a step further, a headless CMS delivers content via APIs (Application Programming Interface) for display on any device without a built-in front-end or presentation layer. The idea of going headless is that you get to pick and choose which 'heads' you send your content to - apps, Alexa, podcasts, webinars, social media, emails, etc. Thus, content and data structures can be suited to all upcoming technologies without actually re-authoring them in any way. They are considered more future-proof. In a headless set-up, content is stored raw and unformatted, so its final presentation isn’t limited by a specific front-end system allowing for more flexibility. It does mean that a complementary solution for your front-end may still be needed.
As a response to the introduction of Headless CMSes, many traditional CMS vendors have built APIs on top of their systems and call them 'decoupled.' The idea is to offer website rendering capabilities with the flexibility of headless. However, decoupled CMS APIs are heavily influenced by a model built for a single website, limiting the number of areas that your content can reasonably be applied to.
To summarize:
- Decoupled CMSes are adding APIs on top to serve content.
- Headless CMSes are API exclusive.
Content powers the digital world. It allows customers to access brands on every device and channel. Creating and managing content on a traditional CMS platform limits designers, marketers, and developers. Headless and even decoupled CMSes allow brands to manage digital content at scale. Brands can personalize and optimize their customer-facing platforms for enhanced and unique customer experience. Create once and publish everywhere, freeing up your time and creating cohesive branding.
More and more brands are moving towards headless strategies with their tech stack, which requires agile and flexible solutions to integrate and work with any CMS or eCommerce platform. Creator is a front-end focused digital experience platform that will work with any platform, giving you the ability to deliver the best customer experience. Our platform will consume your APIs seamlessly, turning your content into powerful digital experiences.
Benefits of going headless:
Creator, as the "head” for your headless infrastructure, speeds up the time it takes to design, update content, and create shorter paths-to-purchase across all devices. In addition, the free-form design allows brands to place 'buy now' buttons and other calls to action on any area of their content, making everything seamlessly shoppable.