Following a summary of the questions we get asked the most, structured by business-, technical- and developer questions.
Headless eCommerce is the total separation of the front-end (seen by your customers) from the back-end eCommerce functionality and business logic (cart, products, catalogue, promotions, payments, etc.) This separation allows you to work and change them independently of one another. Allowing businesses to create better experiences without jeopardizing the existing ones.
By communicating with the back-end through APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), Headless eCommerce allows existing customer experiences to emerge fast and brand-new experiences to be created without harming the back-end or business logic.
In other words, you can design or change experiences without having to affect or modify the available customer experiences. This provides organizations with the flexibility to build the experiences their customers desire.
APIs or Application Programming Interfaces enable one application (such as your e-commerce platform) to provide services (like order management, pricing, catalogue, customer data) to other applications.
In short, an API helps systems “talk” and relay information to each other.
When eCommerce was born, most customers browsed and placed orders online within a desktop browser experience. Then the explosion of smartphones emerged, which forced organizations to discover workarounds to deliver buying experiences through these different mobile devices. The trouble was, the monolithic commerce platforms they were using were explicitly built for the web.
Fast forward a decade, and the same challenge proceeds to play out as organizations cope with keeping up with all the channels and touchpoints their customers use. Since traditional eCommerce platforms were built for a specific channel, customer experiences are tightly coupled to the back-end eCommerce functions. This makes it challenging for organizations to create a social, voice, or chatbot-based buying experience their customers desire. Today, it’s like the launch of the smartphone is happening all the time.
With headless eCommerce, businesses aren’t limited to any specific channel. They can simply enable any experience and, since all customer experiences leverage the same back-end eCommerce services and customer data, they are seamless as customers diverse touchpoints.In other words, Headless eCommerce makes the customer experience fluid between any channel, device, or touchpoint.
Yes, we provide paid addons, support, customization and, migration services.
With VELOX you are able to reduce your total cost of ownership by removing expensive license costs of the base system, by reducing server capacity while increasing scalability and, by offering diverse hosting options. Also, you don’t pay for functionality your business actually doesn’t need.
No, not necessarily although you are free to do so. You are able to do a “soft migration” where you migrate function by function at your own pace without compromising the live system.
A headless architecture is built by adding application programming interfaces (APIs), allowing eCommerce functionality to be accessed by any front-end. Front-end developers are able to use these APIs to deliver customer experiences onto any screen or associated device with any technology or customer experience platform they aspire.
A headless architecture puts the design and innovation control back into the hands of those responsible for the customer experience by empowering front-end developers to continuously iterate and evolve the customer experience without any dependency or influence on the back-end eCommerce platform.
This means faster release cycles with less regression testing and reduced risk of unintended consequences somewhere else. Conversely, enhancements to back-end eCommerce functions can be deployed without fear of “cracking” the customer experience.
A Headless eCommerce platform provides all the eCommerce services an organization requires to enable any application or customer experience. However, organizations must determine how they build and deliver those customer experiences. Luckily, a headless architecture provides the adaptability to use any application like a CMS, DXP or, use any front-end technology like Angular or React to build captivating experiences.
The selected front-end application or technology will interact with the Headless Commerce platform by its APIs to access eCommerce data and services like catalogue, pricing, and customer information.
Businesses using Headless eCommerce aren’t forced to use any specific front-end approach. They can select the best customer experience application or technology based on their organizational skillset. For example, the mobile app team may select to use React Native while the web development team may choose to use a CMS application to build and deliver their online store.
Yes, the core system is released under the MIT open-source license, which is free. Learn more about the license here. Of course, we provide some value-added services for support, development, migration, and customization.
Yes, of course. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.
Sly AG is the main contributor and backer of the project.
Of course, VELOX is designed from the ground up to integrate well into complex enterprise system landscapes.
Due to our open architecture, modular design and API-first approach you can integrate VELOX into anything as it is designed from the ground up to do so.
You are free to host VELOX on a public cloud, on a private cloud or on-premise. Please contact us to schedule a consultation in order to find out what best suits your needs.
Our base system is released under the MIT open source license, which is one of the least restrictive licenses on the market. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding the licensing.
There is no one fits it all answer, but we are experts in the field and love to help you determine your exact requirements. Please contact us to schedule a consultation.
Please contact us to schedule an interview.
Of course, please contact us to schedule a consultation.
Please see the documentation or contact us to schedule a consultation.
