Will shopping ever be the same again? Retail has been rocked in recent years. And though the high street is open for business, the future of the industry is still unclear. An estimated 90% of consumers changed their shopping habits during the pandemic. Online sales are up and click-and-collect services are becoming more popular.
On top of that, there are skills shortages, supply chain issues, sustainability pressures, and a need to create more flexible working conditions for our colleagues.
While sudden cost-of-living increase is tightening families’ budgets.
It’s up to retailers to adapt to meet these new demands and speed of change is going to be critical. The fast-paced nature of retail today means it really is sink or swim. With headless commerce, retailers get the digital tools they need to keep up with the pack.
Being as agile as the leading digital disruptors might not be possible. But here’s how to get close.
Retailers using traditional ecommerce platforms tend to update their sites every few weeks. Because that’s the average time to deploy new developments. But industry-leading digital disruptors are updating their sites around every 10 seconds. So their sites have probably changed a couple of times already since you’ve been reading this.
We’re not saying every retailer should aspire to this – after all, there are few who could. But the emphasis on agility is something everyone in the industry should be working towards.
Essentially, it all comes down to data. Leading digital disruptors are masters of using what they know about their customers. Other retailers need to better understand their data, too – how to generate it, how to analyse it, how to use it to make better decisions, and how to stay on the right side of privacy and compliance regulations.
The issue many have is that their data is not centrally managed. In-house IT is often kept to a minimum due to space and cost. Meaning data management has tended to be outsourced. If ecommerce data is treated separately, and not integrated within the operational tech stack, there’s no single, global view of that data.
Don’t let yourself be held back by legacy architecture.
Legacy ecommerce platforms are frequently off-the-shelf solutions which get customised, and then lock retailers in. These older systems can be expensive, difficult to upgrade and require a lot of in-house expertise to maintain.
Maintaining complex legacy IT can detract from focusing on the customer experience. Consumers increasingly expect online convenience and functionality, with touchpoints and content that legacy platforms were not designed to support. This shift in focus has led to the rise and increased adoption of headless commerce – an IT architecture that separates front-end systems from the back end. Instead of being interwoven, digital storefronts are separated, and communicate with the back end via APIs.
Decoupling the front and back ends means you can deliver what your consumers want more quickly and still be competitive. The customer experience takes centre stage – marketing offers and seasonal promotions can be turned around in days rather than months.
Red Hat helps create amazing omni-channel experiences, easily.
Red Hat’s proven frameworks for headless commerce also allow developers to create personalised, omnichannel retail experiences without worrying about modifying the core database. They don’t have to re-architect the platform to publish across channels. It’s all just part of the same, futureproof package.
And the best thing about headless commerce is that you can build on existing infrastructure. Development can be done in-house, and there’s no need to rip out existing infrastructure or to spend months building a new environment from the ground up. That means you can upgrade quickly with no fuss, no disruption and no impact on your service levels.
Red Hat opens new doors with open-source software
Headless commerce solutions are even more effective when created using Red Hat open-source software. Open source is all about agile development, open innovation labs, and minimal viable product development. This is Red Hat’s approach.
Retailers who use open-source software like Red Hat OpenShift are tapping into a development community that is transparent, inclusive, adaptive and collaborative.
When you view digital transformation as a continuous process, and emphasise the importance of culture in parallel with technology and process, you’re positioning your business for a successful transformation.
At Red Hat, we can even help you develop, deliver and deploy a headless commerce site using your chosen cloud provider, at a price point that works for you. The platform can be implemented on-premises or via a SaaS package.
We’ve delivered results for major retailers around Europe, including Lidl, REWE, Havan, Condis, and Mercadona. If you’d like to find out more about what headless commerce can do for your brand, visit www.red.ht/uki-retail.
Iain Boyle – Chief Architect for Retail
As a Chief Architect for Retail in the UK, Iain engages in strategic dialog with IT decision makers and influencers across the ecosystem of Red Hat customers and partners. Iain collaborates with architects and technologists across the globe to unlock the potential of open-source solutions.
Richard Evans – Retail Strategic Account Manager
As a Strategic Account Manager, Richard looks after some of the largest retailers in the UK working with clients to implement successful solutions. Richard is the lead collaborator with Red Hat partners who deliver outcomes for our retailer customers.
