The e-commerce landscape has experienced tumultuous growth and fluctuations in recent years, with the global pandemic significantly altering buyer behavior. As the market stabilizes, online sellers face new challenges driven by factors like inflation, recession threats, and geopolitical uncertainty. In response, organizations must stay adaptable and leverage emerging trends to succeed in this dynamic environment. One such trend gaining momentum is composable commerce, a transformative approach that empowers businesses to thrive amidst changing customer demands.

Customers demand great online buying experiences

We have the belief here at Horizontal Digital that brands and companies are only as good as their worst customer experience. Often, the reason why brands deliver irrelevant, poor customer experiences is because they don’t fully know who their customers are and what motivates them. Imagine the loss in revenue and profits if one third of your customer base abandoned your brand because of a negative commerce transaction. What if your brand had more than one instance that caused customer friction? That could have catastrophic impacts on meeting short term business goals. Not to mention the challenge of trying to replace those customers with costly acquisition efforts. Customer demand for perfection is at an all-time high. After all, your competitors are only one click away. It’s gone beyond digital providing a level of convenience. The bar has now been set to a “just do it for me” mentality of immediate gratification that is enabled by digital, With customer expectations shifting, commerce platforms need to allow organizations to adapt and evolve. Versatility and adaptability are hallmark values that every business needs when responding to change.

Key considerations

With customer expectations shifting, commerce platforms need to allow organizations to adapt and evolve. Old, outdated approaches and solutions no longer work. New, modern ways of delivering are required. Here’s what to think about when evaluating the state of your online commerce:

• Does your platform allow the organization and model to adapt and evolve?
• Does your platform support customers’ demand for connected experiences?
• Does your platform fit the patterns of your business?

Benefits of composable commerce

According to Gartner, by 2023, 60% of organizations will seek composability in new application investments. Composable commerce enables businesses to create seamless applications by combining various best-of-breed components. Unlike traditional all-in-one suites provided by single vendors, composable commerce embraces a modular structure with micro-services such as e-commerce, content management, marketing automation, personalization, and analytics. These components can be delivered by different vendors or the same one and integrated to create a unified control point for all customer touchpoints on the buyer journey.

• Scalability: Composable commerce allows businesses to maintain top performance, ensuring smooth operations even during peak periods. Faster, leaner applications reduce risks and enhance overall speed.
• Customization & Control: With composable commerce, organizations can tailor customer experiences based on individual preferences, catering to diverse buyer types, channels, and devices.
• Extensibility: Leveraging existing technology investments becomes easier as new capabilities can be seamlessly integrated into the modular framework.
• Speed & Agility: Businesses can deliver highly differentiated experiences faster, cutting down development time and bringing innovative solutions to market promptly.

Embracing Composable Commerce with Sitecore OrderCloud

Sitecore’s headless, API-first e-commerce platform, Sitecore OrderCloud, aligns perfectly with composable commerce strategies. It empowers marketing leaders to define personalized customer experiences, enabling organizations to deliver innovative solutions and meet customer expectations faster.

Built as a cloud-based, API-first, composable e-commerce platform, Sitecore OrderCloud offers nearly limitless customizations and endless freedom for growth. Wherever your business needs to go tomorrow, you’re ready to lead the way.

• API-first platform: Your e-commerce data and infrastructure are available in the cloud as building blocks via Sitecore’s RESTful API. Create best-of-breed commerce applications that easily integrate with your back-end systems and third-party microservices.
• MACH architecture: With the front end completely decoupled from the back end, you have limitless freedom to customize your ordering experiences without performance risk. Easily extend your ordering capabilities to new devices, channels, applications and more, as your buyer preferences evolve over time.
• World-class security: OrderCloud is annually audited for SOC 2 Type 2 with HIPAA controls, is compliant with GDPR and CCPA, and facilitates PCI compliance for its platform and all solutions.
• Cloud-native infrastructure: Both software development and delivery are entirely cloud-based. Built for high performance, Sitecore OrderCloud scales automatically. Unlike on-premise solutions, server infrastructure and data security are taken care of for you. Start small and scale up only as your business usage grows.
• Microservices and best-of-breed: Sitecore OrderCloud plays nicely with other similarly architected services. We are
  entering the age of microservices, where best-of-breed solutions are not built from scratch. Rather, they are assembled from the best parts. Sitecore’s “part” is B2B e-commerce and order management, a complex domain in which they have been building and refining an incredibly rich and flexible data model since 1999.

Conclusion

As the e-commerce market continues to evolve, businesses must adopt flexible and innovative strategies to stay competitive. Composable commerce offers a pathway to success by allowing organizations to craft personalized experiences, embrace scalability, and respond quickly to changing market demands. With Sitecore OrderCloud supporting composable commerce, businesses can confidently embrace the future and unlock new growth opportunities in the ever-changing world of e-commerce.