DECODING DECOUPLED ARCHITECTURE

Which is Best — Monolithic or Headless Setups?

B2B, and specifically manufacturing organizations, have complex business needs. For their ecommerce setup to meet those needs, choosing the right style of architecture is critical.

This content, co-developed by CEO Shae Inglis and CXO Jason Poole, aims to help companies understand when a decoupled setup may be to their advantage or when going a more traditional route is better.

What Does Monolithic Mean?

In our article Technical Architecture in Action: Monolithic vs Headless, monolithic is described as:

“Monolithic architecture is the traditional model used by most software programs. These solutions are generally large and self-contained. The platform may have many modules, but the modules are all interconnected. A change in one module usually necessitates a change in other areas and may require you to redeploy the entire solution. “ - OROCommerce, eCommerce Site Architecture

An example of a monolithic architecture setup could be a standard Shopify install with a small amount of customization. To fit with your company’s branding, you would use a custom theme to modify the look and feel of the site and checkout and then add or install third-party extensions to add specialized functionality.

What Does Decoupled, or Headless, Mean?

“Headless architecture is a development environment that separates the front-end (the user interface) and back-end (the application logic) of an application. This decoupled environment creates more flexibility and versatility for applications such as a website or CMS.” -  ButterCMS, Headless Architecture 101: What You Need to Know

By decoupling the front end or head (from the infographic above), businesses have the ability to build content around a fully custom user journey, pulling data from multiple sources.

Have a look at this example:

When Does A Headless Implementation Make Sense?

For B2B and manufacturing organizations, there are certain instances where a decoupled setup will make the most sense in the long run. Let’s review some of the reasons why.

Unique Business Requirements

Does your company need a high level of customization to have a commerce setup meet your needs? Often, that type of customization doesn’t fit with a monolithic SaaS offering. As example: 

• Business sales processes: Do you have a specific PO workflow that you want to piggyback from your ERP? Or have unique term requirements and pricing tiers? These types of workflows generally fall outside of the capabilities of standard commerce platform offerings.
• Bespoke selling experiences: Do you use product builders and configuration tools to sell? Or does your product line have complex product filters or SKUs that need to be broken down by serial numbers? This requires extra functionality that SaaS does not have out of the box.
• Cutting-edge needs: Do you use virtual/augmented reality in your product presentations? What about IoT connections between your products and maintenance update systems? These complex offerings are tough and expensive to integrate into a monolithic SaaS product, but decoupling can make them happen for your customers.

Multiple Sales Channels

Business wants to provide a seamless customer experience across multiple channels, reaching more people and improving brand awareness. With a headless setup, a multi-channel and multi-site strategy is possible and easier to build. 

You can efficiently spin up different front ends for each channel while managing them all with the same backend. This connection eliminates the need to have multiple SaaS instances. Having a single backend helps control consistency across channels without excessive administration, reducing labour and improving branding.

• Web, mobile, social, inside sales: With headless configuration, you can control each of these instances from the same backend, using fewer resources and ensuring consistency.
• Multi-language/region using the same backend: Touching on the same back-end efficiency as above, a headless setup makes it simpler for you to reach new markets by adding multi-language capabilities that monolithic platforms may not have.
• Franchises served from a common backend—B2B2C: With a decoupled setup, you can create different portals for all of your user groups (franchisees, distributors, or even consumers) and customize the buying journey for each instance.

Complex Tech Stacks

Creating ideal customer and administration experiences requires data from multiple systems in the tech stack that are not connected, but by integrating them, you get: 

• Real-time inventory from ERPs (even multi-warehouse) pulled into a single commerce experience.
• Legacy software storing required data such as custom pricing/bundling/discounts seamlessly connected to customer front-end accounts. 

Performance

When delivering an optimal website experience, speed matters. Not just for your customers but also for your visibility on search engines like Google, Bing and more. 

• Faster page load speeds mean fewer chances of a user bouncing away from your site. (Time is money!)
• Google rewards fast sites with discounted ad spending, meaning your marketing dollars can go further.
• You can host each instance of your site in different geographic locations to better serve those areas. For example, you wouldn't want your US hosted site to be also serving the UK.

Adaptability

Business is changing at warp speed. By using a headless configuration with a separate presentation layer, marketers aren’t limited by SaaS platform functionality. They can build an ideal experience that includes changes to functional pages such as a product/category/cart page. Traditionally, these pages are only configurable in a monolithic SaaS product.

• Marketing needs to constantly adapt the customer journey (messaging, buying workflows, etc.)
• Personalized customer experiences are desired and require access to multiple data sources.

A headless setup combined with the right tools and a content management system bakes in this type of adaptability.

Scaling

It is critical to be able to scale or adapt your tech stack without replatforming every couple of years. With a decoupled tech stack, you can:

• Swap out the platforms/functions that are no longer working (e.g. commerce) without impacting any other aspect of your tech stack.
• Maintain your customer experience while increasing or changing functional capabilities.

When Does Monolithic Make Sense?

There are a few reasons why an organization may decide to stick with a monolithic approach to its tech stack. Let’s go through them quickly.

Needs Met By Standard Functionality

Not every business has as complex purchasing flows, products or services as another. If your operational needs are being met by a SaaS or traditional offering and you don’t need any functionality, it goes without saying that this is what you should use. 

Limited Budget for Costly Development

The bottom line plays a big part in every business, and the initial costs of decoupling your tech stack can be a barrier to entry for budget-conscious organizations. Keep in mind, though, that moving away from the monolith has a long-term return on investment in efficiency and automation.

Inability to Maintain

Not many companies have the type of in-house developers it takes to maintain and update a headless tech stack. Hiring specialized staff may not be in the budget, or training existing specialists to a level to keep the systems up to date may not fit with the company’s current business objectives.

Monolithic or Headless? 

At the end of the day, it is a business-driven decision to decouple your tech stack or not. Gather your stakeholders, dive deep into their needs from your systems, and then look at your options for meeting those needs. You may find that the headless route is the best way to go. Or, your findings might tell you that now isn't the time to make that kind of transformation.

Either way, we hope this information has helped you better understand the terms monolithic and headless in your tech stack.

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