When working with clients, we don’t just want to bring engineering and development know-how to the table. We want to use a transparent, down-to-earth approach to help them solve problems and achieve both their short- and long-term goals.

So, we’ve decided to incorporate Composable Commerce into our e-commerce development process. The goal? To provide customers a simple, flexible, effective, and marketable IT infrastructure for retail customers that isn't overly technical, doesn’t prolong downtime, and keeps customers on path toward their goals.

BREAKING THE MONOTONY

In our experience, many e-commerce clients have historically built their online storefronts on top of a monolithic platform. Why? Because it’s a safe and standardised route that’s great for procurement teams. On the flip side, they leave little room for companies to innovate, customize, and add onto their platforms.

To become more flexible, businesses might opt to build an in-house solution on their own. It can be a worthwhile investment, but the amount of time and money needed to build and maintain this means retailers must leave their comfort zones and focus on becoming IT organizations and experts.

From those two ends of the spectrum sprung the motivation to welcome Composable Commerce, which can give retailers the best of both worlds. It’s a method that prioritizes building an infrastructure with brands’ unique needs and services in mind. An optimised architecture lets retailers benefit from customisable, “best off the shelf” solutions that can plug gaps and highlight the best aspects of a product or service. And best of all, it can be done quickly.

RELAYING THE FOUNDATION

We welcomed the Composable Commerce architecture method to stay ahead of the curve with our retail clients while offering them the chance to address the following priorities: 

■ Architecture and Strategy
■ Product Data and Content
■ Customer Engagement
■ E-commerce and Mobile
■ In-store Technology
■ Supply Chain and Order Management
■ Payments

To bring it all to life, we created a mock online fashion brand and incorporated a unified, operational Composable Commerce proof-of-concept into the front-end.Over the course of the project, our team:

1. Developed a gateway API layer (i.e., an integration piece) tailored to the clients’ business model but flexible enough to handle new SaaS products or other necessary add-ons as needed.   

2. Implemented a product information management system to handle inventory management levels, customer data, and other relevant information.   

3. Incorporated commerce engine software to usher potential customers from the browsing phase into cart-building and toward checkout.   

4. Capped it off with a payment API integration to complete the potential customer experience. 

CROSSING THE FINISH LINE

Our team completed the project in three months, hitting a development goal established at the start of the process. The end product proves that this kind of transformation can be high-quality, risk-free, and quick. Plus, it illustrates that retailers can take an active role in the change to ensure it’s done with their brands’ best interest in mind.

“When modern retailers want to transform their business, they are increasingly turning to a composable architecture that allows change to happen in a flexible, cost-effective, and controlled manner,” Head of Retail Delivery Paul Maguire said. “Endava can partner with retailers to develop strategies and execute development of their composable commerce future.”