How to Build a Composable Commerce Solution That Adapts as Your Business Grows

Commerce moves fast.

Your business must move faster.

Enterprises require flexible solutions that adapt instantly to shifting demands.

Yet, agility remains elusive. Current tech stacks often block progress.

Retailers frequently rely on monolithic platforms.

These rigid structures hinder your ability to ship fresh shopping experiences. They limit what your team can build.

The answer?

Composable ecommerce.

Recent statistics highlight a massive shift.

80% of enterprise companies had considered or moved toward a composable website architecture, and 91% of IT leaders believe this technology is vital for future success.

The landscape is changing.

Legacy systems are fading. A modular strategy is taking over.

What is composable commerce?

Composable commerce is a modern approach to building ecommerce systems using independent software — such as search, cart, or checkout — connecting them through APIs. 

This allows businesses to create a flexible, modular, and agile solution that’s adaptable, scalable, and supports faster innovation than traditional ecommerce platforms.

Think building blocks.

Not rigid statues.

This concept changes how you construct digital commerce experiences. At its core, the method offers true choice.

Adaptability drives this fresh strategy.

Gartner formalised the concept. It moves away from all-in-one software suites.

Enterprises tailor their tech stacks instead.

Select best-of-breed tools and integrate vendors to meet specific requirements.

The four key tenets of composable ecommerce.

These core principles are surprisingly simple.

1. Modular

Components represent specific capabilities — search, cart, and payments.

Each piece stands independently, ready to deploy, update, or swap out without disrupting the whole. Nothing gets permanently fused together.

2. Open

Applications communicate seamlessly through standard APIs. 

Event-driven architectures keep data flowing between services. This design prevents vendor lock-in, so your composable website stays flexible and adaptable.

3. Flexible

Highly tailored shopping journeys become possible when you choose top-tier solutions and combine them effectively.

Match your operational needs precisely. Customers get exactly what they want.

4. Business-centric

Strategy comes before code.

Composable ecommerce architecture empowers teams to respond to market shifts instantly. Technology serves your goals — it doesn't dictate them.

What is the value of packaged business capabilities (PBCs)?

PBCs sit at the core of composable commerce.

These pre-configured, API-first software components deliver specific business functions. Think of them as specialised building blocks.

Businesses select and combine them to create their ideal commerce platform.

Common PBCs in composable commerce:

Product information management (PIM)

Centralises all product data — descriptions, specifications, images, videos, translations. 

Consistency across channels becomes automatic.

A retailer managing thousands of SKUs uses a dedicated PIM to organise detailed product attributes, then pushes this data to their website, mobile app, and marketplaces simultaneously.

Shopping cart and checkout

Manages items customers intend to buy, calculates totals, and guides them through purchase completion.

These PBCs offer high customisation for a better user experience.

A brand chooses a checkout PBC known for high conversion rates and a streamlined one-page flow.

Promotions and discounts engine

Handles complex rules for applying discounts, coupons, bundle offers, and loyalty rewards.

A retailer implements a sophisticated promotions PBC to run targeted "buy one, get one free" offers or tiered discounts based on customer segments.

Search and discovery

Delivers intelligent, fast, relevant product search with features like faceted search, auto-complete, and typo tolerance.

An ecommerce site integrates an AI-powered search PBC to offer personalised results and recommendations based on user behaviour.

This flexibility lets you choose your preferred technologies for each specific business need, then assemble them into a custom, agile tech stack.

One component becomes outdated? A better option emerges?

Replace it without dismantling the entire structure.

Simplifies complex systems.

Tech stacks overwhelm enterprise retailers.

PBCs solve this.

They break intricate systems into modular, self-contained components. Integration becomes simpler. Scalability improves.

You manage complex ecommerce environments with ease and efficiency.

This modular architecture also enhances visibility across operations.

Reporting and dashboard-friendly.

PBCs integrate seamlessly across your tech stack.

Your reporting consolidates into a single unified view, delivering actionable insights and comprehensive data points for better decision-making.

This holistic view reveals true profitability and channel effectiveness. Armed with these insights, they optimise marketing spend and ROI with confidence.

Inspires collaboration between teams.

PBCs drive impactful business benefits through company-wide innovation.

Greater agility means teams pivot swiftly — new ideas get implemented quickly without widespread disruption.

Each modular PBC can be developed, tested, and deployed independently by specialised teams. Cross-team dependencies drop significantly.

Deployment cycles for new features or updates accelerate dramatically.

Composable commerce vs. traditional commerce

All-in-one platforms sound convenient.

They're not.

Monolithic commerce platforms bundle everything together — frontend storefront, product catalogue, order management, payments, and marketing tools. A single vendor delivers all functionalities within a single codebase.

Everything's tightly coupled.

Picture a pre-built, all-inclusive playset. You get everything in one box, designed to work together.

But what happens when you don't like one part? Or when you want to add something new that isn't compatible?

You're stuck.

Significant modification challenges emerge. A composable commerce approach works differently.

How adopting composable commerce can improve your online store

Technology evolves. Retail innovates.

Businesses must react quickly to changing customer expectations — or better yet, anticipate them.

Composable commerce provides the agility needed to deliver exceptional experiences at speed and scale.

Your business differentiates itself from a growing number of competitors.

Flexibility and agility.

A composable commerce platform empowers businesses to select top-tier vendors and customise their technology stack.

You meet unique requirements without the limitations of single-platform solutions. This flexibility enables rapid adaptation to market changes and customer demands.

Build personalised customer engagement.

Customer journey touchpoints have expanded beyond "in-store" and "online."

Shoppers now interact with brands through social channels, marketplaces, IoT devices, and more. Building a user experience with these factors in mind requires flexibility that monolithic systems can't provide.

Imagine a customer browsing specific hiking boots on your website, interacting with PIM and Search PBCs.

Later, they cheque store inventory for those boots using your mobile app — that's the Inventory PBC at work.

Respond rapidly to changing business needs.

Monolithic systems make any functionality change complex. 

With composable commerce, you address only the functionality you need to grow, without risking impact to other business capabilities within your ecosystem.

Agility keeps you competitive and responsive to market conditions.

Reduce customer acquisition costs.

Advertising channels grow increasingly saturated. Consumer perceptions shift. Customer acquisition costs rise.

A modular approach enables agile integration with technologies necessary to build lasting customer relationships and engagement.

Businesses seamlessly integrate a loyalty programme PBC to reward repeat purchases and cultivate advocacy. They connect sophisticated marketing automation tools that use real-time commerce data — cart abandonment, purchase history — to deliver highly personalised communication campaigns.

Deep integration with a central CRM PBC ensures a unified view of every customer interaction. Teams nurture relationships more effectively and increase lifetime value, mitigating the impact of high acquisition costs.

Scalability and innovation.

Composable commerce ensures your technology stack expands in tandem with growth. Adaptation to future needs happens without lock-in to a restrictive system. This scalability supports current operations and future expansion plans.

Avoid vendor lock-in.

Monolithic software vendors often limit client flexibility. Discover a better product from a different company? You'll wait until your contract expires — or face a potentially expensive re-platforming process.

Not with composable commerce.

Open standards and well-defined APIs let individual components communicate and integrate regardless of their provider. Dependency on any single vendor drops significantly. The modular design lets you swap components in and out as needed to suit specific business requirements.

MACH architecture: The foundation of composable commerce

Composable commerce rests on a technical foundation.

That foundation adheres to established industry standards, known as MACH architecture. In 2020, a community of developers formed the MACH Alliance to help enterprises navigate the technology landscape, advocating for open technology ecosystems.

MACH represents four key principles that define truly composable solutions:

Microservices-based

The building blocks of your tech stack. These offer a decentralised, decoupled route to meeting individual business requirements.

API-first

All commerce functionality connects and remains accessible via APIs. Seamless integration and communication between systems becomes possible.

Cloud-native

Fully harnesses the cloud for speed, performance, and security. Your customers get fast and reliable experiences.

Headless

Decouples the frontend presentation layer from the backend commerce engine.

Is composable commerce right for your business?

Composable commerce offers significant advantages.

But it's not a universal solution. Deciding whether to adopt this path requires careful evaluation of your business's specific needs, goals, capabilities, and overall digital maturity.

How to evaluate if composable commerce is a fit.

Ask yourself several critical questions:

1. Are current platform limitations hindering growth or innovation?

Your existing monolithic platform makes it slow, costly, or impossible to implement new features, personalise experiences, or enter new markets. Composable offers a path forward.

2. Do you need to create highly differentiated customer experiences?

"Out-of-the-box" isn't enough. You aim to build unique user journeys or integrate cutting-edge technologies like advanced AI personalisation or AR try-ons. Composable provides the necessary flexibility.

3. Are agility and speed-to-market critical competitive factors?

You need to respond to market changes rapidly, launch new products or channels quickly, or A/B test new functionalities without disrupting the entire system. Composability becomes key.

4. Do you have specific, critical business capabilities that require top-tier solutions?

Complex product configurations matter. Sophisticated global tax calculations are vital. Highly specialised search drives your business. A composable approach allows you to pick the best PBCs for those functions.

5. Are you looking to avoid vendor lock-in and future-proof your tech stack?

You want freedom to swap out components as better solutions emerge or as business needs evolve. Composable architecture is designed for this.

Considerations for digital maturity, resources, and existing tech stack.

Digital maturity

A composable approach often requires a shift in mindset towards API-first development, agile practises, and managing a multi-vendor ecosystem. Teams need preparation for some disruption.

Adequate resources must support this architectural shift.

Resources

You might save on unused monolithic features. Implementing and managing a composable stack requires skilled developers — either in-house or agency partners — who are proficient in integrations and contemporary commerce architectures.

There's an "orchestration" overhead to consider.

Your current technology landscape will influence the implementation strategy.

Existing tech stack

Evaluate if a complete "rip and replace" is necessary or if a phased approach is more feasible. Composable architecture allows you to update incrementally.

Careful evaluation of digital maturity, resources, and the existing tech stack is vital. Yet powerful business drivers increasingly compel organisations to adopt composable commerce.

The need to rapidly meet evolving customer expectations? Critical.

Overcome innovation barriers imposed by legacy systems? Essential.

Accelerate speed to market? Non-negotiable.

Ebook: Win Customers Across Every Channel

Get expert insights on data, branding, and marketing strategies to grow sales on every major ecommerce channel.

Get the Guide

Potential barriers to composable commerce adoption

Composable commerce offers compelling advantages.

But challenges exist.

Understanding these hurdles upfront helps you prepare realistic strategies and allocate appropriate resources for a smoother transition.

Technical complexity and integration challenges.

Building a composable tech stack requires connecting multiple independent systems.

Each PBC must communicate seamlessly with others through APIs. Orchestration becomes critical.

Mismatched data formats, authentication protocols, or API versioning create integration headaches. A seemingly simple task — like syncing inventory across your website, mobile app, and marketplace — can involve coordinating multiple APIs.

Testing becomes more complex, too.

Bugs might originate from interactions between components rather than within a single system. Debugging requires understanding how various services communicate.

How to address this:

Start with a well-documented integration platform or middleware solution. These tools act as a central nervous system, managing connections between PBCs.

Invest in robust API management and monitoring tools early.

Skills gap and learning curve.

Composable architecture demands different expertise than managing a monolithic platform.

Teams need knowledge of API-first architectures, microservices, cloud infrastructure, and modern development frameworks. Many ecommerce teams lack this specialised experience.

Existing staff trained on traditional platforms face a steep learning curve. Hiring developers with the right skills proves difficult and expensive.

Marketing and merchandising teams accustomed to user-friendly, all-in-one dashboards might struggle with managing multiple vendor interfaces.

How to address this:

1. Assess current team capabilities honestly.

Identify specific skill gaps early. Determine which roles need upskilling versus which require new hires.

2. Partner with experienced system integrators or agencies.

Agencies specialising in composable commerce implementations provide valuable expertise during the transition period.

3. Invest in training and education.

Provide resources for internal teams to learn about API-first architectures, microservices concepts, and the specific technologies being considered.

4. Focus on PBCs with strong vendor support and clear documentation.

Choose initial solutions from vendors who offer excellent onboarding and readily available help to ease the learning curve.

5. Adopt a phased approach to modernisation.

Gradually introduce composable elements rather than attempting a complete, immediate overhaul of the existing tech stack.

Organisations can incrementally build their capabilities and understanding by taking these steps.

The transition to a more composable structure becomes a manageable evolution rather than an overwhelming revolution.

Investing in infrastructure and monitoring tools.

Switching to a composable architecture may require changes to the infrastructure and tools you need to monitor various microservices.

Be aware of these changes and factor them into the total cost of ownership.

Develop relationships with partners who can support your growing needs.

Implementing DIY control panels.

A pure microservices or completely headless experience requires merchants to build a cohesive user interface on top of other components.

Fortunately, a growing ecosystem of third-party solutions helps.

Frontend-as-a-Service (FaaS) platforms or composable storefront builders offer pre-built UI components, templates, and development frameworks specifically designed to connect to various backend services.

These solutions significantly reduce the amount of custom interface development required.

Build a flexible, composable solution with BigCommerce

Businesses ready to embrace composable commerce need the right platform partner.

BigCommerce positions itself as an enterprise-focused platform designed for adaptability. As an active member of the MACH Alliance, BigCommerce fundamentally subscribes to a best-of-breed architectural approach.

This ensures retailers have the flexibility and extensibility to tailor an ecommerce solution to create a unique digital experience.

Extensive API coverage.

A significant technical differentiator for BigCommerce is its extensive API coverage — over 90% of platform functionality exposed via APIs.

This comprehensive API-first design is crucial for enabling seamless integration with various PBCs and building custom frontends.

It's a foundational requirement for any robust composable strategy.

Catalyst: Accelerate composable development.

BigCommerce recently introduced Catalyst to accelerate development and lower the barrier to entry for composable builds.

This flexible starter kit combines the customisation potential of headless architectures with the reliability, security, and scalability benefits of a SaaS platform.

Catalyst offers a fully integrated storefront reference implementation built on popular technologies, including Next.js and React.

Developers get a pre-wired, end-to-end guest shopper experience connected to the BigCommerce backend.

Composable commerce success storeys

The theoretical benefits of composable commerce become tangible when examining real-world implementations.

These case studies illustrate how diverse businesses have used BigCommerce to drive digital transformation, boost performance, and enhance the customer experience.

MKM Building Supplies.

Case Study: MKM

MKM Building Supplies, the UK's largest independent brand for builder supplies, embarked on a significant digital transformation project. The company needed to meet the needs of a younger, mobile-first audience.

MKM adopted a MACH-based, headless architecture, enabling the business to build a tailor-made tech stack.

Using headless technology meant we could make rapid improvements and change directions quickly, adding new features or categories without being limited by the technology.

— Andy Pickup, Digital Director at MKM Building Supplies

TradeTools.

Case Study: TradeTools

TradeTools, Australia's trusted name in industrial tools for trades professionals and DIY enthusiasts, faced escalating operational costs and complexity on their previous ecommerce platform, Magento.

To reduce expenses and enhance performance, TradeTools adopted BigCommerce's headless commerce architecture. The company transitioned smoothly to a more cost-effective, scalable solution without disrupting their customer experience.

Significant revenue growth and operational efficiencies resulted.

We were able to transition the backend to BigCommerce with minimal disruption and no customer confusion, keeping the frontend exactly as it was.

— Mark Vourlides, Marketing and Ecommerce Manager at TradeTools

The final word

Traditional platforms can't keep pace.

Markets shift. Customer expectations evolve. New technologies emerge constantly.

Yet one-size-fits-all solutions force you into rigid templates. You're stuck with features you don't need, missing capabilities you do. Pricing tiers bundle unnecessary tools while locking away critical ones.

Composable commerce solves this fundamental problem.

Best-of-breed solutions replace mediocre bundled features. You select specialised modules for search, checkout, inventory, promotions — each chosen for excellence rather than convenience.

Time-to-market drops by months. Teams deploy individual components without coordinating massive platform updates. Launch a new payment method this week. Integrate an AI recommendation engine next week.

Operational efficiency improves immediately. Replace underperforming modules without rebuilding your entire stack. Legacy systems integrate smoothly through API layers, extending their value while you modernise gradually.

Cost transparency increases. You pay for actual capabilities, scaling resources precisely as demand grows. No forced enterprise upgrades for a single feature.

Best-in-class experiences become achievable at every touchpoint. Rigid platforms deliver generic interactions. Composable architectures enable personalisation that converts browsers into loyal customers.

BigCommerce eliminates the complexity. Our extensive API coverage connects your chosen technologies seamlessly. Catalyst provides pre-built components that accelerate development. MACH Alliance membership ensures architectural excellence.

MKM Building Supplies transformed its digital presence. TradeTools reduced costs while improving performance. Both achieved results impossible on monolithic platforms.

Your market won't wait.

Ready to explore composable commerce? Connect with BigCommerce to discuss how modular architecture can accelerate your specific business goals.

FAQs about composable commerce