Recently, Magento 2 headless is becoming more and more popular in eCommerce. Businesses are interested in its potential.
However, this is a new type of web technology that requires highly specialized knowledge, so business owners may find it difficult to understand. It is even more challenging for those who want to apply this technique to their business model.
No worry if you are facing the same issue. We will reveal all the secrets of this technology in this article in the simplest way. Scroll down to learn more!
What Headless Magento 2 Really Is?
Before learning about headless Magento 2, we first need to know about headless websites.
In contrast to the block structure of traditional eCommerce, headless ones are a type of website with a discrete design. While standard websites often have backend and frontend tied together, those of headless architecture are usually separate from each other. They are connected through a technological bridge – API (Application Programming Interface).
Commonly, only the supporting layer is required in this type of website. The frontends are all customizable from scratch later.
Next, let’s talk about Magento. This is a platform that supports building eCommerce sites. It’s known for powerful functions which allow e-businesses to manage better and scale their operation.
In short, headless Magento 2 is the way to call headless websites built with the Magento framework.
Through the definition, it’s clear that the structure of the headless Magento website isn’t typical. Its support and display layers are unlinked to each other at first.
Developers then connect the backend and frontend via the APIs. The customer requests from the interface will go through this technology bridge to the backend. The data transmission principle from the support layer to the display layer will also work by this mechanism.
Thanks to this structure, your online store can freely connect with many prominent integrations. One of the must-have ones is the Magento 2 headless CMS. This technology will allow you to store the website’s content in the cloud. As a result, content delivery will become much more convenient, planned, and accessible.
The Different Between Headless Magento Vs Traditional Magento
Web speed
Website speed is an essential factor that affects a business’s online growth. Some can lead to web performance, user experience, or even SEO results (stores with high speed are always favored by search engines).
Regular sites are often slower than headless ones. Traditional stores have plugins to support their operation and keep the web’s functionality working. However, this is also a culprit for increasing web size, leading to slowness.
In contrast, headless websites are decoupled from their extensions entirely so that this problem won’t matter much.
Also, because the loose structure allows seamless technology connection via the API, you can choose any speed or performance-enhancing extensions on the software market. This will significantly improve your store pace.
Mobile customer experience
Poor user experience is one of the most common issues of traditional online stores. They are usually not designed to fit any particular device. As a result, sometimes, display errors occur. This can create discomfort for customers and negatively impact user flow. Even worse, this can create an unprofessional brand image in customers’ minds.
Thanks to headless Magento’s fantastic architecture, you can build separate interfaces for phones and computers. This device personalization will help improve compatibility with the user’s device. As a result, the user experience will also enhance by enhancing the smoothness of customers’ access process, thereby stimulating the sales revenue.
Some of the most commonly seen succeeding customization methods are website size’s screen space fitting, convenient button placement, large enough font, etc.
Development and Maintenance
The process of construction, upgrading, and maintaining a monolithic website takes time and effort. This hardship is even more significant with a regular website.
The backend and frontend of traditional web building are closely related. Therefore, any change in the support layer affects the visible layer and vice versa.
Thus, even the most minor activities need to take place exceptionally carefully, meticulously, and meticulously. It’s not wrong to say that even minor tweaks can lead to a large project.
Thanks to the discrete structure, the scalability of the headless website can happen a lot easier. The working time will also be faster since the building step quantity your development team needs to take will be significantly reduced.
In addition, because the frontend is no longer dependent on the backend, it is entirely possible to build and design both layers without arising problems simultaneously. The UI testing process will also be carried out earlier and more efficiently as tweaking can be done at any time. In short, you will see a noticeable decrease in time-to-market.
Why Is Headless Website A Trend Of The Future?
Above are some of the differences between headless Magento websites and traditional ones. Those factors are only some of this technology’s numerous strengths. We will list some more critical elements that make the headless approach a future trend.
Omnichannel supporting
With optimal speed, easy scalability, and a positive mobile experience, a headless store’s omnichannel potential are incontrovertible.
As you know, developers can improve user experience by building different user interfaces that suit customers’ commonly used devices. This relevance is at the core of the stimulus to online shopping.
In addition, the website can continue to function even when extensive editing is required, and the revenue won’t be much affected. As a result, you are now free to build more user-friendly touchpoints.
Besides, the reduction in web scalability hindrance will also give you more time to think carefully about the need for some devices. You can choose precise trading strategies.
Less technology integration barriers
Discrete structured websites are often straightforward to integrate with leading technologies globally.
Similar to how backend and frontend are connected, you can also connect your support layer to most eCommerce extensions via API.
For example, you can use mailing utilities on your traditional website. However, it is undeniable that its operation will be more cumbersome and difficult to use than Mailchimp – today’s leading mail support application. With a headless website, you only need to connect your backend to Mailchimp via the API to own this extension.
High flexibility and limitless customization
This is an undeniable strength of the headless Magento site. Building, upgrading, maintaining, and changing will be elementary. Accordingly, since there is less hindrance, developers and store owners will have more choices in the website development process.
In addition, Magento headless changes on the backend will not harm the user interface and vice versa. The fixing process will cause less risk, thereby reducing costs and time.
Scalability
Headless architecture offers enhanced scalability due to the separation of the front-end and back-end. This decoupling allows for independent scaling of both components. The back-end can be optimized to efficiently handle spikes in traffic, ensuring seamless data processing. Meanwhile, the front-end can be tailored for diverse devices without impeding data management.
As user demand fluctuates, resources can be allocated precisely where needed, preventing bottlenecks and maintaining optimal performance across the entire application.
Microservices
Headless architecture and microservices are a synergistic match. In a headless setup, various services can be designed, developed, and deployed independently, each responsible for a specific functionality. This modular approach enhances maintainability and flexibility, making updates and fixes more targeted and efficient.
By isolating services, you can minimize the impact of changes on the overall system. This granularity empowers development teams to innovate and iterate faster, accommodating evolving requirements and staying adaptable in a dynamic digital landscape.
SEO and Accessibility
Headless architecture empowers developers to refine the front-end code and structure with precision, positively influencing both SEO optimization and accessibility. Without being tied to a monolithic backend, developers can optimize elements that directly impact search engine rankings and improve user accessibility. They can implement structured data, optimize metadata, and streamline HTML for better search engine visibility.
Moreover, fine-tuning the front-end allows for greater control over elements crucial for accessibility compliance, such as semantic HTML tags and ARIA attributes, ensuring a more inclusive digital experience.
Why Should You Use Magento 2 Headless?
Reading this far, you may wonder why Magento is so popular and why business owners are usually interested in Magento but not other platforms.
Besides the general strengths of headless commerce, Magento 2 headless also has some advantages that only this platform has. Those will surely bring you lots of benefits.
Magento 2 headless PWA – An advanced web app version
Besides the standard headless website, Magento also provides a headless PWA. In essence, this is an upgraded website version.
PWA is a form of web app distributed by the website. Although it only appeared in 2016, PWA building has quickly become a trend for many large companies.
The development team will use web programming languages (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) to write this app codebase. However, despite having a web core, its appearance is exactly like the native apps. There is no browser bar and other web elements in the interface.
This web app type has many excellent strengths. One of the best examples is its app-like look and feel, offering users the best experience. The appealing interface will also make the interacting strategy with users more effective, increasing the conversion rate.
Besides the advantages of looks, it also has great functions such as offline mode, push notifications, etc.
Also, with structural strengths, this app has excellent performance like high speed and a simple downloading process. Hence, it becomes more SEO friendly and its customer reaching ability becomes more efficient.
Build your headless PWA with Tigren’s Magento Progressive Web App development services!
Magento 2 headless theme – an affordable choice
In addition to PWA producing ability, Magento is also chosen by large enterprises thanks to its variety of headless themes.
There are plenty of website themes being available on the Magento theme market. This gives business owners more choices. They will have more chances to find one that matches their brand images, brand colors, and brand styles higher. As a result, customers will have a more profound memory of these business brands.
In addition, themes always have a much smaller price and time to market than traditional development. You can save a considerable amount of your budget thanks to this feature.
Successful Examples of Magento 2 Headless
ShopEddies
ShopEddies is a global brand that provides accessories for cars. This company is displaying and sells approximately 260,000 products in its store. With such many goods, owning a website capable of supporting catalog management has become a paramount requirement.
They decided to go with the headless Magento PWA and chose Tigren as their companion to solve this headache issue. Upon transformation completion in 2020, all brand management and conversion rate-related issues were resolved. The new store interface has helped them better represent their brand image. Their checkout process is also more efficient and convenient.
Oliver Bonas
This is a perfume and cosmetics retailer brand with plenty of loyal worldwide customers. However, the quality of their products and services is so good that they want to achieve an even better result. To do this, they know they will need headless Magento support.
The goal is to personalize its online store look and feel as much as possible. Their two most important development criteria are friendly UI and convenient UX. To fulfill this desire, they completely redesigned the website to be user-friendly. After the building process, they witness remarkable growth in sales.
Prepare To Build A Headless Magento Store
Although Magento 2 headless can bring businesses many benefits, the building process is not simple. You need to prepare quite a few things for smooth development.
A suitable time and budget
This is the most important thing. First, you need to learn carefully and meticulously about the process of promoting your online store. From there, make a clear plan about time and budget distribution. This will significantly assist you in future spending management.
Remember that headless Magento website development is a laborious process that demands hundreds of hours of development and thousands of dollars. So be prepared with all the necessary resources. Any shortage can cause a drop in quality.
Web development companion
Web development requires an expert, and this will be one of the most critical factors that will significantly impact the final product quality.
Online store design companies in different geographical locations will have different salary requirements. Usually, the Americas and Africapricess are pretty high, and the prices in Southeast Asia are more reasonable. This disparity is not necessarily due to the quality of their service. It may be because of the difference in the cost of living. This cost in developing countries is commonly cheaper.
In addition, you should also consider the company’s capabilities carefully through their portfolio. Here, take the time to examine their work results, products, and teams thoroughly. These factors will help you estimate their ability to get the job done.
Don’t forget to check the company tradition and culture. It might affect the workflow significantly. Companions with too different working cultures may cause discomfort during the working process. Some companies even have the habit of missing deadlines.
Basic technology knowledge
If you don’t have much experience in website development and decide to work with an agency, then basic tech understanding is an essential factor.
These insights will make it easier for you to control and evaluate the agency’s work. As a result, the number of delays and errors during collaboration will also be minimized.
In addition, you can also evaluate the services of those agencies more efficiently. You will know what is more essential for your business. This will avoid unnecessary waste.
It is impossible to avoid communication and negotiation with them during the cooperating time. Your conversations will be much more convenient and practical. You will quickly understand the issues the agency wants to convey, thereby making the right decisions for the online business.
Bottom Line
Because of these strengths, more and more businesses are deciding to invest in this technology to improve customer experience and reduce long-term website costs. However, constructing this type of website requires a higher technical understanding than traditional websites. Consequently, choosing a professional support team to have a high-quality online store won’t be a bad idea.
If you are having the same problem, then come to Tigren! With skillful developers and dedicated customer care staff; more than ten years of providing eCommerce solutions and a variety of services, we are confident that we can become a great partner in your customer acquisition.
Read More:
Headless Website: Must Read Guides Of A Vital Business Trend
Headless Commerce Guide: Definition, Architecture, Examples, Benefits
Headless CMS Explained: Definitions, Examples, Pros And Cons
Headless PWA Frontend For Magento: Thorough Understanding In 5 Mins
