Today’s hyper competitive ecommerce world is run by technology and we should not think of them as just tools, but the backbone of your success. This explains why the Ecommerce architecture is about the glass that happens behind the scenes to make your digital store work efficiently, from customer facing and an end to backend management systems. At e:command, we excel at crafting and building custom, agile and scalable ecommerce platforms tailored specifically for your business to enhance your delivery of the best customer experience possible and help run your business seamlessly. Therefore, if you’re new or want to grow, it’s important to learn about the right ecommerce architecture so you can stay operational efficient, having seamless integrations, and long term growth. Now, let’s explore the solutions to suit your business requirements:
Understanding of Ecommerce Architecture
Ecommerce architecture is the underlying structure of your ecommerce store which dictates how different parts of your online store interact (your catalogue, checkout, and backend management tools). Thus, the aim is to deliver an efficient, flexible and scalable environment that facilitates your business growth and gives your customers an uninterrupted experience. Regardless of whether you are setting up a new ecommerce store or taking your existing store to new heights, the architecture of your ecommerce store makes a huge difference. Here are the main types of ecommerce architecture you’ll encounter:
1. Monolithic Architecture
The traditional approach of monolithic architecture combines all ecommerce functionalities like product management, check-out, and user interface into a package. At the same time it makes setup easy and management centralize, but those limitations come to the surface as your business grows. Thus, the architecture shown above can be difficult and expensive to scale, due to its tightly coupled components, which impedes implementing new features while integrating with 3rd party services, and customizing a component without reworking the entire system.
2. Headless Architecture
Headless architecture takes the frontend (what customers see) and backend (how the store operates) away from each other so businesses can still use theirs backend, and focus on crafting amazing unique tailored user experience. This is the decoupling of user interface (e.g., web, mobile, or even voice assistants) from backend operations, meaning changes or updates to the user interface will not impact backend operations and therefore, facilitates omnichannel strategy adoptions. In addition, it allows easier, faster deployment of new customer facing features that don’t require reworking backend systems, which make it more flexible for its future growth.
3. Microservices Architecture
An ecommerce platform built with microservices architecture is separated into separate small services, which means that each of these services works on one of its own business functions, like the inventory handling, payment systems, or customer’s data. The modular design of this allows for better scalability since a service can be developed, deployed, or updated without affecting other areas of the system. When you have a complex business with features being released faster or you want to integrate cutting-edge tech to your business but you don’t want it be a big overhaul of the entire platform, than this is the kind of tech to use.
4. Modular Architecture
Modular architecture falls in between monolithic and microservices approaches by composing larger, heavier building blocks, or modules, together into some cohesive system. These modules (like checkout, product search, or order management are easy to select or customize but nonetheless businesses get a streamlined, connected platform. Let’s be clear that this structure is a lot more flexible than monolithic systems in terms of scalability and evolution, but requires less technical expertise or complexity to manage than microservices. For businesses in search of balance between flexibility and simplicity, this is an exceptional option.
In What Ways Does Custom Ecommerce Architecture Benefit Your Business?
Having a custom ecommerce architecture is very beneficial to your business as it helps you with your specific needs and goals. Here’s why opting for a tailored solution from e:command can give your business a lasting competitive leg up:
1. Scalability for Future Growth
As your ecommerce business grows in size, so too do the challenges it encounters including higher volumes of traffic, more SKUs or even global operations. Thus, the solution built on a custom architecture guarantees easy scalability without the performance impact. Moreover, modular scalability comes with a microservices or headless architecture where you may opt to bring in new features, enter a new market, or even introduce new channels for selling products with little interruption. Therefore, this is crucial for keeping your user experience uninterrupted as you start to scale.
2. Flexibility and Customization
No two businesses are the same, each has their own set of challenges, target audience, and operational model. Thus, these demands frequently fall short of the capabilities offered by off the shelf solutions. It provides highly customized ecommerce platform based around your business demands. We build ecommerce solutions that scale whether you want to manage the complexity of B2B transactions or bring personal touch to B2C experiences. Your platform will be based on your brand and business operations with unique product catalogues, one customised for every customer throughout the checkout process.
3. Seamless Integrations
Today in the digital era e-commerce platform needs to connect to numerous other third party systems including payment gateways, CRM platforms, ERP systems and marketing tools. A custom-built ecommerce architecture from e:command makes sure that these integrations are all seamless, so that every aspect of your operation, like inventory management, customer services and other operations should work together in perfect harmony. By leveraging this smooth integration, errors are lessened, efficiency is increased, and a single system for analytics and real time data sharing is facilitated throughout the entire business.
4. Improved User Experience
Indeed, the architecture of your ecommerce platform dictates how your users interact with your website. These include slow load times, heavy navigation, or a poor checkout process, all of which can drive your customers away. At e:command, we prioritize the user experience through creating fast, responsive, and intuitive platforms that fit the audience’ needs. Regardless if your customers shop on mobile, desktop or tablet, our aim is for their overall experience to be without flaw, seamless and consistent throughout the application resulting in reduced cart abandonment and increased conversion.
5. Cost Efficiency
Building a custom ecommerce platform will take a bit of an upfront investment, but the long term savings will be substantial. Architectures that are customized can be designed to suit the latest technologies and the changing business needs without the need of building new working arounds and expensive overhauls. In other words, your platform will still be useful and stay relevant as your business matures, eliminating the need for out of pocket costly migrations or complete rebuilds in the future. Furthermore, it also helps you save money associated with maintenance and troubleshooting which can ultimately become a better system specific to your operations that can help with efficiency in return.
Why Choose e:command?
At e:command, we understand that one size fits all type of solution rarely works for the unique needs of each and every ecommerce businesses. For that reason, we offer to create custom ecommerce platform that can be tailored to your purposes. e:command also leverage the most current technologies to provide secure, effective and dynamic ecosystems that enable your business to flourish in a digital world. Here’s how we stand out:
1. Expert Consultation
We begin by talking to you in depth to understand your business goals, pains, and future vision in order to know our starting point for the process. We’re not generally offering generic solutions, we’re enabling you to find your ecommerce architecture that’s right by your business strategy. Thus, with e:command, you will receive advice on whether you need a headless solution to increase your omnichannel capabilities, a microservices architecture for continuing flexibility, or a modular system that perfectly balances simplicity and customizability to match your needs.
2. Custom Development
As a team of experienced developers, we build high performance, custom ecommerce platforms that go beyond functional and are designed to be scalable and future growth friendly. Whether you are using Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, CS-Cart or a fully custom built platform, we work with the leading technologies to bring you the best tools to support your operations. Therefore, whatever your aim may be, whether it is boosting user experience, reducing backend work or tapping into new markets, we design and develop for your vision.
3. Ongoing Support
Ecommerce platform are dynamic and needs continuous adaptions towards new market demand, trends, and customer expectation. Thus, at e:command, we don’t stop at building and leaving, we’re there for continuous support, performance monitoring and optimization, so we can keep your platform running efficiently and up to date. We’re here to make sure that your technology evolves in parallel to how your business evolves, providing updates and upgrades to help keep you at the forefront of competition.
4. Security and Compliance
In today’s digital world, security is of paramount importance. From protecting sensitive customer data to ensuring compliance with global ecommerce regulations, e:command places strong emphasis on building secure platforms. Thus, to protect your platform from threats, we have implemented the highest standards of cybersecurity, including data encryption, firewalls, and regular security audits. Our work also ensures that your ecommerce store meets industry standards and regulations like GDPR, PCI DSS and others, so you and your customers can sleep tight.
