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Traditional CMS solutions may be the most common option for websites, but the needs of businesses are quickly outgrowing some of the more dated systems. Headless CMS, on the other hand, are growing rapidly in both usage and popularity, thanks to their array of benefits. In fact, according to BusinessWire the headless CMS market was valued at around $328.5 million in 2019 and is projected to reach a value of $1.62 billion by 2027. This undeniable growth makes  it clear that many businesses are choosing Headless CMS as the solution for their online stores.

If you’re an online merchant evaluating different CMS solutions, you should consider if a headless CMS might be the right fit for you. Understanding the features and benefits of this type of CMS will reveal why it’s becoming a favorite solution amongst many enterprise eCommerce businesses. In this post, we’ll dive deeper into what a headless CMS is, what makes it different from traditional CMS, and the benefits headless options can provide. Read on to learn more.

What Is Headless?

The short sell is this – a headless CMS provides you with ultimate flexibility when it comes to designing your website front-end, creating a robust back-end, and optimizing the user experience.

Headless CMS allow your developers and designers to create a seamless front-end experience for the end user without having to work around existing systems architecture. In short, it separates the “head” (your front-end, what the consumer sees) from the “body” (the back-end logic and integrations that keep things running). Your developers are free to make back-end changes without worrying about the front-end display and experience being affected. The same applies for front-end designers, who can make your website look and perform however they see fit, without worrying about breaking the back-end.

When you go headless, you don’t have to be locked in by specific technologies or business logic flows. Headless CMS breaks down the monolithic system that the eCommerce industry has become accustomed to.

What Is A Traditional CMS?

A traditional CMS acts as an all-in-one editing experience. Your front-end and back-end systems are intrinsically linked. On your back-end, you can manage, create, and store your content. The way your content is created on the back-end is exactly how it will be rendered for end users.

This is a problem for several reasons:

  1. It lacks flexibility. Traditional CMS makes it difficult to customize the user experience
  2. Content is inconveniently stored in rendered form
  3. Preferences about front-end requirements have to be met on the back-end
  4. Editors and devs work on the back-end while end users are browsing your website in real-time

Fortunately, there’s a better way.

What Are The Benefits Of Headless CMS?

Headless CMS provide numerous benefits for digital merchants. Let’s take a look at just a few of the advantages of headless CMS:

One Reference, Multiple Subscribers

A headless CMS can act as a single source of truth for all of your communication channels. When your back-end is decoupled from front-end experiences, you can manage content for all of your communication channels simultaneously. This makes omnichannel marketing as close to effortless as possible, with far fewer moving parts.

You can connect your headless CMS to your digital store displays, native phone applications, website, and so much more. In short, all of your end users will be getting the same seamless experience, no matter where they’re finding your content.

Deeper Integrations

With headless content management systems, you can integrate any of your content and data sources with your back-end. In addition to simplifying content publishing, ingesting content becomes much less complicated. You can directly integrate catalog data, review data, and even other content management systems. Best of all, you can do this without having to resort to wonky workarounds or an inefficient web of dependencies.

Scalability + Portability

A headless CMS will follow you into the future, with whatever technologies you choose to use. That’s because a headless CMS is essentially futureproof. It’s not coupled with a monolithic architecture, so there are no hard lock-ins.

You can view a headless CMS as an entirely separate service entity. One that can easily integrate with your current system, or, one that can integrate into any systems you decide to use next. This makes a headless CMS endlessly scalable and endlessly portable.

Unparalleled Flexibility and Ease of Use

It can’t be understated how much flexibility that a headless CMS provides. You can choose your programming language, meaning your developers can work however they want. They won’t be confined by the walls and obstacles of a traditional CMS. And your front-end can be designed in a way that is best for your users, without having to be concerned about the back-end logistics. A headless CMS is easy to use for developers, designers, and end-users alike.

Save Time, Money, and Resources

It certainly doesn’t hurt that a headless CMS can save your team time, money, and resources. Because headless CMS are decoupled from the front-end, significant changes and the creation of new functions can be streamlined. Back-end and front-end teams don’t have to wait on each other for changes because their changes won’t affect the other department.

When your back-end needs maintenance or has issues, your website doesn’t have to go down to fix them. Single content items can be re-used as necessary, optimizing project efficiency. Editors don’t have to wait on developers to create new templates for them. No aspect of your website ever has to be rebuilt from scratch. The list goes on and on. Put simply, when you use a headless CMS your team will be more efficient and effective.

Increased Security

A headless CMS is more secure than traditional systems. Since the CMS is separate, you’re much less susceptible to DDoS attacks. Headless content can be published as read-only, allowing you to put additional security code layers to protect from attacks even further. Traditional CMS like WordPress are known entities, ones that have been hacked various times before and that have a variety of ways in.

This is just a sampling of the benefits that a headless CMS can provide. If you’re looking to future proof your online presence, going headless is one approach with a positive outlook.

Headless CMS eCommerce Agency

Interested in migrating your eCommerce platform to a Headless CMS, or just want to explore your options? Schedule time to chat with us here.