From Zero to Composable Storefront: How to Build Quickly and Effectively

To improve key e-commerce store metrics, including customer experience, conversion rates, and revenue, you need to start with an optimized and efficient frontend. Numerous case studies show that choosing the right frontend solution can lead to significant improvements in all these metrics. This is especially important for companies operating online that want to maximize their profits.

The key to quickly and effectively building a composable frontend lies in using the right tools and techniques. In this article, we'll explore some of the best practices and technologies that can help developers build a frontend that's both responsive and adaptable to constantly changing user needs.

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What is a Composable Frontend?

A composable frontend is a crucial element of the entire composable commerce architecture, which separates the frontend from the backend.

Since the frontend is the part of your website that directly interacts with consumers from start to finish, you must prioritize its optimization. Only a fast, mobile-friendly storefront can enhance customer experience, conversion, and revenue.

For your product to stand out in the market, a modern frontend is essential. This also directly impacts how a potential investor perceives the company's value and potential.

That's why the right approach to frontend development is crucial. Let's explore its possibilities.

Custom Frontend Development

Custom frontend development involves building the storefront from scratch using frameworks like Vue or React. This approach provides full control over the look and feel of the storefront.

One significant advantage of custom frontend development is that it allows companies to create a storefront tailored to their specific needs. With this approach, businesses have complete control over the appearance and functionality of their website. They can create a unique and distinctive user experience that sets them apart from the competition.

While a custom frontend can provide a unique and tailored user experience, it can also have its own set of drawbacks. These include slow time-to-market, as custom development takes time; many mundane and repetitive tasks that can consume valuable resources; and a significant amount of foundational work that can be unengaging and tedious for developers.

Platform-Specific Solutions

Another approach to building a composable storefront is to use platform-specific solutions. These solutions are typically provided by monolithic platforms and are optimized to work seamlessly with their existing infrastructure. Some examples include Spartacus for SAP Commerce Cloud and Commercetools Frontend for Commercetools.

Some key benefits of platform-specific frontend solutions include:

Short-term cost savings
Suitability for small and medium-sized businesses
Quick time to POC

Now, let's quickly list some of the drawbacks.

One potential disadvantage of platform-specific solutions is that they may not be as flexible as a custom frontend. Companies might be limited to the features and functionalities provided by the backend platform, which may not meet their specific needs.

By following MACH principles, developers can create a composable and modular architecture that allows them to easily swap components and adapt to changing market needs. However, with a platform-specific solution, they are limited by the vendor's technology stack, which may not be compatible with other technologies.

For example, if a company chooses a platform-specific frontend solution, they will be restricted to using the vendor's backend technology, which may not be compatible with other backend technologies. This limits their ability to innovate and adapt to changing market needs. Whenever they want to change their backend platform, they have to rebuild their frontend layer from scratch.

Similarly, the vendor's frontend technology may not be compatible with other e-commerce technologies, such as headless CMS (Content Management Systems), payment solutions, or search. This model often limits scalability and adaptability.

While platform-specific solutions may offer short-term benefits, they ultimately result in a "headless monolith" that isn't truly MACH-driven. To create a composable and modular architecture that allows for easy innovation and adaptation, developers should choose technology solutions that are vendor-agnostic and compatible with other technologies. This way, they can create a truly MACH-driven digital experience that meets customer needs and allows them to outperform the competition in the online space.

Frontend as a Service: An Independent Solution for Frontend Development

Frontend as a Service (FEaaS) is a cloud-based service that provides developers with a pre-built frontend infrastructure to use in their applications. FEaaS solutions offer a range of benefits, such as good performance, optimal costs, reduced risk, and a short time-to-market.

Additionally, FEaaS presents a powerful solution for the challenges posed by custom frontend and platform-specific frontend development. In custom frontend development, the challenge is creating a unique User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) that reflects the brand and meets user needs. FEaaS can provide ready-made UI components, templates, and design systems that can be easily customized and integrated into a project, significantly reducing development time and costs.

On the other hand, developing frontends for individual platforms requires developers to build UIs and UXs optimized for the specific requirements of each platform. FEaaS provides cross-platform support and can be easily integrated with various platforms, allowing developers to create consistent and responsive UIs that are tailored to each platform. We are therefore talking about software that completely changes the rules of the tech industry.

Finally, let's discuss the distinctions between no-code, low-code, and high-code Frontend as a Service to choose the ideal one for your company based on your requirements and budget.

Low-code/no-code FEaaS

The two terms, "low-code" and "no-code," refer to application development techniques that use visual modeling to simplify system complexity. "No-code/low-code" tools enable numerous e-commerce companies to create solutions with little to no technical knowledge, thereby helping them reduce costs and grow. While low-code and no-code methods can be distinguished, they are often used interchangeably. The primary difference between them is their target audience. Developers typically prefer low-code platforms, while business users are more interested in no-code platforms. This modern model of software development is becoming increasingly appreciated and, as a result, more popular.

High-code FEaaS Solution

High-code Frontend as a Service is a composable commerce solution that enables developers to create a high-performance e-commerce frontend using cloud-based modules. This solution offers companies a complete frontend package, including an orchestration layer, various pre-built components and integrations, a cloud platform, and a foundational theme for quick starts and proof-of-concept creation.

Developers have the freedom to customize the frontend application without any limitations and to build highly differentiated stores with unique customer experiences using the comprehensive ecosystem of tools and applications provided by a High-Code FEaaS solution.

Thanks to high-code Frontend as a Service (FEaaS) solutions like Vue Storefront, companies can leverage ready-made integrations that shorten development time and increase time-to-market. Vue Storefront's headless architecture enables companies to create a storefront that is fast and scalable, ensuring good performance. With optimal costs, companies can save on development expenses and reduce overhead while creating a unique storefront experience, and the final product is exactly what customers are looking for.