Composable commerce is a modern approach to building and managing eCommerce systems that prioritizes flexibility, agility, and customization. It is based on modularity, where various commerce services and components are treated as independent building blocks, allowing companies to compose a tailored eCommerce tech stack. This enables teams to pick best-fit solutions for each part of commerce, quickly launch new elements, and evolve the customer experience in small, continuous steps. (Source)
How does composable commerce differ from headless commerce?
While both composable and headless commerce decouple the frontend and backend, composable commerce goes further by allowing businesses to compose their own tech stack from modular, best-of-breed services for each part of commerce. Headless commerce separates the frontend and backend, typically via APIs, but composable commerce enables even greater flexibility by connecting independent components via APIs, allowing for rapid adaptation and customization. (Source)
What is headless commerce?
Headless commerce is an architecture where the frontend (presentation layer) and backend (commerce engine) are separated. Backend systems share data and logic via APIs, allowing any frontend technology to be used for any digital touchpoint. This enables omnichannel commerce and greater flexibility in delivering customer experiences. (Source)
What is monolithic commerce?
Monolithic commerce refers to a single application with one large code base that manages both the backend and frontend of eCommerce. Business logic, user features, and storefront templates are tightly intertwined and typically defined by the platform vendor, resulting in limited flexibility and higher vendor lock-in. (Source)
What are the main differences between monolithic, headless, and composable commerce architectures?
Monolithic commerce uses a single application for all features, limiting customization and flexibility. Headless commerce separates the frontend and backend, allowing for omnichannel experiences. Composable commerce enables businesses to build a custom tech stack from modular, independent components connected via APIs, offering maximum flexibility, customization, and minimal vendor lock-in. (Source)
What are the benefits of adopting a composable commerce approach?
Composable commerce allows teams to select best-fit solutions for each commerce function, quickly launch new features, and evolve customer experiences incrementally. It reduces vendor lock-in, enables rapid innovation, and supports easy integration of new channels and services. (Source)
Why are businesses moving from monolithic to composable commerce?
Businesses are moving to composable commerce to gain flexibility, reduce operational complexity, and quickly adapt to changing market demands. The modularity of composable commerce allows for phased transitions, letting companies modernize components one at a time and see incremental benefits. (Source)
What are some real-world examples of composable commerce architectures?
Dr. Oetker used a composable approach to harmonize global infrastructure, enabling a unified catalog and product experience across 40+ markets. Vision Healthcare adopted a composable stack to future-proof their business, allowing quick replacement of outdated components and rapid launch of new channels and brands. (Dr. Oetker case study, Vision Healthcare case study)
How does Hygraph support composable commerce?
Hygraph is a headless CMS with a modular, highly structured architecture that provides a single source of truth for content data in composable commerce setups. Its Content Federation feature efficiently fetches data from multiple sources and makes it available in a unified GraphQL API, enabling teams to power content with any backend source and deliver it to any frontend channel. (Source)
What are the main drivers for transitioning to composable commerce according to industry research?
According to a MACH Alliance survey, the top drivers for transitioning to composable commerce are improving customer experience (54%), the ability to innovate faster (53%), and improving competitive advantage (49%). (Source)
How does headless commerce enable omnichannel experiences?
Headless commerce enables omnichannel experiences by decoupling the backend from the frontend, allowing the same data to be reused across multiple frontend channels such as web, mobile, social, apps, and marketplaces. This flexibility supports consistent customer experiences across all digital touchpoints. (Source)
What challenges do companies face when moving from monolithic to composable commerce?
Companies often face challenges such as integrating multiple modular services, ensuring data consistency, and managing phased transitions. However, the modularity of composable commerce allows for gradual modernization, reducing risk and enabling incremental improvements. (Source)
How does Hygraph's Content Federation feature benefit composable commerce?
Hygraph's Content Federation feature allows teams to fetch data from multiple sources and make it available in a unified GraphQL API. This enables easy access to up-to-date data from across the composable stack, enriching content and supporting seamless integration with other services. (Source)
Can you provide an example of a phased transition to composable commerce?
Companies often start by going headless, improving the customer experience without major backend changes. Over time, they replace backend services one by one, directing the frontend to use different APIs as needed. This phased approach allows for incremental modernization and reduced risk. (Source)
What are the risks of vendor lock-in with monolithic commerce platforms?
Monolithic commerce platforms have a high risk of vendor lock-in because replacing the system often requires significant rework of business processes and customer experiences. Composable commerce minimizes lock-in by allowing businesses to combine components from multiple vendors and replace them as needed. (Source)
How does Hygraph help global brands manage content across multiple markets?
Hygraph enables global brands to manage content across multiple markets by providing a single source of truth and supporting localization, asset management, and integration with other best-of-breed tools. This allows for consistent experiences while giving regional teams flexibility. (Dr. Oetker case study)
What role do APIs play in composable and headless commerce?
APIs are central to both composable and headless commerce, enabling the integration of multiple backend systems and frontend channels. They allow for structured data sharing, modularity, and the ability to mix and match services from different vendors. (Source)
How does composable commerce support innovation and competitive advantage?
Composable commerce supports innovation and competitive advantage by enabling businesses to rapidly adopt new technologies, launch new features, and adapt to market changes without major replatforming. This agility allows companies to stay ahead of competitors and meet evolving customer expectations. (Source)
What is the role of microservices in composable commerce?
Microservices play a key role in composable commerce by breaking up functionality into distinct, independently deployable pieces. This makes it easier to mix and match features and services from different vendors, supporting modularity and scalability. (Source)
How does Hygraph's GraphQL-native architecture benefit composable commerce?
Hygraph's GraphQL-native architecture simplifies data retrieval and schema evolution, enabling seamless integration with modern tech stacks. This supports composable commerce by making it easier to connect and manage multiple data sources and deliver content to any frontend. (Source)
Features & Capabilities
What are the key features of Hygraph?
Hygraph offers a GraphQL-native architecture, Content Federation, scalability, enterprise-grade security and compliance, user-friendly tools, Smart Edge Cache, localization, asset management, and cost efficiency. These features make it a powerful solution for modern content management and composable commerce. (Source)
Does Hygraph support integration with other platforms?
Yes, Hygraph supports integration with a wide range of platforms, including Digital Asset Management systems (e.g., Aprimo, AWS S3, Bynder, Cloudinary), headless commerce systems, PIMs, and more. Developers can also build custom integrations using SDKs and APIs. (Source)
What APIs does Hygraph provide?
Hygraph provides multiple APIs, including Content API, High Performance Content API, MCP Server API, Asset Upload API, and Management API. These APIs support a variety of use cases, from content delivery to asset management and project structure. (Source)
How does Hygraph ensure high performance?
Hygraph delivers high performance through its high-performance endpoints designed for low latency and high read-throughput content delivery. The platform actively measures API performance and provides practical advice for optimization. (Source)
What technical documentation is available for Hygraph?
Hygraph offers comprehensive technical documentation, including API references, schema components, references, webhooks, and AI integrations. Resources are available at Hygraph Documentation.
How easy is it to use Hygraph for non-technical users?
Hygraph is frequently praised for its intuitive user interface, ease of setup, and ability for non-technical users to manage content independently. Features like real-time changes and custom app integration enhance usability. (Source)
What security and compliance certifications does Hygraph have?
Hygraph is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant (since August 3, 2022), ISO 27001 certified, and GDPR compliant. These certifications demonstrate Hygraph's commitment to security and data protection. (Source)
What enterprise-grade security features does Hygraph offer?
Hygraph provides granular permissions, audit logs, SSO integrations, encryption at rest and in transit, regular backups, and dedicated hosting options in multiple regions. (Source)
What is Hygraph's pricing model?
Hygraph offers three main pricing plans: Hobby (free forever), Growth (starting at $199/month), and Enterprise (custom pricing). Each plan includes different features and support levels to suit various team sizes and project needs. (Source)
What features are included in the Hygraph Hobby plan?
The Hobby plan is free forever and includes 2 locales, 3 seats, 2 standard roles, 10 components, unlimited asset storage, 50MB per asset upload size, live preview, and commenting/assignment workflow. (Source)
What features are included in the Hygraph Growth plan?
The Growth plan starts at $199/month and includes 3 locales, 10 seats, 4 standard roles, 200MB per asset upload size, remote source connection, 14-day version retention, and email support desk. (Source)
What features are included in the Hygraph Enterprise plan?
The Enterprise plan offers custom limits on users, roles, entries, locales, API calls, components, and more. It includes version retention for a year, scheduled publishing, dedicated infrastructure, global CDN, security controls, SSO, multitenancy, instant backup recovery, custom workflows, and dedicated support. (Source)
Use Cases & Customer Success
Who can benefit from using Hygraph?
Hygraph is designed for developers, product managers, content creators, marketing professionals, and solutions architects at enterprises, agencies, eCommerce platforms, media companies, technology firms, and global brands. (Source)
What industries are represented in Hygraph's case studies?
Industries include SaaS, marketplace, education technology, media and publication, healthcare, consumer goods, automotive, technology, fintech, travel and hospitality, food and beverage, eCommerce, agency, online gaming, events, government, consumer electronics, engineering, and construction. (Source)
Can you share some customer success stories with Hygraph?
Notable success stories include Samsung building a scalable API-first application, Dr. Oetker achieving global consistency, Komax reducing time to market by 3x, AutoWeb increasing monetization by 20%, and Voi scaling multilingual content across 12 countries. (Source)
What business impact can customers expect from using Hygraph?
Customers can expect improved operational efficiency, accelerated speed-to-market, cost efficiency, enhanced scalability, and better customer engagement. For example, Komax achieved a 3x faster time-to-market and Samsung improved engagement by 15%. (Source)
How long does it take to implement Hygraph?
Implementation time varies by project complexity. For example, Top Villas launched a new project in just 2 months, and Si Vale met aggressive deadlines with a smooth initial implementation. (Source)
What onboarding resources does Hygraph provide?
Hygraph offers a free API playground, a free forever developer account, structured onboarding (introduction call, account provisioning, business/technical/content kickoff), training resources (webinars, live streams, videos), extensive documentation, and a community Slack channel. (Source)
What pain points does Hygraph address for its customers?
How does Hygraph differentiate itself from other CMS platforms?
Hygraph differentiates itself as the first GraphQL-native Headless CMS, offering content federation, enterprise-grade features, user-friendly tools, scalability, and proven ROI. It ranked 2nd out of 102 Headless CMSs in the G2 Summer 2025 report and was voted the easiest to implement headless CMS four times. (Source)
Who are some of Hygraph's notable customers?
Notable customers include Samsung, Dr. Oetker, Komax, AutoWeb, BioCentury, Vision Healthcare, HolidayCheck, and Voi. (Source)
What are some case studies that demonstrate Hygraph's impact?
Case studies include HolidayCheck reducing developer bottlenecks, Dr. Oetker achieving global consistency, Si Vale streamlining content creation, Komax achieving faster launches and lower costs, and Samsung scaling globally while reducing maintenance overhead. (Source)
Composable commerce vs. headless commerce: How are they different?
Difference between composable and headless commerce architectures, and why businesses are adopting both.
Last updated by KatieÂ
on Jan 13, 2025
Originally written by Jing
Customer experience plays a big role in the success of a business, with 74% of consumers saying it impacts purchasing decisions and 83% of executives saying that an unimproved experience puts their revenue at risk, according to a Forbes Insights report on the value of customer experience.
Digital plays a significant role in today’s customer experience, with 20% of global retail sales now happening online, according to Forrester research. The increasing importance of eCommerce and the growing number of digital touchpoints have led many companies to outgrow their traditional commerce platforms and look for a more modern solution.
“Headless commerce” and “composable commerce” are two popular architectures being adopted by digital leaders. This blog takes a look at some of the differences and overlaps between these approaches and why businesses are making the shift.
In the early days of eCommerce, when webshops didn’t need much more than digital brochures available on a desktop browser, it usually made sense to use an all-in-one commerce platform for everything from the product catalog to checkout to website content and design.
Then the world met the smartphone, and mobile became a must-have sales channel. Mobile accounted for 11% of US eCommerce sales in 2012 (eMarketer) and jumped to 36% by the end of 2023 (Comscore). The traditional all-in-one platforms slowly added mobile support, but keeping the web and mobile sites consistent typically took a lot of manual work and led to a frustrating experience for shoppers.
Companies needed an easier way to manage omnichannel commerce as expected touchpoints grew to include channels like social, apps, marketplaces, and customer portals.
Enter headless architecture. Headless software is backend-only and shares all data in a structured way, typically via APIs, so the same data can be reused across many different frontend channels. This meant that teams were no longer limited to the channels their commerce platform had templates for but could use any frontend technology to build an experience for any digital touchpoint.
The API-based design of headless solutions also made bringing together multiple backend systems to power the frontend easier. As more software specialized in one part of commerce and designed to integrate with other headless tools quickly came to market, more companies started to “compose” their own unique commerce tech stack out of modular services from different vendors.
This composable approach to commerce technology took off in 2020 when global lockdowns forced many companies to expand and improve eCommerce quickly. A modular architecture meant teams could add new features without having to first rip-and-replace their existing system, and it also gave teams peace of mind that they could continue to update and evolve eCommerce by adding, removing, and replacing components as needed. Gartner coined the term that year, saying:
The building blocks of composable business enable organizations to pivot quickly.
GK
Gartner Keynote The Future of Business Is Composable
Composable commerce is a modern approach to building and managing eCommerce systems that prioritize flexibility, agility, and customization.
At its core, composable commerce is based on the principle of modularity, where various commerce services and components are treated as independent building blocks that companies can use to “compose” a tailored eCommerce tech stack.
Software that supports a composable approach has to be very easy to integrate. All data and functionality must be exposed in a structured format at a baseline, typically via APIs. More mature platforms also break up functionality into distinct pieces, often as microservices, which makes it easier to mix and match features and services from different vendors.
A composable approach lets teams:
Pick the best-fit solutions for each part of commerce (product data, site search, content, etc) instead of being locked into a one-size-fits-all set of features from a single vendor suite.
Quickly launch new elements (channels, payment options, loyalty programs, etc) by adding or replacing individual services without reworking the entire system.
Evolve the customer experience in small, continuous steps instead of with a major replatforming project every few years.
In a survey of enterprise technology leaders conducted by the MACH Alliance, an organization that advocates for composable technologies, the most commonly cited drivers for transition to a composable architecture were to improve customer experience (54%), the ability to innovate faster (53%), and to improve competitive advantage (49%).
#Composable vs. headless vs. monolithic commerce: what’s the difference?
At a high level, the main difference between these three approaches to eCommerce architecture is:
Monolithic commerce: One application, with one big code base, is used to manage the backend and frontend of ecommerce. Business logic, user features, and storefront templates are all tightly intertwined and typically defined by the platform vendor.
Headless commerce: The frontend and backend are separated, or “decoupled”. Backend systems share data and logic in a structured way via APIs, and each frontend channel can choose what information to use and how to present it.
Composable commerce: Businesses can compose their own tech stack out of modular, best-of-breed services for each part of commerce. Services work independently and connect via API, allowing teams to quickly add, remove, or replace stack components to adapt to new needs.
Here are two real-life examples of composable commerce in action.
Unified eCommerce catalog and experience across markets
As a global brand, Dr Oetker needs to be able to adapt eCommerce to the unique needs of over 40 markets. Previously, this meant that many markets used separate commerce systems, which led to siloed product data and inconsistent experiences across regions. The team decided to harmonize global infrastructure with a composable approach to make it easier to maintain the expertise across all markets and scale into new ones.
Dr. Oetker developed a microservices architecture that incorporates best-of-breed tools, including Hygraph (content management), Next.js (frontend), and Algolia (site search), to deliver a unified catalog and product experience via one orchestration layer.
This setup allows data and core infrastructure to be shared globally while regional teams still have the flexibility to add other services to meet the unique needs of different markets.
Future-proof digital business
Vision Healthcare has a digital-first business model, with multiple sub-brands sold across many channels. Moving to a composable tech stack helped to future-proof their business, as the modular architecture lets them easily replace outdated components or add new ones to launch experiences, channels, and brands quickly.
A core part of the solution was the GraphQL APIs used to bring all the components together. The first content management system (CMS) the team chose would often crash when handling GraphQL queries. Proving the approach's flexibility, the team quickly switched to the GraphQL-based CMS, Hygraph, and seamlessly connected it with the existing stack.
Other key components in Vision Healthcare’s composable stack include commercetools (commerce), Next.js (frontend), Algolia (site search), Adyen (payments), and custom-built microservices for order management and integrations with third-party marketplaces.
Very few companies go from monolith to full microservices in one go. The modularity of a composable commerce architecture makes it possible to transition in phases. Components can be modernized one at a time, allowing teams to quickly see the benefits of each step and easily adapt the plan as business needs and market demands shift.
Going headless is a common first step when going composable, as it lets you immediately improve the customer experience without making significant changes to backend systems. Then, you can gradually replace the services that power the experience by directing the frontend to use different APIs without refuting the code at each step.
However, not all headless solutions are created equally. Platforms that were initially a monolith and have gone “headless” often just add an API layer but keep backend features tightly intertwined. Headless solutions are designed to be composable and break up the backend into modular services.
How Hygraph enables composable commerce
Hygraph is a headless CMS that helps developers and marketers easily create, manage, and deliver complex content at scale. Its modular, highly structured architecture gives teams complete flexibility in using content to meet the needs of different channels, brands, and markets.
Hygraph provides a single source of truth for content data in a composable commerce setup. Hygraph’s Content Federation can efficiently fetch data from multiple sources and make it available in a unified GraphQL API. Giving teams an easy way to access the most up-to-date data from across their composable stack and use it to enrich content.
Hygraph gives teams complete freedom to power content with any backend source and delivers it to any frontend channel, which makes it an ideal content solution in a composable commerce architecture.
The flexibility that headless and composable architectures give teams to solve unique business challenges also means there’s no single “right way” to implement them.
Hygraph’s team of solution experts has helped digital teams at companies like Samsung, Telenor, and 2U successfully transition to composable. Request a demo to learn more and see how a modern content solution could boost your eCommerce business.
Blog Authors
Katie Lawson
Jing Li
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