Composable commerce: Understanding retail’s new architecture paradigm

The shift toward composable commerce in retail represents more than an architectural choice; it fundamentally transforms how retail technology capabilities are conceived, implemented, and evolved.

This approach, built on MACH principles (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless), enables retailers to assemble their technology landscape from best-of-breed components rather than relying on monolithic solutions.

But what makes a composable commerce solution worth exploring? And how can retailers implement modular infrastructure without upsetting the apple cart?

What’s more, the API-first approach inherent in composable commerce solutions creates a clean separation between front-end experiences and back-end services. That enables retailers to rapidly iterate on customer experiences without disrupting the tech underpinning the business – or requiring wholesale system replacement.

For example, a retailer can update their mobile shopping experience or add new payment methods without requiring changes to the underlying inventory or order management systems.

The business impact of composable architecture

While the technical capabilities of composable commerce systems are wide-reaching, there’s also inherent business value in adopting a modular approach to retail:

• Rapid innovation: organisations can quickly test and implement new, competitive capabilities by adding or modifying specific components.
• Risk management: component isolation reduces the impact of change, enabling gradual and cost-effective system evolution.
• Vendor independence: best-of-breed solutions for each capability free retailers from being locked into single-vendor platforms.
• Cost optimisation: businesses can scale individual components based on real consumer demand, rather than scaling entire systems arbitrarily.

Key stages of successful composable commerce implementation

Frameworks are key to tackling these challenges; outlining ironclad processes can enable systematic evolution while maintaining operational stability. But retail tech frameworks need to address risks and challenges in a fairly structured way, with careful staging.  

We see this requiring three separate phases, where progression begins with stabilising core systems, moves through the modernisation of key capabilities, and ultimately allows innovation in customer experience and business models:

Stage 1: Foundation building

• Establish API management capabilities
• Implement integration architecture
• Develop component isolation patterns
• Build operational monitoring capabilities

Stage 2: Capability modernisation

• Identify high-value capabilities for modernisation
• Implement new components alongside legacy systems
• Gradually shift traffic to new components
• Validate performance and stability

Stage 3: Innovation enablement

• Leverage component independence for rapid experimentation
• Implement new capabilities as independent services
• Enable rapid iteration of customer experiences
• Measure and optimise component performance

The key here lies not in the speed of progression, but in ensuring each stage creates sustainable value – all while building a foundation for future advancement. In effect, each stage builds upon previous capabilities to enable the next.