We do headless better.
Traditional platforms weren't built for the way commerce runs today. Our innovative approach makes commerce better in every way. Here are the eight reasons why you should consider Commerce Layer as the commerce engine for your next project.
1. We make it easier to go headless.
Headless commerce can seem quite daunting, but it doesn’t have to be with the right approach. Most brands are unable to go headless due to the complexity of building a new presentation layer from scratch, which binds them to their legacy stores that become harder to maintain over time. Some vendors provide starter themes in order to mitigate this barrier of entry, but these themes are hard to customize and break a core promise of headless: providing unique experiences to customers.
At Commerce Layer, we have a different solution to address the same challenge. We developed a set of ready-to-use micro frontends (price tags, shopping cart, checkout, my account, etc.) that allow you to quickly create a headless commerce site without compromising flexibility and the uniqueness of your brand. Depending on where your project is in its development cycle, you can choose to utilize our no-code hosted components or fork and customize their open-source repositories to fit any use case. With a step-by-step approach, the migration to a headless stack becomes easier and less risky. When you start with Commerce Layer, you’ll see immediate benefits from the beginning of your headless journey, not the end.
2. We focus on commerce, not content.
Other ecommerce platforms often include catalog management and search functionality as part of their product. This imposes their opinions and limits on how a catalog and search have to function. As a result, it’s very difficult for developers to implement flexible data models, while marketing departments are forced to maintain different types of content (editorial and product-related) through multiple dashboards (the CMS and the ecommerce backend).
We believe that in order to maximize the benefits of headless, like flexibility, speed, and scalability, merchandising and product discovery should be separated from the commerce platform. That's why we’ve developed the most powerful and flexible transactional engine, leaving content and catalog management to more specialized tools like a CMS or a Product Information Management (PIM) system that can better support the creative vision of the brand. With a clean separation of commerce and content, developers can build more scalable websites and marketing departments can design beautiful shopping experiences without the constraints of outdated merchandising tools.
3. We have a flexible data model.
Brands need flexible technology in order to grow without the pain. Pursuing new business models, expanding into different international markets, or implementing sophisticated and extensive promotions is much easier with a flexible data model, which Commerce Layer has built from the ground up.
Our data model is designed around the concept of a Market, which is a container for any combination of business rules that can be tied to a geographical region, customer group, sales channel, or any kind of business segmentation you may need. Each Market has its own pricing list, inventory model, payment gateways, promotions, shipping options, and much more. This makes expanding into different geos or channels as simple as creating a new Market in Commerce Layer, all with a single account, without any data duplication.
4. We know every millisecond matters.
Our APIs and payloads are much lighter, faster, and more durable than monolithic solutions because of our transactional focus. Although we are extremely proud of our API response time and platform uptime, we are never satisfied. We know every millisecond matters, which is why we're constantly looking for opportunities to improve performance and scale our infrastructure.
Developers are encouraged to consume our APIs directly from the frontend layer, without any backend-for-frontend orchestration. By adhering to Jamstack principles, you get unparalleled site speed and scalability. Black Fridays will become like any other day for your architecture.
In the unlikely event that something goes wrong, we take full responsibility through our response time and uptime guarantees in our SLAs, which include penalties if the service is affected by any degradations in performance.
5. We are developers.
As a developer-first company, we know how important it is to extend any software with custom logic. It is possible to augment Commerce Layer with extra functionality through multiple extension points. Whenever a feature is not provided out-of-the-box, you can use our webhooks to connect a custom microservice or activate any workflow. For example, it’s easy to integrate any external identity provider, custom payment gateway, promotional engine, tax calculator, or notification service.
Beyond extending our core API, developers have the ability to build custom frontends and backends, either from scratch or by forking our open-source repositories. This hybrid offering of a fully-managed cloud service combined with open-source developer tools makes Commerce Layer a unique solution in terms of security, flexibility, and control. And it's always free for developers to get going.
6. We provide outstanding documentation.
Providing great documentation is part of our mission of being an open platform for developers. The value of our product shouldn't be hidden behind a sales conversation or conveyed through buzzwords. Our product is our greatest marketing asset and our documentation is our greatest marketing tool.
You are always welcome to try Commerce Layer for free and without any commitment. Regardless of where your project is at, you can rely on API reference documents, guides, and how-tos that are always up-to-date. Whenever something is unclear, our team is always ready and reachable through our Slack community to answer your questions and listen to your concerns. Because of this, we also learn and develop from you as we shape the future of commerce together. It’s why developers love Commerce Layer and help us make it better every day.
7. We are cost efficient.
Our focus on the transactional engine allows us to provide a reasonable pricing model that doesn’t penalize your business for its success. We’ll never ask for a revenue share or impose massive up-front costs to justify services you’ll never use.
A composable architecture has the huge benefit of allowing you to optimize your costs by choosing the right tools according to your business stage. But a platform designed for a small brand has a pricing model that does not scale, and one designed for a large enterprise has a pricing structure that shuts out mid-market companies. Commerce Layer is scalable by design, so small teams can start and grow into global brands for a fraction of the cost.
8. We are your partners.
As a Commerce Layer customer, you're going to find much more than just a powerful API. We are real people with years of experience who have a passion for everything ecommerce. We’ve built ecommerce experiences for some of the most legendary brands in the world, which has given us the conviction to build Commerce Layer “the right way”. Our success is your success, and we'll do everything we can to ensure both. In the end, it is always people who make the difference, and we are no exception.