Page 38 - May2021

SPECIAL FEATURE: OmnI-ChAnnEL RETAILIng

Enabling

A True

Approach

Going ‘headless’ is an approach that reflects a true omni-channel offering. In this
article, James Brooke, CEO of Amplience discusses this further with RLI and

highlights some of the key points which may suggest it’s time for retailers to transform
in a changing marketplace.

e t a i l e r s frontend is free to make quick changes to content, without
are under complexity.
pressure
Rdue to Pain points that indicate it’s time to change
the rapidly changing • If it has become difficult for a brand to present itself
e - c o m m e r c e consistently across all touchpoints and be truly omni-
landscape, and many channel, it’s time to change.
are hamstrung by rigid
legacy systems that • If it feels like workflows and processes to build and
curtail their ability to present content are being bottlenecked, and productivity
adapt and keep up. In is low, it’s time to change.
today’s omni-channel
world, digital reigns • If customers are abandoning the website or mobile app
supreme and content because they are just too slow, and it’s impossible to
on mobile and social channels influences how consumers view scale with demand, it’s time to change.
brands, products and services. To keep up, retail and leisure
businesses must side-step traditional platforms and reassess • If a large backlog of user experience ideas need
how they conceive, design and deliver content and commerce implementing, or even testing, and the inability to keep
at scale to meet their omni-channel ambitions. Cue headless up is making the brand languish behind its competitors,
commerce. it’s time to change.
The term ‘headless’ means that the frontend is de-coupled
from the backend, with content and functionality delivered • If a brand wants to harness great third-party commerce
as data via APIs (Application Programming Interface). This solutions, such as Search, Payments, Analytics or
makes them more flexible by being capable of supporting many Content Management but its current platform restricts
different customer experiences across multiple channels from plugins, it’s time to change.
a single system. Headless, ironically, means you can have many
heads, multiple ways to present information from a website Small steps to transformation
to a mobile app to an in-store kiosk or in-store. The backend Retail and leisure brands will recognise many, if not all, of
manages the content and commerce functionality, while the the pain points above if they’re using monolithic, traditional

38 RETAIL & LEISURE INTERNATIONAL MAY 2021