This document discusses how headless commerce can help companies adapt to the post-web world. It notes that technology is being adopted much faster now, with impacts occurring in years instead of decades. It recommends that companies go "headless" by separating their frontends from backends to gain flexibility and agility. This will allow them to more easily experiment with new customer touchpoints like voice assistants, in-car commerce, and social media shopping. Examples of companies taking this approach include an automotive brand integrating in-car ordering and a department store improving its online presence within 4 months.

1. Alexa, Chatbots & Co:
Getting ready for the
Post-Web World with a
Headless Approach
Pär Nordström
Dr. Roman Zenner, Industry Analyst
etail Nordic, Kopenhagen, Denmark
02. October 2018

2. `
Pär Nordström
@parnordstrom
Consultant Manager at Valtech Sweden
• Developer, Architect, Teacher
• Developed for the web for +20 years
• Replacing monolithic platforms for the
last 5 years
• Loves microservices and headless

3. Around
the world
36offices
16countries
4continents
2600experts
50/5050% strategy & design
50% technology
Argentina. Australia. Brazil. Canada. China. Denmark. France. Germany. India. Netherlands. Singapore. Switzerland.
Sweden. UK. Ukraine. USA.
About valtech

4. Valtech
Sweden
260
Consultants
20+
Awards for digital services
4,42 of 5
customer satisfaction rating
9 of 10
of our largest customers recommend us
AAA
Highest credit score rating according to Soliditet
Tech Girl
We take social responsibility by our Tech Girl
programme with the ambition to inspire and learn
coding for 500 young girls
Offices in Stockholm and Göteborg

5. `
Dr. Roman Zenner
@rzenner
Industry Analyst at
• E-Commerce for 15+ years
• Author, Podcaster, Speaker
• (Technical) Project Lead & Consultant
(Eastpak, Vans, Nestlé)

6. Cloud-Hosted Hundreds of
Releases/Year
150+
Commerce
Professionals
Making all
Touchpoints
Shopable
Leading Platform
for APIs and
Microservices
Munich, Berlin,
Durham,
Amsterdam
80+ Enterprise
customers
worldwide
Built for SPEED

7. Our Customers

8. Post-Web-Era?
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20001994
2007
2013
today
The Amazon Example

9. Speed of Commerce Developments
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12
years
4
years
4
years
2
years
?
months/ years
xxx
Centuries

10. Adoption Speed Keeps Increasing
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11. Radio vs. Smartphone – 5 times faster
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12. There are 2 Key Takeaways
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1. Relevant technology adaption is
reached within years instead
decades
2. Impact on customer behavior is
immense and sometimes not
predictable

13. Voice Devices
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14. Alexa gets it wrong sometimes
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5p0gqCIEa8

15. What can I do to stay relevant?

16. Don‘t invest in „Shop Software…“
…they are built for requirements of the PAST (Webstore Era)

17. Go
“Headless”!

18. Hosting / Infrastruktur
B
a
c
k
e
n
d
Catalog
(Search,
PDP)
Order
Mng.
(Cart,
Checkout)
CRM
(Address
data)
CMS
(editorial
content)
CDN
(Images,
Videos)
Self
Service
(My
account)
F
r
o
n
t
e
n
d
Traditional Integrated eCommerce Suites

19. “Head“ vs. „Body“

20. 21

21. Gartner Industry Vision 2018
22

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Customer cases

23. Real-Time Integration
for In-Car Commerce
Services
Function-on-Demand:
Configure your car and
order add-on products
and services
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Automotive Industry

24. Department Store: dodenhof
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From 0 to 100 in just 4 months
• Late Online start – 2017 // Not another webshop
• Strategy “How to catch up quickly / learn from mistakes”
• dodenhofs Motto: “Think Big – Start Small – Learn Fast!”
• Step by Step approach
From 0 to 100 in just 4 months
• 1st: Started with only parts of their assortment
• 2nd: High turnover of changing themes
• = Better understand (online)needs of customer
• 3rd: Experiment with new channels
• Conversational Commerce
• Social Media Commerce
• POS digitization (InStore App, Magic Mirror)

25. B2B: Recyclable Waste Trade 2.0
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26. Scrappel Use Case
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• Search for Offers
• Copper
• Filter your search• Compare and bid for offers• Weigh (proof) and close deal• Rating of Seller

27. Food Retail: REWE

28. Google Home: Skills
1. Receipt recommendations
2. Ingredients list
3. (Buy ingredients)
4. Prepare Meal
• Also via App
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29. Alexa
Demo
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30. Das B
Benefits
1. Customization: Take full control of
your brand’s identity
2. Freedom to Experiment: Try new
customer-facing features without
breaking the backend
3. Speed & Agility: Increase Time-to-
Market
4. Scaling: Scale frontend applications
and backend separately
5. Easily Add New Touchpoints:
Establish new channels without buying
extra software

31. Further Reading
https://ok.commercetools.com/headless-commerce
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32. www.commercetools.com
Office Munich
Adams-Lehmann-Str. 44
80797 Munich
+49 89 99 82 996-0
Office Berlin
Sonnenallee 223
12057 Berlin
+49 30 67 24 21-20
Office Durham, US
American Underground | Crowe Building
406 Blackwell Street, Suite B034
Durham, NC 27701
+1 212 220 3809
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