Beyond Headless: The Ultimate Building Blocks for a Truly Composable Storefront
Build, manage, and scale your online storefront with ultimate freedom and flexibility
SkillNet’s Beyond Headless is a platform-agnostic headless solution built on micro frontend technology that represents a paradigm shift in the approach to building and delivering web applications. It empowers enterprises to create modular, scalable, and customizable applications without being tied to a specific framework or predefined set of features.
Beyond Headless offers compatibility with any eCommerce platform of choice today – and in the future – with pre-built integrations currently available for platforms from the following vendors:
Micro Frontend Technology vs Traditional Headless eCommerce Solution
Traditional Headless:
An architecture that separates the frontend (presentation layer) from the backend (business logic), allowing for independent development and deployment of frontend and backend functionalities. While this offers significant advantages over purely monolithic architecture, the frontend remains a single application that is still monolithic in nature.
Micro Frontend Technology:
More fully embraces the concept of distributed development, offering a revolutionary way to build complex, large-scale web applications by breaking them down into manageable, loosely coupled modules that are each responsible for a distinct feature of your eCommerce website or application.
The frontend is composed of independent, self-contained units, each with its own business logic, UI components, and APIs. These units each have their own functionality, codebase, and deployment process, enabling each micro frontend to be developed, tested, and deployed independently.
Furthermore, micro frontends seamlessly integrate with your preferred CMS and Search solutions, serving as the foundation for your journey to frontend composability.
Powerful, Developer-Friendly Tech Stack
- Next.js (React framework)
- Node.js (server-side runtime)
- Typescript (for improved code quality)
- NRWL (for efficient development workflows)
Polyglot Microservices
Enables enterprises to use multiple programming languages and technologies simultaneously, so individual frontend functionality can be built using whichever preferred technology is best suited for it. Customizing and innovating just got a whole lot easier and faster!
Embedded AI
Generative AI frees up merchandisers to focus on more strategic initiatives by automating repetitive tasks like generating product metadata and creating enhanced, high-quality content.
The Implications for IT and Business Users
| Modular Development | Increased Scalability & Performance | ||
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| Each micro frontend (i.e., component or feature) can be developed, deployed, and maintained independently for faster development cycles. | Teams can scale specific components horizontally and load them independently as needed. | ||
| IT Benefits | Business Value | IT Benefits | Business Value |
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| Reusable Components | Greater Technology Diversity | ||
| Individual components are reusable across different parts of the same storefront, or even entirely different applications. | Developers have the freedom to use diverse technologies (e.g., React, Vue, Angular) for different micro frontends. | ||
| IT Benefits | Business Value | IT Benefits | Business Value |
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Get In Touch With Us
SkillNet Solutions, Makers of Modern Commerce, provides consulting and technology services to companies that are digitally transforming to modern commerce enterprises.