This blog post was originally posted on kibocommerce.com.
Gaining momentum is one of the more prominent challenges B2B companies face as they adopt headless and composable commerce strategies. Equally important is maintaining momentum. With a limitless number of options available, it is all too easy for organizations to get bogged down in analysis paralysis, unsure of what to do next. This does not have to be the case.
B2B organizations are increasingly coming around to the numerous benefits composable and headless strategies can offer. These include increased agility in responding to ever-changing market conditions. Increased speed to market to rollout new features and functions. This, in turn condenses time to value, so a business can reap customer experience improvements and financial benefits sooner. This is where pre-built integrations can play such an important role in streamlining their digital transformations.
Adopting a Best of Need Approach
Organizations that want to shoot for the moon can take a best of breed approach to their tech stacks. The question is whether the investment of time and resources is truly necessary. A more pragmatic strategy is to take a best of need approach to their tech stacks.
A capable, full-featured, performant commerce platform is a requirement as the foundation of any composable tech stack. Beyond that, the importance and priority of different elements will vary by business, business model, and industry. For some, site search may be critical to facilitate product discovery and conversion. Perhaps a DXP is essential to present rich customer experiences. For others, order management might be a vital component for running an efficient omnichannel operation. With composable, all of these can be assembled over time. It comes down to which elements will yield the most value to your customers over the shortest period.
To assess need priority tap into the frontline stakeholders within the organization, as well as customers. Are there back-end tools that can increase operational efficiency and shorten time to market? Are there customer-facing capabilities that can juice conversion rate or help increase AOV? Calculating the qualitative and quantitative saving (both to the top-line and bottom-line) can surface which systems should be prioritized. These can then be baked into a roadmap and phased in along with other critical, but less impactful, elements of the digital stack. Understand that the bigger pieces of the tech stack may take longer to customize and integrate to be of full value to the business. At the same time, pre-built integrations can keep the digital program moving forward.
Pre-Composed Integrations
Like all ongoing initiatives, every composable and headless program needs its share of quick wins. Pre-built integrations offer that path. With the API-first approach core to composable strategy, there are an array of technologies that can be plugged into the system without causing disruption or downtime. Interspersing the roadmap with relevant pre-built integrations can keep momentum moving forward and give business and IT teams reason to celebrate.
It is easier to flip a switch than build a switch. That’s one of the primary benefits of pre-built or pre-composed integrations. It is inherently easier to configure a solution than to code (customize) it. While no two businesses are identical and each has their own unique requirements, the 80-20 rule generally applies. Most of what’s needed to get a pre-built integration up and running can be achieved through configuration. This significantly condenses time-to-market and allows the business to improve the solution and CX with every release. This can put B2B businesses on a par with their B2C counterparts by introducing the concept of continuous innovation.
In the case of Kibo, B2B organizations can leverage pre-built integrations to quickly impact multiple parts of their tech stacks. Payments is a particularly robust area, as customers, including B2B customers, demand choice in their payment options. With pre-built integrations in place, merchants can quickly rollout options, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Pay with Amazon and Stripe. Tax compliance is a necessary component in every commerce instance and solutions from Avalara and Vertex can be quickly implemented to replace incumbent tech. But this only scratches the surface. Pre-built integrations can also be utilized to augment and enhance capabilities for shipping, SMS messaging, product recommendations, live chat, fraud detection, and currency localization. When used in combination, as suits a business’ needs, these integrations can serve as a powerful boost to digital operations.
There are no shortcuts in business. There are, however, shorter paths to progress. Pre-built integrations provide B2B companies, whether in manufacturer, distributor, or wholesaler, create that path, providing a way for these complex businesses to simplify and streamline B2B commerce.