A brick-and-mortar store’s ability to connect with shoppers is a main draw of shopping in person. On the other hand, e-commerce requires an understanding that online shopping differs from physical retailing, calling for proactive steps that mimic in-person experience as much as possible through sight and sound. Since the in-store experience extends beyond merchandise to ambiance, decor, and lighting, let alone the presence of sales associates, it makes sense that retailers are leveraging imagery, video, and other graphical elements to make shopping online similar to buying in store.
Headless is not a buzzword anymore. In fact, the concept of headless architecture is gaining momentum due to the flexibility it offers for composing new experiences and for tackling the undue complexity of an ever-evolving technology stack. That’s because while the evolution of the martech landscape has enabled disruptive, digital innovations, the approach of buying point solutions for solving specific challenges can expose companies to the complicated nature of new technologies, systems, and platforms.
As online interactions multiply exponentially, visual media has become the most significant venue for delivering the benefits of what used to be in-person contacts. With this in mind, companies have completely shifted their digital strategies for consumer experiences, taking a media-first approach in how they interact and engage.
How many vendor solutions do you rely on for a superior user experience for your e-commerce site? How many tools do you use to manage the site? What services are used to manage media files, email marketing, digital ads, customer service, text messages, and the search feature?
You’ve likely heard of the increasingly popular catchphrase headless architecture in technical or marketing discussions vis-a-vis building a martech stack for headless e-commerce. You might also understand the headless concept of open APIs and their benefits. However, as impressed as you might be by the architecture’s advantages, you hesitate to look into the related applications for adoption because they require more expertise to manage than the standard ones in an all-in-one e-commerce platform.
Think about the last time you bought something online—and about the last time you did that but what you purchased wasn’t something you were after when you opened your browser. What captured your attention in the search results, the assortment page, or the product page that convinced you to make the purchase?
I am pleased to share that Cloudinary and Contentful have joined forces to further streamline the creation, processing, and delivery of online content through Cloudinary’s digital asset management (DAM) solution and advanced transformation and delivery capabilities for images and video. What’s more, the partnership delivers a headless approach to DAM. By leveraging APIs for media management tasks, marketers and developers alike benefit from an integrated stack of optimized assets for optimization and automation. As a result, page loads are fast and beautiful, and at scale—with less overhead and effort.