Simren Deogun

VP Brand Solutions

thought leadership

Morgan McCunn, Senior Product Manager, Shopify

Simren Deogun, VP, Solutions, dentsu

Damien Lemaitre, Head of Media Product and Innovation, dentsu

Star Trek in the 1960s portrayed technology that could be controlled by a character’s voice. What was once the stuff of science fiction has arrived. Instead of issuing commands like, “Raise deflector shields,” we can shop through our voices, or even through other interactive mediums like smart mirrors and video games.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to retailers that storefronts have moved beyond brick and mortar. We’re not talking just about mobile commerce, social shopping or pop-up stores.  Increasingly, retailers are using headless commerce to create shopping opportunities wherever their customers already are or will be. 

Headless commerce decouples the front-end digital experience from back-end functionality, such as inventory allocation, content management, and fulfillment capabilities. In other words, retailers get the ability to disperse digital transaction opportunities wherever consumers are, to power their complex business needs.

As retailers grow and look for new ways to delight their customers, they’re looking for flexibility in how they deliver their customer experience—and a headless approach is growing in popularity to support this. More untethered by the constraints of each platform, a headless commerce approach allows retailers to determine the role each touchpoint plays in the journeys of their current and prospective consumers. Application programming interfaces (APIs) and microservices make headless commerce possible for both fast-growing retailers and those whose growth via traditional ecommerce has reached a tipping point.

Shopify is at the forefront of commerce, making it possible for merchants to create shoppable moments that are unique to their business, and drive the future of commerce forward. 

And layer on top of this is how new technologies will enable shopping in different experiences, such as:

  • Smart mirrors: In a retail change room, you can get information about items or even use augmented reality to mix and match an item with others.
Smart mirrors
  • Streaming: Your favourite gamer or creator may share about a new product they’ve launched, allowing you to buy ‘in-stream’
Streaming
  • Voice shopping: You can make the most of your commute or chore time at home by placing an order for concert tickets or browsing and purchasing items on a gift registry.
Voice shopping

Just a few years ago, shopping through social networks and smart home devices might have sounded strange. Today, it’s even harder to predict which touchpoints will grow in influence and where the commerce revolution will take us next. Retailers and agencies need to be ready for almost anything.

When retailers prioritize customer experiences above technology, they prioritize actions that solve short-term problems, while giving them options to pivot for the future. With dentsu’s new partnership with Shopify, we are able to create dynamic touchpoints to craft the most effective overall consumer experience. This end-to-end solution is about unlocking fast, flexible and experience-driven commerce for brands.

Sometimes this will mean moving to a headless architecture; sometimes it won’t. The only thing that’s certain is that flexible commerce will let retailers stretch themselves to reach the right customers in the right way, and Shopify will be there to support.

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For more on how dentsu and Shopify are collaborating to help you make the most out of your organization’s digital commerce experience, click here.