Headless Commerce with PWA and Magento 2.4

The latest version Magento 2.4 has been released and it is the third quarterly update of 2020. Magento 2.4 comes with some new features and enhancements, besides the regular improvements that you would expect, like security and code quality.
More than 75% of merchants are considering headless commerce, as per a report published by Gartner. Via headless developments in GraphQL and PWA, Magento continues to enable new, superior shopping experiences for brands and businesses. With Magento 2.4 edition, Headless commerce has become a must-have for Magento retailers, partners, and developers.

So,

what really is Headless Commerce?

Headless commerce is a separation of the front end and back end of an e-commerce application. This architecture allows freedom of expression and enables brands to create whatever they want, however they want. Most significantly, it allows brands to enhance their customer experience. Headless clearly distinguishes the front-end user experience from the logic-driven back end, based on an electronic communication standard known as application programming interfaces (APIs).

This separation leads to a faster, API-based approach to web development providing competitive advantages ranging from accelerated marketing campaigns to true omnichannel experiences.

Headless PWA for Magento 2.1 makes a website work and feel like an application. This web technology makes use of modern capabilities to offer a mobile app-like interface. A headless PWA is extremely light when compared to a native app. It takes less loading time, works faster, and provides users with a delightful user experience, thereby resulting in high conversion rates.

The app works well with low internet connectivity and supports functionality like sending a push notification. The app is compatible with several devices and is very easy to customize.

The release of Magento 2.4 by Adobe provides merchants with capabilities to seize new possibilities in the current eCommerce environment that has witnessed rapid growth over the last couple of months.

Magento 2.4 Headless Commerce and PWA Development

The Forrester Wave: B2C and B2B Commerce Suites report named Adobe a market leader. One of the key points is that Magento’s PWA studio is designed to reduce the cost and challenges for merchants to embrace Progressive Web App experiences.

Adobe has released the new version of PWA Studio for Adobe Commerce (magento Commerce) and Magento Open Source to align with Magento 2.4. This introduced a new Venia Storefront experience generated using Page Builder content types as well as a complete cart and checkout workflow that will speed up implementations. Adobe has also launched an extensibility platform that makes it easier to customize and enhance PWA Studio capabilities, both by custom development and Magento Marketplace applications.
With Magento PWA being embraced extensively by merchants, partners, and developers, Adobe is investing more to make the functionality quicker, simpler, and more cost-effective for launching PWA storefronts, as well as to expand support for headless commerce.

With Adobe Experience Manager-powered storefronts, Venia UI components can now be leveraged to enable customized buying journeys for consumers, while GraphQL APS will empower merchants to create consumer experiences using their preferred front-end development tool across digital touchpoints.

By leveraging Adobe’s hybrid headless commerce options, you can provide seamless digital experiences to your customers tailored to their specific interests. The PWA Venia store offers greater offline support and push notifications. Developing and deploying PWA on the cloud will also be faster and seamless. For merchants and retailers, this will imply better website performance and an improvement in conversion rates by up to 50%.

Is Headless Commerce right for your Business?

Choosing headless as a viable commerce option is an excellent approach; it makes your eCommerce store future-ready. With rapid enhancements in headless technology, wide assimilation into mainstream eCommerce is inevitable, placing early adopters at an advantage. With a variety of integration options available, merchants should proceed at a pace appropriate to their organizational maturity, whether it’s focused migration or more of a phased approach.