Headless CMS: Speed and creating content that adds value

May 23, 2018 | 14:30 PM

<a href="https://www.magnolia-cms.com/product/headless.html">Headless</a> is all about creating content, where the classic presentation layer doesn’t play a role, and delivering it to different touchpoints to create customer experiences, said Dirk Weckerlei, Head of Partner Management at commercetools, in an interview with Magnolia’s DX Talk.

“It’s all about creating content that adds value to the purchase process, through new touchpoints and creating transactions,” he said, while explaining the benefits of headless. “You can rely on existing front-end templating teams. You have the freedom to work on a new look and feel, and consider things not seen before.”

“The typical headless use case is mobile devices, but think of what we could do with cars and creating new ways to consume content. Because content is delivered in a standard format, you can easily apply it to different front-ends. If you don’t like what you have, you just get rid of it and start from scratch, no need to re-work templates. It’s all about speed and time to market.”

For commercetools, the advantages of headless and microservices are clear. Weckerlei sees this as a vote against the monolithic way of thinking and in favor of a best-of-breed approach: “A big monolithic tool always lacks in some area. I’ve never seen a customer use 100% of the features they thought they needed. Everything’s out-of-the-box, but you still need to customize.”

Advising against “feature-ritis”, he said: “Start with what differentiates your business and leave the standard stuff to others. Microservices and best-of-breed seem a natural thing for us. There’s no 100% right or wrong. You can choose both ways. Start with a new system that you can place in your existing architecture. There’s going to be a hybrid landscape out there, and that’s good for the market.”