14 October 2024 - Composable.com - MACH Alliance Strengthens Position as a Technology Leader, Responding to Growing Market Needs From Business Community

MACH Alliance Strengthens Position as a Technology Leader, Responding to Growing Market Needs From Business Community

Composable.com - October 2024

Authors: David Uccelli, Worldwide Principal Solution Architect, Digital Commerce, AWS and Cody Shive, Global Partner Solutions Architect, AWSThere’s a lot of buzz around composable transformation today. In this blog Amazon Web Services (AWS) will explain some important concepts that will help you navigate the waters of Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native and Headless components—known as MACH.But, where do we start with MACH, and why should we care? If you’re new to it, MACH endeavours to help you to build a solution specific to your business needs by selecting best-of-breed components and combining or 'composing' them into a custom platform. Many have likened it to building something out of Lego bricks or building a car by picking components such as the engine, steering rack, and body. However, this car makes it easier to swap or upgrade components and even try components before you buy or rent them.The MACH Alliance has a list of<a href="https://machalliance.org/members"> 80+ members </a>who have been <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence">certified</a> to all follow the same values. There are three types of members in the alliance. Most are Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who provide large components such as the engine and wheels in our car analogy. Then there are the System Integrators (SIs) who provide the blueprint and expertise to put the car together. Finally, there are the <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/why-we-added-an-enabler-membership-category">Enablers</a>, which are defined as “supporting functional areas of a MACH architecture, including monitoring, data storage, container management, tracing and orchestration.” In our analogy, an Enabler would provide components such as the nuts and bolts, speedometer, brake handle and windscreen as well as the metal sheeting or plastic you need to make your own components.As you embrace the MACH philosophy, we have some “tips” that will hopefully help. To get started, let’s compare and contrast a monolith with a microservice:<ul><li>A monolith is a tightly coupled single tiered application in which the user interface and data are combined into a single program. It is self-contained, and independent from other applications. It can have modules, but they have to all be deployed at once.</li><li>A microservice is a tightly scoped, strongly encapsulated, loosely coupled, and independently deployed application service. Several microservices usually work together to form a platform. The most important feature is that components can be independently deployed. In other words, you can make a change to the microservice, or deploy a new version of it into the production environment without having to change any other parts of the system.</li></ul><h3>Common reasons for decomposing monoliths into microservices</h3>There are many benefits offered by moving from a monolithic application to microservices. Below are the most commonly quoted benefits:<ul><li>Faster time to market Teams can implement changes independently, resulting in new capabilities being rolled out much faster.</li></ul><ul><li>Truly omnichannel Microservices encapsulate business rules; and as such, user interfaces are independently developed, accessing the microservices via APIs. This concept is also known as headless.</li></ul><ul><li>Reduced software complexity and specialized knowledge The scope and functionality of a single microservice is limited, resulting in easier maintenance and updates. Testing and deployment are incremental, rather than with a monolith which is often drawn out and subject to heavy regression testing, especially if it has been heavily customized.</li></ul><h3>Tip #1: We’ve been there, we know</h3>About twenty years ago, <a href="http://amazon.com/">Amazon.com</a> made the decision to move away from monolithic applications, simply because they wouldn’t scale. At that time, Amazon had one monolithic application and one Oracle database. It took 11 hours to update. They recognized if they continued in that vein, they would not achieve the agility necessary for the burgeoning ecommerce market. So, in a bold move, Amazon.com embraced what was new for the time, the concept of “service-oriented architecture” to achieve its first generation microservices. As a result, DevOps was born at Amazon.com with the mantra, “You build it, you run it” ringing through the halls. In a nutshell, here’s how it was done:Amazon.com enforced an API-only communication mentalityAmazon.com further enforced MACH principles through what it now calls the API Mandate. The only way that teams were allowed to communicate with each other was through the use of APIs – no exceptions. This mandate came in 2002 from Jeff Bezos, and it remains true to this day. Among other tenets, Bezos spelled out that you shouldn’t share databases as this would bypass the business logic in the microservice and restrict working independently. If you have shared a database what happens if you want to delete a column? Do you have to check if another service is using that column?Amazon.com re-imagined the concept of the release cycleOne of the key impacts of adopting DevOps and independently deployable microservices is a dramatic change in the release cycle. Instead of 11 hours of down time to launch, at Amazon.com they now have over 60 million deployments a year. This enables huge improvements from an innovation, experimentation and from a time-to-market perspective.Amazon.com started with the end in mind<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFdpBqmDpzM">The Amazon working backwards method</a> is a product development approach that starts with the team imagining the product is ready to ship. Knowing what success looks like (from the customer’s point-of-view) gave Amazon.com a north star to aim for. Knowing that a migration from monolith to MACH can be broken into manageable phases, they started breaking down the code into discrete operational components. And, they didn’t expect to migrate everything at once; instead, Amazon.com took a phased approach to make an orderly transition employing a <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/transition-from-a-legacy-suite-style-monolith-to-microservices">Strangler</a> pattern. In a future blog, we will look more closely at patterns you can use.<h3>Tip #2: Make Sure Microservices are Right for You</h3>Monolith does not equate to legacyMany people think there is only one type of monolith, and we often think legacy equates to monolith. In reality there is a continuum of monoliths, and they can be highly modular and even have multiple databases, enabling several of the advantages of microservices such as independent teams working on modules.In a recent article called<a href="https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2023/05/monoliths-are-not-dinosaurs.html"> Monoliths are not dinosaurs,</a> Werner Vogels, Amazon’s CTO emphasizes “there is no one-size-fits-all” and you should design your architecture to fit your situation and objectives.Do you need to customize?If you have a pretty standard use case then a tried and tested monolithic platform may be the best choice. Monoliths often come with “starter stores” that have been developed and refined over many years to accelerate the deployment of popular use cases.However, many companies want unique features that can only be built through customization. With more and more customization, problems start adding up for a monolith as the single block of code becomes more difficult to deploy. This results in larger scoped deployments and the need for release coordination, which can greatly slow innovation. It can even result in being stuck on an old version of the monolith that is no longer supported.How important is a business-friendly management UI and experience orchestration to you?As a result of being tightly coupled, most monoliths have extremely useful management user interfaces (UI) that are designed to be used by the business. Monoliths can also do things that are currently quite difficult for microservices-based platforms or require larger development teams. For example, in WebSphere Commerce, Oracle Commerce and others, you can easily preview a consumer experience in next summer’s sales, including any personalization, loyalty, catalogue changes and offers. Recreating that type of experience orchestration and management UI in a microservices world is not impossible, but it is pretty difficult as it involves orchestrating many different vendors’ microservices using a single UI. For some retailers it is worth developing themselves using services like Amazon <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/eventbridge/">EventBridge</a> and <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/step-functions/">AWS Step Functions </a>for their particular use cases. There are also services offered by<a href="https://partner-resources.awscloud.com/retail/great-mach-runs-on-aws2"> AWS Partners </a>for “experience orchestration” with pre-built connectors for many common MACH components.<h3>Tip #3: Help is Out There</h3>Getting started with the process of refactoring a monolithic application into microservices can be daunting. What should you address first? How do you convince management of the benefits? What’s everybody else doing?Leverage a Systems Integrator as your partnerIn the past it was common for a company to pick a monolithic vendor using a long RFP process, then ask the vendor which Systems Integrator (SI) would be suitable. Picking an SI was an afterthought.An important tip, that everyone who has started the MACH journey knows, is that the SI should now be your most important decision and can help pick vendors with you. After all, one of the reasons you are moving to MACH is the ease with which you can upgrade or swap out a vendor if it does not work out. It is a lot more difficult to swap out your SI.Many SIs are <a href="https://machalliance.org/members">MACH Alliance members</a>, and you can find much larger lists on similarly curated marketplaces such as <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/solutions/retail">AWS’s Marketplace.</a> In a future blog we will explain how to safely widen your net beyond the 80+ MACH members.Once you have narrowed down your list of candidates, an alternative approach to a long RFP process is to pick one or more simple proof of concepts and develop them with one or more potential SI partners. See how they work with your team and how they help you identify the capabilities you need first. How good are they at either suggesting the best Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) services on the market to evaluate or helping you build your own services?Pick a partner that has experience with similarly-sized companies, and look for an SI that does not use one template to fit all customers. Ask yourself “do you trust them to handover a fully optimized solution that has been thoroughly documented, so any future partners or in-house teams can take over the solution?”Ensure You Have a ChampionIt’s important to have a champion who can provide the mandate for completing the migration. Seek out an executive sponsor, and help them understand the benefits of MACH. As mentioned earlier, at AWS we use the working backwards mechanism to help us provide a clear understanding and purpose for an initiative. A key artefact of working backwards is a document called a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFdpBqmDpzM">Press Release/Frequently Asked Questions, or PR/FAQ </a>for short. That mechanism, or one like it, is an excellent way to explain to executive management your purpose and method for migrating a monolithic application to microservices. It also can be used to help that sponsor understand the relative costs and benefits of the migration.Understand your goals, your capabilities, and your weaknessesTogether with your chosen SI, clearly define your goals for the project, and identify the capabilities necessary to launch and maintain the future state. Remember that every company has different priorities. For example, your company may be known for an amazing online experience but rated poorly for customer support. Make sure everyone is aware of your priorities, and the capabilities you want to improve.A good method to quickly separate the wheat from the chaff is to prioritize what is necessary to achieve a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). For example, you will probably need a search capability for the launch of your new digital commerce site, but will you need it to be personalized at the start or will some other feature have a higher return on investment?Involve the business at every stageSet up product teams to implement, refine and manage each service. Make sure the business stakeholders who will actually use the product are fully involved from design to testing and training others on the solution. Getting buy-in by involving business users in every step of the implementation and ongoing maintenance and enhancement of the solution sounds simple, but it will bring incredible rewards in the future.<h3>Tip #4: Keep Innovating Through Experimentation</h3>When asked about the objectives of a MACH transformation, the likely answer is going to revolve around innovation and keeping up with changes in the market. What many companies forget is innovation and product market fit is achieved through experimentation.One of the most popular quotes from Bezos is:“To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it's going to work, it's not an experiment”A less well known, but equally important quote is:“What you really want to do company wide is maximize the number of experiments you can do per given unit of time. Since the outcomes of all these things are uncertain, if you can figure out how to conduct an experiment, you can make more bets. So, the key, really, is reducing the cost of the experiments.”Amazon has a dedicated group that allows teams to constantly experiment with the user interface on the website and mobile app. Amazon has put a lot of energy into trying to figure out how to be very low cost with experiments so they can run a much larger number of them.However, a lot of companies don’t make full use of the fact MACH architectures can handle a vast number of changes needed for experimentation. <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicsector/how-skillshare-increased-their-click-through-rate-by-63-with-amazon-personalize/">Skillshare</a> experimented with their in-house recommendation system vs. <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/pm/personalize/">Amazon Personalize</a> in 2020 after a boom in customers due to the pandemic. It found that using Amazon Personalize resulted in a 63% increase in click through compared with the in-house developed solution.The secret is to set up a team that purely enables cheap experimentation. Keep an eye on the market and keep listening to your customers by running experiments.<h3>Ready For MACH?</h3>While these tips may seem simple to achieve to those who have not started a monolith to MACH transformation, they are all very powerful and have been recounted by retailers, brands, vendors, SIs and technology enablers who have been through the process.In a future blog we will be revealing more tips, including different migration patterns and using MACH Enabler services with MACH Vendors to create a unified experience for customers. As part of this we will touch on serverless and event driven architecture. We will also look at how to widen your net beyond the 80+ MACH members, while making sure you follow MACH principles.Authors:<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt87786d10339323a5/64b79c3f070fc02d32a4070f/David_Uccelli-_card.png"/>David Uccelli is the Worldwide Principal Solutions Architect for Digital Commerce at AWS and works in the CPG and Retail team. David started in eCommerce over 20 years ago, working with IBM customers to build online solutions. Since then, he has worked with a huge number of large retailers and CPGs, including working directly for Walmart, Sainsbury’s, John Lewis, Heineken, Canon and PVH. David has also worked for several large consultancies and was a founder of a startup that was sold to Sainsbury’s. Having worked on large monolithic platforms in the past he now specialises in composable architectures for all channels and works closely with many MACH Alliance members.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt138ef6a7fb365162/64b79c4eef5ef06b4c66dc13/Cody_Shive-_card.png"/>Cody Shive is the Global Partner Solutions Architect for Grocery, Drug, and Convenience at AWS, where he works with both cloud and physical store retail partners. Cody has over 20 years in Retail as an independent consultant, a technical lead for IBM/Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, and as a Retail Transformation architect for NCR. Cody specializes in deep data analytics and keeps himself involved in self-service solutions such as Self-Checkout and Dash Cart technologies. He is passionate about grocery, stemming from his very first job at Albertsons in Jacksonville, Florida. Cody is a graduate from the University of North Florida with a degree in Computer and Information Sciences and minor in Business Management.

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Four tips from AWS for succeeding with MACH

My two favorite topics these days are Generative AI and MACH, two topics that don’t on the surface seem very related. But actually, we can apply the lessons learned from a MACH approach to the implementation of Generative AI and reap some of the same benefits. Agility, flexibility, and vendor-lock avoidance are bonus outcomes achieved if we leverage a MACH strategy.Before going much further, let’s back up to frame the discussion. MACH is an approach at modularization and decoupling that facilitates assembling best-of-breed components into solutions. <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/industries/aws-joins-mach-alliance/">Amazon Web Service (AWS) joined the MACH Alliance </a>a while back, and my colleagues have written about how <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/industries/great-mach-runs-on-aws/">Great MACH Runs on AWS</a>. Using this approach, retailers are able to construct a solution from different vendors, picking and choosing what works best for them now, with the flexibility to swap components later as necessary. For example. The Very Group in the UK, is <a href="https://commercetools.com/blog/mach-architecture-from-commercetools-cloud-nativity-from-aws-the-very-group-commerce-modernization">assembling their new ecommerce platform</a> from MACH members such as commercetools, Constructor, and Amplience, all running on AWS.Switching gears to Generative AI, it’s important to first understand that Generative AI is powered by foundation models (FMs), which are very time-consuming and expensive to train. Training requires months of processing on specialized hardware, like that supplied by <a href="https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/aws-and-nvidia-collaborate-on-next-generation-infrastructure-for-training-large-machine-learning-models-and-building-generative-ai-applications">Nvidia running in the AWS cloud</a>, or <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/machine-learning/trainium/">AWS Trainium</a>. But once trained, they can form the basis for many derivative solutions by fine-tuning. For example, the large language model (LLM) <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/index/introducing-claude">Claude from Anthropic</a> is a foundation model capable of general conversations. A retailer could fine-tune it to handle typical ecommerce interactions and <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/live-call-analytics-and-agent-assist-for-your-contact-center-with-amazon-language-ai-services/">deploy to their contact center</a>, thus enabling retail-specific prompts for the operator during calls. This could just as easily be used for a chatbot on the retailer’s website as well. I’ve also written about <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/industries/the-positive-impact-generative-ai-could-have-for-retail/">the positive impact Generative AI could have for retail,</a> including a list of other use cases.Here's where the two ideas come together. Retailers would be wise not to lock themselves in to a particular FM. The fact is, there are many FMs available today, each with its own benefits and costs, and there are more emerging every week. Although AWS offers <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/titan/">Amazon Titan</a>, its own FM, we also provide easy access to FMs from other providers since that choice depends on the end-goal. So, we created <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/">Amazon Bedrock,</a> a fully managed service that makes FMs from leading AI startups and Amazon available through an API, so you can choose from a wide range of FMs to find the model that's best suited for your use case. <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/announcing-new-tools-for-building-with-generative-ai-on-aws/">AWS provides the tools and environment</a> where you can choose to build new FMs, or fine-tune existing ones. We offer access to various FMs and even different training and inferencing hardware. This is a different approach than pushing one particular FM.A great example of this was given at the recent<a href="https://youtu.be/XrN7lhr9E_I"> AWS London Summit [video 23:18-26:16]</a>. Imagine a retailer wants to promote a new product. The product description is generated by Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant, StableDiffusion creates the product image, social media copy comes from AI21’s Jurassic-1 LLM, and Amazon Titan provides the SEO-optimized terms, all accessed through Amazon Bedrock. This gives the ultimate freedom to the retailer to select the cost-effective FMs that work best for their situation then harmonizes the outputs. Of course, for simplicity’s sake, you might not want multiple FMs, and you’re free to follow that path as well.Adopting what appears to be the best FM of the day might get to market first, but taking a more MACH-inspired approach to enabling business agility with freedom of choice has more long-term benefits.Author: David Dorf, Global Head of Retail Industry Solutions, AWS

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Applying MACH Principles to Generative AI

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Navigating Black Friday is a real challenge for enterprises, especially when it comes to wrangling high traffic. The ripple effect hits eCommerce platforms, impacting both the behind-the-scenes backend and the user-friendly frontend – think web and app interfaces, payment systems, pricing and promotion software. To ensure everything runs smoothly during the peak rush, enterprises must actively tackle and manage these traffic spikes.Let’s look at how MACH architecture supports optimal performance during sales events.

<ol><li>Managing concurrent user sessions Surging demand stresses server resources, particularly exposing vulnerabilities in the database layer. This elevates the risk of performance bottlenecks, hurting the overall user experience and potentially resulting in substantial losses during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.</li><li>Scalability concerns Classic monolithic architectures often struggle with horizontal scaling, restricting their ability to handle spikes in user volume. Obtaining the right number of CPUs is crucial for businesses running Black Friday promotions on-site.Conversely, companies collaborating with a cloud provider may feel pressured to opt for a pricier plan, often requiring a multi-year commitment to ensure peak performance. This approach is not cost-effective. If traffic exceeds initial projections, customers may experience website slowdowns or crashes during peak demand periods.</li><li>Lower data consistency causing a bad customer experience The fast-paced nature of Black Friday transactions heightens complexity, underscoring the critical need for data consistency. The challenge involves ensuring uniformity across the distributed network and facilitating simultaneous system updates to avoid errors.In the absence of real-time communication between systems, issues may emerge, for example where customers place orders for more products than are actually available. This can lead to potential delays in delivery or order cancellations, resulting in a negative customer experience or financial losses.</li><li>Points of failure in third-party integrations Potential points of failure can arise from custom-coded third-party integrations, such as payment gateways and external APIs. The increased transactional load on Black Friday can strain these integrations, leading to service degradation or complete failures.</li></ol>

How Black Friday traffic challenges monolithic ecommerce platforms?

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<h2></h2><h3>How MACH architecture supports traffic spikes on Black Friday?</h3>Moving away from the traditional monolithic approach, MACH introduces a shift by offering flexibility and scalability to accommodate changing customer demands and fluctuating performance requirements.

The MACH architecture empowers enterprises to get ready for Black Friday and other seasonal traffic spikes in the following ways:<ol><li>Scalability: In contrast to monolithic solutions, MACH not only handles unpredictable Black Friday traffic spikes but also sidesteps the performance issues and high CPU costs typically linked with traditional systems. The modular and independent nature of microservices within MACH plays a crucial role in effective load distribution, enabling each component to scale horizontally.</li><li>Better customer experience: MACH's microservices guarantee continuous responsiveness during traffic surges, delivering customers a smooth shopping experience.</li><li>Reduced payloads: Within the MACH architecture, different services communicate through API calls within an event-based framework. This ensures that data transmission between systems occurs ad-hoc, triggered by events like placing an order. The outcome is a streamlined process where only the necessary and specified data is transmitted, leading to a substantial reduction in payloads.</li><li>Cost-effectiveness: The MACH architecture achieves cost-effectiveness by enabling independent scaling of components, mitigating unnecessary costs, and providing an optimal solution for tackling Black Friday challenges. In contrast to monolithic solutions requiring optimization of the entire package, MACH architecture allows precise scaling, ensuring payment only for the services required for increased API calls. Additionally, MACH software providers often offer flexibility in purchasing extra API call packages for specific months, anticipating higher traffic, without inflating yearly subscription costs.</li><li>Geo-redundancy: Incorporating geo-redundancy into the MACH architecture enhances system reliability during Black Friday events. Through duplicating and distributing resources across multiple geographic locations, the influence of localized failures is minimized. This ensures a consistent and reliable customer experience, even during unforeseen events.</li></ol><hr/><h2>MACH-architecture guarantees:</h2> Performance optimizationConstructed on a responsive foundation, the MACH architecture enhances performance through dynamic resource allocation. The key lies in fine-tuning contracts based on demand, enabling platforms to adjust to peak loads. Central to this adaptability are the SLAs that ISVs must provide, ensuring alignment with the dynamic demands of eCommerce.Full elastic consumption maintains optimal performance at the lowest possible cost. ECommerce platforms utilizing MACH can efficiently scale spending based on real-time needs, increasing resource usage during specific months.Cloud-native infrastructure for reliabilityThe cloud-native approach bolsters system reliability through built-in redundancy and fault tolerance. By dispersing services across multiple servers and data centers, the architecture reduces the risk of single points of failure—especially crucial during Black Friday, where any downtime can lead to significant revenue loss. Smooth customer journey across different channelsCome Black Friday, MACH's headless architecture streamlines promotional content delivery to diverse endpoints, encompassing websites and mobile apps. Functioning as an e-commerce platform, the CMS, PIM, and promotion engines communicate pricing and promotion details to all channels via APIs, ensuring uniformity in information relayed to customers across their entire shopping journey.Promotion management within MACH ArchitectureThe unified MACH promotion engine powers all front-end applications and collects data on purchases and applied promotions, making fraud prevention easier as the system validates customer eligibility against all purchases, regardless of the channel. In contrast, utilizing distinct promotion systems for web, app, and POS systems could introduce vulnerabilities, potentially enabling customers to exploit a single-use coupon code multiple times.<hr/><h3>Beyond the advantages in performance and scalability, MACH Architecture equips companies to launch more effective Black Friday promotions. How?</h3> Better promotional ROI thanks to connected systemsThe MACH architecture enables direct and real-time communication among CRM, CDP, commerce, and promotional software, fostering personalization and contextualization of offers. In contrast, traditional monolithic systems limited enterprises to generic offers, such as a flat 30% off for all, lacking flexibility and precision.Within the MACH architecture, advanced promotional scenarios become achievable, for instance:<ul><li>discounting products down to the minimum margin level based on exact product prices and margins,</li><li>offering discounts only on products the customer has never purchased before,</li><li>providing specific discounts tailored to customer segments or locations,</li><li>dynamically displaying available promotions to each customer in real-time.</li></ul>The result is the development of personalized promotion pages for each customer. These micro-targeting capabilities not only elevate the customer experience but also play a pivotal role in effectively managing the promotional budget and preventing fraud. Significantly, these functionalities are empowered by the real-time API communication between the interconnected systems in the MACH architecture.<hr/><h2>What to make out of this?</h2> As Black Friday looms, view it not merely as a shopping event but as a chance to revamp your eCommerce strategy. Armed with the scalability of MACH architecture, your promotions can stand out, delivering genuine value. Features like flexible subscription pricing, auto-scaling, personalized incentives, and adept handling of massive traffic are significant elements that enhance your promotions and enrich the user experience.In your Black Friday preparations, remember that promotions extend beyond mere discounts; they are opportunities to integrate suitable technologies and forge connections with your customers. Leverage MACH architecture to make this Black Friday a significant milestone in your eCommerce journey – a moment where scalable promotions not only drive transactions but also leave a lasting impact.<hr/>Author: Anna Olszewska, Junior Content Marketing Specialist, Voucherify

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How MACH architecture helps you prepare for the Black Friday traffic

After welcoming our first group of Ambassadors, we are now proud to announce the next six to join the MACH Alliance. They have been carefully selected from the great amount of responses we have received.Each is an expert in their respective field and is dedicated to promoting and supporting our cause. Get to know them below:<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltc98845576b964f43/5fd90896da1c393383d40e79/Ambassador_Cohort_2_(4).jpg"/><h2>Rohit Mishra</h2>With over 15 years of industry experience, Rohit has helped top retailers architect and build their digital commerce ecosystems, for past several years, he has been focused on modernization of digital commerce through adoption of microservices, public cloud, APIs, headless architectures, containerized infrastructure, 12-factor applications, open source tools and technologies, while ensuring that it remains a flexible, feasible and cost effective proposition to the enterprise. As a change agent, he also helps his organization adopt modern software development practices, DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering which provides a “must-have” foundation to sustain modern architectures such as microservices itself.<h2>Rainer Knapp</h2>Rainer Knapp is Global Director IT and Digital at Wolford, where he leads "Wolford X", a comprehensive Omnichannel digitization initiative, including all direct sales channels, including brick-and-mortar, online and social media.&nbsp;Within this program the application landscape in the B2C area is currently being rebuilt, based on an innovative architectural best-of-breed design, adhering to the principles of MACH.&nbsp;Rainer has been managing IT departments in the publishing, sports goods and fashion industry for more than 20 years.<h2>Sanjay Manocha</h2>Sanjay joined PPG in Jan. 2020 and has been helping define the future state Digital Architecture. He heads Digital Architecture practice in PPG, with a team of Solutions Architects focusing on AI/Ml, ecommerce and SAP (CRM) rollout. Prior to PPG, Sanjay worked as Principal Consultant with Infosys and has also worked as Principal Enterprise architect with Verizon for over 15 years. He has designed and executed large-scale, multimillion dollar digital transformation and systems integration projects for Verizon. Sanjay is an Electronics engineer from India with MBA in Finance, Marketing. Sanjay has a patent pending in Mobile Ordering.<h2>Jim Hingston</h2>Jim is Head of Digital Product at the Gym Group where he is responsible for their digital experience. Jim has led teams delivering, running and optimising using MACH technologies. He has experience getting buy in from boards to invest in Digital CX, formulating business cases and setting up programmes &amp; partnerships for success. Prior to the Gym Group, Jim was at Debenhams where he led the delivery of the first PWA using a headless approach, a first in UK retail.<h2>Melanie Wasley</h2>Mel has over 15 years’ experience working in digital and her career has focused on digital transformation for businesses in the financial services and retail sector. Most recently she has led the Product team at Debenhams in their journey to a headless front-end architecture giving her first hand experience of the technology and ways of working needed to do this.<h2>Tom Morgan</h2>Tom is Director of Digital at The Spectator, the world’s oldest magazine. The Spectator provides the most stimulating discussion in Britain. It publishes elegant and original writing - to provoke, entertain and delight. Tom’s job is to bring that to life across web, TV, email, podcasts and apps - combining creative and technology to bring about better conversation and debate in the digital space. He leads the digital strategy and delivery across all of the group’s digital products.In his spare time, Tom is an advisor to the UK government on digital Apprenticeships strategy – he is Vice Chair of a panel of senior UK business leaders, working to help address the digital skills gap in the UK by creating new Apprenticeships standards.<h2>Stay in the loop</h2>To stay in the loop about the latest insights of these experts, and to be the first to hear about upcoming ambassadors announcements, you can <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1vH2ljjp8TvS1cbURdpNKbw4t5u0?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_wP102Tahc4sabCzSuPF5HEyzpNg_lOv15aNICDdLfFXumzq7U5ictDukPOS9ITOqaCrRW">subscribe to our newsletter</a> and follow us on<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/MACHAlliance">Twitter</a>.

MACH Alliance Welcomes Six More Ambassadors

What is 'API-First'&nbsp;and how does it fit into MACH? Let's hear it in 1 minute from <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/four51/">Four51</a> Chief Product Officer <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAABOXIUBio_hfs3pvicyfaSEI0bBmw5vu5U">Jacob Hookom</a>:<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/488459842?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="103.159%" height="329"></iframe>

'API First' explained in under 1 minute!

<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltc26fe12fe02c25a7/614c6f46f6002c7a004967b7/Blog-banner-1440x1024-talon-one-dark.jpg"/>A dark store is a retail space that is set up to exclusively (or almost exclusively) focus on online shopping. It can be a ‘click and collect’ hub or a delivery fulfillment center that is optimized to manage online orders. A dark kitchen (or ‘ghost kitchen’) is the same idea, except it is a restaurant that operates exclusively online.In this article we will outline how dark stores emerged, why they’re here to say and what learnings you can take from the dark store concept to build a headless, omnichannel experience that’s industry-leading — even after the world opens back up fully.<h2>Come to the dark side</h2>The dark store concept is not new — <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/shortcuts/2014/jan/07/inside-supermarkets-dark-stores-online-shopping">the model has been around since at least 2014</a> – but it really came of age once customers become more familiar and at ease with doing their shopping online. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many retailers and restaurants turned to dark stores/kitchens to survive when lockdown restrictions made in-person dining or shopping more difficult.“When Covid-19 hit and all our stores rapidly closed, we had millions worth of stock stuck in those locations. Fluent Commerce’s store fulfillment solution allowed us to convert our key locations into dark stores, and within a week we were able to move stock to customers. This outstanding turnaround wouldn’t have happened without the dedicated Fluent team. Thank you!”<a href="https://fluentcommerce.com/#:~:text=When%20Covid-19,team.%20Thank%20you!">Aaron Gard</a>Head of Digital, brandbank (Seed Heritage and French Connection)Now that dark stores and kitchens have established themselves in the customer-facing ecosystem, it seems like their popularity is not going to wane as the world begins to open back up. <a href="https://chainstoreage.com/report-us-q2-online-sales-318-account-145-retail-sales-2020?oly_enc_id=0339B0739001F4U&utm_source=omeda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NL_CSA_Connected+Retail&utm_keyword=">Trends point to dark stores being a trend that will stay with us</a> now they’ve penetrated the market.<ul><li>14.5% of US retail sales in 2020 came from e-commerce.</li><li>Projected figures for 2024 estimate e-commerce sales will be 18.1% of total US retail sales.</li><li>E-commerce availability and hygiene considerations are increasing store switching behavior, with 17 percent of consumers shifting away from their primary store.</li><li><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Retail/Our%20Insights/Adapting%20to%20the%20next%20normal%20in%20retail%20The%20customer%20experience%20imperative/Adapting-to-the-next-normal-in-retail-the-customer-experience-imperative-v3.pdf">Omnichannel models are also growing</a>: ‘click and collect’ grew 28 percent year-over-year in February, and grocery delivery is up by 57 percent.</li><li>In the same survey, some 56 percent of consumers said they’ll continue using click and collect once COVID-related restrictions ease, with 45 percent of consumers saying they plan to continue getting their groceries delivered.</li><li>Instacart <a href="https://www.talon.one/blog/how-dark-stores-are-changing-the-grocery-industry">achieved 3 years of projected growth</a> in just 3 months, with 500% year-over-year growth.</li></ul><h2>The next normal</h2>Within this wider shift towards online commerce, dark stores will have a large sway. The main reason for this is that dark stores and dark kitchens can provide the flexibility to experiment and iterate on business ideas. They’re a natural fit for the headless approach — think of it as decoupling the brick and mortar backend from the in-person shopping frontend and offering an online experience instead. Multiple ‘brands’ can operate from the one kitchen facility, and offerings can be scaled up or down based on demand.Some delivery food app operators measure how often users search for a given cuisine in an area, and how often they’re unsuccessful. <a href="https://marker.medium.com/how-a-shadow-army-of-ghost-kitchens-took-over-americas-restaurants-b7ac1a099c8c">If there’s a high volume of searches for ‘Mexican’ food in a certain neighborhood</a>, they’ll then add a Mexican food option to the dark kitchen that covers that area, meeting customer demand for a lower than average initial investment.The location of dark kitchens can be highly demographic data-driven, as this <a href="https://medium.com/civic-intelligence/data-driven-dark-kitchens-da9ea72644ff">analysis of a location strategy for dark kitchen</a> outlines. By harnessing the power of big data, expanding food companies can make low-risk plays to target specific customer personas.Since dark stores are defined by their use of off-main-street locations, they can benefit from lower rents and overall costs, especially since their fit-out costs are generally lower — they don’t need to be designed to please customers, they can be purely functional. This low cost-base means room to experiment.<h2>Why ‘dark stores’ can be a model for omnichannel excellence</h2>With lockdowns and distancing restrictions introduced across the globe, retailers moved towards bringing more of the in-store experience online. This has either been through offering virtual appoints with shop assistance or sales agents, or companies like TaoBao supporting brick-and-mortar stores to <a href="https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/news/article?news=p200330">operate product live streams</a>. The number of merchants using live streams on TaoBao increased by 719% in February 2020.The benefits of combining the personal touch of in-person shopping assistance with the online convenience offered by ecommerce is increased customer satisfaction and retention. Since purely ‘dark’ stores are focused on optimizing their digital offering, introducing this combination gives physical retailers the opportunity to compete by augmenting their brand with dark-store level convenience while not compromising on service.Headless commerce is a natural fit when building out a customer experience flow with this mindset. By looking at what your in-store experience does well, you can consider what elements of that can be translated online. For an interesting example of how MACH tools can be used to provide a seamless experience that complements your offline value proposition, Contentstack teamed with Valtech to <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/how-to-concept-and-pitch-an-augmented-reality-demo-in-one-week/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=2020_09_01_valtech_build_augmented_reality_poc_4_weeks">hack their way to a beauty and skincare app</a> that uses Augmented Reality (AR) to give customers rich product information.When you’re looking for ways to create touchpoints across both your physical and digital offerings, promotions are a great way to start. By creating coupons or loyalty schemes that work in both the online and offline world, you can track the customer journey from your store to your webshop — and nudge users to conversion. Talon.One’s ebook <a href="https://www.talon.one/blog/promotions-the-changing-face-of-ecommerce-white-paper">Promotions &amp; The Changing Face Of Ecommerce</a> gives you actionable insights into how this flow can be used to supercharge your digital transformation strategy using a headless approach.Ensuring your brick and mortar offering has strong links to other channels was another trend that had been emerging before the pandemic, but has intensified over the past 18 months. <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/perspectives%20on%20retail%20and%20consumer%20goods%20number%208/perspectives-on-retail-and-consumer-goods_issue-8.pdf">Research found that opening a new location increases traffic to the retailer’s website by 37 percent the following quarter.</a><h2>What’s in the dark store stack?</h2>Modern customers are hyper-vigilant in their search for convenience, quality, and value for money. The dark store model has stripped back the shopping experience to provide convenience and value at a cutting edge level, but is still learning to provide quality at scale.To do this, dark stores deploy sophisticated warehouse management software and are constantly innovating on ‘<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/last-mile-delivery-shipping-explained">last mile delivery’</a>. Rapid grocery delivery firms like Gorillas, Flink or Doordash have used this edge in last mile delivery to be the basis of their entire value proposition.In general, e-commerce fulfillment is expensive for retailers. Ordinary retail outlets still offer some cost savings versus a delivery-only model. This poses a challenge (and particularly posed a challenge under lockdown conditions) as more of modern commerce shifts online. To combat this, and to succeed in this modern world, retailers will need to optimize ‘picking’ options in dark stores, both through layout optimization and increased use of technology. State-of-the-art warehouse management systems are needed to make sure everything keeps running smoothly.But as companies try to fit multiple modes of operation into one wider business, ensuring their stack works both independently and in tandem is something that is best solved with a headless commerce approach. By using multiple best-in-class services, and focusing on API-based interoperativity, you can have full view-through across your entire operation, and add features or services as it makes sense for your business. It also future proofs your offering, allowing you to scale up or add functions as they become needed.Sub-optimal uses of technology can lead to inefficiencies, increasing labor costs and hurting delivery times. This is especially true as retailers offer ever-expanding arrays of products, each with individual supply chains. For an example of how technology can prevent this wastage, read how an international retailer <a href="https://fluentcommerce.com/click-and-collect-to-ship-from-store-in-just-5-days/">set-up a Dark Store supply system in just 5 days</a>.<h2>The future for dark kitchens?</h2>With the most likely scenario being that COVID-19 has permanently changed how people shop, we’re likely to see <a href="https://www.talon.one/blog/how-dark-stores-are-changing-the-grocery-industry">growth in the following sectors</a>:<ul><li>‘Dark store’ brands with a delivery workforce,</li><li>Restaurant delivery apps pivoting into grocery,</li><li>Grocery stores piloting in-house services and partnerships with other platforms.</li></ul>Fully ‘dark stores’ are still an extreme model, but the importance of omnichannel cannot be overstated. By introducing ‘dark store’ elements, and using headless commerce to drive a truly seamless omnichannel experience, you can blend dark store benefits with traditional levels of customer experience and satisfaction, to create the ‘shop of the future’.Author: Henry Bewicke, Content Writer, Talon.one

Why ‘dark stores’ can be a model for omnichannel excellence

As one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, Kraft Heinz is synonymous with a multitude of timeless and iconic brands found in cupboards and fridges around the globe. But the secret ingredient behind this trusted producer of high-quality staples is to look beyond what’s on the dinner table and not only understand — but evolve with — their consumers.That’s why Kraft Heinz’s Head of Digital Experience Justin Thomas doesn’t just think outside of the box, he focuses on breaking that box completely. He knows that innovation that truly moves technology forward isn’t rooted in change for the sake of change, but comes from an obsession with serving consumers in completely new and differentiated ways. This is also why Justin has joined the MACH Alliance as an official Ambassador.“MACH isn’t just a philosophy, it's the future of technology. MACH provides best-of-need, best-of-breed digital solutions for today’s landscape and also sets businesses up to adapt agility to new technologies as they emerge, and then try them out right away with a very low cost of experimentation,” Justin explains.Meaningful Cross-Functional Agility for the First TimeOnce Justin and his team began making the transition to MACH, they discovered an unexpected benefit.“When we first began this process, we thought it would be a chance to work closely with creative and technology, to integrate and align our vision for our users. However, the biggest change I’ve seen is the engagement and collaboration with our partners within the organization. This is due to the fact that now they feel empowered to influence the digital experience thanks to the flexibility of a MACH tech stack.”“It’s really helping us not just as a team, but as an organization to bring more agility to what we’re trying to do here. This is something we didn’t have enough of before, and it’s really meaningful and exciting,” he adds.Flexibility and Scalability, Just in TimeIn Justin’s experience, the role of fresh, up-to-the-second content is only going to become increasingly important in curating impactful digital experiences in the near future. And that necessitates a flexible, adaptable tech stack that can deliver directly to users at scale.“Consumers are increasingly expecting brands to provide more than just basic information online. These days, the expectation is that a brand should entertain and engage in new, novel, and digital ways at every touchpoint,” he says. “So, now more than ever it’s important to have the capability to deliver a much vaster scope of content, and to ensure that you’re actually doing something to deliver that moment of delight as a value-add to your customer. Otherwise, you simply won’t be able to keep up.”“Creative is no longer left waiting on tech tickets to be answered, and can instead be empowered with easy-to-use technology to push content live,” he explains. “Similarly, tech is freed from answering low-value easily automated tech tickets and can instead focus on building and experimenting. MACH is really the most effective technological and digital solution out there.”It all comes down to serving up a solution that meets the appetites of today’s consumers, and sets Kraft Heinz up to lead the future of a digital food experience tomorrow — and that sounds pretty delicious.MACH Alliance Ambassadorship The MACH Alliance is very excited to welcome Justin as a MACH Ambassador. Our Ambassadors are a carefully selected group of business and technology experts with a wide range of experience across industries and backgrounds. Passionate about the benefits a modern architecture can bring to an enterprise, our Ambassadors have graciously committed their time to support the mission of the MACH Alliance by writing, speaking, and serving as subject matter experts to help empower companies to go MACH.If you’re interested in learning more about a MACH approach and understanding if it’s right for your business, we welcome you to get in touch at <a href="mailto:info@machalliance.org">info@machalliance.org</a> to be matched with the MACH Alliance Ambassador most relevant to you.

Meet Your MACH Ambassador: Justin Thomas, Head of Digital Experience at Kraft Heinz

Mihaela Mazzenga understands digital experience from many different angles. She’s seen the evolution of technology as both a vendor and consumer of software-as-a-service (SaaS), with roles at companies that offered services, ones that enabled them, as the CTO of a highly customer-focused health and wellness platform, to her current role as CTO at Sharper Image.The recent migration she led her team through was the first to specifically use end-to-end MACH technologies, but she’s been seeing the rise of the microservice approach behind these tools for some time.“From a business perspective, everything has moved to service-based at warp speed over the past several years.” says Mihaela. However, with a background on the vendor side she says that the seemingly meteoric rise of services is similar to other technologies that were being used by engineers for quite some time before being broadly adopted.“I remember when people laughed about Cloud technology, and they would joke about the name. Then all of the sudden if you’re not on Cloud you’ve fallen behind in digital maturity.” says Mihaela, “I think the progression of software services has gone in the same direction.”<h1>Engineering Principles Brought to the Mass Market</h1>“What I’ve enjoyed most about the progression is seeing that core principles of software engineering are now being delivered in the service market.” says Mihaela, “This is making it easier for engineers to incorporate features in weeks, or even days, which would have previously taken them months to do.”The most important engineering ideals that the market is incorporating, according to Mihaela, are reuse and composition. As the digital experience expanded, companies didn’t want to reinvent the wheel every time they tried something new. Instead, they started turning to service based technologies that could be used across any channel.“The MACH approach, especially Headless, started to become pronounced when integrating other user touchpoints became a priority.” says Mihaela, referring to a growing number of solutions designed with MACH (<a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-terms-tuesday-videos">Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless</a>) principles. “Companies creating web-enabled applications wanted to be able to extend those experiences to other channels without having to rewrite natively for each touchpoint.”MACH tools break features down into channel-agnostic, individual services that lead to more flexibility for both business and development teams.“If you have been tied to a monolith for a long time you can absolutely see the value of breaking out individual features for optimization internally or with different vendors.” says Mihaela on the value a service-based approach brings to business users. “You’re able to identify which areas aren’t driving enough value and select modern solutions that can more effectively grow that part of the business.”Having that level of feature control, and the ability to reuse those features across touchpoints, is allowing businesses to create digital experiences that were previously unattainable.“Certainly, like with any new approach, you’re going to have refinement as the market matures,” says Mihaela, “but I’m happy to see the accessibility of software come to the masses as it has, allowing businesses to tailor experiences like never before.”<h1>Modern Tools Bring New Challenges</h1>While the MACH approach offers a lot of promise, Mihaela points out that both the market and the understanding of these technologies is still maturing. “MACH is a huge benefit from a service perspective, but it should also be recognized that it’s highly complex.”“I think there’s a fundamental difference in MACH versus everything that preceded it, and that does impact the business understanding and buy-in of the solution,” says Mihaela, “The migrations I was previously involved in were more conventional, they were easier to explain and easier for business users to understand.”“The MACH replatform required a progression of understanding, which has absolutely made it the most difficult migration to date.” says Mihaela, referring to her team’s successful lift to a MACH architecture at Sharper Image. “It differs from the traditional models that people understood, and there’s a lack of comfort in that.”“The most challenging to grasp is the C in MACH, the Cloud-native SaaS, because it breaks the norms of the centralized single system.” says Mihaela, “There is a linear understanding of a single server, or a set of servers, in a controlled environment where resiliency and security are very specific and easy to measure. Now you have multiple distributed systems involved in creating the experience and any one of those could negatively impact your solution.”“If Cloud is ultimately an asset or disadvantage to security operations is still a question I have to answer myself.” says Mihaela. “With what I’m observing, I do think that long-term it will be a positive, but it does require breaking the current mindset of how you think security is supposed to be structured and integrated.”MACH concepts can be complicated, and technology leaders considering this approach should take into account the effort needed to challenge the conventional ways their business thinks about enterprise architecture.“There is a lot of opportunity for education.” says Mihaela.<h1>Flexible Teams are Paramount</h1>Moving to a service-based approach not only requires educating the business stakeholders, but also ensuring that technical teams are up for the transition.“Team preparedness is critical.” says Mihaela, “You cannot choose to go down the MACH path without first making sure you have a team that is on board and capable. It’s more complex to plan and implement than anything that has preceded it, and you’re going to struggle if you start this endeavour and find out you don’t have the right resources midway through.”For Mihaela, there is one principle that stood out as the biggest predictor of a team being up for the challenge. “Flexibility is core in everything. It’s core in the systems, it’s core in the people, and it’s core in the business.”“If you have a team that’s conditioned for flexibility as a standard, then changes in path won’t feel as disruptive when they happen.” she says, “If you allow teams the bandwidth to collaborate internally, and collaborate with the business stakeholders, then they can quickly solve problems and keep moving. That requires a lot of flexibility. Change is the only constant.”Part of that flexibility is being able to adapt team roles to match business needs. “As you go down this road, you will find different areas of expertise within the team.” says Mihaela, “You’ll be able to better manage complexities if you align the team to perform in the areas that are best suited for their individual strengths.”“You have to have team members who are comfortable and interested in their area of work to be productive, because you’re layering on additional complexities with MACH.” says Mihaela. “With monoliths, you didn't have to worry about orchestration details because of the scope of the environment versus the application code. Now, in a microservice environment, you have to manage the interactions, permissions, and deployments of these services. Each service has its own mini-environment.”“First align the team to your business goals, and then align the team members to the services that they have the most strength and interest in,” advises Mihaela.<h1>Feature Freedom and Vendor Management</h1>Fostering flexibility, both in how teams operate and how business views technology, is critical to being able to tap into the benefits that MACH offers.“One of the biggest benefits for the business is that there is no vendor lock anymore,” says Mihaela, “Even with the core vendors, if a specific feature isn’t working then you’re free to change that out. If you want to build your own feature, or want to add another vendor, you can go ahead and do so easily.”MACH allows businesses to move away from one-size-fits-all monoliths to modular platforms that are selected based on specific needs. This offers a solution that is easier to adapt to your needs as they change, but the leaner MACH platforms may not offer all the features teams were used to right out of the box.“If you’re doing a migration or reassembly then you may encounter feature loss, and you’ll have to decide how to fill those gaps.” says Mihaela, “There may be feature issues that you won’t be able to work around with a specific vendor, so you’ll need to be able to pull back and see if you can move the feature to another vendor or even build internally.”This means that vendor management can be more complicated than companies were used to with a monolith or suite. Says Mihaela, “You now have to build strong relationships with many different vendors, and people are usually the most complex part of any project.”Mihaela advised selecting vendors that align with your desired features, with how you want to access those features, and with your expectations around partnership, whether you’re looking for just a service provider or want more of a collaborative relationship.<h1>Education is Key to MACH Adoption</h1>Having successfully completed a full lift to a MACH architecture at Sharper Image, and now focusing on refining the solution, Mihaela’s team is experiencing the benefits of MACH. As she says, “We went from being locked into one set of ideals determined by the platform we were using, to being able to change ideals as we see fit.”However, she doesn’t shy away from the fact that getting to this stage was complicated and part of her reason for becoming a MACH Alliance Ambassador is to share her knowledge and help other companies better understand the benefits and complexities of these tools.“What I like about MACH is that there’s an interest in pushing it as a standard,” says Mihaela. “Having an assembly of people that are proponents of utilizing MACH for very valid reasons and can also educate others is important, because it is a complex approach and education is going to be critical.”“Having been on both the service end and the client end, and having executed a migration of this magnitude using MACH technologies, I’m happy to offer my knowledge where I can.” says Mihaela. “That's really what attracted me to becoming an ambassador.”MACH Alliance AmbassadorThe MACH Alliance is very excited to welcome Mihaela as a MACH Alliance Ambassador. Our Ambassadors are a carefully selected group of business and technology experts with a wide range of experience across industries and backgrounds. Passionate about the benefits a modern architecture can bring to an enterprise, our Ambassadors have graciously committed their time to support the mission of the MACH Alliance by writing, speaking, and serving as subject matter experts to help empower companies to go MACH.If you’re interested in learning more about a MACH approach, and understanding if it’s right for your business, you’re invited to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcsmihaela/">reach out to Mihaela</a> or get in touch with us at <a href="mailto:info@machalliance.org">info@machalliance.org</a> to be matched with the MACH Alliance Ambassador most relevant to you.

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Meet Your MACH Alliance Ambassador: Mihaela Mazzenga, CTO at Sharper Image

Switzerland's largest online wine retailer is building its digital commerce of tomorrow by decoupling the frontend from the backend. The decision for a modern MACH tech stack brought speed and agility — and guarantees the best possible shopping experience for customers.The former business students Renzo Schweri and Dominic Blaesi already had ambitious goals in 2007. Because they were tired of searching for good wines in the vastness of the internet, they wanted to create an “Amazon for wine” under the domain flaschenpost.ch. There, the best wines from around the world should be clearly orderable in 1 place. A good 13 years later, the 2 have already taken a considerable step closer to their vision. flaschenpost.ch has become the largest online wine retailer in Switzerland. 80,000 customers can choose from an assortment of 30,000 wines sourced from 100 of the most renowned Swiss wine shops.The founders place great emphasis on offering their customers the best possible shopping experience. Finding and ordering wine should be more convenient and affordable than in any other store.“Our hypothesis, supported by surveys, is that many wine lovers aren’t really interested in where a wine comes from, which grape is in it, or how it’s made. They just want to drink wine that they like,” says company founder Dominic Blaesi. “That’s where we want to start and solve their problem. Customers should always have a wine cellar full with wines guaranteed to please them and their guests without having to worry about anything.”<h3>Customer expectations change daily, flaschenpost.ch changes with them</h3>In the rapidly developing digital commerce market, the demand for an optimal customer experience is an enormous challenge. Almost every day, somewhere in the world, an online retailer presents a new feature that again improves the customer experience a little. Most innovations don’t even come from the retailer’s own industry, which is still sluggish when it comes to digitalization, according to Blaesi. Nevertheless, every novelty changes customers’ expectations of the shopping experience.In the process, the team quickly noticed: they were no longer getting anywhere with the existing Magento-based store. “The monolithic structure of Magento has been customized again and again over the years. This made it increasingly complicated, lengthy, and therefore very expensive to develop new features,” explains flaschenpost CTO Johannes Klaiber. Management quickly decided that the future consisted of a headless architecture that created independence between the frontend and backend — and chose Frontastic as the Composable Commerce Platform.“This gives us a faster time to market because it’s a modern technology that fits better with our skills and development,” Klaiber explains. At the same time, he says, the setup that also involves commercetools as the backend, enables the company to build a more agile organizational structure. “Our goal is to create product teams that can independently drive their own projects,” says the CTO. One team could then take care of the store, for example, while another takes care of building a subscription model. And no one would have to take into account when the other changes or installs anything in the system.<h3>The right wine at the right time — for every customer</h3><a href="http://flaschenpost.ch/">flaschenpost.ch</a> is currently working on different services that offer wine moments for its customers. Frontastic proves to be an ideal platform for building these services such as subscription, recommendation and premium services.In general, flaschenpost.ch can implement new ideas 50% faster than before, estimates CTO Johannes Klaiber. The Computer Scientist sees the new tech stack as a major advantage and is a much better match for the developers’ skills. “Our programmers are based in Belgrade in Serbia. It’s difficult to find someone with Magento know-how there,” says Klaiber. People who choose to become a developer today wouldn’t learn old concepts but those that Frontastic follows. Also, developers on the team would prefer to develop innovative things than struggle with legacy. “We held a proof-of-concept workshop in the evaluation and let the developers code. That showed us that there were no problems at all in dealing with Frontastic and commercetools,” the IT expert recounts.“By using Frontastic, flaschenpost.ch can implement new ideas 50% faster than before.”Johannes Klaiber, CTO at flaschenpost.chThe next item on the agenda is optimizing the user experience on mobile devices. Although the current store is responsive, it only fulfills the basics of a mobile-optimized site. Under Magento, optimization was no longer worthwhile. “With Frontastic, we’ll succeed much better,” the flaschenpost.ch CTO is convinced. He’s particularly taken with the Frontastic studio, which lets teams scan a QR code on a mobile device and see exactly how the content pages they created will look on an actual device. Frontastic’s technology foundation also allows for more design flexibility. “Animations or smoother transitions between individual pages are much easier to implement,” according to Klaiber’s experience. For the coming year, the implementation of an app is planned, which should primarily give wings to the new Flight subscription. “A smartphone is always with us, and with an app, we’re even closer to our customers,” says the CTO. In this way, one has completely different marketing and design options — both visually and in the user experience. Plus, new services can be added to Flights through the app. There are many ideas: from intelligent wine racks to optimized service on the last mile of delivery.<h3>Tests for the retail of the future</h3>For the time after the relaunch, the implementation of an app is planned, which should primarily give wings to the new "Flights" subscription. "The cell phone is always with us and with an app we are even closer to the customer," says CTO Klaiber. This way, one has completely different design and marketing options - both visually and in the user experience. In addition, new services can be added to flights via the app. There are many ideas: from intelligent wine racks to optimized service on the last mile of delivery.What the wine trade of tomorrow will look like is still largely a matter of speculation, even for the experts at Flaschenpost. But in order to find new features that will enable the store to stand out from the competition in the future, customer surveys, usability tests and the simulation of features in the form of click prototypes are among the measures being taken. In addition, the founders rely on Minimal Viable Products by quickly releasing trial balloons to test customer response. Blaesi, Klaiber and Schweri, however, are already sure that with the headless approach and the combination of commercetools and Frontastic, they are already very well positioned for tomorrow's customer demands.What the wine trade of tomorrow will look like is still largely a matter of speculation. But to find new features that will enable flaschenpost.ch to stand out from the competition in the future, the team regularly collects and analyzes qualitative and quantitative data. User testing with qualitative interviews takes place as well as the simulation of features or subpages in the form of click prototypes. Plus, the founders rely on Minimal Viable Products to quickly introduce trial balloons to test customer response. Sprints ensure continuous improvement. In any case, Dominic Blaesi and Johannes Klaiber are certain: no matter what the future brings, with the headless approach and the combination of commercetools and Frontastic, they’re fortified for the future.<h3>Summary</h3>Switzerland’s largest online wine retailer is building the future of its digital business with Frontastic and commercetools as the cornerstones. The decision brings speed and agility — and guarantees the best possible shopping experience for its customers. Compared to the limits and constraints of their former, heavily customized monolithic shop system, now, flaschenpost.ch is able to launch new features, functionalities, and shopping experience 50% faster than before, increasing developer happiness and productivity dramatically.

flaschenpost.ch finds the ideal blend for tomorrow’s digital wine trade

REWE Scales the Online Grocery Marketplace with a Flexible MACH ArchitectureAccording to a <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/how-european-shoppers-will-buy-groceries-in-the-next-normal">McKinsey &amp; Company survey of European consumers</a>, about 15% of people tried out a new website for grocery shopping during the pandemic and, of that group, over half intend to keep using their newfound site for some part of their grocery needs.The rapid demand of online ordering and convenient, safe delivery options has exposed the weak links in many retailers’ eCommerce systems that resulted in late deliveries, mixed up orders, and upset customers. Meanwhile, grocery retailers already on the path to modern commerce were able to quickly pivot to meet the demands of shoppers stuck at home.<a href="https://www.rewe.de/">REWE</a>, a leading German supermarket chain, is invested in the <a href="https://www.rewe-digital.com/">digital future of retail</a> and is a pioneer of applying MACH (microservice, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) architectures to the food sector. In 2020, REWE was able to build on their MACH foundation to double the amount of “click-and-collect” services in just a few weeks, launch a <a href="https://fulfillmenttools.com/en/">cross-industry fulfillment platform</a>, and ultimately provide convenient access to food across Germany at a very critical time.“We now reach around 90% of the population with our delivery and pick-up services, and the package service additionally covers the entire country.”Dr. Robert Zores, CTO at REWE digital<h1>Complex Fulfillment</h1>While nearly every industry had to quickly ramp up digital in 2020, few sectors are more complex to scale than grocery. Fresh strawberries, frozen pizza, and pasteurized milk all have different packaging processes and cold chain regulations that are combined with high consumer demands around delivery time, quality, and substitutions.“Offering groceries online, commissioning them, delivering them or making them available for pick-up – all of course within the time frames requested by customers and with the highest level of service – that is a fine art,” says Björn Dröschel, Managing Director Product &amp; Technology <a href="https://fulfillmenttools.com/en/">fulfillmenttools</a>.Having an API-first architecture allows your different systems to communicate by sharing data in a standard format. This lets you easily pull data from your existing IT systems, quickly integrate new proprietary tools, or build your own in-house capabilities for unique needs. Through use of microservices, teams can add individual capabilities as they are needed and evolve their fulfillment process at the pace that matches their customers’ demands.Going into 2020, REWE had a modular microservices architecture in place with MACH-certified <a href="https://commercetools.com/food">commercetools</a> as their foundational commerce platform. As the number of shoppers purchasing groceries online quickly ramped up, REW digital developed <a href="https://fulfillmenttools.com/en/">fulfillmenttools</a>, a cloud-based platform designed with an API-first approach that streamlines fulfillment from the moment the order is placed until it reaches the customer.<h1>Marketplace Orchestration</h1>Key to REWE’s business is a growing marketplace of food, kitchen, and homeware partners with productsavailable for REWE customers to order online, have delivered, or pick-up from a collection point“Our biggest challenge is the technical onboarding. Smaller retailers are often not technically capable of transmitting their product data in a well-structured format,” says Bassel Soukar, Head of Marketplace at REWE digital, about the complexities of quickly growing a marketplace. “It is not only the quality of the partners that matters, but also their technical competence in handling modern tools. To overcome this challenge, we provide support through our own technical onboarding team.”The API-first approach of MACH can help standardize the data of multiple partners, bringing products smoothly into the system. Additionally, native Cloud software offers multi-client capability which allows each marketplace partner to be activated individually, making data management easier.“Operating a ‘real’ marketplace is extremely complex. It starts with the connection of the marketplace participants (different product data and structures, different qualities, consolidation of the same items, automation, process management, etc.) and ends with the handling of mixed shopping baskets from different suppliers. These multi-layered processes have to function smoothly for the customer without any loss of quality or service.”Dirk Hoerig, Founder and CEO at commercetoolsA MACH approach to marketplace architecture not only helps scale the amount of products offered, it also creates a foundation for more personalized shopping. For instance, a customer might only want to see items available in their local shop, to prioritize organic products, or to avoid ingredients they are allergic to. Structuring marketplace data as neutral APIs from the start will allow retailers to quickly scale up different experience capabilities in the future.<h1>Scale Quickly</h1>50% and 53% of <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/the%20path%20forward%20for%20european%20grocery%20retailers/disruption-and-uncertainty-the-state-of-grocery-retail-2021-europe-final.pdf">European</a> and <a href="https://www.grocerydive.com/news/e-commerce-profitability-is-a-top-priority-for-grocery-ceos-survey-finds/602288/">American</a> Grocery store CEOs, respectively, say that scaling their online grocery business is a top 3 priority over the next year. For many in the food sector, the past year showed that legacy tools - and outdated ways of working - can’t give them the speed they need.&nbsp;“Yesterday’s digital strategies, such as multiyear targets and corresponding road maps, no longer suffice given the fast rate of change in grocery retail. Pure online players and innovative incumbents are constantly on the move; by the time they complete their two year road map, the world looks different again.”McKinsey &amp; Company, The State of Grocery Retail 2021, EuropeA MACH approach allows teams to spin up new capabilities or integration in lightweight proof-of-concept projects without risking current functionality, using microservices that are developed and scaled independently.“When someone has an idea for a new feature, we implement it quickly so that we can test the new feature using measurable data (KPIs or key performance indicators). Only when the KPIs show positive results, for example when the newly implemented feature generates more revenue, will it then be scaled up,” explains David Yasli, CPO at REWE digital.Using this flexible approach, REWE was able to quickly scale fulfillment when Germany entered lockdown in the spring of 2020.“Within a few weeks, we were able to almost double the number of REWE stores with a pick-up service to over 1,000. Where others had to struggle with a lot of manpower and additional infrastructure to set up Click &amp; Collect, we were able to scale our services, add markets organizationally and integrate them into the web and in the app,” says Dr. Robert Zores. “It was certainly a feat of strength for the pick-up service team, which wouldn’t have been possible without our technological background.”<h1></h1><h1>REWE’s Flexible Retail Solutions Go Beyond Grocery</h1>REWE has long been a leader in digital retail. They were an early investor in <a href="https://commercetools.com/">commercetools</a>, the headless commerce platform now used by global enterprises to drive everything from high-fashion social selling to in-car commerce.“The ‘online groceries’ area, with its complex requirements when it comes to product catalogs, data volume, scaling, order volume, and cross-channel and omnichannel models, etc. covers almost all possible challenges – true to the motto: If you can do food, you can too (almost) everything else,” says commercetools’ founder and CEO, Dirk Hoerig.The REWE digital team believes that fulfillment is another area where retailers of all industries can benefit from the lessons learned tackling the complexities of the food sector. In September 2020, they launched their in-house development platform, <a href="https://fulfillmenttools.com/en/">fulfillmenttools</a>, to help retailers of all industries on their way to digitalization.“Both the platform itself and our team bring a lot of retail and tech expertise to the table, which also provides other industries, such as fashion, consumer electronics or leisure with a valuable competitive advantage,” says fulfillmenttools’ Managing Director Product &amp; Technology, Björn Dröschel. “We have built our solution so flexibly that it can be applied to all types of pick-up and delivery models. This makes it possible to equip even the most complex omnichannel offers from retailers with the right processes, so that they can offer their customers modern services, such as Click &amp; Collect, based on their existing IT infrastructure.”<h1>How MACH Helps Grocery Retailers</h1>Modern MACH architectures give teams the power to make unique, innovative digital commerce experiences and bring new ideas to market in hours or days, rather than weeks or months.MicroservicesModular, independent services can be adapted to specific customer needs and implemented step-by-step.API-firstAll functionality is exposed through APIs for rapid integration of existing and future IT systems.Cloud-native SaaSEnsure scalability for unplanned fluctuations and use multi-client capability to manage marketplace partners.HeadlessCombine powerful backend tools into a seamless frontend experience for shoppers across every channel.. Starting with 5 partners in 2018, the supermarket’s website now offers over 150,000 products from more than 65 partners.

REWE Scales the Online Grocery Marketplace with a Flexible MACH Architecture

With volatility continuing to rock global markets, CIOs and his/her C-suite colleagues are bracing for continued tough times as we look ahead in 2023. That calls for revisiting budgets, revisiting vendor relationships in preparation for potential cut-backs, and certainly also for protecting market power and relentlessly hunting all possible sales opportunities.&nbsp;&nbsp;In an economic downturn, nothing hurts as much as when the orders slow to a trickle. The essence of an economic contraction is that the aggregate demand declines, translating into a drop in sales for businesses. Thus, protecting your fair share of the market and setting yourself up for success with new initiatives or bold moves is of immense importance.&nbsp;In general, uncertain market conditions mean that businesses need to act and react fast. And actually, history has taught us that volatility and uncertainties are a constant factor. Just think of the year 2000 IT crisis, the financial crisis in 2008, the pandemic taking off in 2019 and now the perfect storm with a potential recession coming up in 2023. It is an imperative to prepare for unpredictability and the best way to do this is to build flexibility and resilience into your organization.&nbsp;As a CIO you can pave the way for this by ensuring maneuverability and agility in your enterprise technology stack. A safe way to do this is to apply the principles of MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud native SaaS, Headless).&nbsp;Over the past two years, MACH has moved from a nascent concept to a now globally accepted tech standard that in many ways guides IT-related best practices for digital commerce. It is recognized for representing the most maneuverable IT architecture.&nbsp;&nbsp;As a reminder to CIOs: Most likely, your decisions have the biggest impact on the future of your company!&nbsp;<h2></h2><h2></h2><img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt7b88e02b4df7eb9f/63e6248959036b11199d0f62/paul-alain-hunt-_QhDyjKpQQI-unsplash_2.jpg"/><h2></h2><h4>How to set yourself up for success in unpredictable times</h4>While economic downturns have disparate effects for different companies, most businesses will be concerned about maintaining their profitability and sustainability. Typically, this means taking steps across the business to improve cash flow, reduce fixed costs, and increase efficiency. Also, looking thoroughly at the market and sales activities to ensure you are serving customers efficiently, protecting market share and potentially exploiting the situation to grab new customer segments.&nbsp;Needless to say, all of these actions require the ability to respond to change. Being agile, being able to respond, being able to adapt is somewhat easier the more flexibility and robustness you have built into your organization. One important element here is your IT architecture.&nbsp;IT architecture based on the MACH principles is designed to be adaptive and to be able to quickly respond to changes in the environment. Applications can be broken down into small, independent components that can be independently deployed and updated. This makes it easier to quickly adapt applications to changing market conditions, changing requirements or technology changes.&nbsp;For companies that have already made investments in flexible IT architecture, the ability to react to a changing market is more within reach.&nbsp;For companies with a rigid or monolithic architecture, an economic downturn with difficult market conditions might be a good time to break old paradigms and alter the digital architecture. That, of course, requires buy-in from other leadership, which can be tricky with cost pressures lingering. (However, on the other hand, your argumentation will most likely be more compelling in case you have been facing several situations where maneuverability was required but didn’t exist.)<h2></h2><img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt4ab8416dab5fb8b1/63e6253aebf0774eed52d56f/shubham-dhage-T9rKvI3N0NM-unsplash_1.jpg"/><h2></h2><h2></h2><h4>How MACH architecture manages resilience&nbsp;&nbsp;</h4>MACH architecture is a modern approach to application development and deployment that is designed to be resilient and reliable. The architecture includes components such as service meshes, microservices, API gateways, and Cloud that enable applications to be deployed quickly and safely.&nbsp;MACH is designed to be adaptive and to be able to quickly respond to changes in the environment. Applications can be broken down into small, independent components that can be independently deployed and updated. This makes it easier to quickly adapt applications to changing requirements or technology changes. Additionally, the automation tools and monitoring services provide further flexibility and reliability when adapting applications to changing conditions.&nbsp;The MACH architecture patterns are the most resilient option because they are designed to be robust, fault tolerant, and highly available. MACH architectures are built to be distributed and scalable. Additionally, they are designed with redundancy to handle high levels of traffic and to ensure that data is always backed up and recoverable. Finally, MACH architectures are designed to be secure and can be configured to provide end-to-end encryption, making them an excellent choice for enterprise solutions. And as it’s relatively easy to maintain, it requires less human intervention which helps to reduce costs.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h4>Life extending legacy through MACH</h4>In essence MACH Architecture is a recession-resilient architecture approach – and resilient to any other future unpredictable situation - mainly due to composability, scalability, and adaptability. It allows businesses to maximize their resources, easily make adjustments in their go-to-market approach and create aesthetically pleasing structures that are cost-effective and resilient to economic downturns.&nbsp;An added benefit in MACH architecture is separation of concerns of existing legacy components that are encapsulated within a MACH landscape. By choice or necessity, some legacy components typically coexist within a MACH based landscape. They are, however, isolated by design through the API-first patterns of MACH and thus easier to life-extend at a lower running cost. In many cases this even makes legacy components evergreen and can postpone large investments in decommissioning and replatforming components, applications or services.&nbsp;<h2></h2><img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltcaa2932bb506f1cf/63e624bf068e8578073c5977/federico-beccari-ahi73ZN5P0Y-unsplash_2.jpg"/><h2></h2><h4>How to transition gradually but sufficiently fast&nbsp;&nbsp;</h4>Breaking up a monolith and going composable requires a solid plan, the right architectural principles, an overview of your current dependencies between systems and services, and, most importantly, it requires tangible insights into how you want to deliver true customer value. Going composable and MACH is the ticket to serve your customers in an up-to-date, best-in-class way.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Many enterprises before you have broken up their monoliths. Thus, the message here is clear: It is doable. And it is an operation you want to plan carefully and cost-effectively because you need to keep your business running seamlessly whilst undertaking the shift from the monolith to a composable architecture.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In any transformation, a good understanding of your baseline is key. Building the baseline means mapping all current systems in your digital landscape. Changing every component at once is not an option; therefore, an up-to-date status on what components need changing and the expected lifetime of the components or systems are necessary.&nbsp;&nbsp;We recommend that you assess:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>Interdependencies between systems&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Legacies in your system architecture&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Existing plans for modernization or changes to processes&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul>In Novicell, we use our prioritization framework (figure above) for mapping interdependencies between systems, old or new. For each component, we assess the business value, risk, current customer experience, and last but not least, what opportunities there are to optimize existing systems.&nbsp;&nbsp;Migrating from a monolithic architecture to a MACH architecture can be a complex process. The first step is to break down the monolith application into smaller, independent components, which can then be individually deployed and managed. Then, tools such as service meshes, microservices, API gateways, and containers need to be implemented, which will allow the application to be deployed in a distributed and scalable manner. Finally, automation tools and monitoring services need to be set up to ensure that the application remains reliable and resilient in the face of changes and system failures.&nbsp;&nbsp;The transition to MACH architecture can often be faster than the transition to other architectures, but it does require the right skills and expertise to plan and implement the changes. Additionally, organizations should be sure to assess their existing infrastructure and consult with experienced professionals to ensure that their transition to MACH is as successful as possible.&nbsp;Planning makes perfect, so start by taking the time to assess your infrastructure and determine what needs to be done to make it MACH compatible. Once you’ve done that, you can start making the necessary changes to ensure a successful transition. By then, you have successfully started your business on the journey to resiliency and maneuverability to overcome future crises and unpredictable times.&nbsp;The future is volatile. I hope this will assist you in composing your way out of trouble.&nbsp;Get in touch with the MACH Alliance If you’d like to speak with a <a href="https://machalliance.org/members">MACH Ambassador</a> who has first hand experience building flexible MACH architectures.<h2></h2><h2></h2><img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltacdde15a5b89a6f8/63e61f2a4036a756ba289221/Adam_Peter_Nielsen.png"/>

Recession Resilient IT Architecture

The Business Benefit of a Modern Product Development ParadigmSoftware-as-a-Service (SaaS) has been around for a long time. Spearheaded by Salesforce in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) segment, the subscription-based licensing quickly took over the marketing technology world.In its simplest definition, Software as a Service means that rather than purchasing a product, a ‘box’, a buyer purchases the service - the right to use that piece of software without actually ‘holding a box in their hand’.Prior to a subscription model, enterprise software buyers would find themselves with large upfront investments for a software license, often accompanied by annual maintenance and support fees - traditionally ranging from 10 to 25% depending on the level of support chosen. The large sum of the initial purchase made software licenses part of the capital expenses which meant long decision making and procurement cycles.When marketing took over large parts of the technology budget, these long evaluation and procurement cycles became no longer acceptable and the shift to subscription and thus operating expenses rapidly rippled through the marketing facing part of the enterprise software industry. This had tremendous implications on vendor bookkeeping and reporting and I only too well remember the worry in the CFO’s eyes a good decade ago when working at a legacy software vendor. But most vendors eventually made that shift - the ones who did not are just not around anymore.Another force fueled the pivot to a subscription-based licensing model: The rise of ‘The Cloud’. As companies became increasingly comfortable with dropping their server farms in the basement and moving to a serverless model, Software-as-a-Service became a more and more attractive model. From a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) perspective, adopting cloud offerings meant enterprises could shift the cost of setting up and maintaining the infrastructure to their software vendors. And whilst that meant tremendous reduction in cost, more crucially it meant significant reduction in risk for maintaining the security side of the software and the risk for software breaking either because of badly maintained infrastructure or under the load of peak traffic.However, something sneaky happened right there when vendors moved to ‘The Cloud’. And from conversations with prospects and even digital agencies and system integrators in the past half-year, I am shocked how little awareness there is for the final crucial benefit of Software-as-a-Service: The death of software versions.Gartner Research predicts that through 2021, digital transformation will take enterprises twice as long and cost twice as much as anticipated, causing them to push things off until they’re out of date. There are many reasons for that, but from what I learned in conversations with digital leaders, upgrades are a major culprit.Cloud-native SaaS means no upgrades ever. The cost and effort involved in upgrading technology is huge and often underestimated in total cost of ownership conversations. The risk in upgrading, particularly in more complex environments is high, especially for organizations that customised part of the tooling to better accommodate their needs. And lastly, the resources that work for weeks - sometimes months - on an upgrade project, they don’t contribute to actually propelling the digital experience for customers forward. The opportunity cost for that is rarely taken into account.Seamless, rolling upgrades means that you always have the latest functionality at your disposal. When talking to organizations on legacy technology, one of the biggest frustrations of teams is that they are always behind, in some cases multiple versions. So whilst a vendor might have made improvements to a new version released, they cannot utilize the features to improve their digital customer experience because they have not yet upgraded to that next version. Often, because the upgrade is, when the actual business case is made, prohibitively expensive.These two benefits - no upgrades ever and always the latest tooling - when they come together, can provide significant competitive advantage because of the innovation capacity they open up.Tangent: One of my biggest pet peeves in this upgrade treadmill is when legacy vendors ask for additional license fees for major upgrades. One customer told me the other day that a ‘leading’ CMS vendor asked for a 6-digit figure for them to be allowed to leverage the latest version. Honestly, I thought this was a thing of the past. This organization had invested millions of dollars into said vendor over the course of the years. Dollars, that the vendor used to create this new version. How messed up is it to ask a customer to pay for something that they funded in the first place? This organization shared my views and took the opportunity to deliver themselves from this attitude and switched to a Cloud-native SaaS solution.The bottom line: Legacy vendors in marketing technology largely switched their finance models to subscription and moved their infrastructure to the cloud to appear more sassy. But in order to really BE SaaS, the Software Delivery Model has to follow too.That is the hardest part because the internal architecture is not set up for a microservices, cloud-native delivery. Because the way engineering is set up, is not set up for weekly releases. Because APIs are not thought about first as modern SaaS vendors do, but an afterthought. This isn’t just a matter of technology, this is also a question of changing 30-year-old mindsets. I spoke to an industry analyst recently who told me that to the best of his knowledge the only vendor who ever successfully managed to refactor from on-premise to cloud-native SaaS in the digital experience software space, is Vtex - who just a few days ago entered unicorn status.So when you look out for new marketing technology, ask these three questions to make sure you are buying into tools that will give your innovation house the agility and flexibility you need, and that you don’t accidentally buy into the upgrade treadmill:<ol><li>What effort is involved in upgrading to the latest version of your solution?The answer should be: No effort. And if in doubt, have this confirmed by a reference that matches your use case and complexity.</li><li>How often do you deploy new functionality releases (so not hotfixes and bug fixes)?The answer should be at least monthly. Check the product release documentation to verify.</li><li>What license premium do you ask for new versions? The answer should be: None. You may want to confirm that in your contract.</li></ol>Author: Sonja Kotrotsos<ol></ol>

Understanding SaaS: More Than a Subscription

We are pleased to close out 2020 having seen incredible traction in growth of <a href="https://machalliance.org/members">members</a> and <a href="https://machalliance.org/members#IndividualMembers">ambassadors</a> since our June inception. The MACH Alliance has signed on 24 members and 12 ambassadors, and many more are in the pipeline for early 2021. An astounding 70 companies have applied for membership and 50 for ambassadorship thus far.Attracting some of the most reputable company names in modern tech and beyond, our members meet a set of <a href="https://machalliance.org/blogdetail/bltfc0a3afbca44303e">certification standards </a>that embrace MACH philosophies and offer MACH-certified services. Businesses must be in full compliance in order to carry the certification seal.In addition to company members, our ambassador group brings together a powerful and diverse range of technologists all with a single vision for what futureproof technology looks like. The ambassadors are individual industry leaders who actively support and contribute to advance MACH technology and the tech standard.A Year of Progress2020 saw the pandemic as an immediate and irresistible catalyst for businesses across virtually every industry to digitize, though many were already on the path. With the need for businesses to be digitally agile in order to meet evolving end user demands, many IT and business leaders found the monolithic approach to architecture meant they simply could not adapt at the speed they needed. In those cases, businesses struggled this year. Conversely, those who had systems in place that enabled them to quickly pivot fared well given the circumstances of a pandemic world.The Appetite for Composable is SkyrocketingTake it from publicly listed MACH Alliance member companies like BigCommerce and EPAM who saw success this year. BigCommerce revenues were up 41% year over year in Q3 and the company stated it was one of their best quarters in its history. EPAM saw revenues increase nearly 11% year over year in Q3 attributing its success to an 'improving demand environment' as a trusted provider of digital solutions.Growth like that isn't happenstance during an economic downturn; it's driven by a business need, and we believe a big part of that need lies in what MACH architecture can deliver. And from within MACH system integrators, we know that enterprise inquiries have shifted to composable and MACH, up 500% compared to January.Looking Ahead to 2021We've seen movement in the direction of the MACH approach steadily becoming mainstream with even the biggest of technology giants buying into MACH. Take, for example, Salesforce's acquisition of Mobify in September. Mobify was a MACH-certified company at the time of our June launch and provides a headless storefront experience that allows brands to fully and quickly customize their commerce. The $60M deal meant Mobify would provide Salesforce Commerce Cloud with a more modernized and flexible storefront solution that, in turn, would empower brands to customize their commerce experience more rapidly and frequently.The acquisition temporarily extends Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s relevancy. However, they and other legacy enterprise vendors are still faced with the issue of outdated tech stacks that are decidedly not MACH compliant and are <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-legacy-software-vendors-lying-you-kelly-goetsch/">fundamentally unable to become MACH compliant</a>.From the Outside InWe've seen from experience that the front-end of enterprise software typically modernizes the fastest. That's been the case with eCommerce since the 2000s and it makes good sense: that's what the user engages with. We are now seeing a shift from the outside in where back-end systems are following the lead of the front-end. We believe order management and CRM are the systems likely to follow in 2021. We'll continue to work our way down the stack from there.ERP is Late to the GameIn terms of ERPs, they have been efficient operational back bones, but their shortcoming is that those systems are built for consistent operations, not for change.There's a great deal of resistance when ERP’s change from both the builders and the vendors. They are not in the cloud properly yet, and when they are, or when they move in that direction, the upside seems unclear, as we've seen <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/09/erp_cloud_sap_ukisug/">referenced recently by ERP leaders</a> who call into question the benefits of migrating to the cloud and generally how the cloud "works." “Adaptability comes from the microservices and API-first thinking in modern tech, that way the cloud opens up for massive adaptability”, adds Matt Bradbeer, board member of the MACH Alliance and Senior Client Director at EPAM. “We believe there is really no reason why making ERP composable would be harder than making a commerce platform composable. We're starting to see an emerging new set of solutions that sit on top of ERPs with microservices built in. Smaller, more nimble players are ushering in this move toward a more composable set-up.”It will take time before the move to a MACH approach in the ERP vendor community is a mainstream flow, but some already <a href="https://searcherp.techtarget.com/podcast/Unit4-ERP-cloud-vision-is-impressive-but-can-it-compete">seem to get it more</a> than others.Balancing the Rate of AdoptionIn terms of regional adoption, there exists quite a disparity. According to MACH expert and Partner &amp; Director at Boston Consulting Group, Peter Burggraaff, China is about five years ahead in composable discussions compared to Europe and the U.S."The gap will increase, I suspect, over the next few years, as China is already ahead and able to transition more quickly," Burggraaff said. "Adoption of a MACH architecture and the shift to composable is a long term conversation that takes time and vision, so other countries will have some catching up to do."There is hope, though, that the catching up can be expedited through innovation.ERP won't always be monolithic. Innovation is coming at a promising speed whereby start-ups are taking on parts of ERP and recomposing them.In that spirit, the MACH Alliance is hosting their first ever <a href="https://machalliance.org/MACHathon">MACHathon</a> January 22-29 so participants can showcase their most out-of-the-box ideas and prove how quickly they can be turned into reality with MACH technology and composable architectures. There are still a few spots left for participants, but they are going fast. If you´re interested in joining, look here: <a href="https://machalliance.org/MACHathon">Machathon || Enterprise MACHified.</a>. The Alliance is here to help usher in the adoption of those big ideas and be the environment and ecosystem that helps MACH take off.Here's to a year of moving at MACH speed. Stay hungry and healthy!

MACH Alliance Closes Out 2020 with 24 Members and 12 Ambassadors

"Smarter, better, faster, convenient. Everywhere I go" — this is what the famous Daft Punk song's title (Harder, better, faster, stronger) could sound like if it was about perfect customer experience. Well, it might not be so catchy anymore, but it says a lot about the expectations of modern customers. Creating an engaging and seamless customer experience (CX) is challenging, but the game is worth the candle; as the <a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/consumer-intelligence-series/future-of-customer-experience.html">PwC survey</a> shows, 73% of customers agree that customer experience helps to drive their buying decision.&nbsp;The harsh truth is that customers will not find your company and products by themselves; you have to meet them, whatever they are, by creating omnichannel personalized campaigns and strengthening your brand's digital visibility.&nbsp;A composable approach driven by open architectures such as MACH architecture enables the delivery of omnichannel strategies efficiently by using the best in class solutions. MACH offers businesses digital agility and the freedom to create a more consistent omnichannel experience than ever before.&nbsp;<h3>A key ingredient of tasty omnichannel CX soup</h3><h4>The right content in the right channel</h4>In your marketing and sales efforts, depending on your available space and media format, you may need to adjust your product content to get the best results. For example, if you are using your product content for advertising, your needs will be completely different when posting image-heavy content on social media than text-based ads.Accurate, rich, and personalized information about your brand and products is crucial in nailing the <a href="https://www.bluestonepim.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-driving-online-sales-with-product-information#meet-customers-where-they-are">omnichannel experience</a>. This layer should be included in building engaging and seamless customer experiences throughout the customer journey.<h4>Touch a digital product</h4>In the digital world, the shopping experience does not exist without product experience first. When we shop online, we also expect to get as many details about the product as possible to make a final decision.&nbsp;The research and comparison stages of the customer journey are primarily influenced by coherent product content (product descriptions, high-quality images, videos) that is exhaustive and evocative enough to give the customer a glimpse of touching a physical product. However, not in one version and in one place (product page) but everywhere the customer goes online.&nbsp;<h4>360-degree product experience&nbsp;</h4>That's why implementing a Product Experience Management (PxM) strategy in a global business is essential.&nbsp;PxM aims to deliver customers an attractive, contextualized, and personalized experience around the product at every stage of their shopping journey and at every touchpoint. It is a <a href="https://www.bluestonepim.com/what-is-pxm">strategy</a> for creating a 360-degree product experience based on major e-commerce trends, such as omnichannel.&nbsp;<h3>In omnichannel, synchronization is everything</h3>According to Google research, omnichannel strategies drive an 80% higher rate of total store visits. Moreover, the <a href="https://www.omnisend.com/resources/reports/omnichannel-marketing-automation-statistics-2019/">Omnisend</a> survey's findings show that marketers using three or more channels in their marketing campaigns earned a 90% higher customer retention rate and 2.5x higher engagement and purchase rates.&nbsp;Omnichannel mostly starts with multichannel. Tuning of the transition requires closing gaps like:<ul><li>Identifying all sales touchpoints</li><li>Establishing a company-wide point of reference for product information,</li><li>Sync marketing and sales channels</li><li>Eliminating product content inconsistencies.</li></ul>Omnichannel marketing needs synchronization of all tech stack components, enabling a fast and smooth flow of information between all channels.&nbsp;<h3>Badass omnichannel experience? It won't work with run-of-the-mill technology</h3>Laptops, mobile devices, wearables, chatbots, virtual assistants, AI &amp; VR, and the phygital experiences on top of that — a number of channels and touchpoints is constantly emerging. Omnichannel retailers need to adapt quickly to changes in demand.&nbsp;Steve Jobs once said, "You've got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology, not the other way around". Today's reality of crafting excellent CX requires extreme agility. Sadly, traditional, legacy systems are not able to keep up with this fast pace. Implementation times are too long. Frequent changes are costly, and monolithic systems have limited scalability.&nbsp;That's why growth-oriented enterprises have started turning towards composable commerce and headless commerce approaches and their technological tenets, such as MACH architecture.&nbsp;According to the <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/our-2022-research-shows-mach-adoption-is-high-on-the-agenda-for-tech-leaders">Enterprise MACHified' 2022 </a>study's findings, the shift to MACH is driven primarily by pressure to deliver CX improvements quickly. 82% of IT leaders are keeping up with customer demand, but only 52% can implement improvements at speed. Tech leaders see MACH technologies as the future of software architecture: 79% of survey respondents plan to increase their investments in MACH architecture (both within and beyond the next 12 months).<h3>Omnichannel loves headless (and APIs, too)</h3><h4>Headless architecture means great flexibility&nbsp;</h4>Separating the front-end layer from the backend layer, which headless technology allows, means that an application can work without a native user interface. This dramatically enhances connectivity and interoperability between systems and channels.Companies can modify user interface design to fit specific contexts, language, channels, and culture-specific requirements, without reconfiguring everything on the tech side.&nbsp;<h4>API means great connectivity</h4>Headless architecture combined with APIs (application programming interfaces) creates a powerful launchpad to omnichannel. API-first software is fully designed to maximize connectivity between other systems, platforms, and marketing channels.For example, the <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/MACH-based-product-information-management">MACH-based Product Information Management solution</a> (an engine for PxM strategy) equipped with hundreds of APIs and headless capabilities can offer unlimited flexibility to connect product data to any system, platform, or channel users need. Those features can have a significant impact on retailers to create seamless omnichannel product experiences.&nbsp;<h4>Microservices never stop running</h4>Uber, Amazon, Netflix, Etsy – what do these platforms have in common? They are built on a microservices architecture. In recent years, both tech giants and smaller companies have discovered the benefits of microservices, and this trend continues to grow. Experts predict that microservices architecture will be worth $3.1 billion worldwide by <a href="https://www.dataversity.net/a-brief-history-of-microservices/">2026</a>.Microservices are resilient and can scale with demand because the entire architecture is based on modules, each of which can be managed and deployed independently. To make changes, you do not have to rewrite the entire codebase.&nbsp;If you want to develop or update some features, your software will not stop running. Microservice architecture helps organizations build and develop business applications for faster time to market, higher scalability, and lower cost of ownership.To find out more about omnichannel, headless revolution, and great customer experience, especially in creating holiday campaigns for e-commerce, download the whitepaper “<a href="https://www.bluestonepim.com/learn/getting-ready-for-e-commerce-peak-seasons">Getting Ready For E-commerce Peak Seasons</a>”.Author’s bioZuzanna Patocka is a content writer and tech journalist at Bluestone PIM, where she explains meanders of product information management, e-commerce tips, and CX in simple terms. In a previous life, she juggled the topics as an editor and multitasker PR specialist until the tech space won her heart.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt7ef1e042f2876a67/63c019fdf3e90e157fe406d6/Zuzanna_Patocka.png"/>

Creating a Seamless Omnichannel Experience: Add It to Your New Year's Resolutions

Forward-looking organizations are turning towards a composable approach that gives them agility and a “DIY mindset” in composing their tech stacks with best-of-breed solutions. The changes occur from the smallest particle – master, and product data.As Gartner indicates in its newest “Hype Cycle for Data and Analytics Governance, 2022”, organizations seek to deliver the value of becoming data-driven. There is a growing need for effective master data management of product information for different business areas. The trend of MDM is in an early mainstream stage as the expected time to the plateau is less than two years.Master data management (MDM) solutions and product information management (PIM) solutions are complementary. Many PIM systems already have built-in MDM to ensure there is one source of master data.<h3>Product information, an elementary particle of digital commerce</h3>To realize the importance of product information's quality is to step into shoppers’ shoes. Photos, product descriptions, whitepapers, or testimonials are different product data types. In digital commerce, customers interact through them on various touch points before they see and experience tangible products. In most cases, the purchase decision is based on the quality of product information (its completeness, compelling written copy, etc.)Product-centric companies need to keep an eye on their data and manage them smartly to react quickly to changing customer behavior, enter new markets and add new channels. Modern automation solutions are significant once a company reaches 500+ SKUs (Stock Keeping Units). If e-commerce companies want to improve omnichannel strategy, launch products faster and control the growing volume of data, they should consider adding PIM software to their commerce stack.<h3>What is product information management (PIM) software?</h3>The main job of the PIM solution is to centralize, manage, enrich and publish product content in external channels, all in the most efficient way possible. It supports marketing, e-commerce, and IT teams in their everyday work with product information.PIM core capabilities enable comprehensive product information management, and they can include:<ul><li>team workflow,</li><li>business processes,</li><li>hierarchy management,</li><li>loading,</li><li>syncing,</li><li>modeling, and cleansing data,</li><li>distribution,</li><li>DAM,</li><li>MDM.</li></ul><img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt291bfccd550d75e7/62ecf535d3b8a57004567013/ss-pim.png"/>A high-quality PIM solution can successfully support multi-channel retailers to overcome their main challenges. The result of efficient product information management is a better, more consistent product and customer experience across all sales and marketing channels, which can translate into increased traffic, conversion rates and customer satisfaction.<h3>Preparing for composable commerce</h3>Commerce based on a business-centric composable approach is increasingly entering the modern retail landscape. And it’s not just a buzzword coined by Gartner in 2020. 95% of <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/resources/ebooks-white-papers-composable-commerce/state-composable-commerce-2021">Elastic Path's report</a> respondents agree that composable commerce is the approach enterprises should take. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of those "who are aware of composable commerce but not yet implemented it are likely to believe that in five years, most – if not all – companies will be on board."Companies that want to join the digital revolution are looking for modern technologies and remarkable tools. MACH architecture is one of the critical technologies that enable the implementation of composable commerce. According to <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/our-2022-research-shows-mach-adoption-is-high-on-the-agenda-for-tech-leaders">MACH Alliance’s survey</a>, MACH adaptation is high on the agenda among tech leaders.<h3>How MACH skyrockets the PIM software capabilities?</h3>A product information management system based on MACH architecture fits other best-of-breed solutions like headless CMS, ERP, or DAM and can work with them within a composable ecosystem. With its help, enterprises can create a future-proof, scalable, and open digital stack.MACH tenets and benefits for businessThere are some key differences between ordinary PIM systems and MACH-based ones. Legacy monolithic PIM solutions are convenient for IT and business teams. However, they are often built on a single code base. That means if they get larger over time, the scalability may become limited, and the time of updates and adding new features be extended. MACH-based PIM offers unlimited scalability and agility, resulting from the implemented technology solutions:<ul><li>Microservices-based– thanks to that, PIM software enables fast reaction to technology trends, adding new features, and implementing innovation.</li></ul><ul><li>API-first – makes PIM easy to connect with existing IT components seamlessly and fast. If PIM is part of the API economy, users have unlimited flexibility to connect their product data stored to any system, platform, or channel.</li></ul><ul><li>Cloud-native SaaS – means that PIM was initially built in the cloud and offers a customer the full capabilities of cloud computing, such as elastic scalability, storage, and automatic updates. These benefits are essential, especially in cases such as the rapidly growing number of SKUs and peak sale seasons.</li></ul><ul><li>Headless – allows a free user interface design, significantly promoting omnichannel e-commerce.</li></ul><h3>Summary</h3>With the power of MACH technology, PIM software can support brands, retailers, and wholesalers in standard product information management procedures. Also, it can support business growth with long-term agility and enable customization.The newest ebook, “MACH-Based PIM. The Ultimate Guide for Tech Leaders” by Bluestone PIM, broadly explains how PIM based on MACH principles works in practice, what benefits it brings to businesses, and why it is worth an investment. The publication also includes a comparison of PIM types and frequently asked questions about the technical capabilities of PIM.The ebook is available for <a href="https://hubs.ly/Q01j1rPy0">download here</a> (ungated version).About the author:Zuzanna Patocka is a content writer and tech journalist at Bluestone PIM, where she explains meanders of product information management, e-commerce tips, and CX in simple terms. In a previous life, she juggled the topics as an editor and multitasker PR specialist until the tech space won her heart.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt7ef1e042f2876a67/63c019fdf3e90e157fe406d6/Zuzanna_Patocka.png"/>

MACH-Based Product Information Management – a Step Towards Composable Commerce

The H in MACH Alliance stands for the Headless approach. Headless in software programming means that the frontend presentation is decoupled from the backend logic, separated from channels and programming language, while being framework agnostic.See how Dirk Hoerig from commercetools explains what Headless is and what it means for MACH in less than 1 minute:<a href="https://vimeo.com/615985020">What Does Headless mean?</a><iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/615985020?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0"></iframe><h2>The benefits of headless promotion management software</h2>There are various benefits of headless promotion management software over traditional, monolith solutions when it comes to digital experience management. Using headless technology to power promotions, loyalty and referral programs can help retailers to get their promotional strategy up to speed – gain faster time-to-market, adapt the digital experiences quicker and react swiftly to market changes. Moreover, headless approach helps to prepare the promotions for what the future brings, giving omnichannel compatibility and allowing for 1:1 personalization to harness the customer data. Let’s dive into the specific benefits offered by the headless promotion software:<h3>Omnichannel compatibility</h3>The ability to decouple the frontend from the backend gives much more flexibility when it comes to frontend platform choice, allowing for truly customized and omnichannel distribution. It allows for unparalleled creative freedom in creating the frontend, allowing for full content customization, branding and personalization. Thanks to API, headless promotion management software can be connected to any current or future distribution channel.The case study from Pomelo Fashion is a perfect example of how retailers can benefit from a headless promotion engine that offers omnichannel compatibility. Pomelo is an online fast fashion retailer and marketplace for greater Asia. They are constantly launching new promotional campaigns and communication channels. They needed a promotion engine that would help them adapt their promotional strategies and scale quickly and effortlessly.They chose <a href="https://www.voucherify.io/">Voucherify</a>, a headless promotion management software as their provider. With Voucherify's API, Anthony and his team were able to create a unified incentive experience for every customer touchpoint, including mobile and web apps.“Voucherify enables our team to launch promotion campaigns with every current or future channel with speed and confidence." Anthony Lim, Engagement Marketing Manager at Pomelo<a href="https://www.voucherify.io/customers/pomelo">You can read the full case study here.</a><h3>Personalizing digital experiences</h3>Headless promotion management systems are based on APIs. They can be easily connected with various data sources that provide necessary information for personalizing the digital experiences. They can be also connected with content personalization platforms to display targeted promotions in a custom context via various channels. Any new data sources or personalization platforms can be easily integrated, helping to adapt your digital experiences to the changing technology or customer requirements.<h3>Faster time-to-market</h3>Thanks to out-of-the-box features of headless promotion platforms, enterprises can ship their loyalty programs in minutes, once the initial integration is completed. This can help to respond faster to market opportunities and expand your operations by entering new markets or targeting new customer segments.An example of a retailer who benefitted from a faster time-to-market thanks to a headless promotion engine is OVO Energy, an energy retailer. OVO Energy has expanded its operations to Spain in 2020 and needed promotion management software to run a referral program. Their local development team was small and fully occupied with developing features related to their core business. They wanted an out-of-the-box, flexible, and affordable tool that could be used by the marketing team without bothering developers. They wanted ready software, produced and maintained by a company specializing in promotion management, not having to spend their time designing, producing, and maintaining any code. The integration with Voucherify was really fast. The whole process, from a developer’s perspective, took one sprint and the whole time-to-market from subscription creation to successful implementation of the referral program lasted two months.<a href="https://www.voucherify.io/customers/ovo-energy">You can read the full case study here.</a><h3>Adapting digital experiences quickly</h3>Thanks to having a headless promotion engine in place, you gain a lot of agility. For example, if you need to change the promotion rules quickly, you do not need to code a new set of conditions and solve the edge cases yourself. You can do it with a couple of clicks on a dashboard or a couple of lines of requests to the API and the API will change the backend logic for you. You do not need to wait for the change to happen after another release round, you will see the changes immediately on the back- and frontend where the API is connected. The change will be effective on all platforms, mobile, desktop, social media – everywhere, where you use the API. No need to change the rules separately for each device or version. You can adapt your frontend visuals and copy directly on your frontend platforms, for example, social media or CMS, which does not require waiting for a release. Such agility can be your competitive advantage in the market.Bellroy is a great example of how retailers can benefit from the flexibility a headless promotion engine brings. Bellroy is an Australian retailer selling wallets, bags, phone cases &amp; more made from premium, environmentally certified leather and sustainably produced woven fabrics. Their website is built on a custom CMS, therefore the company was looking for an out-of-the-box promotional software to connect with their API. Flexibility and the variety of promotional tools were important for choosing the right software. Bellroy has decided for Voucherify as their promotion engine to launch a variety of campaigns like cart promotions, discount coupons and gift cards, launching their promotions omnichannel and taking advantage of the flexibility headless platform brings.“We treat promotions very carefully and were looking for a product that offered flexibility, a suite of promotional tools and brand protection, and we found Voucherify to be a great fit.” Kate Watson, Digital Sales Manager at Bellroy<a href="https://www.voucherify.io/customers/bellroy">You can read the full case study here.</a>Another example of a retailer that has used headless promotion software to launch their promotions faster is Vodafone. Vodafone Group plc. is a British multinational telecommunications company, operating in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. Vodafone was looking for a quick-to-integrate promotion platform that would allow the Vodafone Portugal team to meet tight deadlines for launching their next product bundling promotion. They have chosen Voucherify as their provider and successfully reduced time to market by integrating Voucherify in less than two months, for B2C and B2B eshop, launching their first campaign and distributing successfully thousands of discount codes.<a href="https://www.voucherify.io/customers/how-vodafone-portugal-reduced-time-to-market-by-using-voucherify">You can read the full case study here.</a><h3>Optimized backend with less payload</h3>Headless promotion engines use open APIs with specific endpoints that are optimized for each specific use-case or business objective. An endpoint in an API is simply the end of a communications channel provided by the API, that allows a specific function to be completed. Decoupling the frontend from the backend, via an open API, greatly enhances the extensibility to work with any other software apps in the technical architecture. The packets of information shared via API tend to be quite small, so congestion in the network is minimized as compared to monolithic solutions. Smaller data transmission payloads improve performance.Having less payload and faster data processing helps with serving 1:1 personalized content. This way, you can serve the content dynamically without worrying about the website speed or server overload.<h3>Summary</h3>Headless promotion software provides great flexibility when it comes to the frontend platform choice and other software integrations (for example data sources integrations). It helps enterprises to speed up their time-to-market and adapt their digital experiences quickly. It provides a lower payload, allowing for 1:1 content personalization. Thanks to API, they can be easily connected to any current or future distribution channel, personalization or DXP platform.This post was written by Voucherify. Voucherify is an API-first, Headless PromotionEngine powering loyalty and referral programs, discount coupons, in-cart promotions, gift cards, and giveaways. Voucherify is a certified MACH Alliance member.

The Benefits of Headless Promotion Management Software

If you’re an enterprise company making or selling loads of products, then no doubt you have a ton of data and important information about those products that needs to be managed.And, it’s likely you achieve that with a product information management (PIM) system.Your PIM platform should be a system of record for all your product information – things like descriptions of the product, specifications, unique ID numbers like SKUs, and hundreds or sometimes thousands of other product attributes. But what a PIM doesn’t do is host any sort of visual or other digital asset that’s been created for that product.You do that in a digital asset management (DAM) platform.Some platforms will let you push assets from the DAM into the PIM, but you can unlock so much more value with a bi-directional integration between the two systems.Before we dive in further on why this is so valuable, let’s start by just explaining what a bi-directional integration actually means and why this should be the preferred approach.<h2></h2><h4>MACH, API-First Technologies and the Power of Integrating Best-in-class Enterprise PIM &amp; DAM Systems</h4>MACH principles call for enterprise brands to choose best-in-class, API-first technologies in order to create a flexible tech stack that leverages modern innovative technologies. By moving away from monolithic systems, these companies can leverage the cutting-edge features of each individual system, without sacrificing their ability to share data between systems and teams.This is a key component to the powerful PIM + DAM integration. Where some platforms from both categories of technologies will claim to either (in the case of DAM) host product information, or (in the case of PIM) store visual assets, in neither case are those systems capable of leveraging the full range of functionality present in modern, best-in-class platforms.Ok, in plain english: you can buy one tech that does PIM + DAM, but it’s not going to have close to the same features as if you had best-in-class versions of each platform.The value of linking two best-in-class PIM and DAM technologies is the ability to leverage their full functionalities while seamlessly sharing data and assets back and forth between them. A bi-directional integration between DAM and PIM will:<ul><li>Allow the PIM to be the system of record for all product data</li><li>Give the DAM read-only access to product data from the PIM</li><li>Allow the DAM to automatically pull in product data and attach it to assets</li><li>Enable the DAM to push assets and asset data back into the PIM</li></ul>At its core, the PIM and DAM integration is about enriching both systems with data from the other to enable greater efficiencies in terms of finding, managing and publishing product data and assets.With that in mind, here are four reasons this integration should excite you.<h2></h2><h4>1. Improved Content Discoverability in the DAM</h4>In digital asset management, we’re always thinking about ways to make it easier for users to find the content they need. That takes the shape of new metadata structures, AI-tagging, keyword strategies, and so on.But for the most part, these metadata fields in DAMs describe the asset and its subject, and not the product specifically.Instead, shouldn’t you be able to just search for a SKU number in the DAM and pull up all assets related to that product? Well, yes! From there, you can use either more product information like specifications or dimensions, or use the DAM’s metadata tags and keywords, like colors or subjects, to filter and find the right content.The ability to quickly and easily find content in the DAM using product information is an incredible time-saver for users, and has other productivity and ROI benefits, including…<h2></h2><h4>2. Improving Content Reuse</h4>One of the added benefits of making it easier to find content in the DAM is also making it easier to find content you want to reuse.Brands spend millions creating content to help them sell their products. But sometimes, if content isn’t tagged the right way or is missing certain keywords, it can get lost in the DAM. That means companies are spending even more money to recreate assets they already have in the system (this actually happens way more than most companies like to admit).Automatically pulling product data, and applying it to assets in the DAM, helps ensure content doesn’t get lost. It makes it easy for users to find assets they can reuse, thus increasing the value of each one of those assets while reducing content spending overall.<h2></h2><h4>3. Streamline Content Distribution</h4>Listing a product on an ecommerce website isn’t always as easy as it should be. You’re often copying data from your PIM into a CMS or eComm platform, manually downloading an asset from the DAM and re-uploading it to the site, and then configuring a product detail page to make the listing just right.Well, scratch that. When you integrate your PIM with your DAM, you allow the product information to automatically be attached to your content. And, depending on the DAM you have, you can then package the asset and product data together, and publish it directly to your eComm platform or website directly.You might say that the productivity gains for just one asset isn’t worth the effort of integrating the systems, but for large product and retail companies that manage this at large scale, the benefits compound into a huge time and money saver.<h2></h2><h4>4. Data Consistency&nbsp;</h4>Enterprise brands have incredible amounts of data to manage, and keeping it all organized is essential to doing so successfully. Each new system that operates in a silo increases the risk that data standards aren’t followed – things like taxonomy, tags, and other sorts of metadata. At the scale with which these companies are creating content, it can quickly devolve into data chaos.Bringing the DAM and PIM together is just another way to ensure the way you represent a product in your system of record – the PIM – is consistent across other systems like your DAM. It’s what allows data to be shared between technologies, and enables in-depth reporting and transparency that would otherwise be impossible to manage in any sort of automated way.Brands spend significant time and resources undertaking data cleanup projects and realigning their systems. Integrating the DAM and PIM is one preventative measure that pays off in terms of processes and data transparency.<h2></h2><h4>Integrating Your DAM with Your PIM</h4>As members of the MACH Alliance, Tenovos is committed to being integration-first. We believe organizations are best served purchasing best-in-class technologies, and not tools that try to do everything.Modern DAM platforms like Tenovos are designed to connect to other enterprise technologies in order to facilitate this two-way communication of data. Not all DAMs are created equal, and so it’s important to investigate with your vendor, or potential vendor if you’re in the evaluation phase of a new DAM purchase, their ability to connect to your PIM and enable the aforementioned functionalities and benefits of the integration.To learn more about how to choose a vendor capable of helping you with integrations like these, click here to read our <a href="https://tenovos.com/downloads/Guides/%5BGuide%5D%20Vendor%20Evaluation%20Guide.pdf">vendor evaluation guide</a>.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt7b12bdcf99952be6/63eabcce2d0679107a695580/Mike_Waldron_profile.png"/>

4 Reasons You Should Integrate a DAM With Your PIM

For many leading food and beverage brands, they are focused on layering innovation and future-ready strategies to deliver a compelling customer experience online. To that end, checkout is an integral area to strengthen and invigorate, especially for those that seek flexibility in their core operations.That kind of checkout innovation can be made easier by following the principles of the MACH ecosystem, which stands for microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native SaaS and headless.A modular approach allows brands to select from the best solutions from industry leaders, with low risk and easy deployment. Updating tech stacks over time is achievable with this best-in-breed approach where providers’ products do all the heavy lifting within a digital storefront.Brands within the food and beverage space continue to attract consumer attention due to the increased variety available on shelves, ranging from healthy organic products to subscription services delivering meal kits right to people’s homes. Online food sales saw a $200 billion <a href="https://www.joshmeah.com/blog/food-and-beverage-e-commerce-for-small-business">bump</a> in March 2020 compared to a year earlier, likely due to the pandemic causing a surge in home cooking, delivery and takeout orders.Customers are on the lookout for something new, too: Google <a href="https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/8-ways-you-can-improve-your-consumers-online-trust-of-your-products">reported</a> that 71% of people are now “always on the lookout for new brands and products.”Also, a Bold Commerce <a href="https://boldcommerce.com/drivers-of-success-2021-subscription-trends-whitepaper">survey</a> of nearly 800 subscription brands found that the food and beverage industry was one of the early adopters of subscriptions, and that brands in the category continued to see steady growth. Over two thirds of respondents reported growth rates of 10% or more month over month.When brands address the challenges of keeping pace with competitors via their digital digital storefronts, they can gain an edge in the race by adopting a MACH framework to become more agile and flexible with what they bring to customers.Overhauling the monolith in food and bevThe alternative? Choosing a one-size-fits-all monolithic system that would require a platform-wide overhaul if even a small area of the store needs to be updated with a new product or service. What makes this strategy frustrating is how every element is dependent on the others, adding complexity to changing to a new or advanced framework for food and bev brands..Also, research has <a href="https://www.brightpearl.com/blog/monoliths-vs-microservices-a-guide-for-modern-e-commerce-brands">shown</a> that 71% of merchants agree that their current ERP makes it “nearly impossible to integrate new, better ecommerce technology from other vendors” at the pace they would like. Looking specifically at the food industry, just 17% of food brand representatives <a href="https://www.fooddive.com/news/most-brands-arent-ready-to-win-in-e-commerce-report-says/575090/">surveyed</a> in 2020 said they are ahead of the curve or leading in ecommerce, while 71% reported they have a strong focus in ecommerce, but are catching up to or keeping pace with competitors.Because brand owners in the food and beverage market rely on speed-to-market when they launch a new product, their ecommerce solution has to keep up with their momentum. Auto-scaling a monolithic application can be difficult to accomplish effectively, as Kelly Goetsch, Chief Product Officer at commercetool <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/25-reasons-why-monolithic-commerce-platforms-obsolete-kelly-goetsch/">wrote</a> in a LinkedIn post, “because it often takes tens of minutes to start up a big monolithic application server and then run a big monolithic application. Loading all of those libraries takes a long time! Smaller microservices can be started in a second or two, allowing you to better react in real-time to customer traffic.”Paul do Forno, Managing Director, Deloitte Digital discussed more about the disadvantages of monolithic architecture on a recent episode of Bold’s Own Your Commerce <a href="https://boldcommerce.com/podcast/paul-do-forno-driving-the-transformation-challenges-and-opportunities-for-scaling-digital-and-b2b-brands">podcast</a>: “Back in the day there were platforms that were integrated front and back, and [it was] very hard to pull out bits and pieces. Now, being able to differentiate...is a way to very quickly add value. So we’ve seen that a lot with very specific things — be it subscription, different payments capabilities, different functional tax services — become part of what is driving a transformation, as opposed to like, I’ve got to change everything at once. It’s really based on what the opportunities are in the functional areas.”Freeing up innovationWith a MACH ecosystem, beta-testing a new checkout system, for example, is frictionless for food and beverage brands, explains Senior Product Marketing Manager at Bold Commerce, Anatolii Iakimets. “You can test one-page versus three-page checkout, or you can implement BOPIS or QR codes into checkout without having to replace the entire commerce platform,” he says, adding how Bold Checkout is one of the APIs an online food or beverage business can add to their offerings without needing to upend any other part of their store.“MACH is all about addressing the specific needs of what needs to be updated and replaced, and many business owners recognize the importance of having a strong checkout to manage their transactions,” Iakimets says.By adopting a headless model, food and beverage brands can create highly differentiated and engaging shopping experiences for their customers across multiple channels. Brands can meet their customers where they are shopping all while connecting to the same backend processes.This made all the more apparent when considering the value of innovating at the checkout level.It makes sense that many fast-moving retailers want to innovate their checkout technology: cart abandonment rates can be as high as <a href="https://blog.boldcommerce.com/how-to-continuously-innovate-your-checkout">78 percen</a>t.How food and beverage brands can unlock higher conversion ratesFood and beverage ecommerce brands aren’t doomed to suffer at the fate of this figure. In fact, checkout optimization can increase <a href="https://sleeknote.com/blog/cart-abandonment-statistics">conversions</a> by 35 percent. It’s just a matter of leveraging the right tools or microservices from best-in-breed vendors to empower checkout technology to improve the shopping journey.“Look at how easy you can beta test with a product like Bold Checkout,” Iakimets notes. “You can optimize checkout by comparing two data points from one week to the next on whatever you decide to change, which will give you a measurable way to track progress and determine the ideal option for your business going forward.”As Yvan Boisjoli, CEO of Bold Commerce, <a href="https://blog.boldcommerce.com/why-different-shopping-channels-require-different-checkout-experiences">wrote</a> earlier this year, API-driven checkout experiences using a headless approach to their ecommerce solution can encourage brands to:<ul><li>Customize the look, flow, and functionality of a checkout experience or pick from one of our pre-built templates.</li><li>Provide a branded look and feel throughout the checkout.</li><li>Improve checkout conversions for food and beverage brands with a one-page or multi-page checkout.</li><li>A/B test to determine which checkout is most effective in each channel for the food and beverage brand.</li></ul>Solutions harnessing the MACH framework seamlessly address customer demands for improved convenience, and it all chugs along behind the scenes, delivering an optimized performance that the customer doesn’t really see.Food and beverage brands recognize the importance of being quick to market with an ecommerce system designed to be flexible and robust. That’s where MACH can best be applied, especially for brands looking to streamline their omnichannel experience to incorporate subscriptions and promotions, adds Iakimets.It’s that kind of open-minded flexibility and ease-ofu-se that can ensure food and beverage ecommerce brands can surge ahead of the competition and deliver to their customers an exceptional shopping experience.

MACH architecture: Unleashing the checkout to unlock revenue

In the changing world of e-commerce, one topic has been dominating conversations and capturing the imagination of businesses and consumers alike: artificial intelligence, of course. In my role as Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomreach, I’ve seen firsthand just how powerful AI can be, both in our own technology and in the solutions we turn to for help with our day-to-day tasks.Harnessing the power of a MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless) strategy, in conjunction with your data/AI strategy, can revolutionize your business operations. This union provides an agile, scalable, and robust framework for managing and leveraging your data efficiently, enabling you to make data-driven decisions with confidence.By integrating AI capabilities within a MACH approach, your business can become more responsive, adaptable, and smart, fostering a relatable connection with your customers through personalized experiences and engagements.In this post, I’ll be shedding some light on the transformative role AI, and specifically <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/2023/how-generative-ai-will-transform-commerce-and-marketing">generative AI,</a> plays in reshaping shopping experiences and the e-commerce landscape.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt86b002b82bfe336e/658170dc4dad15d8b5e532fe/image2.jpg"/><h2>Unpacking the Buzz Around AI</h2>The fervor around AI has only grown in the last year, and it’s easy to see why. It’s an exciting new technology with limitless possibilities, especially in the realm of e-commerce. And, unlike well-understood technologies (such as mobile payments), AI has remained a constant topic of conversation due to its complexity and all of the perspectives surrounding it.This doesn’t just stem from hype, but from a genuine need for businesses to understand and navigate the intricacies of this transformative technology. We all know just how big of an impact AI is going to have on our industries, and we know we need to get this right.So, where do you start?<h3></h3><h3>Enhancing Operational Efficiency With AI</h3>One strategic starting point that businesses should consider is the implementation of AI in the back-end operations of e-commerce. Back-end operations provide an environment of structured data with linear processes, making it an ideal space for experimenting with AI technology. This approach also lowers the risk of negative consequences on the front end, where a bad experience can have lasting repercussions.The lower risk associated with back-end experimentation allows businesses to generate ROI gradually. By focusing on efficiency and risk mitigation, businesses can adapt to AI technology at a pace that aligns with their unique needs.AI is a powerful tool for improving efficiency as it can be used to automate tasks, reduce errors, and streamline business processes. And when applied in the back end, it has the potential to really transform the way businesses operate.<h3>Customer Experience Transformation: The Role of AI in Personalization and Conversational Shopping</h3>AI plays a crucial role in improving customer experiences. AI can analyze patterns in ways that humans simply can’t, excelling in tasks where humans may fall short due to limited training, understanding, or time.AI is a key driver of e-commerce personalization, challenging traditional notions of personalization with a deep understanding of customer and product data. This empowers businesses to deliver personalized experiences that go beyond demographics.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt1d864db418d6bc2a/65816afc4dad15e4dde532db/image5.jpg"/>Up until now, websites and online experiences have struggled to truly know what customers want. Often, online experiences don’t match up to the service provided in a physical store, where a retailer’s bread and butter is knowing their customers and offering advice and a value-added experience.That’s all changing with conversational shopping experiences powered by generative AI, which are bringing a new dimension to online shopping. New solutions are operating with a heightened understanding of both products and customers, ensuring consultative and hyper-personalized online shopping experiences that delight consumers.What this means is digital shopping experiences are getting a whole lot better and more relevant. Knowing a customer’s age, gender, and zip code no longer cuts it as far as personalization — that’s table stakes. AI-powered personalization and conversational shopping experiences help marketers and merchandisers uncover a deeper understanding of shopping patterns across channels. It’s about knowing not just what consumers buy, but also understanding what they buy in the context of what you sell — how they’re researching products and what product attributes really matter to them.For me personally, the rise of conversational shopping technology represents a truly exciting inflection point in the evolution of e-commerce, and as both a consumer and a CMO, I can’t wait to see what we’ll soon be able to do with this technology.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt24002372ace822b9/658170864135c414f6567197/image1.jpg"/><h3></h3><h3>Real-Time Marketing With AI</h3>In marketing, timing is everything. Speed to market and obtaining insights faster are absolutely crucial if you want to stay competitive and top of mind with your customers. The transition to a real-time marketing organization — powered by AI — marks a shift in focus from reactive strategies to proactive, real-time engagement with consumers.This shift is made possible by AI's remarkable ability to generate insights, recommendations, and actionable strategies. By simplifying the process of deriving insights, AI makes this capability accessible to a broader range of team members and empowers them to perform tasks more effectively, reducing the need for extensive technical knowledge or dependence on specialized roles.Armed with AI-generated insights, recommendations, and actionable plans, businesses gain the upper hand in staying ahead of the competition and promptly adapting to market changes. As we navigate the complexities of the modern marketplace, the agility provided by AI becomes indispensable.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltf647ae39084bb655/6581709a1f895224ed910d68/image3.jpg"/><h3></h3><h3>Using AI To Enhance Job Performance</h3>With AI, marketing professionals can also enhance their own job performance. For example, AI can assist in tasks that are time-consuming or require vast amounts of data analysis, allowing marketers to focus on strategic initiatives. This is particularly relevant in addressing the need for skilled SQL programmers, as AI can automate complex data-related processes.In this way, using AI enhances the capabilities of a team and helps address labor demands and shortages. This not only leads to a more efficient workforce but also enables businesses to level up and upskill employees more quickly.<h2>The Future of E-Commerce:</h2>Beyond Screens and a Shift in Practitioner RolesAs commerce evolves, my prediction is that the technology around it will become simpler and more accessible — after all, removing friction in the customer journey is essential for creating seamless, personalized experiences.Another possible outcome is the transformation of roles in employment, opening up many opportunities for marketers and merchandisers. With AI taking over monotonous tasks, practitioners are presented with an opportunity to transition from tactical to strategic roles, focusing on higher-level thinking and leveraging AI to enhance creativity and innovation (and drive even more impact on the bottom line).The emergence of new roles, such as AI trainers, also opens up exciting opportunities for individuals with expertise in training AI models. The imperative for marketers is to start learning and understanding AI tools now, preparing for a future where collaboration with vendors who possess these tools becomes a strategic necessity.<h2>Final Thoughts:</h2>Navigating the AI Transformation of E-CommerceThanks to AI, e-commerce is poised to undergo an incredible transformation. From enhancing operational efficiencies in the back end to revolutionizing customer experiences on the front end, AI (and specifically generative AI) is reshaping the way we do business.As the CMO of Bloomreach, my advice to fellow industry professionals is to embrace AI as an integral part of the <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/2023/why-ai-is-the-future-of-e-commerce">future of e-commerce</a>. Early adoption, collaboration with AI vendors, and a strategic shift in roles are the keys to unlocking the full potential of AI in the ever-evolving world of online commerce.The future is now, and those who seize the opportunities presented by AI will not only stay ahead of the curve but will also lead the way in shaping the next era of e-commerce.Author: Amanda Cole, Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomreach

AI’s Role in E-Commerce Transformation: A CMO’s Perspective

Moving to a MACH (Microservice, API first, Cloud native, and Headless) architecture can seem daunting for any company. There are a lot of moving parts, and bringing it all together to work seamlessly is no small feat. But once the initial integrations and setup are in place, the possibilities and the improvements to working processes far outweigh the initial doubts.Imagine you work in a fashion retail store as a Merchandising Manager. One day, a large shipment of red T-shirts arrives. Instead of ordering a variety of colors, your manager has accidentally ordered all the same. It's the end of the month, so you need to make your sales target, and you don't have time to wait for a new shipment to arrive or send the red T-shirts back. You decide to try and sell the red T-shirts. You change all the windows, so the whole display is red. You change the front of the store so as customers enter, all they see is red. You put up posters and signs saying “Red hot sale” and “I see red.” It takes you 2 hours to do all this, but the results look great. Your manager is happy with the idea, and customers start entering the store and start shopping.Now imagine trying to do the same thing on your commerce site. You're using an old system that does everything. Usually, it takes days to update something on your site as you're dependent on developers, but this is important, so you try to get it done as soon as possible. You create a ticket in Jira with all your requirements. You want to change the whole homepage to only have red products. This will not need any changes to design or layouts, it will only need copy and image updates. Plus, you'd like to add a new area in your navigation that will take customers to a red product category page. So you add all this information into the ticket, including the images and copy that need updating. You give the ticket the highest priority and assign it to the developers.Then you wait.And wait.Then you send a Slack message to the team asking if they've seen the ticket and what the time frame would be to make your changes. They're busy working on the next release, and they won't have time to look at the ticket today. So, you talk to your manager to get them to help put the pressure on. But it's no use. It can't be done until at least tomorrow. And then they'll have to do a release, and one isn't planned until the day after. You're frustrated. You try to move quickly but the processes are in the way and you're dependent on others to do something that should be simple. But that's the life of a Digital Merchandising Manager, right?Maybe not anymore.Headless or composable architectures mean that different parts of a commerce site can be managed separately. And depending on the providers of the software, you get certain freedom.Imagine you're now using a composable architecture. All your products are in commercetools. They each have images, product information, and so much more, including a color. So, you decide to create a sale for your red items to help sell the excess stock. You add a new discount of 15% for all your products that have the color red. You can set the time for this discount to apply. So, you set it to go live in 10 minutes, which will give you enough time to do all the editing you need for your commerce site. Since your frontend is built using Frontastic, you can do this in the Frontastic studio. You go to the site builder section and you duplicate the live version of your homepage, as all you need to do is update the image and the copy. You open the page builder and upload your new red image and attach it to the main Frontastic component. Then you update the copy and the settings for both the mobile and desktop versions. You also edit your product slider to have a new filter of only red products. You preview your changes, first on your desktop, then on your mobile so you can check the interactions in real-time on a real device. Then you save your page version and schedule it to go live in 10 minutes. This will give you enough time to create your red products page in the navigation. You create a new page folder and then a new page version. You add the product listings component with a filter to only show red products from commercetools. You preview your page and publish it. Then you need to go back to your homepage to see the button on your banner to go to your new red product listing page. As all the information about the discount you've already set up comes from commercetools, you've now done all you need to do! Once the 10 minutes have passed, you check all your devices again to make sure it's working and looking as expected. And it's all there and updated, exactly as you wanted, without any coding or reliance on another team.Want to see what that looks like? Our Lead Editor shows you how to do it in <a href="https://frontastic.wistia.com/medias/e1ydd7o7xr">this video</a>.Using different headless systems allows teams to optimize how they work. Each can focus on what they do best and can adapt quickly to changing situations. Developers can move away from updating copy and images to creating new features and innovation. While business users can make updates to campaigns and products themselves when they need to. Together, commerce teams can create outstanding and incredible digital experiences super fast thanks to the power of headless.

How MACH technologies allow you to adapt your digital experiences easily

<h2></h2><img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltb02ffa873a61bbb9/60a4ddd3b80011658d7f5274/lovecraft-visual.jpg"/><h2>To serve makers around the world, LoveCrafts turned to a composable architecture that helps it deliver nonstop growth</h2>LoveCrafts is on a mission to create a global community. It’s a first-of-its-kind online home for makers, offering a place for crafters to feel inspired and connected, and to find all the materials they need. Its strategy, and its clever development of a composable architecture, has vaulted LoveCrafts into a position as the world’s top destination for knitting and crochet supplies.When LoveCrafts was founded in 2012, it had two opportunities. The first was to fill an e-commerce gap that had overlooked crafters. The second was more ambitious: to build a global community for makers to share their work, learn from peers, and forge relationships.The company’s strategy is to build this experience by creating three pillars -- content, community and commerce -- intertwined for a seamless user experience, but separated enough that they can evolve and grow independently. A composable architecture, based on MACH standards, is now the foundation of the LoveCrafts IT strategy to connect the three pillars of its platform, extend its customer services, and deliver uninterrupted experiences around the world.<table><tbody><tr><td>“The most important thing in setting your IT strategy is to know your business well, and where you want to be in 5 years. Once you know where you want to go, choose the tools that enable you to focus on value creation that transforms the business, rather than spending time recreating basic functions.”</td></tr></tbody></table>LoveCrafts started its journey to a composable architecture in 2014, following the year Halil Koklu joined the company. Right from the start, he felt the connection and respect between IT and crafters. As an e-commerce business, LoveCrafts is also an IT business, and the development team contributed to strategic discussions. The connection was also personal because the long-serving IT team works closely with crafters, bonding over the surprising similarity between crafting patterns and the structure of computer code.Now serving as the Chief Technology Officer, Koklu is part of the LoveCrafts leadership team to together build a unified experience. The company’s three pillars of content, community and commerce are connected using metadata so that, for example, crafters can see a list of materials and equipment to purchase for a pattern, or sort for community-created patterns they can fashion from their existing materials. The site’s user experience frequently intermingles content and capabilities from each pillar.LoveCrafts built the first iteration of its IT foundation over roughly four years, starting in 2013. It began with a relatively standard digital commerce function. Then, it created a content platform where crafters could find new patterns, and individual designers could post and sell their custom patterns in a content marketplace. Finally, it built a community through features for users to share additional content, to engage with each other through follows and discussions, and with channels for LoveCrafts to post blogs and updates.Even as it built the basics of customer-facing features, LoveCrafts knew from an early point it wanted to embrace a strategy of an API-first, cloud-native, headless IT foundation, which could keep the pillars of its business connected but enable them to continually improve. A monolithic platform could not keep pace with LoveCrafts’ globally scaling business. And with the three pillars so intertwined in the user experience, running multiple front-ends woven together introduced performance and productivity issues. Koklu’s promise to the LoveCrafts leadership team was simple: “After we change our commerce platform to a MACH platform, we will never run a replatform project ever again, and we can change or add capability easily without disruption.”For Koklu’s 25-person IT team, “going composable was no-brainer” and signed on to a MACH philosophy from the start. Their objective was to build a flexible, open and future-proof architecture. Now, the API-first approach for all systems is nearly complete, as the IT team’s dedication and focus has delivered both continuous services and steady progress toward their ultimate goal.<table><tbody><tr><td>“We will never run a replatform project ever again and we can change or add capability easily without disruption.”</td></tr></tbody></table>The first steps toward running on a fully composable architecture started in 2014, when LoveCrafts began building its content marketplace and community pillars on headless solutions. Since then, Koklu and his team have updated the tools they use, to maintain flexibility. The content marketplace, where members can sell their patterns and grow an audience, is now running on an Angular JS frontend and Symfony backend. The community pillar runs with an API-only backend that includes features important to LoveCrafts, such as a flexible data structure to serve any type of craft, and a REST API controller with functions similar to GraphQL (which had not yet launched).In 2018, Koklu and his team streamlined the editorial content management system, retiring both WordPress (for blog content) and Magento CMS (for static pages) in favor of a headless, API-first architecture.LoveCrafts is now focused on completing its final, and most comprehensive, step toward a composable architecture across the business: moving the commerce pillar to a headless architecture. The company is migrating from the Magento e-commerce platform to a decoupled solution built on a commercetools back-end and a Vue Storefront front-end. This a nontrivial shift for LoveCrafts because the company has spent years scaling Magento, both in terms of infrastructure and function, as the company grew to a truly global business with the need for multi-warehousing, proper multi-currency and taxation capabilities, and myriad performance improvements beyond standard Magento offerings.LoveCrafts found commercetools to be an ideal back-end solution because it is inherently API-first. Combining commercetools with Vue Storefront gives LoveCrafts full control over the front-end user experience, without being constrained by functions of the back-end platform.To maintain continuity during this migration, Koklu’s team is using a strangler pattern to replace components that communicate by API piece by piece, without disrupting service. This “hot-swap” migration from a monolithic solution to a microservice implementation incrementally migrates functionality from the legacy system. When the new system completely takes over, LoveCrafts can decommission its Magento platform. Koklu is overseeing a step-by-step update of the commerce pillar as his team builds new functions including checkout, baskets, content pages, sign-in, and authentication, among others.LoveCrafts vastly prefers running on cloud native SaaS to the alternative, which is to update systems every year or two with a major overhaul. Those large, periodic updates introduce risks in terms of disruption, and incur the opportunity cost of locking in technologies or approaches for the coming years.<table><tbody><tr><td>“Most companies are anxious of taking their core applications to a multi-tenant cloud. You don’t control the roadmap and the adaptability. This strategy only works well if the platform you buy is the right one for you, that runs most of your use cases natively and has a great adaptability through APIs.”</td></tr></tbody></table>LoveCrafts chose commercetools for its back-end, API-first commerce platform only after extensive due diligence. Koklu understands why companies are nervous to migrate to SaaS products for their core business processes. It’s not feasible to truly customize multi-tenant SaaS products, but LoveCrafts found that commercetools provides sufficient flexibility, in large part because of its modular and open architecture. LoveCrafts can use certain commercetools modules, such as the shopping cart or ordering system, independently from other features. Without modifying the underlying SaaS product, LoveCrafts has the flexibility to customize its use of commercetools with other systems for product data management, taxes, or pricing engines.With the journey to a composable architecture nearly complete, Koklu acknowledges that some aspects have been challenging. Teams need to be resilient when they encounter the unexpected, and comfortable putting in effort to complete the work creatively. LoveCrafts showed commitment to its team by providing IT staff with opportunities to learn new skills and become proficient in new tools, rather than bringing in specialists or outsourcing the project.Looking to the future, Koklu sees nothing but upside. The investment in a composable architecture foundation will support agility far into the future. Now fully covered by APIs and gathering the right data, the product team can move faster and more consistently. Koklu also finds that with a headless and microservices architecture, he has more flexibility to structure teams around responsibilities and ownership. Now, for example, a team member may own the pricing or checkout functions, rather than filling a more narrow role defined by technical skills.When LoveCrafts completes the final steps of its migration to a composable architecture, it will be positioned to help makers around the world grow and connect, uninterrupted, for years to come.<table><tbody><tr><td>Building and sustaining support for MACHThe market is moving from one-stop, full-stack platforms to modular solutions that decouple front-end and back-end capabilities. But when many organizations have the option to choose an established all-in-one platform, it’s not always clear why they should support a MACH strategy. Three methods helped LoveCrafts to build support across the organization.<ol><li>Specify the business benefits</li></ol><ul><li>A MACH strategy makes the most sense when it uniquely enables your business to differentiate. In the case of LoveCrafts, technology is integral to building a product that provides integrated content, community, and commerce for a global audience. No monolithic platforms could do all this for LoveCrafts, let alone efficiently and at scale.</li></ul><ol><li>Support your IT team’s growth</li></ol><ul><li>In many companies, when tooling changes, the team changes. This isn’t the case at LoveCrafts, which has done everything in house with the same IT team, rather than outsourcing to system integrators. When the team understands their roles are protected, LoveCrafts builds team loyalty -- and builds experts in next-generation software.</li></ul><ol><li>Focus on value creation</li></ol><ul><li>Don’t spend your time reinventing basics. Instead, choose tools that can provide you with great basic functions and that connect well through APIs. Then, let your team use these building blocks to meet the specific needs of your company and customers.</li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table><table><tbody><tr><td>Choosing the right SaaSAs it looked to replace Magento, LoveCrafts did extensive market research into back-end solutions. It offers four key findings for any organization looking to select new headless technologies. This guidance is primarily for customers, but vendors, take note!<ol><li>Prioritize transparent companies</li></ol><ul><li>Look for vendors who offer transparent information up front, before you commit. Don’t sign an NDA or a contract just to get technical documentation. And don’t postpone detailed discussions to the “discovery phase” of the project, which can waste time.</li></ul><ol><li>Undertake proof of concepts with vendors</li></ol><ul><li>Companies that let you sign up for a free trial demonstrate their confidence in the product. It’s a great sign if a vendor lets you sign up yourself without a sales rep to coordinate access -- it correlates closely with their product’s level of automation and cloud-readiness.</li></ul><ol><li>Identify your use cases and required capabilities</li></ol><ul><li>Every organization has a list of must-have functions to enable the business. For example, global businesses need internationalization and localization capabilities, such as multi-currency. To make an informed decision on the relative value of different approaches, you should understand which features you need, look at the customization required from each solution, and document the implementation and running costs.</li></ul><ol><li>Choose more flexible options when possible</li></ol><ul><li>SaaS can be limiting if the solutions you choose don’t support your business needs -- yet it can be a challenge to know what functions your business may need years into the future. Consider the benefits of software that offers customizability, modularity, and composable architecture as you think about the ways your organization may evolve.</li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table>Author: Halil Köklü, CTO, LoveCrafts

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LoveCrafts loves MACH

Buying a new bottle of perfume or cologne can be somewhat of a commitment. Fragrances aren’t exactly inexpensive, and if you don’t love what you purchased, you’re stuck with a full bottle.It no longer has to be that way.Enter Scentbird, a monthly subscription service that has completely upended the way we discover fragrance and beauty. Forbes included Scentbird in its 2021 list of the 10 best Valentine's Day gifts for self-love, and Women’s Wear Daily named the company one of the six best perfume subscription boxes to try.Sounds like a concept that makes a lot of scents sense.Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Andrei Rebrov, would agree. Rebrov helped get Scentbird off the ground back in 2014 and is responsible for engineering, machine learning and the company’s overall digital strategy and execution.Before launching Scentbird, Rebrov worked in engineering for UBS, a multinational investment bank and financial services company. At the time of his employment, UBS had over 70,000 global employees, so the leap from a big, global business to the small but mighty team at Scentbird was quite a change. But Rebrov was up for the challenge.“We realized quickly just how much a small team can achieve, especially with the right technology in place,” he said. “I like fast-moving environments and having a keen understanding for how to talk to customers and give them what they want. At Scentbird, that’s become our obsession – giving customers exactly what they want.”Building a back-endScentbird has been home grown since day one. The problem with that, as Rebrov put it, is that you have a short planning horizon for determining what you want to build. As so-called versions 1.0, 2.0 (and so on) of the company took shape, the IT architecture needed to evolve. But because some of that architecture was built on legacy, it blocked the business from achieving its next stage.“Previous versions focused heavily on things like customer satisfaction but not back-office including product optimization, warehousing and so on,” said Rebrov. “We found ourselves stuck at times within our own roadmap.”MACH technologies and principles took center stage as Rebrov and his team envisioned how to take control back into their own hands when it came to adding new features and functionality. The key was to ensure they could do so freely, on their own terms without compromising what was already in the tech stack.“The benefits of embracing MACH for Scentbird have been plentiful,” he said. “Microservices technology has enabled us to cohesively stitch together several small, single-service tools specific to the functions we need such as those for subscription charges, tracking, financial information and shipments. Building a platform this way has allowed us to deliver faster, and when something needs to change, we update one simple service and move forward.”“This has also allowed us to have teams focused on specific areas,” Rebrov added. “Teams can build an API consensus about how different services can communicate, for example. It’s helped improve our cross-team collaboration tremendously.”An ecosystem of partnersRebrov noted that the aim with Scentbird was always to be a company that relies a lot on partners – companies that can build best-in-class specialized solutions that the business could then integrate. This approach has enabled them to scale and keep their own platform updated.“In my experience, companies who use MACH principles when they build their own products are easier to work with. They’re our first choice when we work with partners, and they solve problems faster than bigger platform solutions. It makes it easier to move forward and continuously evolve the business.”When discussing the considerations for business leaders who are thinking about transitioning their enterprise architecture – in part or whole – to MACH, Rebrov noted the biggest challenge is fear of the unsuccessful implementation.“If you shift from one big platform to another, you’re stuck in this painful ‘circle of integration.’ When you move to companies who use MACH principles, yes, there will still be some challenges associated with unbundling old legacy systems, but every future upgrade will be easier to implement. The long-term value is clear.”Given the speed of change in e-commerce, this is especially beneficial. Rebrov noted there are new players to the market every year, at least. If your company can’t add new functionality and integrations to stay on-par or a step ahead of the competition, they’ll capture the market.“MACH helps ensure the longevity of your business. It’s a long term investment that unlocks new possibilities.”Build or buyIt used to be the case that building software products and e-commerce were living in a parallel world. E-commerce used to be considered something of a big platform, as Rebrov said, and building your own products was on the other extreme.“You’d either build or buy. That’s how it was. With MACH, I can do both. Build what makes my business unique and then, for the rest, we can work with partners who offer specialized tools that are a best-fit match for our needs.”“It’s the best of both worlds. A lot of companies are embracing this approach and making it part of their DNA. It’s proven to make good business sense across a range of industries, and I expect to see it adopted more beyond retail. Supply chain, security, food and beverage – they could all benefit from MACH.MACH Alliance Ambassadorship The MACH Alliance is very excited to welcome Andrei as an Ambassador. Our Ambassadors are a carefully selected group of business and technology experts with a wide range of experience across industries and backgrounds. Passionate about the benefits a modern architecture can bring to an enterprise, our Ambassadors have graciously committed their time to support the mission of the MACH Alliance by writing, speaking, and serving as subject matter experts to help empower companies to go MACH.If you’re interested in learning more about a MACH approach and understanding if it’s right for your business, we welcome you to get in touch at  <a href="mailto:info@machalliance.org">info@machalliance.org</a> to be matched with the MACH Alliance Ambassador most relevant to you.

Meet Your MACH Alliance Ambassador - Andrei Rebrov, CTO & Co-founder at Scentbird

With the MACH Alliance set to surpass 100 corporate members this year, and with MACH now decidedly “the standard,” the MACH Alliance is undertaking a wide-ranging and thorough initiative to explore what membership means in the coming years. We play a leading role in creating clear guidance for enterprises, delineating MACH technologies that foster future-proofing and vendor independence from those that don’t. That guidance is important for buyers given the rapidly shifting dynamics of the technology landscape over the past three and a half years.The rise of Composable technology and MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless) as an architectural standard more specifically, has not gone unnoticed by big players in the industry. They are following suit, and we can not be more pleased about that. They have made pivots to their strategies and product portfolios in this direction by rearchitecting products, by acquiring MACH startups etc. This is an amazing testament to MACH as a vision for the future — a future that empowers businesses with flexibility, control, and most importantly, future-proof technology that enables growth and differentiation. That has always been the goal of the MACH Alliance and is one we hold ourselves to every day.Our strict MACH Certification criteria are in place to uphold this promise to the market, so that the responsibility of navigating vendor marketing claims is not a burden to the buyer. The reason we certify companies, not products has always been and remains that established vendors with one product in their portfolio that qualifies, may claim MACH credentials across the board. That would be detrimental to the clarity we are here to secure. While that reasoning remains sound, our focus is on the buyers, and we want them to understand what they're investing in and to ensure that their chosen solutions meet the high standards set by the MACH Alliance. Providing the best and comprehensive guidance for buyers has been and will be our endeavor always.So today, I am confirming our commitment to researching improved ways to help the buyer best in navigating the landscape. We will dedicate substantial time over the next few months to that work and communicate our findings in March. We believe that as MACH grows and evolves, so too will its value as an industry standard, and with that, the quality that we need to deliver and the scrutiny we are under.If you feel you can provide useful insights for our research, please get in touch at <a href="mailto:info@machalliance.com">info@machalliance.com</a> with the subject line: Research Guidance. We'd love to hear from you! We know we owe the buyer clear guidance and that is what we are set out to do.Author: Jon Panella, MACH Alliance Chairperson

MACH Alliance's Commitment to Clear Guidance Amidst Big Tech Acquisitions and Developments

In the<a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/the-role-of-accelerators-in-the-mach-world-part-1"> previous post,</a> I explained what accelerators are, what are the benefits of using an accelerator, and what to look out for when choosing one to work with. In this blog post, I am going to compare accelerators to Digital Experience Composition platforms which are an emerging category of SaaS within the MACH space.<h3>One step further than accelerators — Digital Experience Composition (DXC)</h3>DXCs are a new category of SaaS solutions that offer similar benefits to MACH accelerators. You can think of a DXC as a universal accelerator for API-first applications, where you can pull any kind of REST or graphql APIs into a visual workspace where developers or business users can manage omni-channel digital experiences within a visual, low-code editor. DXC speeds up time to value for composable architecture, lowers development cost, and makes it easy for business users to build digital experiences that pull information from many headless data sources.“DXC is emerging to handle digital multi-experience orchestration in a 'headless,' decoupled, composable world. Extending from front-end as a service (FEaaS) or 'visual page builders', these tools allow developers to set up digital experiences and hand them to business users for day-to-day management in no-code environments.” — Gartner, 2022, Hype Cycle for Digital CommerceRead more <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/why-is-gartner-so-excited-by-new-digital-commerce-waves-" target="_blank">here</a>. <h3> Accelerators vs DXC</h3>What is the difference between a DXC and an accelerator?It is like comparing apples and oranges, moreover, every accelerator is different and every DXC can offer a different set of features.A rough and oversimplified comparison between the two categories is that accelerators are usually built and maintained by a commerce platform vendor or an SI. They offer documentation but as they are a tool in the SI arsenal that needs further customization, not a SaaS, therefore, they usually do not provide SLAs or regular tool audits. They offer less flexibility than DXC in terms of which APIs can be used within the solution. Accelerators can be customized to add the integrations for a specific customer but that takes additional time and work. Accelerators are a point-in-time solution to get started and onboarded on the commerce project which then evolves and gets further customized. Accelerators typically have a wider use case.DXCs offer more integrations out-of-the-box and continuously develop new connections. DXC is a SaaS and the implementation is either on the customer or SI side. DXC can be used to build omni-channel experiences and pull together many data sources for content-heavy pages or displays. DXC (or DXO) can be leveraged within an accelerator that adds even more commerce-related functionalities on top of what a DXC provides.<table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td>DXC</td><td>Accelerator</td></tr><tr><td>SaaS</td><td>Yes</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Cost</td><td>Subscription-based</td><td>Can be free or paid within the SI-offered services or an ISV subscription</td></tr><tr><td>Implementation</td><td>Not provided by a DXC vendor but can be delivered by an external SI.</td><td>Usually done by the SI who built the accelerator.&nbsp;</td></tr><tr><td>SLAs</td><td>DXC provides its own SLAs</td><td>SLAs from the independent contracts with the vendors.</td></tr><tr><td>External audits</td><td>Usually yes</td><td>Usually not</td></tr><tr><td>Visual workspace</td><td>Usually yes</td><td>Usually not</td></tr><tr><td>Flexibility</td><td>Visual workspace provided for a higher number of API-based tools vs an accelerator. </td><td>Usually each accelerator has a fixed commerce platform and some flexibility with the other software solutions to choose from. Can be swapped by the SI but takes extra time.</td></tr><tr><td>Use case</td><td>Building personalized digital experiences that require pulling together data from many headless data sources.&nbsp;</td><td>Starting a commerce project on a MACH architecture, migrating off legacy architecture.</td></tr></tbody></table><h3>Summary</h3>Accelerators play a pivotal role in adapting MACH Architectures, they speed up the implementation time and help to standardize the approach to MACH software-based projects. The number of accelerators available on the market is impressive and the choice may seem overwhelming at first, this is why we will follow up with a second post in this series covering how to choose the right accelerator and how to implement them.Here is a list of Accelerators that the author of this article has put together:<a href="https://26525540.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/26525540/Ebooks/Accelerators%20List.pdf"> Click here</a> to see the list.This list is not exhaustive, if you know of an accelerator that is not listed here please write to <a href="mailto:katarzyna.banasik@voucherify.io">katarzyna.banasik@voucherify.io</a> and they will consider including it in the list.<h3>Author of the article:</h3>Katarzyna Banasik, Product Marketing Manager, <a href=" https://www.voucherify.io/">Voucherify</a><h3>Contributors:</h3>Anton Koval, Partner Manager Accelerators, commercetoolsRicardas Montvila, VP Global Strategy, MAPP DigitalEverett Zufelt, Vice President of Product and Partnerships, OriumAndrew Kumar, GVP, Uniform.devUday Lakkoju, Global Vice President - Composable Products &amp; GTM, ValtechKrzysztof Molin, Senior Director, Software Engineering at EPAMDom Selvon, CTO, Apply Digital

The role of accelerators in the MACH world: Part 3

<h2>Now, more than ever, shoppers want products fulfilled their way.</h2>Long gone are the days when the only way to purchase a product was to go into a physical store. Today, customers shop for items 24/7, expecting their orders to be fulfilled how, when and where they want. For retailers, what began as relatively simple cross-channel fulfillment has expanded into omnichannel distribution. Let’s take a look at what omnichannel distribution means and why it’s a crucial strategy for every brand.Once customers began to shop online, the question of where and how to fulfill became retailers’ top priority. Suddenly, store associates were asked to perform new tasks like picking items and reserving them for customers to collect in-store. As new means of fulfillment arose, the line between distribution centers and stores blurred.<h2>Ways to fulfill online orders</h2>Consider the following fulfillment logistics and you’ll see that retailers need a comprehensive and seamless distribution strategy to succeed:<ul><li>Buy Online, Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) - Fulfilled from store inventoryA customer makes an order online, the store pulls it from store stock and the customer collects it in the store.</li><li>Buy Online, Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) - Ship to Store from DCA customer makes an order online, the Distribution Center ships the items to the store, and the customer collects their order in the store.</li><li>Buy Online, Ship from DC to HomeA customer purchases something on your website, then the DC ships it to their home or other location.</li><li>Buy Online, Ship from Store to HomeA customer purchases something on your website, then you pick it from your store stock and ship it to their home or other location.</li><li>Buy Online, ship from Drop Ship Vendor (DSV)A customer purchases something on your website, and you send the order to a Drop Ship Vendor who ships it to their home or other location.</li><li>Buy online, return in-store (BORIS)A customer purchases a product online, no longer wants it, and returns it to a physical store.</li></ul>As you can see, complex fulfillment logistics demand systems that manage inventory globally and transparently.<h2>Omnichannel distribution challenges</h2>As with any technology solution, not all omnichannel distribution solutions are created alike.<h3>Inventory visibility and virtual inventory segmentation</h3>For starters, you’ll need a system that offers a single view of inventory across all your systems. If you and your customers can’t see what you have available to sell, it will result in out of stocks or overselling. And ideally you don’t just want to see the stock you have on-hand, but also stock in transit.You’ll also need technology to support virtual inventory segmentation. This gives you the ability to control what stock is made for sale in each market, or channel. It also lets you manage buffer or safety stock, which might differ by channel, to prevent overselling and canceled orders. In addition, you’ll want a flexible way to manage your fulfillment locations. This includes grouping them into logical networks that can be used in your sourcing rules. That way you can set up rules to prioritize sourcing from one network over another. Why is this flexibility important?<h3>Sourcing and fulfillment optimization</h3>Margins. While basic inventory and order routing capabilities will let you fulfill online orders from stores, they’re not optimal. Only flexible fulfillment logic lets you fine-tune your rules over time. And without this flexibility, you have no way to maximize the margin on each order. But an enterprise distributed order management solution will ensure you fulfill orders in the way that works best. Not just for the customer but the business too. For instance, say a product is available from two stores. Where do you want to fulfill it from? The store with the most inventory? Lowest throughput? Oldest inventory? Or biggest markdowns? All these factors can impact your margins. Preservation of profits is key.<h3>Reverse Logistics</h3>Finally, you’ll want a system that can handle reverse logistics. Remember the customer who decided they didn’t want the product they purchased? The only way to process this is through reverse logistics. You need to allow stores and Distribution Centers to receive products back from the consumer. Or even send unsold merchandise back to the manufacturer so it can be taken apart, sorted, reassembled or recycled.<h2>Implications for Headless Commerce</h2>At the heart of your fulfillment operations is your Order Management System (OMS). It consumes inventory feeds from your other systems (ERP, WMS, POS, etc.) and tracks the stock you have Available to Promise (ATP) in near real time. It also optimizes sourcing and manages each step in the fulfillment process. But for omnichannel distribution to work your OMS needs to exchange data with many other systems via APIs. Key integrations include the:<ul><li>Ecommerce Platform</li><li>Notifications System</li><li>Customer Service System</li></ul>In short, omni-channel distribution is not easy. But with modern systems that take an API first approach to integration, you’ll be delighting customers in no time.Author: Nicola Kinsella, VP of Marketing, Fluent Commerce

Retailers: Why Omnichannel Distribution Matters

<h3 style="text-align: center;">MACH Alliance Announces Open Data Model Initiative to Accelerate Interoperability Across Enterprise Technologies</h3> The MACH Alliance, the industry group dedicated to future-proofing enterprise technology through open, connected, and composable digital experiences, today announces the launch of a new Open Data Model initiative. This initiative aims to resolve longstanding interoperability and integration complexities faced by enterprises, systems integrators, and software vendors.The Open Data Model will be made publicly available under an open-source license on GitHub, ensuring transparency, accessibility, and broad community engagement. The MACH Alliance Interoperability Working Group will actively expand and enhance this model, aiming for full member consumption by the end of Q2 2025.To jumpstart this ambitious initiative, the MACH Alliance is working with several MACH Certified Vendors who have offered up sample material including Conscia, Alokai, Commercetools, Bluestone PIM, Occtoo and finally, Pipe17 who has contributed its open, comprehensive, canonical data model as a starting point. Leading the initiative are MACH Certified System Integrators Apply Digital, Novicell, and Valtech with the support of Certified Enabler AWS.

We built our data model over five years. It sits at the heart of our solution, has been rigorously tested in real-world use, continuously refined, and has always been open-source from day one. We’re thrilled to contribute it to the MACH Alliance, further empowering the commerce ecosystem to innovate and scale faster

Interoperability continues to be a critical strategic concern for businesses navigating rapidly changing digital landscapes. "Interoperability has been a primary focus for the MACH Alliance" said Adam Peter Nielsen, CTO of Novicell and MACH Alliance Interoperability Lead. "With a shared data model recipe, we can make tangible progress toward seamless integration and strategic agility across diverse technologies."Bob Howland, Chairperson of the MACH Alliance, emphasized the initiative’s business impact: "Enterprises demand solutions that work together. By standardizing an Open Data Model, we dramatically simplify integrations. Vendors adopting the Open Data Model will find faster implementation cycles and significantly reduced complexity—enabling true interoperability that powers digital innovation."This Open Data Model promises significant benefits, including:<ul><li>Merchants can adopt this data model as their own, and can then effortlessly connect their existing homegrown systems with MACH-compliant solutions.</li><li>Systems Integrators and Agencies can build repeatable solutions, enhance efficiency, and speed up MACH implementations, delivering rapid value to merchants.</li><li>MACH Alliance Vendors have immediate access to a robust foundational data model, dramatically reducing initial development effort and enhancing seamless data flow between partner solutions.</li></ul>By establishing a vendor-neutral, Open Data Model, the MACH Alliance is also laying critical groundwork for the use of agentic AI and support for MCP powered agents. Without a shared data model, enterprises face fragmented, siloed data environments that limit AI’s ability to make accurate decisions, take action, and deliver real business value.For more information about the Open Data Model initiative and to contribute to this groundbreaking project, visit <a href="https://machalliance.org/open-data-model-initiative" target="_self">https://machalliance.org/open-data-model-initiative</a>

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MACH Alliance Announces Open Data Model Initiative

Welcome to MACH 3.0, a special report from VML produced for MACH THREE, the third annual MACH Alliance Conference.For us, MACH 3.0 represents a new phase of the composable journey. A phase defined by leveraging MACH architectures to create space for accelerated innovation and, more specifically, enable the race to drive value with AI.At this point, MACH is no longer just an IT differentiator. For organizations looking to thrive in the age of AI, it is now very much a business differentiator.MACH 3.0 sets out practical considerations for embedding AI in MACH environments from experts across the VML network. It offers advice and best practice methodologies for unlocking value with MACH and AI, with a particular focus on Generative AI and Personalization. Download it now and take the next steps towards harnessing AI to power success in your business for many years to come.Download the Report <a href="https://www.vml.com/insight/mach-3-0">HERE</a>This Power of MACH initiative is brought to you by <a href="https://machalliance.org/members/vml">VML.</a><a href="https://machalliance.org/members/vml"><img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltbb0c4604b7a5479e/659d430f71535ed0a64aa2f7/VML_-_formerly_Wunderman_Thompson.svg" width="116" height="auto" style="height: auto;"/></a>

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Driving innovation with AI across the MACH ecosystem

While digital transformation is top of mind for almost every enterprise CEO, few would think a cloud-native B2B eCommerce company would need to launch a digital transformation journey after only 7 years in business. Zoro.com did.“It’s almost unheard of for a company to need to upgrade so quickly,” says Tim Daneliuk, Zoro’s Director of Architecture. He joined the company in March 2018 to help lead the technical transformation. The issue, he explains, was that the business was such a high-speed success that they were on track to expand from offering about a million products (Stock Keeping Units - SKUs) to offering 5 million by the end of 2020. “To get to that scale and still deliver an exceptional customer experience, Zoro needed flexibility in its architecture.”When Zoro launched in May 2011, their mission was to deliver an eCommerce site that could support the needs of medium and small industrial buyers. Their strategy was to capture the customer by providing a fast, easy way to procure critical Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) goods.From the outset, Zoro understood that these buyers are not typically technology-centric. So the team designed a site focused on the needs of the industrial buyer. “These buyers are busy fixing and running things. They want to find, buy, and get what they need quickly, and move on with their day.”The site, which debuted in 2011 with 180,000 SKUs, quickly generated sales. Daneliuk attributes its instant popularity to its high-touch customer service, rapid fulfillment, and the fact that it carried hard-to-find items. “Zoro’s vision was to give industrial and business buyers the same low-friction experience that had become the norm for consumer purchases.”The difference, though, is that Zoro is not a traditional third-party marketplace. The customer’s entire journey is with Zoro. From finding the goods, to ordering, to delivery, through customer support, the customer gets a “Zoro experience”—regardless of who actually ships the products. Goods arrive in Zoro packaging, with Zoro paperwork. Daneliuk notes, “One of our competitive distinctions is that customers go one place for everything. In fact, our customer service organization consistently gets top marks from our buyers.”From day one, Zoro experienced rapid growth. They continually added new SKUs, gained new customers, and hired more staff. By the end of 2014, they had added a range of traditional office products that customers needed to run their business, and by 2016, the site had hit the 1 million SKU mark.However, by 2018, the Zoro technology platform started to show stress fractures. “Our system was struggling to keep up with the scale of our increasing sales volume. We became a victim of our own success.” Late in the year, the issue became a front-and-center concern. The company announced plans to create an “Endless Aisle” of goods by offering Zoro’s platform to new partner suppliers. Daneliuk recalls, “We were basically told that we were going to bring in hundreds of new suppliers and millions of new SKUs, and that we needed a platform that would enable, and scale, to accommodate this.” He laughs, “No pressure at all.”“To make it happen, it was critical to have not only funding, but an executive team that embraces risk,” says Daneliuk. “Luckily, we had both. Our President, Kevin Weadick, told us, ‘Move fast. We know this is hard. You’re going to mess some things up. But if you do, do it quickly, fix it quickly, and move on.’” He says this attitude, and the culture it cultivated at Zoro, was key to his ability to accomplish their first digital transformation project in a mere nine months.At the time, Zoro’s backend was a monolith that handled front-end eCommerce, financials, and supply chain fulfillment. So, the first problem to tackle was to decouple the guest buying experience from that system. “We set out to build a set of microservices that could fully price and take guest shopper orders independently,” he explains. “We didn’t know it at the time, but all the cool kids were calling our new design ‘Headless eCommerce’—in our minds, we were just making changes to the architecture to improve our customer experience.”By early 2019, the Zoro team had started an API, microservices, and automation journey. The existing staff was critical to the process because they understood the current system. But Daneliuk realized Zoro also needed additional internal support and external vendors who specialized in APIs and microservices. “I wanted practical architects who could do more than just design stuff. I looked for people with one foot in the implementation and one foot in the design world.” Zoro also looked for vendors that delivered on their promises. “I’ve seen too many consultants come into companies, spend millions of dollars, and leave without delivering real solutions. So we required our potential vendors to do proof of concept as part of the qualification process. They had to take a fairly simple problem and show us a running version. We were a tough sell, I suppose.”Over the next nine months, the Zoro team took the things they knew about APIs, microservices, automation, and databases and figured out how to bolt them together to work for Zoro. Daneliuk notes that even when the new system was ready, they didn’t just flip the switch and hope for the best. “We knew there would be hardening to do. You rarely hear about hardening, but with a big, complex system like ours, built at this speed, you don’t know what you don’t know. Hardening exposes that.”To harden the system, he explains, you begin to slowly throw volume and traffic at it. “You start at 10% on the new system and 90% on the old and keep adjusting the amount going to each. This stress testing of the system exposes the flaws in the environment, the things you missed, and the ability of the system to run at scale.”Daneliuk reinforces multiple times that the commitment of leadership was critical to transformation. “The main reason we were able to do what we did and do it so fast was because of their mindset toward true transformational improvement.” He shares a story that happened as the new system was about to be fully released. “I was sitting with Andy Goodfellow (Zoro’s CTO) when I found out there was a problem that would prevent full 100% traffic flow just one day before it was supposed to go live. Andy notified Zoro’s President, Kevin Weadick, via text and his response was simply, ‘We’re learning.’” Daneliuk shakes his head, “That attitude is extraordinary and incredibly rare. Both Andy and Kevin were true advocates who understood the complexity and risks of this journey and stood by us as the work unfolded.”It took five months to identify, fix, and fully harden the new system. The results, though, exceeded expectations. “Not only did we solve an immediate problem—decoupling guest buying from the backend systems—more importantly, we created a platform for the future. Now, everything in our next generation has a place to run.” He points out another big win was getting the guest checkout process down to 5 seconds. “That’s the magic number customers notice.” Daneliuk notes, “The system has scaled as expected and, most importantly, protected our customers’ ability to ‘get on with their day’.”It’s been more than a year since the initial project delivered the first microservices, and Daneliuk recognizes Zoro still has a long way to go on their journey. While he’s proud Zoro solved the guest checkout problem internally, he says they’re not going to try to do the rest of the MACH transformation themselves. “We are going to buy a product, partner with a vendor, and enable the full eCommerce buying experience with our own customer master and headless implementation.”Even though it was difficult, he believes launching the journey internally was the right choice. “We made a point to keep people across Zoro informed about what we were doing. Ultimately, it spurred a change in thinking that has spread across the organization. Headless, APIs, and microservices are now common in the Zoro vernacular. Today, not only does our guest checkout run on microservices via an API, so does our search abstraction, and some of our supply chain capability.”While Zoro has yet to recognize the full benefits of MACH-driven composable architecture, Daneliuk feels they are well on their way. “The cool thing is, when we solved the guest checkout problem, we also solved payments and a large part of cart management, tax, and shipping calculations. Our headless journey won’t be easy, but it will be easier because we already have the frameworks in place that do all these things.”Words of WisdomWorking as an engineer, architect, and IT exec for more than 30 years, Daneliuk has a few observations which have guided his decisions and shaped his career.· Never build infrastructure unless you are solving a business problem at the same time. Keep the customer in mind ahead of the “roads and bridges.”· Never cede control of a project to a third party. The governance of a project belongs to the buyer.· If you hire well and hire people who know things you don’t, you’ll always be successful. Never settle just to fill an opening.· Technology is complex and people are complicated. Plan for the ongoing care of both.Knowledge Comes from Experience“You get good at something by being bad at it first.” — Tim Daneliuk1 – Involve stakeholders from every department from the very beginning.“You may not think you need input from customer service, accounting, operations, etc. until you have something to show them. Not true. We could have avoided some of our problems during the transition and hardened more quickly had we known more about the intricate details of departmental processes and needs. In retrospect, I should have involved all the stakeholders earlier than I did.”2 – To transform at scale, you need multiple SI vendors with expertise in specific areas.“It takes different vendors to solve the range of problems found in a system of Zoro’s complexity. For example, we discovered we needed one kind of vendor to handle the microservices and API components, but we needed a different vendor who was an expert in our ERP.”3 – Focus on the essential technologies that matter most first.“If something isn’t important, just pick a solution that works and live with it for a while. When we started, we knew we wanted a world-class API gateway. Ultimately, we realized we didn’t need it yet—it was just too early—so we picked an open-source gateway. Now that everything else is running, we have migrated to an enterprise-class API product.”Finding the Right MACH MatchIn their quest to find the expertise and support needed to solve Zoro’s technology problems, the Zoro team met with more than a dozen vendors. “I told the same story over and over to the point where I was sick of hearing it,” Daneliuk laughs. He points to four qualities that can give a vendor the competitive edge.(1)Show an ability to understand our needs quickly.“We’re going to tell you our story and where we need to go. If you can’t quickly grasp the problem, then you don’t understand our space.”(2)Speak and act with credibility.“Explain what you are good at and how you think you can help. Be ready with a plan for how you’ll work with us, as well as a transition plan and an exit plan.”(3)Have a partner mentality.“Promote your willingness to collaborate. Embrace partnering behavior—acknowledge in the beginning you’ll be doing most of the work and we’ll do less, but by the end we’ll do the majority and rely very little on you.”(4)Be honest.“Don’t promote skills and capabilities you don’t have. Sell us on your real expertise and be willing to admit it if something isn’t in your wheelhouse. Tell the truth. Be able to say ‘No, we can’t do that.’ That’s how you impress us.”

Zoro’s Composable Tech Captures the Customer

I am the first to run for the hills when faced with stereotypical male / female classification of leadership skills. Over two decades in the male dominated tech world quite naturally lead to gender comparison fatigue.So when I was asked to do a write-up on last year's founding period of the Alliance from a female leadership perspective, I will admit I hesitated. I made a cup of coffee and reflected. Indeed, there were moments when female energy may have made a difference during the founding phase. So here is my personal rear window view on founding the MACH Alliance.<h1>Empathy and Thoroughness</h1>The MACH Alliance started in a London Pub, late summer 2019, when Matt Bradbeer, I and a few of the founding members came together to discuss how to work together better to help enterprise organizations see the business value in moving to a composable technology paradigm.I listened to the commercial folks talk about technical features and feasibility. It is easy to conclude that technical buying teams generally just didn't get the power of microservices. It is much harder to acknowledge that moving to composable is, primarily, a shift in philosophy. Consequently, for the success of a MACH transformation, organizational aspects around people and process are critical. Maybe even more so than the technical ones. I encouraged the round to face reality: This isn’t so much about features. It is about people being scared of change.When we zoomed out, we collectively knew: Enterprises are people too. People make decisions based on emotions. Change is scary, especially if the outcome is perceived to be uncertain. A fundamental change as moving to a composable business requires courage as well as a clear roadmap of the path ahead.This was the birthing hour of the MACH Alliance mandate: giving the dream makers in enterprises the map, the tools and the peer support for their journey. On the plane back to Amsterdam, I wrote to Kelly Goetsch and things developed from there.<h1>Active Listening and persevere through rejection</h1>It became clear to us founding members very quickly that in order for the alliance to be meaningful, it had to be vendor agnostic. The higher goal of education and enablement requires ditching your company agenda at the door, thinking from the perspective of the people at an enterprise. The risk of falling into the trap of self-promotion was real and so we consciously decided to found an NPO.A recent American Psychology Association article calls out that “[...] female leaders tended to be more democratic, collaborative, and participative than male leaders—that is, they more often invited input from others and attempted to build consensus [...]. Women thus did more of what is sometimes called “leading from behind,” that is, working with others to reach collective decisions.” And there certainly was a lot of that - countless calls with trusted peers at software vendors, agencies, with customers and analysts. Some fell in love with our baby right away, but many were sceptical.From the polite “We have other priorities right now.” over the non-committal “yeah… .no… well maybe…” to one analyst telling me ‘Oh my goodness Sonja, don’t....’ : rejection was felt heavily. I breathed, I cried and then I detached myself from the feedback. Because I respected each and every person I spoke to for their experience and expertise, so consequently their arguments were meaningful.On the bright side, there were the extreme positive reactions. “This is really what we´ve been waiting for.” And from “I want to be part of it now. What do I have to do?” to “You are really brave, I wish I had your courage.”Not internalizing, not taking it personal, seeing it as advice rather than judgement gave me the opportunity to sharpen the story, understand the objections and work on my own arguments. It allowed me to become really clear on what I personally and we as the MACH Alliance wanted, which proved to be extremely important going forward.<h1>Admit and pivot when you are wrong</h1>One such critical moment of active listening came just a few weeks before the original launch date in February 2020. Originally, we had planned to go live with far less members and build out from there. With the best intentions, we sent an email to those companies that we had been talking to, letting them know that the MACH Alliance was about to launch and inviting them to join. In my naivety, I anticipated excitement - so when one CTO of a potential member got very harsh with me on the phone, I was very much in shock. I remember pacing up and down the porch, letting his anger rain down on me. Through all his frustration, I somehow managed to still hear him out and hear what he had to say.When debriefing with my fellow-founding gents, the conversation quickly became defensive. The conversation did not revolve around WHAT was said, but HOW. An endearing protectiveness of me as a person was paired with a stubborn ‘we don’t need them’ counterreaction. It felt like mediation by proxy.We refocused the conversation to the cause: an Alliance to bring people together rather than dividing, one to give those who have driven change and appreciating the passion that was clearly underlying the heated debate. This CTO had a point. One we better listened to - no matter the delivery.In hindsight, this was a pivotal moment for the alliance. The request was to not launch with a few members only. But that only with a larger group, a more diverse group, only with direct competition in the MACH Alliance right from the start, would we be perceived as the vendor neutral and not-for-profit organization that we are. Perception is reality. This coincided with the start of the first pandemic and we decided to push the launch forward to June - which at the time seemed like a reasonable timeframe for the world to get back to normal. We listened, we pivoted and launched with a dozen of launching members. I am confident that this change was instrumental for the rapid success of the MACH Alliance. It was able to take a step back and listen, even though the initial response was to argue back or call it off.<h1>Ladies, dare to take the lead</h1>Female leadership matters - not just in an alliance like ours, but across the board. In the MACH Alliance, we are continuously striving for more diversity in all its facets.We are honored to have some fantastic ladies in charge, like Natalie Gross and Leoni Jannsen who made launch magic happen. Like Gordana Vuckovic as Head of Growth Council, Anna Hopp as Head of Community Council, Jasmin Guthmann as Head of Marketing Council, Pascale Dewane as Operations Manager and Nina Jonker-Voelker who made the first MACHathon ever happen. These women are rockstars and I am thankful for getting a chance to work with them and all the other hard working ladies in the councils.And if you think ‘Hey, tech is still for guys’ - you may be as surprised as I was by this recent Harvard Business Review study that found that “Women were rated more positively on 13 of the 19 competencies in our assessment that comprise overall leadership effectiveness. Men were rated more positively on one competency — technical/professional expertise — but the difference was not statistically significant.”So If you are not yet involved: Resist the urge to say ‘no’ and dare to take an active role in the MACH Alliance. Join our councils, become an Ambassador - go SHAPE the future of technology.Author: Sonja Keerl, Co-Founder and Vice President, MACH Alliance

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How female powers played an essential part in the founding of the MACH Alliance

<h4>Understanding the key criteria when evaluating and integrating composable solutions</h4>MACH architectures and approaches are becoming evermore mainstream as organizations need to maximize agility and embrace omnichannel. The ability to rapidly add or change technologies is key to meeting the ever-increasing demands on customer experience. MACH principles are foundational to driving interoperability between composable technologies.It’s not enough to choose the right headless and composable components. The interoperability, and how operations, orchestration and compatibility with existing technologies are also pivotal to the success of adopting composable architectures.While a composable architecture provides benefits that an enterprise can’t live without, it may also introduce a more complex evaluation process.This is why we today are releasing a new whitepaper, “How to evaluate and integrate composable technologies” which aims to help software architects quickly evaluate vendors adhering to MACH principles. It also describes how to integrate legacy components that cannot be migrated to a new solution.The whitepaper covers key priorities and concepts such as:<ul><li>Business fit and interoperability fit</li><li>Stability and longevity</li><li>Best-of-breed</li><li>Avoiding vendor lock-in</li><li>Modern architecture</li></ul>As well as specific execution steps:<ul><li>The “TIME” based approach to decision making</li><li>Approaches and architectures for working with legacy systems.</li></ul>This work is being produced by the <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/phase-ii-of-the-mach-alliance-interoperability-standards">MACH Alliance Interoperability Task Force</a>, whose charter is to help organizations understand and implement MACH technologies. It is part of an ongoing series of assets and whitepapers for audiences ranging from executives to system architects.We’d love to get your feedback on the whitepaper! Write to us at <a href="mailto:info@machalliance.com">info@machalliance.com</a><hr/><h4 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://register.machalliance.org/hubfs/How%20to%20evaluate%20and%20integrate%20composable%20solutions.pdf" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Download the whitepaper here</a></h4><hr/>

How to evaluate and integrate composable solutions: MACH Interoperability #1

We live in troubled times. From layoffs across tech companies, to slowing consumer spending, to bank runs, it’s difficult to predict what the world will look like tomorrow and to decide what to prioritize.For e-commerce companies trying to decide how to operate in the current economy, there are a lot of question marks. Do you cut all new initiatives to conserve capital? Do you continue your digital transformation as planned? Do you hunker down and wait for the next crazy punch life will throw at us (I’m personally betting on bear attacks)?Since none of us know what tomorrow will look like, good or bad, a safe bet is choosing an initiative that works well in both kinds of economies. Something that has strong, positive ROI in a good economy or a bad one. It’s easier said than done, but e-commerce companies that are large enough to have significant clickstream data should consider on-site product discovery and search as the next step in their digital transformation.<h3>Why Product Discovery?</h3>The reason is simple: product discovery is a front-end customer experience investment and about as close as you can get to the money; there is little question that it directly impacts top-line revenue. Rearchitecting your entire e-commerce platform or investing in back-end optimizations make for a harder business case on a tight budget. Not because these aren’t worthwhile investments (they are) or won’t drive business results at all (they will), but simply because it’s more difficult to draw a straight line from investment to ROI in a relatively short time frame.Product search and discovery is one of the few places in your digital transformation where you can very literally measure the ROI directly.If you A/B test the metrics that matter to you (like purchases or revenue) by sending some of your users to your current engine and some of them to a new engine you believe may be better, you can measure exactly how much revenue per user each generates and what that investment means for your top and bottom line. If the ROI is big enough — if you can trade $1 for $10+ — that’s a good trade to make, whether the economy is good, bad, or neutral. You don’t have to predict the economic future. You just have to choose the right vendor.<h3>Where to Start</h3>Choosing the right product discovery vendor for your needs isn’t easy, and the evaluation process will require some work, but it’s easier today than it’s ever been because of the number of people who have tried each of the major vendors and the material available online about each. Here are a few suggestions for how to get started:<ul><li>The MACH Alliance recently put together<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/machalliance_the-mach-alliance-is-bringing-together-mach-certified-activity-7029419244551335937-kaZ_"> a panel of its member search vendors</a> to speak about how they see the future and what’s important to them.</li><li>More importantly, e-commerce is a small world. For just about any pair of vendors, you’ll be able to find someone who’s evaluated both, tried both, or even A/B-tested them against each other. Ask the vendors you’re looking at for this information. They should be able to help, and if they can’t or don’t want to, that might be a sign they aren’t the right vendor.</li><li>Finally, and most importantly, on-site product discovery and search is an area where a vendor should be able to prove to you how their solution will drive an ROI you feel happy with. Ask them for this evidence, and don’t accept anything less. Don’t just let them sell you on marketing materials and a fancy demo. Make them prove it.</li></ul>The additional nice component to the logic of provable ROI in product discovery is that it’s not just true of search — it’s true of every place on your site, mobile apps, and other channels where you show products. Whether it’s ranking and personalizing a category page, building a product finder that asks users questions to help them discover the right product for them, or showing recommended products to cross-sell and upsell on-site or in emails, the same logic applies.But you don’t have to do all of them at once. Taking a step towards product discovery optimization is low risk, measurable ROI, and if it works, there are immediate and clear places you can double down, often with the same vendor and with less integration work. And that’s not even mentioning the omnichannel opportunities that are possible if things are going well with your vendor of choice.<h3>The Bottom Line: Top-Line Revenue</h3>None of this is to say that on-site product discovery and search are the only important part of a digital transformation. A best-in-class customer experience requires a best-in-class e-commerce platform, PIM, CMS, and other components that fill out your tech stack of choice. The question in today’s economic environment is simply what to do next and where to prioritize.There are lots of good choices, but if proving ROI is critical — if you have to show that the initiative more than pays for itself and helps justify the rest of your digital transformation — product discovery and search is one of the very few places where that’s possible.Author: Eli Finkelshteyn, Founder and CEO at Constructor

Start Your E-commerce Transformation with Search and Discovery

Are you an international retailer, faced with the complexities of trading across borders whilst trying to provide seamless customer experiences? And maybe you also own several brands and are wondering how to scale your fulfillment model across them whilst still meeting the unique requirements of each of them?<h2>The unique challenges of multinational retailers</h2>Multi-national organizations often need to accommodate region specific delivery requirements, carrier requirements, or customer expectations. They may have different distribution partners in each region. Or they may want to test a subset of their products in a new market and not offer every item in every region.<h2>Multi-brand retailers and their distinct requirements</h2>At multi-brand retailers, customers of each brand can have very different needs. What drives loyalty and customer satisfaction at one brand may vary greatly from another. For example, this may be a result of selling different product lines (e.g., apparel vs sporting goods), delivery requirements (e.g., small parcels vs bulky items), or perhaps value added services (e.g., assembly or personalization). And as new brands are added to the portfolio the parent company needs to balance how they can achieve economies of scale, yet allow for competitive brand differentiation.And what about the many retailers who fall into both of these categories? The stakes are higher, but so are the opportunities. As long as you have the right technology to help you.<h2>What to look for in a cloud native, flexible Distributed Order Management System to support international growth and multiple brands.</h2>How can an order management system help you achieve seamless cross-border and cross-brand commerce? The general answer is: it depends on how it’s structured. So if you’re looking for an order management system that can support your multi-brand or multi-national growth plans, make sure it lets you do the following: -<h3>Create a structure to fit your business</h3>Make sure you can set up your organizational structure to best suit your business needs. For example, you might divide your organization into brands or geographies or a combination of both. Or you might set up different types of organizations, such as retail, marketplace, and wholesale.<h3>Share data across business units</h3>It is crucial that you can share data across your business units. This allows each business unit to access all locations and inventory across your organization, but define their own rules for how they fulfill orders.<h3>Provide an integrated cross brand experience</h3>When each business unit can access the locations and inventory of other business units, you can explore new fulfillment models. Let’s take a look at some options.<h4>Cross Brand Click and Collect</h4>Let’s say you’re a multi-brand organization with stores, and you use your stores as pickup locations. Some customers may live closer to a Brand A store, while others will live closer to a Brand B store. If a customer places an order on the Brand A website, can they pick it up from her local Brand B store?If instead of home delivery, you offer pickup at their closest store, are they more likely to make an additional purchase while they’re there?<h4>Cross Brand Merchandising</h4>While some of your brands may have very distinct products, others may not. What if you could test popular products or accessories from one brand on the online storefront of another? Could you gain new insights into customer segments and behavior? Or increase average order value?<h4>Cross Brand Returns</h4>No one likes returns. Especially customers. They’re a hassle. But what if you could offer even more convenient return options? If customers can return an online purchase at any of the stores in your network, would that make them more inclined to buy? After all, over 50% of consumers review return policies and processes before making a buying decision.<h4>Cross Region Fulfillment</h4>What if your French website receives an order that can’t be fulfilled from a French DC or store. Can your French website check to see if the item is available in the UK or Germany instead?In short, if you can share stock and locations across your brands and regions, it gives you new ways to add value and convenience for your customers and provide a truly integrated cross-brand experience.<h3>Use operational templates to accelerate expansion</h3>As you grow, it’s important to maximize economies of scale. That’s where operational templates come in.Say you have 70% common business processes and rules across brands or regions, but want to allow for 30% customization. An OMS should allow you to create a reusable set of templates for Business Rules &amp; Processes that serves as the base fulfillment logic for each new region or brands. You should then be able to modify them to meet local or brand specific requirements. That way you can accelerate rollout, and bring on new brands or regions in a matter of weeks..<h3>Enable staff to use their local language</h3>Finally, as you expand into new geographic regions, make sure staff can use the system in their local language. Especially store staff who pick and pack online orders. This reduces training time, and user errors—which can be particularly important if you use seasonal workers to support your peak season.<h2>Multiply the opportunities</h2>Often, ‘Multi’ organizations don’t take advantage of their joint power as much as they could. Their inventory and location data sits in siloed systems. Moreover, they lack the technology for a unified approach. But with a flexible, MACH certified OMS you can break down those silos. This means you can truly reap the benefits of scale.By using a single system to manage all your orders and stock availability around the world, you can offer a fully integrated cross brand experience and get more value from every unit of stock. But the real game changer? When you create reusable templates that let you roll out faster, technology is no longer a barrier to growth, but an enabler.Author: Nicola Kinsella - VP of Marketing, Fluent Commerce

Multiple brands & multiple countries: How Retailers can leverage MACH certified Order Management to seamlessly trade and scale.

<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltcb6d05aaa24437d6/628f3b31561ae95d0c3ce5ff/blog3.png"/>Modern CX leaders understand that adaption to the ever-changing landscape of customer experience is crucial to meeting the needs of customers, and that speed of digital innovation is key. To stay ahead, digital experience must flourish at the same pace as customer expectations and behavior –or you risk falling behind.“The key to success in CX digital innovation is to truly understand your customer journey and have the means to meet their changing needs. Your digital experiences must be unified and flexible.” -Jimmy EkbäckThe battle for hearts, minds and dollars is won (or lost) in micro-moments -meaning you need to provide the right information, at the right time, throughout the entire customer journey, and at every touchpoint. Customer experience is no longer driven by staff on the sales floor, it’s powered by the digital experience, and the power behind that experience is your data.It’s time to move into the new state, to shift the focus awayfrom spending time on moving data between databases and integrating data models, towards spending more time on the customer experience, a win-win for your customers, your development teams, and your bottom line.Access to experience data is key to delivering faster innovation in CXTo build new customer experiences and launch them at speed, digital teams must be armed with the right capabilities for accessing and combining data, the ability to turn enterprise data into experience data. Yesterday you needed an eCommerce store, today you need a mobile application and who knows what tomorrow holds? Are you adapting fast enough?To innovate at the speed customers and employees expect, data and frontends needs to be decoupled. Frontends must be as thin as possible, and consume the data via real-time APIs, making data and frontend truly decoupled. There must be more focus on the experience, and the look and feel(design). The more decoupled you can be in your stack, the more adaptable to future changes and anti-fragile you will be.Firstly, let’s look at the old traditional Monolithic setupA monolith structure is designed to carry out multiple tasks, given their broad scope, monolithic structures tend to have huge codebases. Making a minor change will have rippling effects, such as needing to re-compile and test the entire platform, which goes against the agile approach today’s developer's favor.Another big issue with data in a monolith approach, is that it is built on a static &amp; rigid data model (structure). If data fits the model, no problem, but if even the smallest change in data is needed, you may have a BIG problem. With such a black box, all kind of ideation gets stopped because with every new idea or innovation, everything must be rebuilt from the ground up.This will often materialize itself in:• Exceptionally long and expensive project times, due to system integration challenges.• More time spent on server testing and technical development, rather than focusing on the customer demand.•&nbsp;A large codebase that is significantly harder to understand and/or change•&nbsp;Every element is closely related and dependent on the others, so it is difficult to change to a new or advanced technology, language, or framework.MACH architecture is the key to launching digital experiences fasterMACH architecture takes a <a href="https://www.occtoo.com/blog/quick-guide-to-composable-architecture">composable</a> approach to the data. You build your capabilities with an ecosystem of individual services, different components built as small de-coupled, inter-dependent services communicating via events and APIs, also referred to as microservices. With this approach, your enterprise data will be easily available, consumed and repurposed by other services (experience data).Gartner report that by 2023 60% of organizations will seek composability within their software investments.A tech stack built on services and capabilities, is well described with the MACH definition, focusing on scalability and APIs.• Microservices: Individual pieces of business functionality that are independently developed, deployed, and managed• API first: Functionality is exposed through an API.• Cloud-native: SaaS that leverages the cloud, beyond storage and hosting, including elastic scaling and automatically updating.• Headless: Front-end presentation is decoupled from back-end logic and channel, programming language, and is framework agnostic.This modular setup enables your business to rearrange, and re-purpose data as needed, depending on external or internal factors like a shift in customer values or sudden change in supply chain or materials, without requiring a total rebuild.This approach comes with lots of advantages…. here are some:•&nbsp;If a part of your microservices ecosystem becomes a bottleneck, it is easy to scale it horizontally, independently of other app components.•&nbsp;If a service isn ́t needed anymore, it can easily be unplugged without the risk of breaking something in the main app.•&nbsp;All microservices can be fully autonomous. Thus, any collapse in one of them will not affect the work of the main app•&nbsp;Every component is pluggable, scalable, replaceable, and can be continuously improved•&nbsp;With a MACH data approach, you can reimagine your stack with an API-first approach without the need of ripping and replacing your current stack. Enhance the value you get from your previous IT investments and drive the data to be used where it adds value.Some small things to be aware of:•&nbsp;In a MACH setup, it is important to not create a data maintenance hell for your Digital teams. They deserve a unified view of the data needed for the digital roadmap and the support of the current CX initiatives. Therefore, the data must be enriched/created and maintained in capable backend applications.• You will need a platform that activates &amp; unifies the data from your services/backends: this is where an Experience Data Platform comes into play.ConclusionTo win market share and retain customers in today’s highly competitive, digitalfirst landscape, retailers and brands must deliver a strong unified digital experience: with contextual relevance and customer experience in mind.In my opinion, adopting a MACH architecture is the natural next progressive step for digitally mature organizations, and the best way to compete on customer experience, at speed! Organizations should be aware of the potential impacts on their data in the initial adoption of this approach and make sure they have the right tech stack and resources to move into this new state as smooth as possible – the result is well worth it.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltd0c236c22a91a9b4/628f7745d31030576a34b962/author.png"/>Author: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-ekb%C3%A4ck-8040a13/">Jimmy Ekbäck</a>&nbsp;is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Occtoo. Jimmy’s combined passion for new technology and frustration over legacy technology holding CX professionals back from launching innovative ideas is what brought the seed of Occtoo to life. Prior to founding Occtoo, Jimmy has founded and acted as CTO at inRiver, a globally recognized Product Information Management System.Occtoo is an <a href="https://www.occtoo.com/experience-data-platform">Experience Data Platform</a> combining content and context to power unified customer experience.

Data in a MACH vs Monolithic tech setup

<h3 style="text-align: center;">MACH Alliance Unveils MACH AI Exchange To Guide Real-World AI Adoption for Enterprise Organizations</h3> The professional peer network is inspired by a recent Alliance report which found companies that have widely implemented MACH are twice as likely to leverage AI compared to those new to MACH CHICAGO, IL — April 23, 2025 — <a href="https://machalliance.org/">The MACH Alliance</a>, a not-for-profit industry body dedicated to advocating for open, best-in-class technology ecosystems, today unveiled the <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-ai-exchange">MACH AI</a> Exchange, a professional peer network focused on guiding real-world AI implementation for enterprise companies. The program will launch at <a href="https://machalliance.org/events/composable-conference-25">The Composable Conference 2025</a>, the MACH Alliance’s global annual event taking place April 22-24 in Chicago.The MACH AI Exchange launches with three founding members, leaders in their field:<ul><li>Karl Hampson, Chief Technology Officer, Data &amp; AI, Valtech</li><li>Vikas Jain, Director, US Retail &amp; Consumer Ecosystem Portfolio, Google Cloud</li><li>Xun Wang, Chief Technology Officer, Bloomreach</li></ul>Among organizations well along in their composable journey, 77% report using AI compared to only 36% of those new to MACH, according to the <a href="https://machalliance.org/global-annual-research">2025 MACH Alliance Global Annual Research</a> report, suggesting that the flexible, connected, and open foundation that MACH provides strongly correlates with AI success.Led by the MACH Alliance, the professional peer network of technology experts will support enterprise businesses as they implement AI solutions at scale, including generative AI and agentic technologies. The MACH AI Exchange will enable rapid dissemination of technical insights, architectural patterns, and implementation methodologies that significantly reduce integration risk and accelerate deployment timelines.“AI thrives on structured, real-time data, and enterprise architectures face heightened challenges as AI workloads dynamically scale,” said Vikas Jain, founding member and Director of Google Cloud’s U.S. Retail &amp; Consumer Ecosystem portfolio. “The MACH AI Exchange will enable the convergence of composable principles and AI capabilities to help technical leaders establish a competitive advantage through architectural innovation.”The peer-to-peer community is open to those implementing AI in enterprise systems, including engineers, architects, and strategists integrating AI into workflows, builders and innovators shaping AI in MACH environments, and problem solvers pushing AI forward in business technology.“Enterprise stacks weren’t built to handle the constant innovation of the AI era, but that also doesn’t mean we need to start from scratch, either,” said Xun Wang, founding member, CTO of Bloomreach. “Just like MACH de-risks change by making technology adaptable, open, and connected, AI adoption requires the same foundation. In the MACH AI Exchange, members will share what works, what breaks, and how to de-risk AI adoption without common AI buzzwords and hype.”The MACH AI Exchange will launch in person at The Composable Conference 2025, where MACH-certified members and end user brands can ideate, collaborate, and problem solve in real time. To participate live, <a href="https://machalliance.org/events/composable-conference-25">register to attend</a> the limited-space conference.To learn more about the MACH AI Exchange visit <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-ai-exchange">machalliance.org/mach-ai-exchange.</a><hr/>About MACH AllianceThe MACH Alliance is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization, governed by an independent board and does not endorse specific vendors, members or otherwise. The Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems that are Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles that are published on the website.The MACH Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts who share the same vision for the future. Learn more at <a href="https://machalliance.org/">machalliance.org</a>, <a href="https://machalliance.org/mach-certification">read here</a> about MACH certification and follow us on <a href="https://x.com/machalliance">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance/posts/?feedView=all">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/machalliance/">Instagram</a>.<hr/>Media ContactAbby Nelson Ketner Group Communications (for MACH Alliance) <a href="mailto:abby.nelson@ketnergroup.com ">abby.nelson@ketnergroup.com</a><a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250423626378/en/MACH-Alliance-Unveils-MACH-AI-Exchange-to-Guide-Real-World-AI-Adoption-for-Enterprise-Organizations">Business Wire: MACH Alliance Unveils MACH AI Exchange to Guide Real-World AI Adoption for Enterprise Organizations</a>

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MACH Alliance Unveils MACH AI Exchange

In today's fast-moving digital landscape, businesses are constantly challenged to stay ahead of the curve. As a Chief Digital Officer (CDO) or a C-level executive, you understand the criticality of embracing technology to drive innovation, enhance customer experiences, and improve operational efficiencies. However, many companies find themselves burdened with technical debt, holding onto outdated technology that hampers their ability to keep pace with the rapidly evolving digital world. Incremental changes alone won't cut it anymore. It's time to leapfrog your tech stack without busting your budget, empowering your digital teams while providing peace of mind to your IT department.<h3>1. Acknowledge the Technical Debt:</h3>The first step towards transformation is acknowledging the technical debt that exists within your organization. Technical debt refers to the accumulated cost of outdated systems, legacy applications, and antiquated processes that impede progress. Recognizing the impact of technical debt is crucial to drive change and prioritize necessary actions.<h3>2. Embrace the Leapfrog Mindset:</h3>To thrive in the digital era, companies need to adopt a leapfrog mindset. Incremental changes may have worked in the past, but the current landscape demands bolder steps. Instead of simply upgrading existing systems, it's essential to explore disruptive technologies and innovative solutions that can leapfrog your organization ahead. Embrace the idea that you don't need to follow the same path as your competitors but rather carve out a unique digital strategy.Luxury Jewelry brand Cartier’s Global Digital Operations Director, Thomas Davis talks about the significance of embracing the leapfrog mindset when it comes to accelerating digital initiatives for the brand.“We are looking for speed and agility and I personally work under the notion that the technology landscape changes radically every 3-4 years. I do not make technology commitments that will last 5-10 years. The world moves too fast and if you are locked into enterprise-monolithic contracts you could lose out on agility and opportunity. The headless approach is interesting to us because you can move faster and change technology more easily as new better options emerge”.Read this interview with Thomas Davis <a href="https://www.occtoo.com/blog/thomas-davis-discusses-innovating-cartiers-digital-customer-experience">here</a> if you’re interested in learning about Cartier’s digital transformation journey.<h3>3. Empower your Digital Teams:</h3>To successfully leapfrog your tech stack, it's vital to empower your digital teams. Provide them with the necessary resources, support, and autonomy to experiment, explore new technologies, and drive innovation. Foster a culture of continuous learning and collaboration, encouraging cross-functional teams to break down silos and work together towards digital transformation.<h3>4. Prioritize Agile and Scalable Solutions:</h3>When revamping your tech stack, focus on adopting agile and scalable solutions. Traditional monolithic architectures can hinder agility and scalability, leading to longer development cycles and slower time-to-market. Embrace microservices, api’s and cloud-native technologies that allow for modular development, rapid deployment, and easy scalability. This approach enables your teams to respond swiftly to changing market dynamics and customer needs.<h3>5. Balance Innovation with IT Stability:</h3>While empowering your digital teams, it's crucial to strike a balance between innovation and IT stability. Rapid changes and experimentation can introduce risks and disrupt operations if not managed effectively. Collaborate closely with your IT team to ensure proper governance, security, and compliance measures are in place. Establish robust change management processes and engage your IT department early on in the transformation journey to mitigate any potential risks.<h3>6. Leverage Low-Code/No-Code Platforms:</h3>To accelerate your leapfrogging efforts, consider leveraging low-code/no-code platforms. These platforms enable citizen developers and business users to build applications with minimal coding knowledge. By democratizing app development, you can unleash the creativity and problem-solving potential of your entire workforce, driving innovation at scale without overburdening your IT resources.Luxury brand Cartier launched 21 digital initiatives in a span of 24 months, <a href="https://www.occtoo.com/webinar-how-cartier-transformed-their-digital-capabilities-to-become-future-fit">watch Puneet Mishra, International Digital Platform and Architecture Senior Manager, talk about transforming Cartier’s digital capabilities</a> in this video here.<h3>Conclusion:</h3>In today's digital world, incremental changes are no longer enough to keep up with the pace of innovation. To leapfrog your outdated tech stack, empower your digital teams and foster a culture of continuous improvement. Embrace disruptive technologies, prioritize agility and scalability, and strike a balance between innovation and IT stability. By making strategic investments and driving a holistic digital transformation, you can position your organization for success in a fast-moving digital landscape while ensuring peace of mind for your IT team.Remember, leapfrogging requires a combination of visionary leadership, strategic investments, and a relentless pursuit of innovation. As a Chief Digital Officer or C-level executive, you play a crucial role in driving this transformation. By setting a clear vision for the future, championing the adoption of emerging technologies, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, you can inspire your organization to embrace the necessary changes. It's important to align your digital strategy with the overall business objectives, ensuring that technology investments are made strategically to drive long-term growth and competitive advantage. By staying ahead of the curve and embracing disruptive trends, you can position your company as a leader in the digital landscape, delivering cutting-edge solutions while empowering your digital teams and providing peace of mind for your IT department.In summary, leapfrogging your outdated tech stack requires visionary leadership, strategic investments, and a commitment to innovation. By embracing these principles, you can transform your organization's digital capabilities and stay ahead in a fast-moving digital world.This article has been written by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nmollin/">Niclas Mollin</a>, CEO &amp; Co-founder at <a href="http://occtoo.com/">Occtoo</a>.Occtoo is an Experience Data Platform combining content and context to power unified customer experience.About Niclas Mollin: Niclas is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-founder of Occtoo with over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur in different countries and running several successful companies in the CX findustry. Niclas envisions to build a company that fosters on creating a disruptive trend when it comes to launching/scaling digital initiatives. As a leader, Niclas aims to create a progressive and global workplace fit for a modern lifestyle with the company’s remote-first policy.

Leapfrogging Outdated Tech Stack: Empowering Digital Teams while Ensuring IT Peace of Mind

As digital commerce growth accelerates, how can retailers use MACH principles to stay ahead of the curve?The pandemic’s catalytic impact on consumer trends propelled retail digital transformation strategies <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever">forward by seven years</a> last year.In fact, as consumers embraced digital, worldwide retail e-commerce sales <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/global-ecommerce-update-2021">grew 28%</a> during the year, while total retail sales declined by 3%.Even so, social distancing in-store saw <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-mobile-wallets-report?r=US&IR=T">the US</a> go from being a mobile payments laggard to the second-largest market, with $465-billion worth of contactless transactions processed.Many retailers struggled to fulfil online demand, while managing the cost of either not being able to open their stores or equipping them and their staff with the extra systems and processes required to operate safely. Now they are preparing for the next phase of change.<h4>Maximizing strategic agility</h4>If one thing’s certain, digital enablement and engagement are now vital in retail. Indeed, consumers spent a record-breaking <a href="https://www.appannie.com/en/insights/market-data/consumers-spent-32-billion-on-apps-in-q1-2021-the-biggest-quarter-since-records-began/">$32 billion on mobile in-app purchases</a> during the first quarter of 2021, which was also up 40% on the same period last year.Those retailers who had already integrated digital into their offering are the ones winning with consumers now. So, embedding digital commerce capabilities into every facet of the shopping experience will be essential to maximize and maintain strategic levels of agility.To do so, retailers are taking the lead in efforts to decouple rapidly evolving customer-facing capabilities from core management systems of record for greater flexibility and resilience. They are adopting a mobile first, MACH-led approach to digital transformation.<h4>Future-proof tech investment</h4>Applying Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless (MACH) principles to technology investment and development is enabling retailers to deploy mobile-first features and services that can act as a digital bridge between online and the store.Sending timely notifications about deliveries, item availability or even queues in-store, for example, requires tight integration between store, ecommerce and supply chain systems. But surfacing this via mobile can also provide a digital flagship experience anywhere.This experience can be enriched by exploiting the native capabilities of mobile devices in-store with features to enhance navigation and inspiration, and prioritize convenience and relevance through digital store customer marketing and engagement.<h4>Optimizing digital convergence</h4>To rightsize technology deployment in support of business strategies that puts digitally enabled and data-driven customer experiences at the heart of truly 21st century shopping journeys, retailers will need to assemble the most innovative, best-of-breed capabilities.Ensuring these capabilities are mobile-first and MACH-ready will provide retailers with the best COVID exit strategy to mitigate risk, build greater resilience and manage strong recovery in the face of ongoing digital disruption and global uncertainty.Author: Helen Slaven, Chief revenue officer, Poq

Covid Exit Strategies in the New Normal

By <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlbcopy/" target="_blank">Carl Bleich,</a> Head of Content, Bloomreach If you work in e-commerce, you’re likely already familiar with the recent advancements made in generative AI and the incredible impact that generative AI models are having on businesses all over the world.Generative AI is a powerful technology that can be integrated within MACH architecture to provide businesses with new levels of efficiency, innovation, and personalization. Gen AI and the MACH Alliance are naturally connected because they both help e-commerce businesses prioritize innovation, flexibility, and speed in today's fast-paced digital landscape.MACH architecture, with its focus on microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native, and headless architecture, provides a powerful framework for building agile, scalable, and future-proof technology ecosystems. Meanwhile, generative AI offers exciting possibilities for creating dynamic, personalized customer journeys, while also reducing costs (e.g., streamlining content creation and translations, scaling development/coding, etc.).Together, generative AI and the MACH-based systems can help businesses stay ahead of the curve and drive growth by delivering innovative, seamless personalized experiences across multiple channels and touchpoints.If you haven’t tapped into the near limitless potential of generative AI or learned more about its impact on your business, keep reading for a deep dive on how generative AI and an open MACH architecture can help your company achieve its business goals. <h3>What Is Generative AI?</h3>Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that uses machine learning algorithms to generate new, original content.Unlike traditional AI, which relies on rules-based systems to respond to predetermined prompts, generative AI can produce entirely new text, images, and even music by analyzing large amounts of existing data. This technology has the potential to revolutionize many industries, from content creation and marketing to healthcare and finance.For example, generative AI can be used to create personalized marketing campaigns based on individual data or to assist doctors in diagnosing diseases by analyzing medical images. While it is still relatively new, its potential applications are virtually limitless when considering the broad range of use cases where generative AI can be applied.Generative AI models utilize various advanced deep learning techniques, including generative adversarial networks (GANs), diffusion models, and recurrent neural networks. These models leverage large language models (LLMs) and natural language processing (NLP) to produce original outputs. The applications of generative AI are diverse, and can range from synthesizing images and videos to generating text and speech. <h3 style="text-align: center;">Popular Generative AI Tools </h3>If you’re looking to get started with generative AI, there are several popular generative AI tools that are easy to get started with and can provide immediate value to your e-commerce business.

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<a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt">ChatGPT</a> is an artificial intelligence chatbot that was developed by OpenAI and launched in late 2022. It utilizes advanced deep learning techniques, including large language models and natural language processing, to generate human-like responses to user prompts.ChatGPT is a general-purpose chatbot that can be used for various applications, such as answering questions, providing customer support, and generating creative content. The system is capable of engaging in conversations on multiple topics and can be customized to suit the needs of different businesses and organizations.One of the key advantages of ChatGPT is its ability to learn from vast amounts of data, allowing it to continually improve its responses over time. The chatbot also supports multiple languages and can be integrated with different platforms and services.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT

<a href="https://bard.google.com/" target="_blank">Bard</a> is an experimental conversational AI service developed by Google that utilizes NLP technology called LaMDA to generate text-based outputs that resemble human language. Bard's name comes from the word "bard," which means poet, and is a nod to its linguistic capabilities.Bard is designed to focus on creativity, productivity, and collaboration. It offers a range of features that can help users brainstorm ideas, develop writing skills, and collaborate with others in real time. Some of the features include summarizing longer passages, generating unique and original content on demand, and translating between languages.Bard aims to enable people to have more natural and productive conversations with computers, and it has the potential to transform how we use language to communicate and collaborate in the future.

Google’s Bard

<a href="https://openai.com/dall-e-2" target="_blank">DALL-E </a>is an artificial intelligence program also developed by OpenAI that’s capable of generating digital images from textual descriptions. The name "DALL-E" is a combination of the artist Salvador Dali and the character WALL-E from the Pixar movie of the same name.DALL-E uses a deep learning model that was trained on a large dataset of images and their associated textual descriptions. The model is then able to generate novel images based on new textual descriptions that it receives. The system can create images of a wide range of objects, including animals, food, and everyday objects, and can even generate surreal and imaginative images that don't exist in the real world.One unique feature of DALL-E is its ability to generate multiple variations of an image based on a single textual description, allowing users to explore different possibilities and choose the one that best fits their needs. OpenAI has also released DALL-E 2, which is an upgraded version of the original model that can create even more complex and realistic images.DALL-E has many potential applications, including in fields like advertising, graphic design, and video game development. It represents a major advancement in the capabilities of generative AI, and has the potential to transform the way we create and consume digital imagery.

OpenAI’s DALL-E

<h3>The Benefits of Using Generative AI </h3>There are wide-ranging benefits to using generative AI to supplement your e-commerce business. Some of them include: <ul><li>Efficiency: Generative AI can automate tasks that would otherwise be time-consuming and costly for humans to complete, improving productivity and reducing operational costs</li><li>Creativity: Producing content that is imaginative, innovative, and beyond what humans are capable of creating is very simple for the right generative AI tool</li><li>Optimization: Generative AI can optimize processes and systems by analyzing data and identifying patterns, leading to more efficient and effective outcomes</li><li>Scalability: Generative AI can easily scale to handle large amounts of data and generate content at a faster rate than humans, making it useful for businesses and organizations of all sizes.</li></ul>

<h3>Generative AI and E-Commerce</h3>Generative AI has a multitude of potential applications in e-commerce. Its capabilities can be leveraged to create product designs and variations, personalize product recommendations and marketing campaigns, generate high-quality descriptions and reviews, optimize inventory management, provide 24/7 customer support, detect fraudulent activity, and more. By utilizing generative AI, businesses can improve efficiency, personalization, accuracy, and customer experience while also reducing costs and improving profitability. As the technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative use cases for generative AI in e-commerce.By creating real-time, dynamic web content that engages customers in a unique and customized shopping experience, businesses can increase engagement, improve conversions, and build brand loyalty. Generative AI uses customer interactions and datasets to identify preferences and interests without having to explicitly ask for information.The impact that generative AI is having on e-commerce can already be seen and will only continue to grow as generative AI tools become more widely adopted. Additionally, using generative AI on top of your MACH architecture provides a massive benefit when it comes to adding new channels. In the not-so-distant future, e-commerce experiences will be powered by your brand but may not necessarily be happening on your website. These conversational commerce experiences may start on your e-commerce site, but end with a personalized email reminder to buy or a triggered SMS to join a conversation that reengages the buyer. While we don’t know exactly what the future of e-commerce will look like just yet, rest assured that you’re well prepared because of the flexibility of your MACH architecture and your open ecosystem.

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<h3>How Generative AI Fits Into the MACH Architecture</h3> Consider for a moment the ideal MACH-based ecosystem and subsequently, the challenges that are cropping up right now in e-commerce.With customer expectations rapidly rising, it’s taxing for e-commerce businesses to keep pace. Here are some examples of how generative AI tools can work effectively with MACH architecture to help:Microservices: Generative AI can be used as a microservice within the MACH architecture to handle specific tasks and functions, such as product generation or content creationAPI-first: Generative AI can be integrated into an API-first approach by providing APIs that allow other services and applications to access its capabilities and functionalityCloud-native: Generative AI can be deployed on cloud infrastructure to enable scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, which are key components of a cloud-native approachHeadless: Generative AI can be integrated with headless e-commerce platforms to provide personalized content and experiences that adapt to user behavior and preferences.Generative AI tools can be a powerful addition to the MACH architecture, enabling businesses to create new products, optimize processes, enhance customer experiences in real time, and keep up with rising demand.By leveraging generative AI in conjunction with microservices, APIs, cloud-native infrastructure, and headless e-commerce platforms, businesses can achieve a more efficient, effective, and agile approach to online business.

<h3>Generative AI and the Open Ecosystem</h3>Generative AI has the potential to play a significant role in open ecosystems, which are built on the principles of collaboration and scalability.An open ecosystem consists of a network of vendors, partners, developers, and other stakeholders who collectively create innovative solutions that meet customer needs. By leveraging generative AI within the open ecosystem, businesses can benefit from increased agility, flexibility, and interoperability, which are essential for staying competitive in today's fast-paced digital landscape.One way in which generative AI can be used in open ecosystems is to create new products and services. This is done by analyzing customer data and behavior, and the results can help businesses stay ahead of the curve and create offerings that are both innovative and in demand.AI can also be used in open ecosystems to optimize processes. Generative AI can look at data and identifies patterns to help businesses be more efficient and effective in their operations, leading to improved outcomes and increased profitability.In addition, generative AI can also personalize customer experiences, creating tailored recommendations and customized offerings that cater to individual preferences and needs. This can help businesses build stronger relationships with their customers and increase loyalty and retention.Generative AI has enormous potential to transform open ecosystems and drive innovation, efficiency, and customer-centricity. By leveraging the power of generative AI, businesses can tap into a world of possibilities and create new value for their customers and stakeholders.<h3> Generative AI Examples in the MACH Architecture</h3>There are dozens of different use cases for generative AI within e-commerce (and specifically within MACH-based systems). Outside of product generation and content creation, consider these examples of strategies your MACH-based business could adopt right away.

Generative AI is transforming inventory management in e-commerce by providing businesses with new tools for forecasting, ordering, and optimizing their inventory levels. By leveraging generative AI, e-commerce companies can analyze vast amounts of data related to customer behavior, sales trends, and other factors to make more informed decisions about inventory management.One example here is demand forecasting — by analyzing historical sales data and other factors, such as seasonality and product trends, generative AI algorithms can deliver accurate predictions of future demand for specific products. These insights allow businesses to optimize their inventory levels and avoid stockouts or overstocking.Integrating generative AI with supply chain systems can also help with automated ordering and inventory optimization. E-commerce companies can automate the ordering process and ensure that they always have the right products in stock, reducing waste and increasing efficiency by eliminating manual ordering processes. At the same time, the AI can identify customer patterns to suggest products they’re likely to be interested in, so that businesses keep the right products in stock at any given time.

Inventory Management

AI-powered chatbots and other <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/2023/conversational-commerce" target="_blank">conversational commerce </a>tools are providing businesses with powerful new ways to engage with their customers.By leveraging generative AI, chatbots and other conversational commerce tools can analyze vast amounts of data related to customer interactions, such as previous purchases, browsing history, and preferences, to provide personalized services that are tailored to individual customer needs. This allows businesses to provide more effective support, recommend products or services that are likely to be of interest, and ultimately, increase customer satisfaction.These chatbots can also be used to upsell and cross-sell products by identifying opportunities to recommend complementary products or services that customers may be interested in. The seamless and convenient shopping experience this provides will encourage customers to make additional purchases.

Chatbots

To prevent chargebacks and other financial losses, e-commerce businesses can also turn to generative AI for fraud detection. Looking at the vast amount of customer behavioral data, transactions, and more will allow AI algorithms to detect patterns and identify anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activity.For example, if the AI sees unusual purchasing patterns or unauthorized account access, the business can act swiftly to prevent further financial loss. Generative AI algorithms can also assign risk scores to individual transactions or customers based on their likelihood of being fraudulent. This helps businesses prioritize fraud prevention efforts and focus on high-risk transactions or customers.But one of the best uses of generative AI in fraud prevention is the “prevention” part, by predicting fraudulent activity before it occurs. Identifying potential fraudsters will allow businesses to take proactive measures, such as canceling suspicious orders or flagging high-risk transactions for manual review.

Fraud Detection

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<h3>Generative AI and E-Commerce Personalization</h3>Generative AI is transforming e-commerce businesses’ ability to personalize online experiences for their customers.E-commerce professionals can leverage generative AI on top of the MACH architecture to easily analyze vast amounts of customer data and behavior, and generate personalized recommendations, product suggestions, and other offerings that are tailored to individual customer needs. This will help increase customer engagement and loyalty by providing relevant and personalized experiences that keep customers coming back.The combination of collected customer data, product data, and AI is driving a new era of e-commerce personalization, enabling businesses to create connected customer journeys that span multiple touchpoints and channels. Businesses can now gain deep insights into customer behavior and preferences at scale, and use these insights to deliver personalized experiences that guide customers through every step of the buying journey.In addition to improving customer experiences, the combination of data and AI is also enabling businesses to optimize their operations and drive growth. Identifying trends and patterns results in valuable insights into market conditions and customer needs, helping businesses make more informed decisions about product development, inventory management, and other critical aspects of their organization. This in turn leads to reduced costs, increased efficiency, and greater profitability.The MACH architecture and generative AI are delivering new opportunities for e-commerce businesses to enhance customer experiences, drive growth, and stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing digital landscape. By leveraging these technologies, businesses can create personalized experiences that meet individual customer needs, optimize their operations, and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

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Cost management is a critical factor in driving e-commerce profitability and growth, no matter the vertical. Businesses are under enormous pressure to continuously optimize their operations and reduce costs while still maintaining a high level of customer service and product quality.&nbsp;Generative AI can help businesses achieve these goals by enabling them to automate certain processes and make more informed cost decisions based on data analysis.E-commerce businesses can use AI to automate key processes such as inventory management, order fulfillment, and shipping, reducing the need for manual intervention and improving efficiency. This helps businesses streamline their operations, reduce costs, and deliver products and services to customers more quickly and reliably. In addition, automating these processes frees up employees to focus on more strategic tasks, such as product development, marketing, and customer service.Generative AI also provides businesses with data-driven insights that enable them to make more informed financial decisions. How much inventory should be kept? What products are currently trending or falling out of favor? Using AI to automatically analyze customer behavior, sales data, and more can give businesses more accurate predictions and allow them to better manage costs.&nbsp;Another way to mitigate financial losses is by reducing the rate of <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/2023/e-commerce-returns">e-commerce returns</a>. Generative AI can analyze customer reviews and feedback to identify common issues and concerns, such as product defects, sizing issues, or other quality-related problems. This enables businesses to proactively address these issues, improving product quality and reducing the likelihood of returns due to quality-related issues.

Generative AI and Cost Management

The MACH architecture and generative AI are a powerful combination that can help businesses achieve future-proof enterprise technology and drive digital experiences to new heights. With its flexible, modular design, the MACH architecture is the perfect platform to leverage the power of generative AI. Unlike monolithic architectures, which can be difficult to modify or replace, the MACH architecture enables businesses to easily integrate generative AI and other best-of-breed technologies to meet their unique needs.Generative AI provides businesses with a range of benefits, including the ability to automate processes, personalize customer experiences, and optimize inventory levels. By leveraging generative AI on top of the MACH architecture, businesses can create custom solutions that meet their specific requirements and enhance their operations. With its scalability and resilience, generative AI can handle large traffic spikes and maintain high levels of availability, making it a valuable tool for businesses looking to stay ahead of the curve.E-commerce businesses that fail to embrace generative AI and best-of-breed technology risk being left behind. By leveraging these technologies, businesses can unlock new opportunities for growth, efficiency, and innovation, and provide customers with personalized experiences that drive engagement and loyalty. The digital commerce landscape is changing rapidly. Find success in the modern marketplace by using a combination of MACH architecture and generative AI.

Generative AI and MACH Architecture — The Perfect Match

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The Benefits of Integrating Generative AI Within the MACH Ecosystem

Authored by Prasad Tangirala, Vice President of eCommerce engineering at Conn's HomePlus and a MACH Ambassador.We can't spell Retail without AI. Everyone is in a race to launch generative AI (chat GPT or Bard) based experiences on their websites.<a href="https://www.conns.com/"> Conn's Home Plus</a> was one of the first e-commerce sites to launch an AI chat-driven product Q&amp;A. We could pull this off with minimal investment and effort because of our early adoption of MACH.MACH is a strategic choice, given the magnitude of churn and change the industry faces. The marketing technology <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/chiefmartec.com/2022/05/marketing-technology-landscape-2022-search-9932-solutions-on-martechmap-com/__;!!CKMDUA!iWCKyb4_zTivQIvr9b_rDC0cqbcVPGeNsiEq0que7zb6Ouqxrh41QnXB7eu3yENtXp44RR4uscD7qyEDubKXC7ZdNVz9$">landscape</a> provides a great visual of our industry's massive opportunity (and problem). There is an innovation overload happening that no organization can digest. No one can keep up with 1000+ new products /ideas debuting each year. Also, this means any technology choice we make today will have several great replacement options in about 3-5 years.We realized early on that Composable architectures provide a way out. We chose a MACH-certified AI search provider while upgrading from an earlier generation search two years ago after completing and evaluating the proofs-of-concept with three vendors. We worked with them to ensure their AI search recognized our inventory distributed in each of our stores, warehouses, and drop-shippers. It was flexible enough to be customized to handle our complexity out-of-the-box. That proved to be a great decision even as we <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/machalliance.org/insights/re-platforming-to-mach-without-any-negative-business-impact-__;!!CKMDUA!iWCKyb4_zTivQIvr9b_rDC0cqbcVPGeNsiEq0que7zb6Ouqxrh41QnXB7eu3yENtXp44RR4uscD7qyEDubKXCzBF9J1H$">re-platformed our e-commerce site while growing the business.</a><img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt0c0626fb9b9602d0/6560a398ec799416cb967e4d/image.png"/>So now, when our chosen vendor was trying to beta their conversational AI offerings, we could immediately take advantage of it. Please check out our <a href="http://conns.com/">conns.com</a> implementation of this technology, and ask some questions about our products. And remember, <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfbFU0rAQilh9yv3BoEvshFasaINedwDC__;!!CKMDUA!iWCKyb4_zTivQIvr9b_rDC0cqbcVPGeNsiEq0que7zb6Ouqxrh41QnXB7eu3yENtXp44RR4uscD7qyEDubKXCzoHHQyH$">"Financing" is not a bad word at Conn's.</a> We have a financing option for most customers, and we are one of the few retailers who offer next-day delivery on large appliances and furniture in all 15 states in which we operate.Happy shopping and Happy holidays!<h3>About the Author:</h3><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tvprasad/">Prasad Tangirala</a> is a MACH Ambassador and VP of eCommerce Engineering at Conn’s Home Plus. He is passionate about digital transformation that results in non-linear business growth having led several such successful transformations. Prior to Conn’s he was leading the eCommerce practice at Cognizant and early on he held product and technology leadership roles at Amazon and Apple and financial (lending) startups.

Speed of Ret(AI)l to the power of MACH

Change is hard; whether it’s your collection of records or that decade-old coffee machine you’re still holding on to, it can be difficult to let go of the past and accept new technological innovations.But when it comes to your eCommerce tech stack, clutching on to legacy platforms and outdated processes can lead to more harm than good.&nbsp;With global online spending projected to hit <a href="https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/global-ecommerce-statistics#:~:text=The%20global%20ecommerce%20market%20is,were%20made%20from%20online%20purchases.">$5.5 trillion by the end of the year</a> and expected to surpass $6.2 trillion in 2023,&nbsp; there is a huge and ever-growing eCommerce market available at your fingertips. But if you don’t have the infrastructure in place to take advantage of this massive market, your growth and scalability will be severely stunted.We at Akeneo have seen a lot of interest in the market to move to new commerce technology architectures that bring the agility and flexibility that brands and retailers need to tackle the growth challenges of today and tomorrow.Traditional commerce architecture offers an all-in-one solution from a single vendor, providing the basic capabilities needed to activate an eCommerce site. And while this worked for a while to provide a singular, standard digital experience to consumers, the digital landscape has expanded at such a mind-boggling rate that traditional architecture just can’t keep up anymore.&nbsp;Headless (sometimes known as <a href="https://www.akeneo.com/blog/what-is-composable-commerce/">composable</a>) commerce architecture&nbsp; provides a modular, best-of-breed approach that enables organizations to grow and scale as they need.<h2></h2><h4>What is headless commerce architecture?</h4>Headless commerce architecture&nbsp; is a development approach that enables organizations to activate their entire product record across every channel by leveraging best-of-breed commerce vendors composed together into a singular, custom-built application. This type of software model allows teams to create an ecosystem that is customized to meet their organization’s specific business needs.Instead of the traditional, monolithic approach, headless architecture communicates via API. Each individual solution can be updated or replaced at any time without disrupting the rest of the system, meaning that your eCommerce stack is flexible and can scale to meet your needs.Headless commerce works by decoupling and then orchestrating front-facing capabilities from back-office applications and integrations. What does this mean for brands and retailers? Implementing new product information and experiences across all owned and unowned channels at a much faster rate than before without having to touch the entire back-end infrastructure.&nbsp;Not only does this bring greater agility and control to brands and retailers, but it also means that less technical knowledge is needed to push product information updates and new features. The decoupled nature of headless commerce means that your tech stack is modular and adaptable; you get to pick and choose which technologies fit your needs best and can replace or update platforms as needed without disrupting your eCommerce experience.&nbsp;With a headless architecture, brands are able to create compelling, coherent, and consistent product experiences across every channel, accelerate their time-to-market, expand into more markets and territories, and scale your tech stack as your organization grows and changes.&nbsp;<h2></h2><h4>Headless Commerce &amp; PIM</h4>So, we understand the benefits of a headless commerce architecture; more scalability, flexibility, and agility than ever before. You may be ready to jump on the composable bandwagon right away, and that’s great! But transitioning from a traditional architecture to a modern, headless one can be intimidating and difficult, especially if your organization isn’t mature enough to have the required resources to make the switch on-time and within budget.From the types of data needed, to the people and processes involved, to the related technologies that need to be integrated into this new architecture, there are many factors and platforms that need to be taken into account when considering the transition to headless architecture. Where do you even start?The recommended first step to take when looking to replatform to a headless commerce architecture is to get the underlying product data and content in order and ready for migration. There are two main reasons for this: one, product information is a critical foundation to how you deliver product experiences, irrespective of the architecture used or the channel it appears on. As more and more digital touchpoints emerge every single day, we can no longer predict where or when a consumer will first discover or interact with a business, so establishing and maintaining consistent and compelling product experiences across every channel is crucial.&nbsp;With a traditional architecture, this is extremely difficult. Personalizing and syndicating product information across channels with a monolithic platform is nearly impossible, and requires a lot of redundant labor and manual efforts. Headless commerce eases and automates this process, but requires a strong foundation of product information in order to be truly successful. After all, product information can’t be activated across all channels if we don’t even know where it lives.Secondly, the modular nature of headless commerce means it’s made up of individual, best-of-breed applications, each handling a specific aspect of the overall shopping experience (recommendations, merchandising, shopping cart, payment, and so on). Product information flows through many of those applications, all of which are orchestrated via standardized APIs. Therefore, the product information needs to be well-structured, consistent, complete, accurate (and of course, compelling) to be handled reliably across those applications and correctly according to the channel or experience on the front-end.This is where a Product Information Management (PIM) tool comes into play. Creating a central repository of product information allows your team to manage, organize, and optimize your product data to more easily flow through your other technologies and syndicate to your channels.But not all PIM solutions are created equal. In order to implement a transition to a headless architecture, you need a modern PIM that is built to support such a modular structure. How do you know what to look for in a PIM solution to decide if it can support a headless commerce architecture?With their focus on modularity and best-of-breed applications, organizations who are members of the MACH Alliance are guaranteed to help support your transition to a headless architecture.By offering a composable SaaS solution, MACH-certified PIM tools will allow your team to break down product information silos and provide a strong foundation of product data that easily communicate with all your existing and potential technologies, opening the door to a smooth transition to a headless architecture.Future-proofing your business means that you need to be able to create compelling and consistent product experiences across all your owned and unowned channels, and that is significantly more simple when you have a modular, headless approach that allows you to plug-and-play technologies as you scale. But jumping straight into this transition without a solid foundation of product information can spell trouble.Implementing a MACH-certified PIM allows your team to centralize, organize, and optimize your product information and set you up for a successful migration to headless architecture.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt95adca301aa35ef4/63e0f9696d590c21c347d382/Casey-Paxton.png"/>

What is a MACH-Certified PIM & Why Do You Need One?

Taken from <a href="https://machalliance.org/content-hub/the-benefits-of-integrating-generative-ai-within-the-mach-ecosystem">original article</a> by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlbcopy/">Carl Bleich</a>, Head of Content, BloomreachGenerative AI, technology that generates original content, algorithms, tools, strategy, and more from automatic data analysis, lends itself perfectly to MACH Architecture. The agility that a MACH ecosystem brings with it is a natural benefit for businesses and tech leaders looking to leverage Generative AI.Artificial intelligence tools are, by their nature, designed to make the most intelligent decisions for your needs quickly and efficiently, eliminating human intervention and error. When utilized across a cohesive system of MACH partners, it can operate perfectly throughout the architecture in a number of integrated ways, ultimately driving your business forward with bespoke, optimized solutions.All well and good in broad terms, but let’s take a look at just some of the ways that Generative AI and MACH Architecture go hand in hand to help increase efficiency, reduce risk, and drive revenue.<h2>1) Modular design for agile improvement</h2>Unlike traditional monolithic architectures where you get what you’re given and are stuck with it, MACH Architecture shows that variety is the spice of life. This is highlighted perfectly when incorporated with Generative AI.MACH enables businesses to easily integrate Generative AI in a way that suits them best, down to the most granular level. Losing money because of poor stock management? No problem, generate tools to automatically forecast, order, and optimize inventory levels. Not retaining as many customers? Generative AI platforms can increase CX in customer support by developing individual profiles based on previous behavior. Each business is different and it’s your choice where and how to focus your efforts.<h2>2) Scalability and resilience</h2>A MACH ecosystem, with its many inputs and outputs of data spread around a business, is much more able to handle large traffic spikes and maintain high levels of availability. For businesses looking to leverage tools such as Generative AI proactively as opposed to reactively – which should be all of them – this is essential.When looking to grow your business, either a specific arm or as a whole, composable Architecture makes expanding with other platforms so much easier.<h2>3) A futureproof combination</h2>Businesses that don’t embrace Generative AI risk being left behind to play catch-up to more future-focused competitors. By leveraging these technologies with MACH Architecture, you unlock unparalleled opportunities for growth and innovation – all in a way that suits you best.By identifying trends and patterns across each node of your MACH ecosystem, Generative AI gives valuable insights into market conditions and customer needs. This gives you the perfect platform to make the right decision for your business to scale, develop, and grow – safe in the knowledge that you’re prepared for whatever the future brings.<h2>4) A personalized customer experience across all touchpoints</h2>Especially within e-commerce, it’s easy to leverage Generative AI on top of MACH Architecture to analyze customer data from all touchpoints. From initial browsing to customer support and feedback, the data each individual customer provides is as important as it is vast.Generative AI can work with every node of your MACH ecosystem in order to generate personalized recommendations, suggestions, and other offerings tailored to each individual customer.Customers are people, and people who feel listened to are more engaged. These bespoke customer journeys are now tailored to them across multiple touchpoints, leading to greater CX and an increased likelihood of conversion and retention.<h2>Conclusion: Getting the most out of Generative AI</h2>We’ve only touched on some of the many ways that MACH Architecture is the perfect platform with which to use Generative AI. With bespoke, AI driven solutions across a business’s MACH ecosystem and many customer touchpoints, your data goes much further with composable architecture.

4 ways MACH can help you take advantage of generative AI

In a recent post, we broke down every component to consider when calculating the <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/understanding-the-total-cost-of-ownership-and-roi-for-mach-architecture">Total Cost of Ownership</a> (TCO) of a MACH-based architecture. Today, we’re going to discuss how the structural aspects of MACH-based architecture should appeal to even the most cost-conscious person in your company: the CFO.Composable equals investment over timeWhen you consider the various components of MACH (Microservices, API-driven, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless), you’ll find that it’s these independent architectural elements that can increase the flexibility, scalability and agility of your platforms. A shared characteristic among these elements is that they are composable. In other words, companies have the ability to build applications from their component parts over time.Unlike with monolithic enterprise solutions, companies can implement composable applications in stages, which means that the investment can be staggered. With a monolithic system, the total investment is required at the outset, meaning that the CFO is going to have to write a really big check. With composable systems, however, that investment can track along with the success—and return on investment—of the initial projects. Because you’re only “buying what you need,” it’s simply better for your cash flow. Besides, SaaS contracts typically don’t lock you in to set spending the way other software licenses do.According to James Anderson, research director at Gartner, decision makers like the CIO should focus on their entire tech stack to ensure that it’s meeting the company’s financial objectives:“The portfolio is very important. It clearly showcases the vision and strategy of the CIO regarding cost reduction and its results within the business. It moves the CIO and IT from speculating what the savings could be to demonstrating a foundation of real savings. In the end this vision matters to many stakeholders, including the CEO and the CFO.” 1Speed-to-market and flexibilityCompared to monolithic technologies, MACH-based architectures require much shorter implementation times, which means that you’re saving money on resources. Many SaaS products can be implemented in hours or days as opposed to months or even years. This means that you’re freeing your tech resources to work on their other responsibilities. In other words, their day jobs. Additionally, MACH systems are much more flexible so they allow for incremental upgrades. The beauty of this approach, as described above, is that you’re paying for services as you use them over time, there’s no wastage. This applies to resources as well as fees so you’re deploying your company’s assets only when they’re likely to demonstrate a return on investment in short order. That should make your CFO smile.Because competitionOf course, speed-to-market isn’t just about saving money. It’s driven by the competition. Companies that are hitched to monolithic applications don’t enjoy the speed and flexibility offered by MACH-based architecture and are at risk of losing their competitive edge. As Gartner research director James Anderson, says:“It’s not looking at what’s in the ‘IT budget’, but at all of those things across the business that can be influenced by IT, which is just about everything. If you’re not on the innovation end of trying to fund digitalization of your business, it’s likely some other company is coming up with some type of an optimization technology to eat your revenue.” 2Innovation has an additional impact on any organization when it comes to hiring the best tech resources. Developers are drawn to innovation so if your company is focused on managing legacy monoliths, you’re going to have a challenge attracting top talent.Swapping major CapEx investments with more manageable repaymentsWith retailer budgets currently reduced by lower revenues and uncertainty about the economic outlook, “as a service” models are appealing. Rather than rip and replace all of your technology, you can now deploy just what you need at the right time for you and pay on an ongoing, regular basis. This gives the major benefit of not having massive upfront investments and instead managing a more moderate regular payment, with the potential to access technology upgrades as they become available.1) <a href="https://www.intelligentcio.com/me/2019/03/21/how-cios-can-optimise-it-costs-and-stop-budget-cutting-requests/">https://www.intelligentcio.com...</a>2) <a href="https://www.bmc.com/blogs/it-budget-trends/">https://www.bmc.com/blogs/it-budget-trends/</a>

Why MACH Technology Matters to your CFO

<h3>A little History of Technology Leading to MACH</h3>‘90s technology is very different from what we have today. The evolution between then and now facilitated modern architectural approaches that simply weren’t possible 25 years ago. Now let’s look at how and when those technologies evolved, and how we’ve gotten to where we are today.Before we get to the 1990s, though, I think it’s worth a quick jump back to the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1950s, mainframe computers emerged, and were enormously expensive and difficult to maintain. While the largest companies bought mainframes from the likes of IBM, Burroughs, NCR, and others, many companies didn’t need, or couldn’t afford, their own dedicated mainframes.To serve that market, in the 1960s, IBM and a handful of other companies offered a “Service Bureau” service, which would include time-sharing on central mainframes. Some of this was remote access to pure computing and storage resources, however, there were also database and business applications offered up in this model.The Service Bureau would manage the hosting and running of business applications and databases, and client companies would connect remotely to access their services in the multi-tenant environment. Billing was often based on usage of connection time, compute (by the second) and storage, or application specific metrics.This model is strikingly like the Cloud computing and SaaS services of today. As Peter Allen sang and Stephen King wrote: “Everything old is new again.”The evolution from the 1990s to 2020 as it relates to modern eCommerce and web application architecture happened across four main paths: Infrastructure, Connectivity, Solution Delivery, and UI Architecture. Let’s have a quick look at each in turn.InfrastructureComputing and infrastructure started off in the 1990s primarily on big servers, typically owned and hosted in a company’s own data center. Eventually, a larger number of smaller servers became the preferred infrastructure for many companies. There was also a bit of a shift in the late '90s and early 2000s from internal, company-owned data centers, to more remote 3rd party data centers. Leasing servers also became more popular.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt03eb479ba09bd604/5f4cd55199431928ffc0dd47/aws.png"/>The next big evolutionary leap in infrastructure happened in 2006. In March of 2006, Amazon launched the S3 service. AWS had existed since 2002 but had not had much impact and went through some restructuring. This new AWS’s flagship S3 service was a REST based storage API, with usage-based billing. EC2 was released in August of that year, offering computing billed based on hours used. Not only was S3 using REST APIs for vending the service, but all the management functions for S3 and EC2 were only available via REST calls. The web console wouldn’t be released for three more years.AWS was a huge success and was a fundamental turning point in how application infrastructure worked. You no longer had to buy or lease dedicated servers, with a five year sizing and utilization plan in place, you could run your applications on virtual servers at AWS, spin whole environments up and down quickly and easily, and pay for only what you used. Mainstream Cloud Computing was born.Google launched their App Engine solution in May 2008, with Storage coming two years later. Microsoft’s Azure Cloud offering was announced in October of 2008. The big three Cloud services have been growing at an incredible pace ever since. They have expanded their offerings to include more and more services and are gaining ever-increasing numbers of clients. Cloud Computing is the new normal.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltb48854165ff7e1c7/5f4cd6db2931d52510314161/gps.png"/>Serverless Computing is, for some use cases, the next step beyond Cloud computing. Taking the idea of only paying for what you actually need to use, and simplifying application hosting from complete virtual server and stack management down to running pure functions direction, Serverless can offer a very cost effective way to host and run code with greatly reduced infrastructure management requirements. AWS rolled out its Lambda service in 2014, with Google following in 2016 and Microsoft in 2017. Serverless is not ideal for all workloads, but for specific use cases, offers a compelling evolution from standard Cloud computing.Take the concept of Serverless computing, and now imagine taking it from the central data center(s) and moving it close to the end user for dramatically reduced latency, via a global CDN. Now you have Edge Computing. CloudFlare released their Workers platform in early 2018 and recently rolled out an unconstrained offering called Workers Unbound for more complex applications. Akamai’s EdgeWorker’s service is in Beta now.Infrastructure and server-side computing have come a long way in 25 years, from large expensive servers running in internal data corporate centers, to being able to run just your code, without worrying about the servers or stacks under it, in thousands of locations globally, automatically deployed and underplayed as needed, paying only for what you use. Whatever comes next, we can be sure it will bring more flexibility, better performance, and lower costs.ConnectivityOnce you have your applications running on your infrastructure, how they communicate with other applications, and with end users, is important. As communication becomes more standardized, easier, and more efficient, this allows for more disparate applications to be involved in a solution, which in turn allows for smaller scope of functionality from any one application or service, and more flexibility in constructing, or modifying, the overall solution.Starting with the web, HTTP was the primary communications protocol especially for end client communication. App to app communication could be done with highly custom direct TCP connections, or HTML scraping via HTTP. There were very little standards for app-to-app integration at this time, and most work in this area was difficult and not reusable. Microsoft offered DCOM and CORBA, but the binary protocol was difficult to implement if you were not using Microsoft software.While SOAP was created in 1998, due to a lot of inter-corporate politics, it wasn’t really released until the end of 1999. XML-RPC was released first based on the same effort to bring SOAP to the public. So now there was some defined way to codify an XML based API.In February of 2000, Salesforce rolled out a new sales automation tool, which in many ways might be considered one of the first mainstream SaaS offerings as well, which was driven by an XML over HTTP based API. This may be considered the original web service. To be fair, it was amazingly complex, and not especially well documented.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt8014da16cd26e039/5f4cd62dc0ed4228f9e57675/api.png"/>Later that year, on November 20th, eBay released their own API which was much simpler and easier for developers to use. Other companies soon followed suit. SOAP, using XML, and defined by WSDLs was the primary technology for web services. Many standardized clients libraries and tools were developed to make it easy to generate SOAP clients for any given published WSDL and made integrating your application with a 3rd party application a lot quicker and easier.REST was proposed in 2000 and focused more on objects than the overall protocol like SOAP, and as such, had some advantages, especially for smaller lightweight clients like we would soon find on mobile devices. After JSON came out in 2013, REST primarily used JSON instead of XML, although technically REST supports XML and plain text as well as JSON. JSON is simple to parse and human readable, which was attractive to developers used to dealing with complex XML. However, it took a while before REST became commonly used.SOAP and SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) dominated the inter-application communication space throughout the early and mid-2000’s. Web browser communication to the backend was still typically plain HTML.REST and JSON grew in popularity over time, due to being simpler and requiring less complexity and resources, especially on the client end. From 2010 onward, REST eclipsed SOAP for most APIs. SOAP is still around and provides some advantages over REST, but the majority of web services are REST based now.Early web services, usually SOAP, were typically larger services, which had many functions mapped to many requests and responses. It was common to have a web service vending dozens (or even hundreds) of methods. In 2005 Peter Rodgers proposed the concept of micro-services (called REST-services or Micro-Web-Services) as a proposed improvement to the complexity of most SOA architectures. The approach essentially calls for a larger number of smaller scope, often single function, web services, instead of one giant one, and at the same time pushes REST and JSON instead of SOAP and XML. The concept of micro-services really came into its own around 2012-2013. Netflix Cloud Systems Director Adrian Cockcroft called it “fine grained SOA”.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt7088b864af0bcd30/5f4cd82fee702027c4ce709b/microser.png"/>Now REST/JSON micro-services are the standard for web services, and not only app to app communication, but also driving the UI of websites via AJAX.GraphQL is an increasingly popular approach for web services. It was developed within Facebook in 2012 and released to the public in 2015. GraphQL moved out of Facebook to the GraphQL Foundation in November of 2018. GraphQL allows the client to specify which data points and relationships it would like returned from a query. This can reduce the chattiness of many REST APIs, and reduce the bandwidth required for responses. While this streamlining improves performance. there are also many disadvantages to GraphQL compared to REST, so it really comes down to using the right technology for the job. Some web services will be better served with REST, while others will benefit more from GraphQL.Solution DeliveryBy solution delivery, I really mean how an application or service is managed and vended to consumers. The default mechanism, and what was done most of the time in the ’90s, is that software is running on the company’s own dedicated hardware, on a software stack setup and maintained by the company. Think of running an Oracle Database cluster or running an ATG Oracle Commerce cluster in your data center.The ’90s and early 2000s also had popular ASPs, or Application Service Providers. These companies would run and maintain enterprise software for a company. The ASP would manage the infrastructure often owned by them in their own datacenter, but occasionally used a 3rd party data center. The ASP would bill their clients based on usage metrics or a monthly fee. In many cases, the ASP would own the software licenses and lease or resell to the client company. These software installs were typically single tenant, with dedicated hardware and environments per client. Historically most of this software was client-server, not necessarily web or REST based.SaaS is a newer and more popular approach to the same concept. The key differences are that SaaS providers are vending their own software, rather than running software from Oracle or PeopleSoft or IBM. SaaS providers have a multi-tenant architecture instead of the single tenant environments of ASPs. SaaS providers almost exclusively offer REST based APIs for their software, and their solutions are typically focused on websites and web applications.Most SaaS offerings are running on Cloud infrastructure and provide auto-scaling and auto-healing for the multi-tenant environments. Cloud-native SaaS products are built in the Cloud and are engineered from the ground up to take advantage of the Cloud provider’s features and benefits (such as auto scaling, API gateways, infinitely scalable storage, etc..), rather than a more traditionally developed product that is simply running on VMs in the Cloud. Cloud-native SaaS is the latest best of breed (for many many use cases) approach for vending services and solutions.UI ArchitectureThe front end of web applications in the 90s was usually pure server-side rendered HTML. Limited dynamic features were introduced through JavaScript. As web services became more prevalent, more JavaScript was used for loading in dynamic content, making form submissions without reloading pages, and generally evolving how web UIs worked.In the latter half of the 2000’s a series of JavaScript libraries emerged which made it easier to build dynamic UIs driven by back-end web services, rather than server-side rendered HTML. jQuery was released in August 2006, allowing for simple AJAX calls to web services and easy replacement of DOM elements programmatically. NodeJS came out in 2009 and AngularJS in 2010, followed by React in 2013. These tools, along with too many others to list, have laid the groundwork for advanced front-end frameworks, high throughput server-side JavaScript engines, and micro-service centric UI development.Headless has become the preferred approach to building web application front ends. Fundamentally Headless means a de-coupling from the front-end UI, and the backend logic. Unlike the 90’s, and frankly much of the 2000’s, where the backend application would render HTML for the front end, in a typical Headless architected application the backend application(s) provide an array of micro-services. The web UI can be built in any framework and any language, completely separate from any backend development. Those same micro-services can be used to drive not only the dynamic web front end, but also mobile applications, in-store kiosks, in-car touchscreens, or any other type of client you could imagine, making it easy to provide a unified multichannel customer experience.ConclusionThrough the technological advancements described above, we’ve gone from monolithic applications, rendering the front-end HTML, running on dedicated owned hardware, to an independent Headless UI making calls to Microservices vended by Cloud-native SaaS solutions running on Cloud, Serverless, and Edge computing infrastructures.While there are always tradeoffs between technologies and architectures, this modern approach allows for a great degree of flexibility, performance, and cost savings.It’s a brave new world!<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt8cfdc3f23c095373/5f4cca27b4ebcc25c4c5743a/mach_timeline.jpg"/>

A Little History of Technology Leading to MACH

<h3>What are accelerators?</h3>Leveraging best-of-breed platforms and the MACH Architecture offers numerous advantages, including accelerated time-to-value, enhanced customer experience, and the utilization of cutting-edge technologies.However, with the increased flexibility and modularity of software architecture, complexities have arisen. MACH Architecture introduces several challenges. Firstly, ensuring data integrity and functional cohesion becomes more intricate as data is distributed across various platforms. Similarly, crafting digital experiences that seamlessly integrate data and features from multiple sources poses additional complexities.Initially, every MACH commerce platform necessitated a ground-up implementation, prompting questions about tool selection and integration to preserve data integrity. In the early stages, there was no established blueprint, guidelines, or documentation for developers to assemble this architecture, requiring Software Integrators (SIs) to undertake custom development for each implementation, covering both front-end and user UI.In contrast, monolithic providers, offering functionality in a single, interdependent package, typically delivered standard capabilities such as product information display, user authentication, account management, a basic landing page creator, and order history page, significantly reducing the need for additional development during implementation. MACH software prioritizes back-end functionality and lacks standardized front-end or UI, emphasizing flexibility and branding. While customization is crucial, standard use cases in e-commerce implementations benefit from time-saving and risk reduction through standardization.This is why many SIs and even some software vendors launched MACH accelerators, to standardize the connections between different microservices and add some standard functionalities a commerce project user would expect.“In today's competitive landscape, organizations must continuously deliver modern, personalized experiences across all channels, making agility essential. MACH accelerators play a pivotal role in achieving quick value and cost reduction while offering the adaptability of an open architecture that embraces AI-powered solutions. This strategy gives businesses a competitive advantage. MACH accelerators go beyond just offering a list of features; they prioritize seamless integration and flexibility, enabling the creation of customized solutions that cater to each company's unique needs." Krzysztof Molin, Senior Director, Software Engineering at EPAM.A MACH accelerator provides a pre-built assortment of tools, libraries, and components designed to expedite the integration of independent, best-of-breed, headless applications. It comprises pre-configured modules, templates, and workflows streamlining common functionalities such as product catalog management, checkout processes, and payment integrations that pull together multiple data sources. Employing such accelerators allows development teams to reduce the time and effort involved in constructing a robust e-commerce platform, enabling a more focused approach toward tailoring solutions to meet unique business requirements.“If MACH technology is Lego blocks, I consider accelerators being a starter pack. They allow for a baseline implementation that is built with best practices in mind. Accelerators go hand-in-hand with MACH, as they effectively apply MACH technology principles on the implementation process.” — Ricardas Montvila, VP, Global Strategy, MAPP.<h3>The benefits of using accelerators</h3>1). Faster time-to-valueAccelerators standardize software connections within MACH architecture, reducing project risks and expediting development. The time saved depends on architecture, complexity, and workforce dedication.“Accelerators can skip over several months on the initial re-platforming project.” — Everett Zufelt, Vice President of Product and Partnerships, Orium“Valtech launched M&amp;M'S DTC business based on commercetools platform in 14 countries and built LEAP accelerator based on this project. Mars has seen a 50% cart-to-checkout improvement, zero downtime, and 20% sales uplift amongst others thanks to the technology change. Using LEAP, we are rolling out the next commerce project for another brand of Mars in 1/3rd of the time compared to the previous implementation.” — Uday Lakkoju, Global Vice President - Composable Products &amp; GTM, ValtechUsing an accelerator brings time and financial savings for a customer but also saves time and effort for the SIs. A standard approach to starting a MACH project saves a lot of time. It also makes it easier to train new developers on MACH.2). Lower risks of implementationUtilizing an accelerator minimizes project delays and bugs. Experience gained by System Integrators enhances bug prevention, issue reduction, and improved estimation accuracy. Adopting proven models increases confidence for customers implementing MACH.“We use our accelerator for almost every customer implementation.” — Everett Zufelt, Vice President of Product and Partnerships, Orium3). Easier collaboration between an SI and a customerAccelerators facilitate onboarding by providing documentation, aiding both, customer and SI development teams. The ready documentation and standardized approach to MACH implementations simplify the handover process between an SI and a customer for a seamless transition.4). A great resource to train up the developers on MACHThe developers do not want to just read about something, they want to experiment and immerse themselves into the technology. Open-source accelerators offer tools for experimentation, enabling developers to gain practical skills crucial for MACH architecture implementation and maintenance.<h3>Summary</h3>Accelerators play a pivotal role in adapting MACH Architectures, they speed up the implementation time and help to standardize the approach to MACH software-based projects. The number of accelerators available on the market is impressive and the choice may seem overwhelming at first, this is why we will follow up with a second post in this series covering how to choose the right accelerator and how to implement them.Here is a list of Accelerators that the author of this article has put together:<a href="https://26525540.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/26525540/Ebooks/Accelerators%20List.pdf"> Click here</a> to see the list.This list is not exhaustive, if you know of an accelerator that is not listed here please write to <a href="mailto:katarzyna.banasik@voucherify.io">katarzyna.banasik@voucherify.io</a> and they will consider including it in the list.<h3>Author of the article:</h3>Katarzyna Banasik, Product Marketing Manager, <a href=" https://www.voucherify.io/">Voucherify</a><h3>Contributors:</h3>Anton Koval, Partner Manager Accelerators, commercetoolsRicardas Montvila, VP Global Strategy, MAPP DigitalEverett Zufelt, Vice President of Product and Partnerships, OriumAndrew Kumar, GVP, Uniform.devUday Lakkoju, Global Vice President - Composable Products &amp; GTM, ValtechKrzysztof Molin, Senior Director, Software Engineering at EPAMDom Selvon, CTO, Apply Digital

The role of accelerators in the MACH world: Part 1

To further advance the mission of the MACH Alliance, we are proud to welcome our first six MACH Alliance Ambassadors. The ambassadors, primarily from companies implementing MACH technology, have graciously committed their time and energy to support the mission of the MACH Alliance by writing, speaking, and serving as subject matter experts on MACH. Ambassadors will also be advising the various committees of the MACH Alliance and its member organizations on how to best support MACH as a technology standard and vision.The MACH Alliance ambassador program was first announced two weeks ago and we have seen an overwhelming positive response from our community. Enterprises who have successfully modernized their architectures are excited to have a space to share what they learned along the way, and companies early in their journey are eager to tap into that valuable insight.The initial 20 seats of the MACH Alliance ambassador program are being carefully selected to provide a wide range of experience across industries and backgrounds. We’re excited to kick-off the program with six exemplary ambassadors - passionate people who believe in MACH and have experience and stature in the technology and business communities.The MACH Alliance is proud to partner with these innovative professionals to advocate for modern, composable technology as the best solution for liberating businesses across the globe. We are very pleased to introduce our community to our first six ambassadors:<h2>Adam Sturrock</h2>Adam co-founded Moltin in 2013, one of the first truly headless eCommerce platforms in the market. Moltin graduated from Ignite100, the accelerator program, in late 2013 and Y Combinator's Winter 2015 batch, going on to raise over $10 million in funding and attracting tens of thousands of developers to the platform. Moltin was acquired in late 2019 and Adam has since become a consultant for SaaS vendors and a solution architect for enterprise retailers and brands.<h2>Eric Halvorsen</h2>Eric Halvorsen is a Senior Digital Architect at Ulta Beauty, leading the architecture and design of new, cloud-native digital commerce experiences built on the principles of MACH. During his time at Ulta, he's played several roles, including ATG Solution Architect and Full-Stack Developer for Ulta.com. As Solution Architect, he defined and executed a multi-year technical roadmap for adopting headless architecture. Before working at Ulta, he was a Senior Software Engineer at Kohl's.<h2>Gireesh Sahukar</h2>Gireesh Sahukar is the Senior Director of Digital at Dawn Foods, and oversees Dawn’s Digital Innovation Hub, an office created to drive digital innovation and elevate the company’s service offerings to exceed customers’ needs. Gireesh has been helping companies adopt, grow and stabilize eCommerce, engage customers online and help them build business models that enable their future state.Before joining Dawn, Gireesh was Director of Digital Architecture and Delivery at Keurig Dr Pepper, where he led the direct-to-consumer eCommerce, data analytics, customer service, and brand marketing platforms used to run their omnichannel business.<h2>Matt Webb</h2>Matt is a technology lead with over 20 years of global experience at CTO level for large digital agencies, delivering projects in the field ranging from enterprise content management, eCommerce, data and microservices architectures, through to the Internet of things (IoT), Augmented/Virtual reality, and Artificial Intelligence. Matt has built, integrated and led tech teams all over the world. He also lectures in Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and IoT at many training workshops and universities.<h2>Peter Burggraaff</h2>Peter Burggraaff is Partner &amp; Director at Boston Consulting Group, where he works with leading retailers and consumer brands around the world. Together with client tech teams and partners he designs and executes omnichannel digital transformations, including set-up of microservices architecture and product organization.Before joining BCG 12 years ago, Peter was CIO of a retailer in New Zealand and managing partner at a digital agency in the Netherlands.<h2>Anjali Subburaj</h2>Dr Anjali Subburaj is digital commerce chief architect for Mars, where she applies her extensive knowledge and expertise as an architect to lead the strategic technology initiatives in the domain of Digital Commerce, ERP, supply chain systems, and other relevant domains.As a technology leader who has delivered multi-million pound digital transformation projects, Anjali believes in opening up the channels of communication between IT and business, in order to foster a culture of change that supports agility.<h2>Stay in the loop</h2>To stay in the loop about the latest insights of these experts, and to be the first to hear about upcoming ambassadors announcements, you can <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1vH2ljjp8TvS1cbURdpNKbw4t5u0?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_wP102Tahc4sabCzSuPF5HEyzpNg_lOv15aNICDdLfFXumzq7U5ictDukPOS9ITOqaCrRW">subscribe to our newsletter</a> and follow us on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/machalliance">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/MACHAlliance">Twitter</a>.

MACH Alliance Welcomes First Six Ambassadors

Author: Adam Peter Nielsen - Co-Lead Technology Council, MACH Alliance &amp; CTO, Novicell


<h2>The Path to Transformation: A focus on Interoperability</h2>

As a follow up to my previous blog "<a href="https://machalliance.org/insights-hub/interoperate-to-iterate-faster-interoperability" target="_blank">Interoperate to Iterate Faster</a>" where I discussed why interoperability is now a strategic business concern, it is also important to understand what it takes to ensure an organization’s technology stack is truly interoperable.
To address the challenges, I outlined such as outdated legacy systems, the need for speed and agility, and the Generative AI opportunity, organizations must prioritize making their technology stack truly interoperable.

 So, what does that take?
The focus should shift from the individual components to how these components interact and work together to create a cohesive ecosystem. Here’s what that transformation path looks like:
 Step 1: Evaluate your tech stack Identify integration bottlenecks and prioritize platforms that enable composability and interoperability. In the whitepaper below, organizations can learn how to evaluate and integrate composable solutions (and what to do when you have elements that don't conform).

MACH_Whitepaper_.pdf

How to evaluate and integrate composable solutions

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Whitepaper: How to evaluate and integrate composable solutions

Step 2: Leverage data orchestration platforms Modern data orchestration services make it easier to synchronize data across systems, and configure data flows rather than programming them, thus accelerating AI implementation and other innovations. Step 3: Build for Flexibility Adopt MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless) and composable architectures to ensure your stack can evolve with your business needs. 
<h3>The Role of Technology Solutions</h3>
Interoperability is particularly critical in headless and composable architectures. 
To succeed, the "head" (user-facing components) and "body" (back-end systems) must communicate seamlessly. Here’s how modern interoperability solutions drive value:
<ul> 
 <li>Ease of Integration: Interoperable platforms allow businesses to adopt best-of-need solutions without worrying about compatibility.</li>
 <li>Reduced Vendor Lock-in: Interoperability ensures businesses can retire underperforming platforms without incurring financial or operational penalties.</li>
 <li>Faster ROI: A well-integrated stack accelerates deployment and delivers measurable outcomes, such as increased revenue or reduced costs, sooner. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Key Benefits and KPIs</h3>
Interoperability is a composable, multifaceted approach that drives measurable benefits, including:
<ul> 
 <li>Increased innovation capacity: Free up IT teams to focus on strategic projects rather than troubleshooting integrations.</li>
 <li>Improved business agility: At the organizational level, teams can better collaborate and pivot quickly in response to market changes or new opportunities.</li>
 <li>Faster time to market: Accelerate the launch of new initiatives with seamless integrations. </li>
</ul>
 KPIs to measure success include: 
<ul>
 <li>Time-to-market for new solutions</li>
 <li>Number of systems seamlessly integrated</li>
 <li>ROI on technology investments (hint: If you're interested in learning more about ROI and TCO, check out the new <a href="https://machalliance.org/ridemach#Join%20rideMACH" target="_blank">rideMACH expansion course</a> 'Introduction to TCO' which explores best practices around interoperability and the cost efficiencies of a MACH approach)</li>
</ul>
 
<h3>Addressing Diverse Journeys: Starting Out vs. Scaling Up</h3>
<ul>
 <li>If you're just starting: - Begin by assessing your current stack for interoperability gaps. Prioritize tools and platforms that are API-first and align with MACH principles. - Look for what components in your stack to change or decommission next. Timing and lifecycle changes of platforms are often the best lever for building the case for where to start. </li> 
 <li>
 If you're scaling: - Focus on refining your data orchestration layers. These layers ensure that as your systems grow, they remain interconnected, enabling faster adoption of innovations like generative AI.
 </li>
</ul> 
<h3>Why Interoperability matters to leaders</h3>
<ul>
 <li>For technology leaders: Interoperability means freedom - the ability to build a best-in-class tech stack that grows alongside your business.</li> 
 <li>
 For business leaders: It translates to agility: the capacity to respond quickly to change and seize opportunities like generative AI, new markets, or to safely navigate a merger. Combine to adapt and thrive at the right pace.
 </li>
</ul> 
<h3>Interoperability Across the Dimensions of the Interoperability Wheel</h3>
<ul>
 <li>Technology: Interoperability fosters technical freedom, ensuring that platforms integrate seamlessly and evolve with new innovations.</li> 
 <li>
 People, Culture, Organization: By enabling seamless workflows, interoperability creates a culture of innovation, where teams can experiment confidently and deliver better results. 
 </li>
 <li>
 Market: Businesses with interoperable systems are better equipped to respond to market demands, outperform competitors, and build customer trust.
 </li>
</ul>

<h3>The actionable takeaways:</h3>To thrive in 2025 and beyond, organizations must:<ol><li>Prioritize and validate ease of interoperability in all technology and vendor selections.</li><li>Adopt MACH and composable architectures to ensure flexibility.</li><li>Leverage data orchestration layers to power AI and other innovations.</li><li>Ask the right questions: Is this solution interoperable? How will it integrate with your existing ecosystem?</li></ol> <h3>My Final Word:</h3>As I said in my first blog: Stop overthinking and focus on readiness!Making composable architecture and interoperability work for your organization isn’t just about adding new tech—it’s about really looking at your entire tech stack and making sure everything connects and works together smoothly. Whether you’re just getting started or already scaling up, it’s key to step back and see how your tools, data, and systems are syncing to drive real results. Using data integration and orchestration platforms can help make sure your data flows effortlessly across digital teams and platforms, so everyone has the data they need when and where they need it. And as your business grows, asking the right questions about scalability, flexibility, and long-term goals will help you build an adaptable, connected system that grows with you. You will change systems and platforms over time, so prepare for a smooth technology transition by focusing on interoperability. Get ready to tackle whatever the fast-changing digital throws your way.

<h4>Ready to learn more? Visit the MACH Alliance <a href="https://preview.machalliance.org/interoperability">Interoperability Hub</a></h4><img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltb2f11f85e7fbc7a0/67581d508ccea82985372376/Adam_Peter_Nielsen-card_(1).png"/>- Interoperate to iterate faster in 2025.Keywords: interoperability in digital architecture; MACH interoperability; interoperability in technology; MACH principles and interoperability;

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The Path to Transformation: A focus on Interoperability

We're rapidly moving into a new state where organizations now need to rethink how they can become more fast-moving and increase their ability to innovate. The world around us has quickly changed, both closing and opening possibilities. The normal as we knew it does not exist anymore, this will force us to speed up our adoption of new technology and foremost how coming generations expect to consume and share information.Today tremendous amounts of data is being created by customers by the second. For organizations all this information being shared and created is pure gold. Just go to yourself and think of a normal day, think about all the digital traces you leave behind and all information you share. This creates a rather good digital persona of you for others to look at. You would expect someone to use this to understand you better and cater to your needs, but this must be relevant to your given context. This has also to be done in a respectful way not leaving you feel tracked or harassed.Google has worked with a great concept for a while stating that every moment of a day can be divided into micro-moments where you need or crave different experiences or things. We at <a href="https://www.occtoo.com/">Occtoo</a> really believe in this, that the consumer behavior has changed forever. The battle for hearts, minds, and dollars is won (or lost) in micro-moments—intent-driven moments of decision-making and preference-shaping that will occur throughout the entire consumer journey.The data being created in all these micro-moments (sessions), is the new gold and what we are all looking for. This behavioral data will with one bit of human intuition and one bit with AI and Machine Learning, give organizations insights and data to act and give their customers the respectful and smooth experience they deserve in any context on any screen. If you have read the fantastic book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, you know that we have two systems that operate, when we make choices. It is System 1 that makes most of our decisions - based on feelings and not based on rationality - which is why the experience data fueling the customer journey is so crucial. Using this behavioral and contextual data, in combination with your own content, product, transactional and customer data, as the fuel in the creation of your digital experiences is what brings them to life and spark positive emotion.So where is Occtoo in all this? Occtoo is an Experience Data Platform built to fast forward the way businesses create relevant customer experiences everywhere. We help digital officers, marketers and developers to move into a new state where they spend less time integrating data and more time being creative with data.How Occtoo fits in the tech stackWith our platform it is easy to unify all types of multi-domain experience data (and yes, we mean all data. Customer, product, transactional, behavioral, content etc.) and make it accessible in real time in any frontend of choice. Match the right content with the right customer and create an API with a click to publish and collect data in real-time on all kinds of devices, touchpoints and channels. This is the missing piece in the unified experience stack, enabling speed in the, ”idea-to-deployment” process and capability to offer a relevant customer experience in a millisecond everywhere. Forget about data locked in silos, time consuming and costly integration projects and slow experiences that kill conversion. Instead get an increased ability to innovate and gain speed in providing customers with unique experiences.We and our customers strongly believe that the democratization effect on data and APIs will lead to:1. Eventually almost everyone will be a programmer, but that our definition of programmer will expand to fit a much broader range of activities.2. API-driven businesses enable low-code implementations and give superpowers to junior developers or people who don’t consider themselves developers at all.With a modern digital stack built on services and capabilities #MACH (Microservices, API, Cloud, Headless) focusing on scalability and APIs, innovation will thrive where it before was impossible. Let’s all fast forward into a better way of doing things and flip some old truths. Where we create relevant experiences that is powered by all the data being created and where we have the capacity to think big, start small, scale fast.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-ekb%C3%A4ck-8040a13/">Jimmy Ekbäck</a>CTO and Co-founderOcctoo - Get relevant everywhere

Meet Occtoo! Fast forward the creation of a relevant customer experience everywhere

The software industry, particularly the digital /martech space, is engulfed in a perfect storm. Several macro trends are causing significant churn, and these challenges are not distant threats but urgent issues that demand immediate attention.a) Innovation overload: The rapid influx of new marketing technology products into the market, as per <a href="https://chiefmartec.com/2023/05/2023-marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-11038-solutions-searchable-on-martechmap-com/">Martec</a> charts, has made it humanly impossible for executives such as CIO/CTO/CPO/CDO/CMO to stay current with most of this innovation. The number of new marketing technology products debuting into the market has grown at an average rate of over 1000 each year over the past decade. In the previous year alone, the pace has accelerated to over 3000. The pressure to adopt these new products is immense, underscoring the need for effective strategies to manage this overload.b) Technology bloat: The average number of technologies on most customer facing web sites is already north of one hundred, indicating that technology bloat is already a severe problem for tech executives.c) GenAI disruption: With every major release of GenAI, many AI startups become redundant. In fact, Sam Altman (of openAI) cautioned Harvard students embarking on entrepreneurial journeys not to focus their companies on peripheral use cases that can become a core part of the next version of a main GenAI engine. This complicates decision-making even further for the tech executive as the odds are stacked against any new technology/company they want to do business with. (i.e., 90%+ of startups don't eventually survive). So, is it safer for them to stick with the established choices supported by the analysts (Gartner, Forrester, IDC, etc.), sticking to the old adage "No CIO got into trouble for going with IBM?" But that would mean missing out on most new advancements and foregoing the early mover advantages.d) Executive turnover: The average tenure of a C-suite technology exec is now down to around three years. Whenever a new exec takes over, they are expected to show results pretty rapidly, and they are also raring to make their imprint on the company. This opens a wave of new people, ideas, and technologies and sometimes throws out previous thinking and initiatives without allowing the time to mature and come to fruition. How many of you can relate to this scenario where the direction changes, and sometimes the investments made in the last few years just go down the drain because a new executive is now in charge?<hr/>

<h3>So, what could be some strategies for the C-Suite to navigate this perfect storm of technology bloat, innovation overload, GenAI disruption, and executive turnover while maximizing ROES (Return On Engineering Spend)? </h3><ol><li>MACH , i.e. composable technologies provide one approach to mitigate this. They provide a framework to treat the IT landscape as a giant jigsaw puzzle where pieces can be combined or split easily and replaced by other pieces. This significantly reduces risk and also helps deliver results faster. Whenever there is a new proposal to try new software, whether it provides net new functionality or improves upon existing functionality, it can be piloted by directing a small percentage of the users /traffic and creating an AB test to validate the results and ROI &amp; TCO assumptions. A MACH approach makes this relatively easy, and one example of how to pilot new technologies and eventually cutover is detailed <a href="https://machalliance.org/content-hub/re-platforming-to-mach-without-any-negative-business-impact-" target="_blank">here</a>. Note that some legacy technologies might need additional pre-work and decoupling to enable this approach, but it is entirely possible. </li><li>To handle the pressure to deliver rapidly when a new executive takes charge, one approach that worked well is to Repair- Refactor - Replatform. Usually, the new executive is told that the existing system(s) is/are too old, brittle, and poorly designed, and re-platforming is the only solution. But seasoned execs double-click on that and buy some time before they bite the bullet and approve a major re-platforming, as usually, that takes much longer to deliver and causes much disruption. The way to buy time is to first identify the most pressing pain points and the key metrics that move the needle in terms of business outcomes. Usually, with some workarounds and or minor changes to business processes, those friction points can be "Repaired” to move the needle on the business outcomes and/or kill some pain. This has multiple benefits. a) the energies of the key SMEs on the team are laser-focused on improving the metric/ decreasing pain. The team demonstrates quick wins, usually within 90 days, which builds confidence and credibility for the team. b) This provides more time and context for the new exec to understand the ecosystem and underlying issues better. Process or data quality or people issues are often obfuscated and reported as platform or technology problems. Attempting a re-platforming without understanding these root causes would result in carrying over these issues to the new platform. The learnings from the "Repair" phase will provide inputs on which parts of the system or processes need to be "Refactored" for optimal gains. This would produce the next wave of business outcomes and/ or pain reduction. These outcomes further build confidence and credibility with stakeholders. By this time (usually 90-120 days), the new exec would have gained enough context and data to make an intelligent replatforming decision. This approach, which aligns with the MACH mindset, might explain the key findings of the recent Forrester <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/emilypfeiffer_today-i-published-a-forrester-wave-evaluation-activity-7193319716013137920-7_vf" target="_blank">Wave report</a> which shows that a) there are no vendors in the leader's circle of e-commerce platforms and b) very few B2C digital businesses are shopping for a new e-commerce platform. </li><li>Another approach to reducing some of this churn is discouraging shadow IT, which is proliferating because it is easy for anyone to subscribe to a SaaS solution using their credit card and expense it. Encourage it to go through a trial process and a proper experimentation framework. Include the right stakeholders in the decision process with ROI justification that accounts for TCO. Negotiating a free trial period for the experimentation allows for a better understanding of the license, training, deployment, customization, testing, and cutover costs, as well as preparing the fit-gap analysis for the decision-makers. This approach would reduce some of the technology bloat. Again, the MACH mindset helps enable such an experimentation model to AB test parts of the ecosystem to evolve to an optimal tech stack.</li></ol>Ultimately, enterprises today must strive to strike a 'goldilocks' balance between innovation, speed, and process rigor to maximize ROES (Return On Engineering Spend). This is not just a goal but a necessity to stay competitive and cost-effective in the face of these industry challenges.<hr/>

<h3 style="text-align: center;">The Author</h3>

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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tvprasad/" target="_blank">Prasad Tangirala</a> is the Vice President of eCommerce engineering at Conn's HomePlus and a MACH Ambassador, inventor and speaker. He has a proven track record of leading multiple large digital transformations that rapidly delivered business value using software engineering best practices, usually delivering significant results within his first 90 days. He believes in continuously improving processes, people, and technologies for sustained growth. He brings over two decades of digital transformation experience, holding engineering leadership roles at Amazon, Apple, Cognizant, Fidelity, Wells Fargo, Silicon Valley startups, etc. Prasad has a master's in computer science from IIT Kanpur, a Strategy Management certification from Wharton, and is a Scrum master. Prasad loves to share his experiences building large customer-facing systems and increasing ROES (Return On Engineering Spend) at <a href="www.linktr.ee/tvprasad/" target="_blank">www.linktr.ee/tvprasad/</a>.

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The Perfect Storm

<h3 style="text-align: center;">MACH Certification Serves as a Vendor Benchmark for the Market Shift to Composable</h3>We have been vocal for some time that the market shift to MACH technology represents a major challenge to the position of long-established enterprise suites. Even the biggest tech companies are going composable with a focus on APIs and desire to be MACH. We fully encourage it.Yet as a result of this maturing market, we have to take our role as gatekeepers (or ‘<a href="https://www.forrester.com/blogs/buy-an-integrated-platform-not-a-box-of-rocks/">bouncers</a>’, as we’ve been called by Forrester’s Joe Cicman) even more seriously, particularly when considering certification for companies who have reshaped their portfolio and product strategy from monolith to MACH. In any case, we will only grant MACH membership if all our certification criteria are met.The MACH Alliance membership comes with the requirement that a vendor's entire active portfolio has to meet MACH criteria. So, if a company has a legacy past, we have an additional requirement. That is for them to agree that they no longer actively sell nor promote any legacy product so that they don’t create buyer confusion. <a href="https://www.machalliance.com/insights/why-only-companies-can-be-mach-certified-and-not-products">Certification is for the company and not individual solutions</a>. Buying MACH is a seal of being future proof. Hybrid-MACH isn’t a thing.Until recently, we haven’t had any vendor members that have reshaped their portfolio substantially enough for the new global trend to become MACH certified. All of our members have to date been founded MACH-first. What we do see, however, is that all tech vendors at scale are moving in the direction of MACH, but only MACH certification will show who is truly adhering to the standards that make enterprise software flexible and swappable and will actually ensure future-proof tech-stacks.<h3><h4> The Why Behind Our Certification Standards</h4></h3>We’ve always been crystal clear about what our certification standards are (you can read the full breakdown <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence">here</a>). We believe the Alliance has a responsibility to the market to approach MACH certification with a high degree of objectivity and scrutiny. We know how hard it can be for a buyer to cut through industry jargon to understand if a vendor or agency is truly following composable architecture principles. MACH Alliance certification is our word that we have evaluated the technology, references and roadmap of a member and that they have proven they meet all the criteria for the Alliance to recommend them as part of a future-proof technology stack.Every organization should have the opportunity to prove that as the market changes, they too are eager to change. And when they meet all of our criteria with their present day product strategy, if the voting group has reached consensus, we welcome them with open arms to join in our mission.

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MACH Certification

Author: Casper Rasmussen, President of the MACH Alliance 

Among organizations well along in their MACH journey, 77% report using AI, compared to only 36% of those new to MACH. While this is correlation, not causation, it highlights a clear pattern: companies investing in MACH are also the ones advancing in AI.
AI is pushing companies to move faster, adapt quicker, and rethink their entire business. And this is exactly why MACH is more important than ever.
Being AI-ready is no longer a future concern—it’s a present necessity. The businesses that thrive will be the ones with an architecture and mindset that enables AI to integrate, evolve, and deliver real impact. It won't come as a surprise that we recommend a MACH approach.
Allow me to elaborate on why that is—and back it up with some solid proof for this well-founded opinion.
 
<h4>Composable AI: The Way to Stay in Control</h4>
AI thrives on access—to data, to services, to business logic. It works best in environments that are open, connected, and built for change. The MACH approach, by design, enable this. MACH architecture is API-first, modular, and vendor-independent, ensuring AI tools can integrate, evolve, and scale without businesses being locked into a single system or provider.
<a href="https://diginomica.com/mach-survey-composable-pays-fear-hampers-adoption" target="_blank">Phil Wainewright, with Diginomica</a>, has pointed out that AI is not just another tool—it’s reshaping enterprise technology at its core. But to make AI work, businesses need an architecture that’s just as agile as AI itself. Without it, organizations risk being locked into rigid systems that can’t keep up with the speed of AI-driven innovation. (link) 
<h4>Why MACH is the Fabric for AI Adoption</h4>
AI cannot be an afterthought—plugged into existing systems or wrapped around it, forced to conform to rigid infrastructure. It needs a foundation that is open, adaptable, and built for change. That’s exactly what MACH provides.
AI-powered workflows demand real-time data, seamless interoperability, and the ability to evolve at the same pace as the models themselves. A MACH approach ensures AI is not just an add-on, but a fully integrated, scalable part of business operations.
Here’s what MACH brings to the AI era:
<ul>
 <li>Seamless AI Integration – API-first design ensures AI models can interact with enterprise data and services natively, eliminating costly workarounds.</li>
 <li>Scalability – AI workloads are compute-intensive. MACH’s cloud-native, microservices-based infrastructure dynamically scales AI operations without disruption.</li>
 <li>Data Agility – AI models rely on structured, real-time data. MACH unifies data across PIMs, CDPs, DAMs, and beyond, ensuring AI always operates with the most relevant inputs.</li>
 <li>Freedom to Experiment – AI evolves fast. MACH’s modular approach lets businesses quickly adopt and switch between AI models as new capabilities emerge.</li>
</ul>
 
<h4>The Risk of AI Without MACH</h4>
Without MACH, AI initiatives risk failing, as businesses aim to scale the impact of their experiments . Monolithic systems are rigid, and traditional enterprise suites confine AI’s potential by keeping data and services locked within static architectures. Vendor lock-in adds another layer of limitation, forcing businesses to stick with a single AI model even as better options emerge.
When MACH launched in 2020, the primary driver was enabling businesses to create unique, best-in-class, and flexible user experiences. Today, that driver is evolving—the ability to deploy AI seamlessly across the enterprise is taking center stage.

David Dorf with AWS, recently pointed out that businesses need to avoid AI vendor lock-in at all costs. Today’s best AI model may not be the best next year. With a MACH-based approach, companies stay flexible, ensuring they can continuously adopt and refine AI strategies without overhauling their tech stack. 
<h4></h4>
<h4>The MACH Alliance: Setting the Standard for AI and Composable Architectures</h4>
The MACH Alliance exists to help businesses build future-proof technology strategies. As AI reshapes the enterprise landscape, MACH provides the foundation needed to make AI work—efficiently, at scale, and on your terms. Now and in two or ten years.
MACH is not just an option for AI adoption. It’s the way to ensure AI remains an advantage, and does not turn into a liability as new developments arise.
The future of AI is composable. The basis of composability is MACH. Let’s go.

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<h3 style="text-align: center;">Explore MACH+AI at The Composable Conference!</h3>
*LIMITED SPACE*
<div style="text-align: center;margin-top: 20px;"><a href="https://machalliance.org/events/composable-conference-25" style="display: inline-block;background-color: #F0C23D;color: black;padding: 12px 24px;font-size: 16px;font-weight: bold;text-decoration: none;border-radius: 8px;box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);">Register Now</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/casper-aagaard-rasmussen/" target="_blank"><img width="535" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltef98c3fd4f6551e3/67cc61502c963bbc1a1bf5f0/Casper_card.png" height="245" target="_blank"/></a>Keywords: composable, composability, AI, Artificial Intelligence

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MACH is the Backbone of an AI-Ready Business

It's an increasingly complex world out there (as composable reaches early majority status) and what end-users need is trust in certified MACH products and services. We provide that through being open and accessible but ultimately strict and thorough in our assessment.Many of the ISV / Enabler members of the Alliance are relatively new companies who have built their products from scratch adhering to what we now consider MACH principles. Yet, there is also a category of (potential) Alliance members who have a longer history and have/had products that were not MACH-native.As the market matures, similar to how cloud computing rose to mainstream status, we’re now seeing MACH follow a similar trajectory, and with it, more complex admissions cases. There’s a lot in between on the MACH - Monolith spectrum! That’s why we’ve chosen to consolidate everything there is to know about our admissions process and publish a comprehensive new <a href="https://qrco.de/MACHCriteria">admissions criteria guide,</a> adding rigor to the process and focusing on consistency and clarity for buyers.According to Benoit Rossignol, Head of the MACH Alliance Admissions Panel, “The MACH Alliance is adapting to a maturing market and being realistic and inclusive of the reality that is out there as more vendors transition their product strategies for a composable future. MACH is expanding from front-end to back-end solutions and into new industries, touching every component of an enterprise tech stack. We need to ensure a level playing field for all assessments.”Ensuring a level playing field means constantly evolving our criteria based on our experience of new application considerations. Bloomreach for example, who joined the MACH Alliance in 2022, are a multi-product company, but unlike larger legacy platforms, they are composable. However, their path to MACH certification wasn’t straightforward. It was their commitment to MACH principles and their vision for the future that prompted a strategy change which got them over the line.Tjeerd Brenninkmeijer, EVP, EMEA at Bloomreach, provides some insight into the process and why achieving MACH certification was important to them."At Bloomreach, we firmly believe that cloud-based composable architecture represents the future of tech. The underlying MACH principles enable us to deliver faster innovation for our customers, ensure better availability, and provide businesses with the ability to rapidly expand their commerce ecosystem as their technology needs evolve. These architectural and developmental principles ultimately deliver greater value to our customers. The transparency offered by the MACH Alliance is invaluable, as it helps customers and partners make informed decisions about their future endeavors. This aligns perfectly with our goals, so obtaining MACH certification was crucial to us.“We thoroughly reviewed every aspect of our technology to achieve MACH certification. Operating a SaaS business necessitates complete ownership of the software we provide to our customers. During our technology review, one area that required particular attention was our content management offering. Our CMS was initially a private cloud solution, also known as PaaS (platform as a service). Our team dedicated two years to rewriting this software, resulting in the birth of a new product: a MACH-compliant content management solution. The certification process was intense and took six months, involving numerous deep dives into our architecture. We take great pride in passing the test in 2022."<a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/evolving-our-membership-criteria-for-a-maturing-market">MACH certification </a>will continue to provide enterprises with the added level of insurance and protection they need as the market accelerates. If you would like to learn more about our membership and certification criteria, please refer to the following resources:<ul><li><a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-a-seal-of-confidence">MACH certification: A seal of confidence</a></li><li><a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/what-does-it-mean-to-be-mach-certified-">What does it mean to be MACH certified?</a></li><li><a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/the-mach-tech-check--prerequisites-for-vendors">MACH certification - prerequisites for vendors</a></li><li><a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-prerequisites-for-si">MACH certification - prerequisites for SIs</a></li><li><a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-certification-serves-as-a-vendor-benchmark-for-the-market-shift-to-composable">MACH certification serves as a vendor benchmark for the market shift to composable</a></li></ul>

MACH Complexity and Why Certification Matters More Than Ever

Steve Nolan and Mark Elliott were relative newcomers to fashion e-commerce giant boohoo but they faced a conundrum when the company was rapidly assembling a ‘who’s who’ of UK retailers. Their job: to ensure that technology acted as an accelerator rather than a boat anchor slowing down the business.As well as selling under its own brand, boohoo has become home to globally recognised brands including, PrettyLittleThing, Karen Millen, Dorothy Perkins, Warehouse, Burton, Oasis, Coast and Wallis, as well as famous feminist brand Nasty Gal.Steve, boohoo’s CTO, jokes that he “aged 10 years after a rollercoaster of a journey in three years” as he helped scale its digital capability. Chief architect Mark had his “passion for high-scale performance enterprise e-commerce solutions” fully tested by boohoo as the company’s can-do culture demanded rapid deployment of systems to cope with equally rapid business expansion.The scale of boohoo’s operation can be measured in large numbers with nigh on £2bn in sales (up 61 per cent in two years), from its 14 destinations, 19 million active customers, 65 million social media followers and around 190 million items shipped globally.Little wonder that a legacy Sage 200 back-end was feeling the strain before digital transformation kicked in. And that strain would surely worsen were boohoo to be successful in chasing a global addressable market of half a billion buyers and achieve its mission of offering fashion for everyone at amazing prices with unrivalled choice.“It was hard to make changes and it was creaking,” Mark recalls, which is no surprise given that it was Sage’s biggest UK installation… and seven times the second largest.The rapid rollout of new brands as boohoo continued its M&amp;A spree meant a more adaptive infrastructure was required. It was this overarching consideration, together with a need to drive efficiency and optimize the boohoo supply chain, that led Nolan and Elliott to embark on what they call a “Sage detox” program.The plan: to jettison bolted-on functionality that sat atop Sage and replace it with a modern, composable MACH architecture plugged into Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 ERP system. Products were centralized in a single Akeneo product information management (PIM) system with the aim being that “you didn’t need an IT degree as a business user to utilize the PIM”.IT at the boohoo group operates fast in what is a fast, ever-changing sector: a WordPress project was completed in three weeks, for example. Minimal viable products are often rolled straight into production where possible.A paper-based order management system was fully automated, eliminating the up-to-25 minutes orders took to be completed when keying in was required. “The digital back-end revolutionized the way the business operates,” Mark says, enabling the company to stay on top of 25,000 SKUs that are added every week.There were other considerations too as boohoo stepped up its automation and manufacturing investments just as it was onboarding new partners and brands. And then of course there was Covid to deal with…Lessons? Nolan and Elliott can share a few. Although boohoo’ new web operations were created quickly and delivered excellent performance, access to skills in the time of the Great Resignation remains a challenge. At a time when “every person gets tapped on the shoulder for a new job every week”, that’s tough, laments Elliott. That means a lengthier-than-ideal reliance on systems integrators has been necessary.Also, dealing with the vagaries of product categorization, dynamic pricing and promotions, content publishing, staging and previewing have been challenging, requiring close collaboration between IT and merchandisers. Differentiating between caching static data and changing, personalised data for performance needed attention and, even in the age of open APIs, integration between systems is not easy.But for an adaptable e-commerce operation, they both agree “MACH is absolutely the right way to go about it,”. In a world where fashions change by season, a flexible environment is needed and that is putting the composable services world on the catwalk and in the spotlight.Authors: Mark Elliott, Chief Architect, boohoo groupSteve Nolan, CTO, boohoo group

How boohoo carved out a MACH keystone for fast-growth e-commerce

Recently the MACH Alliance welcomed its<a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-alliance-surpasses-100-members-as-it-closes-out-milestone-2023"> 100th member</a> and both the Alliance and its members have seen incredible traction in the last few years.It continues to amaze me how fast ‘composable’ has gone from a whisper in the corridors of the cool developer kids to what is quickly becoming a default architecture for digital experiences created for and by enterprises.To understand how composable architectures arrived in the marbled halls of enterprises, we have to look back around 10 years where it all started with the decoupling of the front-end and back-end.Back then, it is fair to say that the web was in trouble. The architecture didn’t scale well, security concerns were rampant, it wasn’t performant enough, and it was all starting to lead to walled gardens such as App Stores and company pages on social platforms.At the time my co-founder of Netlify and I were toying around with different ideas of building something to try and address this when we started looking deeper at the concepts behind standalone frontends.I’ll admit that at first the notion of not having the backend render the presentation layer or UI for every visitor seemed like a technical curiosity at most, but I soon started realizing the potential impact of this decoupling could be tremendous.First off, it would allow for removing the dependency on a single origin server for the websites themselves. Instead, you could have multiple points of origin, and you could distribute the front-end leading to higher scalability, better security and faster load times.Secondly, it could give developers superpowers. Instead of having to send off frontends for implementation into monolithic backend systems, you could instead just pull data IN from those systems. That would mean no more squeezing frontends into templates that didn’t fit, and no more waiting around for implementations. Just push the code live and you’re done.Lastly and perhaps most impactful, it could pave the way for a composable architecture. Not having a monolith dictate the digital experiences and touchpoints would leave one free to compose best-in-class components into nimble solutions that could be upgraded interchangeably and continuously. This would greatly enable omnichannel solutions as digital touchpoints multiplied and could create a whole new digital experience economy.This approach promised to be a fundamentally better way to build digital experiences, and we embarked on creating the first front-end cloud in the market.Of course, back then you really couldn’t build digital experiences of much significance as the ecosystem of services needed simply didn’t exist yet. An example of a lacking element was enterprise-focused e-commerce as that existed as monolithic offerings only.However, the market quickly started evolving tremendously. In fact you’d be hard-pressed to find a single CMS or e-commerce solution that has come to market in the last few years that isn’t natively headless, and today the notion of decoupling the front-end has become the default.This saturation of the category also meant that in the last few years, we’ve started seeing enough services to cater to building out complex digital experience platforms in a composable manner.That in turn meant that the large analyst firms feeding enterprises insights into tech trends started leaning in, and composable architectures started becoming crystalized from a business point of view.<a href="https://www.forrester.com/report/understanding-the-architect-of-your-digital-experience-platform/RES178363">“DXPs… are built by enterprises, not bought from vendors”, wrote senior analyst from Forrester, Joe Cicman,</a> in 2022, referring to the notion that enterprises would now piece together their platforms from best-in-class providers rather than just buy a huge monolith from a single provider.<a href="https://www.gartner.ca/en/articles/gartner-keynote-the-future-of-business-is-composable">“The Future of Business is Composable” wrote Gartner. </a>The reasoning is that “building blocks of composable business enable organizations to pivot quickly, provide resilience, and make development faster, easier and more effective”.But if the analysts provided the “Why” of using composable components in your digital architecture, the enterprises were still to some extent left wondering “How?”.What should a “composable” component actually look like and how should it operate? The trademark of a burgeoning category that in essence is deeply technical and has a broad reach is that it necessarily contains a certain amount of murkiness to start with. The path hasn’t been beaten, and guardrails are something that is typically built out gradually.Clarity was needed to help enterprises along, which was the reason for the birth of the MACH Alliance.There was a clear focus from the outset. To cut through more or less substantiated vendor claims, and provide real clarity for anyone looking to adopt composable components for digital experiences.This led to a rigorous process to certify the companies providing the needed cloud-native, API-First, multi-tenant SaaS offerings, and the enablers and service companies to implement them.Today, thousands of hours are spent every month by an army of dedicated volunteers and a core MACH Alliance staff to bring the best education, events and certification processes to help enterprises start embracing composable architectures and there are now MACH Alliance ambassadors working at many of the most prominent companies in the world helping to spread best practices to an ever-growing audience.And it’s the success of this movement that leads us to this next step of composable implementations and the next step of the MACH Alliance.Composable and MACH are no longer just employed for single projects and stand-alone solutions. With scale more enterprises find themselves needing to integrate larger solutions with ever more components and to find ways to work together with existing technologies.To solve for that we need to turn our gaze towards interoperability.After onboarding almost 5 million developers and businesses I’ve had countless stakeholders share why they want to go composable and headless. Amongst the top reasons are always faster time to market, greater flexibility and better conversion rates.However choosing the right components like a CMS or commerce solution, doesn’t in itself deliver on those promises.If they don’t interact well, and if operations are kept as usual, with the same way of siloed groups manually running infrastructures in a traditional waterfall structure - then even the best headless APIs on the planet can’t give you a fast time to market, nor a performant digital touchpoint.If a company wants to stay agile enough to be able to implement new solutions and upgrade them gradually instead of lifting and shifting monoliths, then it needs to reconsider how it operates those digital experiences and to what standards those solutions will interact.This is why I’m so incredibly excited to be involved in the second phase of the MACH Alliance - The Interoperability Standards.The Interoperability Task Force was launched with several key technologists at member companies and a mandate for 2023/2024 to produce assets that will help buyers understand the landscape.This year the task force will release a number of assets on a regular basis, covering audiences ranging from architects to business stakeholders.<h3>We’ll cover areas including:</h3><ul><li>How organizations can manage change in this digital transformation:- Who should be involved in a re-architecture using MACH principles?</li></ul><ul><li>How does this architecture unlock business goals?- What a composable workflow actually looks like (including high-level current common practices such as “infrastructure as code”)</li><li>How parts of the system interact:- What composition/orchestration layers are needed to be successful? How does this all fit together?- At a lower level, how are individual components expected to interact with one another? How do they work in tandem to unlock end-to-end scenarios?- How are legacy components integrated into a modern, composable architecture?</li></ul>How can architects be sure that individual components follow MACH principles? How can they avoid monoliths?<h3>Assets will include:</h3><ul><li>Podcasts</li><li>Whitepapers (such as “<a href="https://machalliance.org/content-hub/how-to-evaluate-and-integrate-composable-solutions-mach-interoperability-1" target="_blank">How to evaluate and integrate composable technologies</a>”) and</li><li>Reference architectures, including a “code first” model in GitHub so organizations can create their own as needed for internal planning or building RFPs.</li></ul>We’re excited to bring about a focus on this next set of best practices to help ensure successful MACH projects as they continue to scale inside in size and complexity!<h3>Author:</h3><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianbachdk/"><img alt="Chris_Bach_(1).png" src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltc2cda08e264c0cc1/65cf363ea35e3be30822a3f7/Chris_Bach_(1).png" width="571" height="314" style="height: 314;"/></a>

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Phase II of the MACH Alliance: Interoperability Standards

Meet Your MACH Alliance Ambassador: Adam Sturrock, Tech Consultant and Co-Founder of Moltin

Technology continues to evolve as we move toward a future of modular digital experience technology architectures that are flexible and easy to maintain. As an industry body advocating for this future, one of our core objectives is supporting buyers to navigate the journey to composable architectures. Including when and where to start, and how to evaluate the right vendors. Our certification program is designed to help, with vendors, SIs and enablers evaluated against strict criteria.Analyst evaluations like the Forrester Wave(™) and the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ remain a hugely important resource for companies considering and evaluating solutions for their stack. However, there is some confusion in the market about how to read these reports through a MACH lens.You are not “everyone”It is important to remember that there is no such thing as a generic analyst evaluation. Every company has a different set of requirements for their business. Simply looking at the vendor positioning with the dots in the Wave or Quadrant, is not going to help you in selecting the solutions for you.Analyst firms recommend you identify the solution that best serves your current technology gap and requirements. They specialize in defining and classifying criteria that vendors are benchmarked against and there is a lot of transparency underneath the ‘dot’ that can help buyers with the identification. Yet, few buyers seem to know about the additional layer that is so important for internal due diligence.All Forrester analyst evaluations are designed for the respective target audiences of the analyst firms. This is typically upper mid-market and enterprise organizations, covering the full spectrum of technology adoption profiles - it’s for laggards as much as it is for early adopters. If you are a company looking to modernize your set-up, it is helpful to approach evaluations from your unique perspective. We believe this holds true for Gartner analyst evaluations as well.How to customize a Forrester WaveThe Forrester Wave comprises three key components: A report which talks about trends and criteria in a summary version; the graphic with the dots that we all know and love; and a high level overview of the different criteria that make up the dots. It also provides vendor profiles with strengths and weaknesses of the solutions.What is most interesting is how the dots come together. This is based on how weak or strong a vendor’s current offering is, and the functionality available today for you to use (ie. all the buttons you can click and APIs to work with etc.) on the y axis. Vendors that have been in the market the longest will typically have a more complete feature set. It also takes into account strategy on the x axis - usually how well does the vendor’s business model and roadmap set it up for the future. The size of the dot shows market presence usually based on number of customers and product revenue.Analyst assessments the MACH way - build your own waveEach Wave includes a list of criteria that companies are benchmarked against. Taking Forrester’s B2C Commerce Solutions Wave as an example, Forrester benchmarks vendors against criteria such as ‘commerce experience’, and ‘search and merchandising’. For Forrester clients, those criteria are explained in an underlying spreadsheet which also shows how the scoring is defined. Next to the Forrester scores and rankings, there is a ‘Custom Score’ tab. As a MACH buyer, if you are also a Forrester subscriber, this is where you can tailor the Wave to your business and architectural needs.To briefly explain the scoring, every criterion, like commerce experience, is a direct or calculated score based on defined elements. A score of 1 is below par relative to others in this evaluation (important distinction). 3 is indicative of the current market standard as defined by Forrester and on par with others in the evaluation. Anything above 3 is above par compared to others in the evaluation and potentially ahead of what the market needs today.To give a concrete MACH example, front end management for a company looking to go headless might not be as relevant as for one with a tightly coupled architectural mandate. A vendor may score low on a particular criterion because they have actively decided that certain functionality is not part of their native offering but to partner with adjacent vendors to retain focus and follow composable architectural principles. The custom score capability lets you weigh the features and criteria that are relevant and important to you, just as you would for your stack - the MACH way.Based on your customized scoring, the vendor ranking on the first tab of the spreadsheet will change. As a MACH company, your priorities are different from the average buyer. It’s your responsibility to look at the report in the context of your business and technology strategy.How to customize a Gartner® Magic Quadrant™The <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/magic-quadrants-research">Gartner Magic Quadrant</a> according to Gartner, “is a culmination of research in a specific market, giving you a wide-angle view of the relative positions of the market’s competitors. By applying a graphical treatment and a uniform set of evaluation criteria, a Magic Quadrant helps you quickly ascertain how well technology providers are executing their stated visions and how well they are performing against Gartner’s market view.”The interactive version provided with the report available to Gartner clients also shows how vendors have moved in the Quadrant over the past few years, which can be helpful to take vendor trajectory into account. Remember that, even if a vendor hasn’t moved, they may still be evolving as the criteria itself changes with the changing market.Gartner doesn’t provide a spreadsheet. If you are a Gartner Client, you do have customization tools available on the Portal that allow you to change weighting of criteria. For instance, you may not care about a vendor’s sales strategy which goes into the Gartner positioning of the vendor on the Quadrant.Gartner Critical Capabilities report explains the high level criteria and will help with your understanding of the assessment. It includes predefined Use Cases for every category to help you customize capabilities and weightings without the need to create them yourself.From a MACH lens, Gartner has made some level of customization easier for us through its Composable Business Use Case in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce and Critical Capabilities report. This use case is not yet part of all Magic Quadrant evaluations however and it remains the user’s responsibility to check, depending on the Quadrant and product category, if there is a MACH/composable equivalent. Though a detailed explanation of the criteria and scoring is not provided, the vendor write up articulates how they perform in different use cases.Our final words of adviceAbove and beyond all customization of analyst reports, the best way to read these assessments with your specific needs in mind is to call the evaluating analysts. As a Forrester or Gartner client, you may have Inquiries available that allow you to have a real-life two-way conversation and receive the analyst’s expert advice specific to your priorities.As the monolith / composable divide in the enterprise technology space has grown, the analysts’ mandate has become more difficult because they have to serve both sides of the chasm equally - in one single evaluation. As a buyer, to make the right investment choice and avoid selecting technology that won’t fit your business strategy and priorities, you have to look beyond the dot - for now.GARTNER and MAGIC QUADRANT are registered trademarks and service marks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research &amp; Advisory organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Mind the Dot: How to read analyst evaluations through a MACH lens

MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless) technology is built for speed, allowing you to adapt quickly and follow a modular approach that makes it easy to plug in new tools. As digital technologies like Augmented Reality come to market or reach maturity, MACH technology enables teams to implement those faster than ever. At least that’s the hypothesis. But is it true?Contentstack and Valtech teamed up to put the power of MACH to the test. The idea: Build a proof of concept for an Augmented Reality application that’s pulling in content via Contentstack’s headless CMS — in just four weeks.<h2>Keeping up with an ever-changing omnichannel world: The power of a headless CMS</h2>We are living in an omnichannel world. Brands and consumers interact via countless digital channels, from websites to apps, digital billboards, email marketing, smart speakers, and wearables, and analog ‘good old’ communication with the hotline or in person at reception, in stores, branches, on platforms - the list goes on.When consumers engage with a brand, they expect a consistent message across channels. Marketers face the old challenge: delivering content across a growing number of digital touchpoints without having to update duplicate content in multiple places manually. Just that this challenge has become even more complex and more urgent than ever before. A harmonious experience across the customer’s journey is not aspirational anymore: Today, it makes or breaks businesses.Technologically, this is where the power of a MACH&nbsp;CMS such as <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/?utm_source=machall&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=2020_10_15_mach_alliance_spyglass">Contentstack</a> comes in. Simply put, a headless CMS is a modern kind of content management system that manages and organizes content without a connected front-end layer. You manage all your content and assets within your CMS, but then use APIs to distribute that content to anywhere and everywhere you need it — your website, your mobile app, your email marketing tool, or, as in our project, an AR application.But a CMS that’s powered by MACH principles doesn’t just make the day-to-day tasks of orchestrating content across channels easier. It also allows you to add new channels faster than ever before. Because a modern CMS is built from the ground-up to make it easy to add or replace services and build out new channels, it’s a powerful foundation for marketing organizations looking to adopt new technologies and customer touchpoints quickly. And that was&nbsp;exactly the goal of the&nbsp;Project Spyglass experiment.<h2>Project Spyglass: Building an Augmented Reality app for the retail space in just four weeks</h2>Together with the team at Valtech, Contentstack&nbsp;decided on the following scenario for this ambitious project:A skincare brand is looking to use the power of AR to simplify the complex information around their serums, tailor the content to customers’ needs, and ultimately make it easier to navigate the brand’s product line. In-store, the application should support the purchasing process by surfacing helpful information — including reviews, ingredients, and allergens, as well as facts on sustainability and ingredient sourcing. At home, the brand’s AR experience should give the customer personalized guidance on how and when to use the product. Additionally, it should help them keep track of how it does (or doesn’t) help their skin and suggest related products that fit their changing needs after a period of using the serum.All of this was to be delivered as a mobile-web-browser-based Augmented Reality experience, which pulled all content from Contentstack in realtime.Within four weeks, the use cases&nbsp;to be covered were fleshed out and translated into interaction designs. Then,&nbsp;an AR framework was implemented that could track the serum bottles and let the user interact with the content by swiping on-screen, and rotating and tilting the bottle, and connecting the application to Contenstack to pull in all relevant content.If you’re curious, you can read the week-by-week breakdown of the steps taken to make this idea become a reality:- Week 0: <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/how-to-concept-and-pitch-an-augmented-reality-demo-in-one-week?utm_source=machall&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=2020_10_15_mach_alliance_spyglass">Getting to the pitch</a>- Week 1: <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/augmented-reality-for-retail-from-concept-to-game-plan-week-one?utm_source=machall&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=2020_10_15_mach_alliance_spyglass">AR Framework &amp; User Research, Marker Tracking</a>- Week 2:<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/augmented-reality-retail-skincare-poc-week-2?utm_source=machall&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=2020_10_15_mach_alliance_spyglass">Content Modeling and Interaction Building</a>- Week 3: <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/building-a-working-retail-augmented-reality-prototype-final-week-of-development?utm_source=machall&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=2020_10_15_mach_alliance_spyglass">Integration: The Final Week of Development</a>When it came to pulling in the content that shaped this new AR experience, Valtech could truly leverage the flexibility of Contentstack’s <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/docs/developers/apis/graphql-content-delivery-api/?utm_source=machall&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=2020_10_15_mach_alliance_spyglass">powerful GraphQL API</a>. This was only possible because Contentstack is an API-first, headless CMS that puts you in full control over where and how you want to leverage your content.“There isn’t a long-standing tradition of AR and VR applications, and there’s no solution that is pre-built for the problems that an enterprise is going to experience when they’re developing for AR. When you’re trying to do something uncharted, you cannot let yourself be limited by something that was built with “websites” in mind.Contentstack is agnostic to the display and dynamic in the way it relates content to the display layer so that you can architect the data and the content structure in the best way for where it’s going, no matter what the end goal is.”- <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminmellsworth/">Ben Ellsworth, Solutions Architect at Contentstack</a>So how did it turn out? Just four weeks after kicking off project Spyglass, Valtech had built a working prototype — and the <a href="https://spyglass.valtech.engineering/">results</a>couldn't have been better.<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Fk9cfQePYeM?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="101.648%" height="309"></iframe>In retail now more than ever, the <a href="https://machalliance.org/blogdetail/blt96357fdc9d08dabc">secret to success lies in embracing change and doing it fast</a>. Project Spyglass shows that with tools built on MACH principles, you can leverage new technologies like AR to present existing product information in a brand new way. You can experiment with new tools and build new products that seamlessly plug into your existing tech stack without months of integration work — and can build innovative, digital experiences that set you apart from your competition.<h2>Can you keep up with the staggering pace of digital innovation?</h2>The digital world continues to evolve at rocket speed — but to many organizations adopting new channels feels like an impossible task. That’s because they’re stuck with legacy technology that causes the release of new initiatives to take months, even years, or make it too complicated to attempt at all.But it doesn’t have to be that way.If you adopt technology with a MACH mindset at its core, experimenting with new channels and technologies is a whole lot easier, setting your brand up for success in the ever-evolving world of digital innovation._________About ContentstackContentstack is a Content Experience Platform (CXP) with a headless content management system (CMS) at the core. To learn more about Contentstack, visit our<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/?utm_source=machall&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=2020_10_15_mach_alliance_spyglass">website</a>.About ValtechValtech is a global digital agency focused on business transformation. We enable clients to anticipate tomorrow’s trends and connect more directly with their consumers across digital and physical touch points, whilst optimizing time-to-market and ROI. For more information, visit<a href="http://www.valtech.com">www.valtech.com</a>.

How fast can you move with MACH? A 4-week augmented reality experiment

The ecommerce world changes according to consumer behaviour. As consumers change how and where they shop—via mobile devices, social media, kiosks—it became clear that legacy systems could not keep up. Customer demands were ever-changing. Traditional systems are rigid and do not offer the flexibility or adaptability that is needed for today’s consumers. Changes take too long or are too complex.Headless commerce is really about being unrestricted, assembling seamless customer experiences across an array of channels and having the ability to change quickly.Jamie &amp; Alan explore 5 key areas an OMS can increase agility and reduce risk in your headless commerce approach:1 - Real-time inventory visibility - where and how do you use this to maximise your reach across channels2 - Control what you sell and where - in each channel, marketplace or region3 - Share inventory and order data - from a multitude of other systems4 - Improve product availability - match supply and demand in an increasingly complex shopping world5 - Phased rollouts - how to de-risk an OMS project<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/603891555?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479&h=acb06e9028?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0"></iframe>

The Role of Order Management in Headless Commerce

When a company has been evolving for over a century, digital is simply a part of that overall journey. “We’ve been around for a hundred years, so when we talk about transformation it’s in terms of what we need to do to ensure our business is around for the next hundred years.” explains Gireesh Sahukar, Senior Director of Digital at Dawn Foods, “What does our company and operating model need to look like to do that? How do we engage with our customers now and in the future? How are our customers engaging in their day to day lives and what do we need to do to meet them where they are?”For Dawn Foods, <a href="https://www.dawnfoods.com/">the leading bakery ingredient manufacturer, supplier, and distributor</a>, the choice to implement B2B eCommerce wasn’t because of a mandate to go digital but because, according to Gireesh, “In their personal lives, our customers are online, they are connected twenty-four seven and we need to be there with them on that journey to lead and be competitive in our industry.”Gireesh is no stranger to the transformative power of eCommerce, having been in the space for the last fifteen years and with experience working on over fifty eCommerce implementations.He joined Dawn Foods a little over a year as they were in the early stages of their eCommerce journey, and he recently sat down with the MACH Alliance to discuss that journey, his insights into the rapidly changing eCommerce landscape, and his <a href="https://machalliance.org/blogdetail/blt180bfdfc4b7486ef">recently announced role as a MACH Alliance Ambassador</a>.<h2>Monoliths are Going Extinct</h2>Having implemented dozens of eCommerce projects, Gireesh is familiar with the big box platforms that had dominated the market in the past. In the last few years, even before joining Dawn Foods, he has taken more interest in the emerging players.“I think some of the large platforms that have traditionally dominated the market have stagnated in their product offering. Their roadmap hasn’t changed much, they are focused more on internal reworking of their application architecture, and they haven’t been offering customers anything new with each of their releases.” Due to this legacy stagnation, when it came to selecting an approach for Dawn Foods, Gireesh was more interested in discovering what the more innovative platforms out there had to offer.Looking at the landscape, it was clear to the team that innovation in the space was being driven by an overriding principle. “Before we even chose a platform we could see that all of the market was saying the same thing. Every platform wants to be fully API compliant.” explains Gireesh, “Even if they are monoliths, they think that their future platform needs to be completely available by APIs.”That overall shift in the market led the team at Dawn Foods to an early decision on their approach, “We realized that if the industry is going towards APIs then we should really look at a platform, and a wider architecture, that is API-first and API-led.” says Gireesh. By making that decision early in the journey, the team was able to choose solution providers and partners that best fit the overall API-led architecture.<h2>Owning the Experience</h2>Before Gireesh joined the company, Dawn Foods was in the early stages of planning its eCommerce journey. When Gireesh joined it was clear that this would be a multi-year roadmap and needed to scale with the company’s ambitions. He saw that scaling up the company’s eCommerce services would require moving away from the blackbox technology thinking, to creating an architecture that allowed Dawn Foods to be more in control of their own solution roadmap.Owning the architecture not only means that Dawn Foods can better adapt to the external needs of customers, but also to the internal needs of their own teams. “The employee experience is often completely overlooked.” says Gireesh, “Decision makers tend to focus on the customer, but the experience that we can deliver to the customer is dependent on the experience we can deliver to the employee.” In a recent <a href="https://machalliance.org/blogdetail/bltcc77f300fe0158ff">roundtable on future-proofing the tech ecosystem</a>, he emphasized that a key factor of success in any business transformation is building internal confidence in the new way of working.For Dawn Foods, the internal needs present a unique challenge. Along with the external customer, the solution needed to meet the needs of sales reps, customer service reps and the technical service reps (aka, the bakery experts).“We wanted a single interface that could work for all four of these user groups, which meant we needed to control that experience ourselves.” says Gireesh, explaining why the Dawn team decided to build their own custom front-end to work with their API-led stack. “We needed to be able to react to their needs and their evolving ways of working.”“If I was in a different company building a solution for a different problem statement, my answer may have very well been using a front-end-as-a-service like Vue or Frontastic.” continued Gireesh, “For instance, if I was doing a B2C type of site one of those would likely be a better fit than custom development. It’s just that our needs at Dawn were slightly different than the direction they are heading in, so building the interface by ourselves made the most sense for us.”<h2>Modern Speed with MACH tools</h2>Dawn Foods’ choice to build their own front-end, and have it work seamlessly with the back-end tools in their stack is reflective of a growing number of companies who are leveraging API-led tools to build a composable architecture of best fit solutions.“We built our solution to be modular.” says Gireesh, “We could replace underlying APIs without ever having to replatform. In the future we could replace our front-end without having a major rehaul of everything else, because the underlying API structures are all the same.”This type of plug and play solution is enabled by the <a href="https://machalliance.com/blogdetail/blt58fdb0ad9abc4123">rise of MACH</a> principles (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) in software design. Modern MACH tools are built to be modular and integrate from the ground up, bringing a high level of flexibility to the enterprise tech stack.“The MACH architecture gives you that kind of maturity, which is a fairly steep curve, at a very fast pace.” explains Gireesh, “You don’t have to have the large team, or the large investment, to be able to build a mature, robust application architecture that would traditionally take years to achieve.”For Gireesh and his team at Dawn Foods, a MACH architecture enabled them to go from a two person project team at the beginning of January 2020 to a fully launched eCommerce solution by July. Now with a team of eighteen, the speed they gained with a MACH architecture is allowing Dawn Foods to explore other value added services, such as digital marketing, much sooner than if they had gone with a legacy, monolithic eCommerce solution.“We were building the office, the team, and platform as we went, and we were able to go from no code and no requirements to a fully launched functional eCommerce website in twenty-two weeks.” says Gireesh, who believes that if he were to start the project today that timeline would be even shorter. Not just because of lessons learned, but because of how rapidly enterprise software is advancing.“Many tools that weren’t mature enough for us when we started this project have improved leaps and bounds in the last twelve months.” says Gireesh, “I would argue, because of how rapidly the software is maturing, that somebody launching a similar eCommerce solution would be able to do it twenty-five percent faster today than was possible a year ago.”<h2>Customers buy more from us now</h2>After a small pilot with 100 customers, it was clear that Dawn Foods’ B2B community was ready to adopt eCommerce. “We all know that customers ‘saying’ they want something and a customer ‘adopting something’ are two different things.” says Gireesh, “Our customers showed, by coming back to the site week after week, that they are very willing and eager to adopt the new way of connecting into their ordering process.”In less than a year, Dawn Foods was able to go from a sales-rep-led ordering process to a self-service eCommerce that customers could access 24/7. Not only is it convenient for customers to have all their order history and invoice management in one central place, but they also now have an easier way to explore the more than 10,000 items that Dawn Foods offers.“The benefits are more than just easy reordering, it’s the discovery aspect as well.” explains Gireesh, “I’ve talked to customers that have been with us for five, ten, twenty-five years who tell me that they have seen a product on our website they have been ordering from someone else simply because they didn’t know we carry it. It’s been great to hear feedback from long time customers who say they are now able to see that Dawn offers much more than they’ve been buying from us historically.”“Because it’s our first year having the data, as well as the pandemic, it’s very hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison of just how much this solution has impacted our business” says Gireesh, “Anecdotally, what we definitely have seen is an increase in that kind of discovery that has led to incremental ordering and better conversations around our product offerings.”<h2>Dawn Foods is a constant innovator</h2>As mentioned previously, Dawn Foods doesn’t see digital as the end game but as part of a continuing process of adapting their business to meet customer needs and to continue to lead the industry. “Our company is known as an innovator in the bakery ingredients space, people recognize us for our cutting edge products. We have a track record of knowing where the industry needs to go and taking it there,” explains Gireesh. “Sometimes we have to drag it there, but eventually it comes along.”Gireesh sees this digital advancement as a new opportunity for Dawn Foods to move the industry forward. “We’re already seen as an innovator, so this was just another way of us innovating in the space. We already had four touchpoints with our customers, and this just adds a fifth. That might not seem like a big deal, but when everyone else does three and you’re doing five that’s a huge differentiator.”While the site is a key way that Dawn Foods is currently driving innovation, the business is continuously looking for ways to lead the market in all facets of business. Overall, says Gireesh, “The whole eCommerce site is just one part of a broader company-wide initiative to make transformative changes in how we operate as a business.”<h2>MACH Alliance Ambassador</h2>The MACH Alliance is very excited to have Gireesh as one of our first <a href="https://machalliance.org/blogdetail/blt180bfdfc4b7486ef">MACH Alliance Ambassadors</a>. Our Ambassadors are a carefully selected group of business and technology experts with a wide range of experience across industries and backgrounds. Passionate about the benefits a modern architecture can bring to an enterprise, our Ambassadors have graciously committed their time to support the mission of the MACH Alliance by writing, speaking, and serving as subject matter experts to help empower companies to go MACH.If you’re interested in learning more about the composable enterprise, and understanding if it’s right for your business, you’re invited to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahukar/">reach out to Gireesh</a> or get in touch with us at <a href="mailto:info@machalliance.org">info@machalliance.org</a> to be matched with the MACH Alliance Ambassador most relevant to you.

Meet Your MACH Alliance Ambassador: Gireesh Sahukar, Senior Director of Digital at Dawn Foods

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act withyesterday’s logic.” –&nbsp;Peter DruckerTypically, when an enterprise is looking to upgrade their technology they put out an RFP, hire a consultant to help guide the process and seek recommendations from their peers. Today, the MACH Alliance’s seal of certification is helping that process and giving enterprises confidence they are choosing best-in-class vendors that can deliver future-proof technology.The MACH Alliance created the certification process to help identify software vendors and integrators who embrace MACH philosophies and principles and offer Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud native SaaS and Headless services. They have to meet a specific set of criteria to get the certification.Why MACH certification mattersSome certifications exist to ensure proper payment for IP or to show the authenticity of an acquired piece – as with paintings and jewelry. Most certifications though are designed to provide proof an individual or company has training and expertise in a particular subject or field. MACH certification is the latter. It provides enterprises with an added level of protection by confirming the vendor understands MACH and can deliver on their promises. In that way, it’s like an insurance policy that adds value by guaranteeing future proof technology.Choosing MACH certified vendors ensures:* Composable Connectability - Tech buyers can rest assured that other applications connect easily through API* Infinite Scalability - Cloud-native ensures seamless rolling upgrades that don’t require human intervention* Ultimate swap-ability - Companies can easily add and replace software, and make changes on the fly without disrupting front end UX/UI* Adaptability/Any place, any head - The functionality of the software can be used with multiple front ends* Flexibility &amp; Transparency - Prevents vendor lock-in, allowing companies to stay in charge of their own technology and to be able to respond to any situation<ul></ul>While there’s been a lot of talk in the market about Microservices, Cloud (native), API’s and Headless, with reference to the above qualities, the MACH Alliance recognizes that the newness and complexity of technology has also created confusion with buyers. We love that the market sees MACH as an ambition and as the clear direction for the future and want to assist in giving buyers confidence in the solutions they choose. That’s why we are actively working to certify companies that are truly MACH today and can inherently insure all the above.<a href="https://www.machalliance.com/application-member">Software Vendors (ISVs), System Integrators and Enablers </a>are invited to check whether they would be compliant and eligible for certification.Why NowMACH architecture provides organizations with an open, composable and scalable foundation that enables the use of agile development methods. It gives IT teams the freedom to build, test, and implement tools and features quickly and easily. Speed is truly the key to business survival today – and COVID and an unstable economy has only reinforced its importance. Companies that respond quickly to new technological requirements created by world events are the ones that are thriving right now.The MACH Alliance, a non-profit, with over 80 members, felt compelled to create an organization to support non-tech brands navigating digital transformation. The Alliance is vendor agnostic and provides resources, education and guidance to help others make the best technology decisions possible. The goal is to support the future of business by spearheading enterprise transition to future-proof technology. MACH is the future logic, the new standard for tech to be adaptable in times of turbulence and change.

MACH Certification: A Seal of Confidence

Looking back at 2023, it has been a huge year for Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the launch of generative pre-trained transformers such as ChatGPT developed by OpenAI, Jasper AI, Adobe Firefly, and many other similar inventions. These tools were welcomed with excitement as well as uncertainty, as any new technology brings a bit of unknown.From what we know so far, AI has changed the way we work across several industries, including e-commerce and provided new and exciting opportunities to make our lives easier and our jobs more efficient. In 2023, around <a href="https://explodingtopics.com/blog/companies-using-ai">35%</a> of all companies across all industries are using AI in their business. The highest adoption of AI includes: financial services, healthcare, retail and manufacturing. AI is a technology that will grow in strength in the years to come. According to Gartner's, <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2024">Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends</a> for 2024: "By 2026, generative AI will significantly alter 70% of the design and development effort for new web applications and mobile apps."In this article, we will explore how AI advanced the e-commerce industry with some practical examples of how industry leaders are using artificial intelligence to streamline operations, improve customer experience and ultimately drive sales.<h3>The Significance of AI in E-commerce</h3>There are some fascinating ways AI has emerged and revolutionized the e-commerce industry and how businesses evolved in the digital marketplace. It has significantly impacted customer experience through:<ul><li>personalization,</li><li>improved search capabilities with voice and image recognition,</li><li>optimized pricing strategy,</li><li>streamlined inventory management</li><li>improving customer experience.</li></ul>All of these strategies are a game changer for companies in making data-driven decisions, reducing operating costs, improving efficiency, and, as a result, staying competitive in a rapidly evolving industry.<h4>#1 Personalized Shopping Experience</h4>Product recommendations based solely on the customer segment or other generic assumption is a sure way to lose a sale! With all the data available to marketers these days, personalized product recommendations are here to stay. AI changed the way products are being promoted to customers, and to my delight — dynamic, real-time suggestions based on customer behavior and personal preferences is what drives sales and customer satisfaction (my unique fashion style is finally getting noticed by fashion companies!). For instance, Amazon’s recommendation uses AI to analyze browsing and purchasing history before making any product suggestions tailored to the buyer’s interest and intent.<h4>#2 Voice and Image Recognition</h4>AI-powered voice recognition has redefined the shopping experience in e-commerce, making it even more intuitive and convenient for customers. Shopping while driving? It’s possible now with voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant that offer consumers a hands-free and user-friendly interaction with their favorite brands. This might be an extreme example, but on a serious note, these technologies have helped immensely people who have certain disabilities and might struggle or find it impossible to work with a mouse or keyboard enabling a whole new world of possibilities.On the other hand, image recognition empowered shoppers with another way of product recommendation by uploading a photo of items they want to purchase. So far, the best application of this feature was adopted by Pinterest’s “<a href="https://www.pinterest.com/harpersbazaar/shop-the-look/">Shop the Look</a>” which enables users to click on the “pinned” image to find similar ones available in stores. In addition, ASOS, the UK’s biggest online fashion retailer, launched “<a href="https://www.asos.com/customer-care/product-stock/how-does-your-style-match-feature-work/">Style Match</a>,” which allows users to snap a photo of an outfit and explore similar outfits from their inventory.<h4>#3 Inventory Management</h4>Optimizing supply chains while reducing waste and boosting efficiency — here are only a few ways AI technologies improve inventory management. No one likes shopping in a store only to find out that your size is no longer available. Well, with AI this should never happen as the algorithm can predict demand for various products (successfully launched by Amazon). But also, Walmart has taken this to the next level, while using AI for real-time inventory tracking, helping store managers to restock items before they run low.Are these technologies only available to big players? Luckily, with Shopify's AI-driven inventory management tools, small businesses can follow this trend and ensure they meet customer expectations, reduce waste and optimize inventory.<h4>#4 Price Optimization</h4>Have you ever found yourself searching for affordable flights on desired dates to eventually book the exact same flight 20% more expensive a few days later? Or trying to book an Uber and getting it one minute later for a higher price? Well, that’s now possible for e-commerce businesses (let’s hope for a rather downward trend!). Online retailers can effectively adopt AI for real-time pricing strategies ensuring they remain competitive and maximize profitability. For example, Media Markt adopted dynamic pricing offering the same TV at different prices during different times a day, however decided to partially refund customers up to two weeks after the purchase if the price was lower than when they bought the product.<h4>#5 Product Information Management</h4>Another space within e-commerce, which has not been omitted by AI is product information management (PIM). PIM solutions are handling massive amounts of data, hence the adoption of AI has been long awaited to bring some significant optimization across all channels of data management. Through machine learning algorithms, AI improves data quality by identifying and correcting errors, inconsistencies, and duplicates in product information.Additionally, <a href="https://www.bluestonepim.com/ai-features">AI-driven PIM solutions</a> streamline data enrichment processes by automatically tagging and classifying products based on attributes. Intelligent automation reduces manual efforts in updating product details, ensuring real-time accuracy. Predictive analytics within AI-powered PIM systems help businesses anticipate market trends and customer preferences, facilitating data-driven decision-making.<h4>#6 AI and MACH Technology</h4>AI can significantly benefit the MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless) architecture by enhancing its key principles. In the context of microservices, AI can optimize and automate service orchestration, ensuring efficient communication and collaboration among microservices. API-first design can leverage AI to enhance API management, ensuring seamless integration and data exchange. Cloud-native deployments benefit from AI-driven auto-scaling, resource optimization, and predictive maintenance, improving overall performance and cost efficiency. Headless architecture, with its focus on decoupled front-end and back-end, can leverage AI for personalized content delivery and user experience optimization.Moreover, AI can analyze vast datasets generated by MACH systems to derive valuable insights, enabling data-driven decision-making. Overall, AI complements and enhances each aspect of the MACH architecture, fostering agility, scalability, and intelligence in modern digital ecosystems.<h3>AI &amp; Future Challenges</h3>Despite the benefits, the AI raises valid concerns. Privacy becomes a paramount issue as these technologies gather and analyze vast amounts of user data. The absence of human interaction in customer service may lead to a less personalized experience, impacting customer satisfaction. Automation, while efficient, poses a risk to employment, with certain tasks susceptible to job displacement. As we navigate this tech-driven era, addressing these drawbacks becomes imperative to foster a harmonious coexistence between innovation and societal well-being.<h3>Conclusion</h3>In the dynamic landscape of e-commerce, AI emerges as a double-edged sword, offering unprecedented advantages while wielding potential pitfalls. On the bright side, it catapults efficiency, personalization, and user experience to new heights. However, shadowing this brilliance are concerns like privacy issues, the risk of job displacement, and the subtle erosion of the human touch in customer interactions.Striking a balance between innovation and ethical considerations is the key to navigating this digital frontier. As we ride the e-commerce wave, let's ensure that AI's role is one of an invaluable assistant, not an accidental antagonist.Author: Borgar Hestad, EVP Sales &amp; Marketing, Bluestone PIM

How AI Is Changing The E-commerce Industry

The buzz about customer data platforms (CDPs) is only getting louder as e-commerce matures and consumers expect even more out of brands online. That makes the functionality of CDPs even more integral in today’s digital-first world.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdpinstitute.org/learning-center/what-is-a-cdp/">The Customer Data Platform Institute defines a CDP</a> as “packaged software that creates a persistent, unified customer database that is accessible to other systems.” One of the key differentiators of a CDP from customer relationship management software or other systems that work with customer data is that marketers — not IT professionals — are the ones using CDPs on a daily basis.&nbsp;A <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/2021/customer-data-platform">customer data platform</a> should simply integrate with your existing data and facilitate easy retrieval of your stored data for marketing campaigns. It should also collect first-party customer data from different sources and link that information to specific customers in the database — this creates a <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/2021/single-customer-view-scv-overview-for-2021">single customer view</a>, which can then be used to set up and execute campaigns and analyze their performance.&nbsp;The CDP marketplace — which is around 15+ years old at this point —&nbsp;has slowly shifted away from traditional monoliths with closed architectures. It has matured to meet the unique demands of those working in e-commerce to serve customers online. And as modern technology evolves everywhere, companies have learned they must take advantage of what the <a href="https://machalliance.org/manifesto">MACH Alliance Manifesto</a> states are the “innovative and flexible technologies available.”&nbsp;That means just as it is across the SaaS marketplace, it’s time to advocate for open and best-of-breed technologies in the CDP market as well.&nbsp;<h4>Why Do Companies Need a Customer Data Platform?</h4>The reason why your company needs a customer data platform in today’s market is simple:&nbsp; Customers are demanding personalized experiences from your brand.&nbsp;Consider these statistics from <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-value-of-getting-personalization-right-or-wrong-is-multiplying">McKinsey</a>:&nbsp;<ul><li>76% of consumers become frustrated when they don’t get a personalized experience</li><li>78% of consumers are more likely to make a repeat purchase with a brand that personalized their online shopping experience</li><li>76% of consumers are more likely to consider purchasing from companies that use e-commerce personalization strategies&nbsp;</li></ul>Those statistics show that customers shopping online today want companies to compliantly use their data to personalize the experience. It saves the customer time and makes their shopping experience with a brand a much more enjoyable one.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt68d8d16c0d2e4112/63f4c381134b561081375906/MACH-compliant_CDP_in-article_1.jpg"/>But it isn’t just on-site personalization that customers want. They also want personalized email communications, which has resulted in the SaaS market looking more to customer data platforms to create and properly segment email marketing campaigns.&nbsp;Companies have started shifting away from traditional email service providers (ESPs) to CDPs as they’ve realized the power of their customer data when it comes to properly segmenting and personalizing email campaigns. The right CDP will allow you to use your customer data to segment audiences and then personalize your emails to be as relevant to your audience as possible.&nbsp;A customer data platform also allows for the personalization of other aspects of the customer journey. The modern customer wants to be reached on the channel that best suits them, not the one that best suits your company. That means the importance of <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/2019/omnichannel-commerce-for-business">omnichannel</a> campaigns has skyrocketed, and a CDP is crucial in getting you the data you need to understand where and when to connect with customers for those campaigns.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h4>The Benefits of a MACH-compliant Customer Data Platform&nbsp;</h4>Why does having a MACH-compliant customer data platform matter to you?If businesses want to truly capitalize on the promises they make customers with personalization, they need a powerful ecosystem of technology powering that venture. Not only that, but they also need to have the freedom to build that ecosystem in a way that makes sense internally.&nbsp;The fact is, this type of ecosystem operates best with a MACH-compliant CDP collecting real-time customer data for use in marketing automation campaigns.<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/bltbf992144c97fb968/63f4c3b4f9af2d1090b86169/MACH-compliant_CDP_in-article_2.jpg"/>A MACH-compliant CDP allows your company to use real-time customer data to offer personalized experiences with your brand that are unmatched, whether it’s personalized email marketing, on-site product recommendations, or SMS campaigns.&nbsp;The specific advantages of a MACH-compliant CDP are:&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>Microservices architecture: There is more to developing a microservices architecture than simply breaking up the monolithic commerce software application into a collection of smaller services. To fully realize the benefits of this modern app-development methodology, it’s essential to optimize the data layer, especially if you want to personalize across all channels. You need to consider how your data is managed, build interservice communication, and synchronize that data. MACH-compliant services also allow you to extend your CDP with additional features provided by other MACH solutions (e.g., content generation, custom recommendations engines tailored to your needs, or even advanced solutions creating modern conversational services).&nbsp;</li><li>APIs and webhooks: To be able to activate data from a CDP, you could look at three main purposes:<ul><li>Front-end — Use the APIs to quickly retrieve all the information you have about your visitors and customers, as well as all the insight your CDP created, then use this data for building forms, weblayers, and truly personalized content in a headless way. Retrieve relevant product recommendations and tailor offers based on the customer’s most recent behavior.</li><li>Sending communications — API endpoints for all channels (web, email, SMS, mobile push, etc.).</li><li>Receiving data — Use APIs and webhooks to delegate endpoints for processing. Using webhooks, you can get access to actionable customer data in real time, and customer segmentation allows companies to ensure every customer receives relevant marketing communications.</li></ul></li><li>Cloud-native SaaS: With an on-premise solution, the process of passing customer data to the CDP has become overly complex in terms of authentication and performance.&nbsp; You can operate at an advantage with cloud-native SaaS CDP for several reasons:&nbsp;<ul><li>Features and integrations can be added multiple times per year.&nbsp;</li><li>Regular updates can be deployed on a weekly or biweekly basis, and critical fixes are deployed as soon as possible.&nbsp;</li><li>No downtime while updating.&nbsp;</li><li>There is only a single version, meaning all clients receive the latest version — fully supported.&nbsp;</li><li>It’s very easy to pass customer data points to other pieces of software in your technology stack. With legacy solutions, they may only have the option of importing or exporting files (and not in real time), which can lead to your customers receiving irrelevant or outdated marketing messages.</li></ul></li><li>Headless: To activate the data in an omnichannel e-commerce environment, it’s critical to have the APIs be able to interact with both your front end and all your other channels (email, SMS, WhatsApp, social, etc.).&nbsp;</li></ul>A MACH-compliant CDP offers the agility required to keep pace with rising customer demands thanks to the personalization offerings accessible from a truly open architecture.&nbsp;&nbsp;The future is MACH-compliant personalized experiences — how will your company offer them to your customers?<img src="https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltb9eff0ec0532965e/blt4503191c451bf49b/63f4c4e6778c9c3236175f4e/Carl_Bleich_profile.png"/>

The Benefits of a MACH-compliant Customer Data Platform

<blockquote>Author: Katarzyna Maria Banasik, Marketing Specialist at <a href="https://www.voucherify.io/" target="_blank">Voucherify</a></blockquote><h2>Overview </h2>Due to the coronavirus pandemic, customers started shopping online more. It is predicted to have long-lasting effects on customer behaviour, also post-pandemic, and across all age groups.The digital transformation, expected to happen within the next five years, is instead happening within a couple of months. Due to government regulations and customer preferences, brick-and-mortar stores are experiencing drastically lower revenue.Building e-commerce capabilities became crucial for both retailers and manufacturers. Manufacturers who do not have pure online retailers in their portfolio should strongly consider starting Direct to Consumers sales. Those who sell through online retailers should consider it due to the many advantages of direct sales.There are various strategies to help you move to Direct to Consumer sales. Wherever you are with your transformation to omnichannel or direct sales specifically, MACH software can get you there faster and at a fraction of the cost in the long term.<h2>This white paper covers the following topics:</h2><ul><li>The economic environment in light of the coronavirus crisis.</li><li>Retailers are moving to direct online sales.</li><li>Why should manufacturers open Direct to Consumer sales?</li><li>Strategies to successfully move to Direct to Consumer sales.</li></ul>

DTC Sales MACH Alliance V2 PDF.pdf

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Get the Guide for Manufacturers

Why and How to Move to Direct to Consumer Online Sales as a Manufacturer

Site search is a rare moment when a customer directly tells you what they want. Showing shoppers relevant products is now table stakes, and brands are on the hunt for new ways to help people find exactly what they're looking for.“When you look at the search experience of the new world it’s going to look much more like a magazine. You’ll have content embedded together with the product search results,” says Eli Finkelshteyn, Founder and CEO of <a href="https://constructor.io/">Constructor</a>, the AI-first site search for eCommerce. “It’s a much more visually pleasing array that also takes into account all of the different things that a company has to offer.”An overview of local hiking trails can be shown to a person browsing tents and camp cookware. The results of a search for peanut-free products can include an allergen FAQ. A designer’s video interview can sit among the products in her new line. Blending quality content with the powerful personalization of AI-driven commerce search helps shoppers discover not only the most relevant products and services, but the ones most attractive to them in each context.A recent Forrester report on <a href="https://www.forrester.com/report/Drive+Shopper+Relevance+With+AIDriven+Digital+Commerce+Search/-/E-RES165132">driving shopper relevance with AI commerce search</a> explains the role of contextual content in modern commerce:“Finding related products or content, especially when the searcher doesn’t use the precise product taxonomy, is the crux of delivering relevancy in digital commerce. What started as product recommendations has developed into mature search solutions that serve up congruent products and content related to the original query, much like how standing in a store would allow a consumer to see similar items in the aisle.”<h1>Intelligent search and scalable content</h1>A dynamic blend of content and commerce requires a search engine that goes beyond basic keyword matching and a content solution that makes it easy for marketers and merchandisers to design and scale the experience.As stated in the <a href="https://www.forrester.com/report/Drive+Shopper+Relevance+With+AIDriven+Digital+Commerce+Search/-/E-RES165132">Forrester paper on shopper relevance</a>, “Automation enables relevant personalization at scale, which is all but impossible with older manual methods, and places control in the hands of the merchandising teams. New search solutions provide predictive merchandising tools with easy interfaces to adjust results, read consolidated data, and apply changes at scale.”AI search can free up merchandising and marketing teams from tedious manual tasks, such as maintaining a synonym list so people searching for “grey blouse” are also shown “gray shirt” or creating a workaround to make your system register grammatical anomalies like “Jordan 1s”.“If merchandisers are sitting in legacy search tools correcting misspelling, that's under utilizing the really useful business information that’s in the head of the merchandiser and often not anywhere else,” says Constructor's Finkelshteyn, who explained that modern AI tools empower teams by not only taking care of menial tasks but by giving merchandisers the data, insights, and creative control to test out new ideas.“If they think a new product is going to sell like crazy, they can simply make it the first result for a few queries and the system can learn from there,” says Finkelshteyn.When intelligent search tools are combined with a headless content management solution (CMS) that makes it easy for marketers and merchandisers to create content for any channel, commerce teams can quickly scale up intelligent product discovery. Content can be designed and managed within the CMS and integrations can pull that information to a modern search engine where it’s immediately searchable and surfaced in relevant quieres.<h1>Can’t teach an old suite new tricks</h1>Legacy search solutions struggle to merge content marketing, merchandising, and product catalogues into an attractive shopping experience.Search platforms built in the age of keyword matching and Lucene indexing simply don’t have the core functionality to support AI initiatives at scale, and large “one-size-fits-all” suites lock companies into the capabilities and development roadmap of a single vendor.To compete in eCommerce, companies are turning to architectures that let them create their own ecosystem of best-fit tools. <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/mach-approach-to-ecommerce-get-the-first-mach-alliance-ebook">This composable commerce approach is often driven by MACH </a>(microservices, API-first, cloud-native, headless) tools, which are designed to easily integrate functionality and data with other tools in your stack.From ordering results based on local in-store inventory levels, to boosting organic products to the shopper reading articles on sustainability, to providing personal sizing guides for the new summer fashions - a composable approach gives brands the freedom to design product discovery tailor-fit to their customers.<h1>Kickstart revenue without a replatform</h1>A core benefit of moving toward composable commerce is the ability to <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/future-proofing-the-tech-ecosystem-for-an-uncertain-future">build a future-proof tech stack in steps</a>. Brands can use MACH tools to get new initiatives up and running while transitioning off legacy tools at their own pace.If, like many organizations, you are not quite ready to replace your core transactional engine, adopting MACH content and discovery tools offers a shortcut to a valuable shopping experience.“Focusing on content and search can be a great place to start because these are both directly tied to a company’s revenue,” says Finkelshteyn. “You can implement them while leaving your existing commerce platform in place and quickly see revenue lift, which you can use to gain momentum and fund the rest of your MACH transformation.”<a href="https://constructor.io/">Constructor</a> and <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/">Contentstack</a>, the headless content platform, are teaming up to showcase just how quickly brands can tap into the benefits of content and commerce - no need for a major replatform. Check out the joint <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/commerce-meet-consumer-demands-with-ai-and-omnichannel-cms/?utm_medium=partner-link&utm_source=machalliance.org&utm_campaign=fy22-q3-constructor&utm_content=blog">pilot project</a> to learn more about the powerful combination of flexible content, intuitive editing, and intelligent product discovery.Author: Varia Makagonova, Director of Marketing, Contentstack

Intelligent product discovery fast-tracked by MACH

Over the past three years, the MACH Alliance has grown from an idea to a movement, to an established non-profit organization with more than <a href="https://machalliance.org/members">80 international members</a> dedicated to advocating for open, best-of-breed technology ecosystems. The Alliance was initiated as a response to the paradigm shift in enterprise technology that the founders were witnessing, as businesses embraced Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless technologies to propel their digital experience. The response we’ve seen has made it quite clear - and exciting - that this shift is happening even faster than we originally anticipated.See our latest research on MACH <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/mach-global-research-2023">adoption</a> trends.As true proponents of MACH technologies, we believe the Alliance has a responsibility to the market, especially to enterprise buyers, to approach MACH certification with a high degree of objectivity and scrutiny. It can be incredibly hard for a buyer to cut through industry jargon, particularly from big companies with loud marketing, to understand if a vendor or agency is truly following composable architecture principles. Our certification is our word that we have evaluated the technology, references, and roadmap of a member and they have proven they meet all the criteria for the Alliance to recommend them as part of a future-proof technology stack. Since our June 2020 launch, we have had over 170 companies - System Integrators (SI), Independent Software Vendors (ISV) and Enablers - apply and about half have achieved certification.SI, ISV and Enabler certification criteria and application forms are available <a href="https://machalliance.org/application-member">here</a>.<h2></h2>We hold ourselves accountable to independent evaluationThe Alliance is a self-regulated organization and it is in every member’s best interest that we hold ourselves accountable to an independent, fact-based evaluation process. We have direct competitors sitting on the board, as well as in nearly every technology segment that is represented in the Alliance. For instance, our headless CMS members regularly go head-to-head in sales cycles but that does not stop the Alliance from certifying all of them. The value of a MACH certification does not come from market exclusivity, it comes from enterprise buyers’ trust in the Alliance to ensure that every certified member will enable them to accelerate, to innovate and to ultimately differentiate with their digital initiatives. In such a connected industry, earning that trust requires an unbiased and transparent review process. To ensure this, we have put in place a few essential rules:First, each applicant is reviewed by our Admissions Panel, made up of individuals from the Growth Council (evaluating from a business standpoint), the Technology Council and the Executive Board. The Admissions Panel completes an in-depth review of the information provided by the applicant and, as a critical part of the process, speaks to reference customers to ensure all accepted Alliance members provide a high quality solution in real-world applications.To avoid conflicts of interest, ISV applications are reviewed by panel members from our SI members and vice-versa. So if a search vendor applies for MACH Alliance membership, no other search vendor will be decisive in the evaluation. This is primarily to protect the competitive advantage of the applicant, but it is also crucial to protect the neutral nature of the Alliance.Secondly, we provide a clear definition of MACH compliance in our certification criteria and strictly adhere to them. As a non-commercial organization, our brand is our ultimate value. To protect the Alliance brand we err on the side of caution.We believe this rigorous approach to qualification is particularly important to help enterprise buyers navigate the shifting technology market. Nearly every enterprise software vendor has the mission - and most of them the clear roadmap - to move away from legacy towards a MACH architecture. We strongly encourage this transition and understand that doing so requires a large amount of organizational and commercial change.The Alliance has recently created an additional <a href="https://www.machalliance.com/assets/pdf/Membership_Additional_Terms_for_Legacy_Vendors.pdf">set of terms</a> to help guide applicants in the transition to becoming a MACH vendor, which at a high-level includes:- All products currently offered for sale must be MACH- Non-MACH products cannot be marketed- Last analyst evaluation from Gartner or Forrester must have been of MACH product(s) only- Cannot be doing feature releases of non-MACH product- Documentation and other technical collateral in support of existing legacy non-MACH products may still be available, but nothing is available in terms of thought leadership on the non-MACH product<h2></h2>Our guarantee to enterprise buyersAs the market evolves our criteria needs to evolve to both champion this shift to MACH and preserve the authenticity of a MACH certification. We aim to be transparent about any refinements to certification criteria.For example, our initial criteria required that every single product a software vendor offered had to be fully MACH compliant. We then saw a handful of vendors that were far along in the process of discontinuing their legacy products and were exclusively promoting and selling MACH products, but still had a few long term customers holding out on their legacy platforms. We believe it is fair for these vendors to be eligible for membership if they meet our ARR/license revenue criteria:<ul><li>100% of new license revenue in the past 6 months must be from MACH-based product(s) only (excludes additional CPUs/capacity from existing customers).</li><li>A minimum of 70% of total ARR in the past 6 months must be from MACH-based product(s)</li></ul>On the opposite end of the spectrum, in 2021 two of our certified members were successfully acquired by larger software companies and have subsequently lost their MACH certification. This is to ensure that vendors cannot use a single MACH compliant offering to “MACH-wash” the marketing for the rest of their portfolio.The MACH Alliance asks vendors, SIs and Enablers to apply for membership. In certain cases, it’s crystal clear that a technology fits with the Alliance and the applicant is accepted in a matter of weeks. Other cases have required intense scrutiny of resources and references with evaluations lasting months or longer.Our list of certified members is not a comprehensive view of every MACH-compliant enterprise player. There are vendors and agencies who comply with the full criteria but have not yet gone through the motions to apply. Our guarantee to enterprise buyers is not that we have evaluated every solution on the market, but that the members we have certified have provided extensive proof that their solutions are fully MACH and future-proof.We’re incredibly grateful to all our members who contribute their time, resources, and financial support to help the MACH Alliance thrive. We’re also grateful for the many applicants we spoke to who are well on their way to becoming composable but have not yet reached the critical threshold for MACH certification. Through these conversations especially, we’ve gained a deeper understanding of what it takes to shift from monolith to MACH and appreciate the honesty and transparency of the organizations on this journey. We’ve seen many exciting roadmaps, and we look forward to the reapplication of vendors and integrators as they execute on their MACH strategies.The past few years have demonstrated just how critical flexibility is for an enterprise business. The MACH Alliance’s mission is to help enterprise organizations to understand how and why a paradigm shift towards composable technologies offers the flexibility to deliver business outcomes better and faster. The goal of our certification program is to identify those technologies that will help them on this path. We are committed to staying true to that goal and will continue to set a high bar for MACH certification to ensure we provide value to our members and retain the trust of enterprise buyers.