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Composable commerce

The best choice for each component

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author
Tim Sol
Business Consultant

Three situations we encounter every day with growing online stores.

Why your package is starting to feel too tight

  • Your platform does everything halfway

    Your platform handles search, product data, and email, all just a little bit, and none of those components well enough. Standalone systems that do one thing well are more effective than a package that does everything halfway.

  • You’re stuck with what doesn’t work

    Replacing a single component now means rebuilding your entire store from scratch, so you’re stuck with something that doesn’t work. With standalone components, you can swap out one system without touching the rest.

  • Your integrations have grown, not been built

    Your systems communicate via manual exports and standalone scripts that no one dares to modify anymore. That’s not architecture—it’s a collection of stopgap measures, and it breaks at the worst possible moment.

Composable commerce without uncontrolled growth

Composable commerce means choosing the system that does each component best and connecting them together: your online store, your product data, your search function, your payments, your email. So you build your landscape from components you can replace, rather than a single package that does everything halfway.

The pitfall is just as familiar: every system you add is an extra contract, an extra vendor, and an extra place where something can break. We keep this manageable with one rule we establish upfront: one source system per data type. Prices from your accounting system, product data from your PIM, customer profiles from a single source. Without that rule, systems will start overwriting each other.

You’ll be working with Paul van der Meijs, Head of Engineering at Redkiwi, along with Tim Sol and Jasper. We’ve been building and integrating online stores since 2004, and those 22 years of customer insight are the foundation of every piece of advice we give.

  • 22+ year experience
  • 9,3 customer care
  • 55+ Kiwi specialists

What does composable commerce entail?

Four layers. Component selection: determining which features deserve their own system and which should remain within your platform. The source model: defining for each piece of data which system holds the truth, so that nothing overwrites anything else. The integration layer: a single location where connections are managed and you can see if they’re working, instead of separate scripts. And management: who holds which contract, who has access where, and what happens if a supplier goes down.

From a package to individual components, step by step

No one has to make the switch all at once. We start with the component causing the most issues, often your product data or search function, and integrate that separately. If it works, we move on to the next step. This way, your store keeps running, and you can see at each step whether the benefits outweigh the extra management effort. Every integration we build is placed in the same layer with monitoring in place, so you’ll notice if something goes wrong before your customer does.

Three areas that yield the most results.

The components we start with

In practice, we almost always start with the same three: the integration layer, your product data, and your front end. That’s where you’ll see the most benefit and the least risk. We’ll determine what comes next based on your specific situation.

From bottleneck to expansion in five steps.

Here’s how we build your landscape

  • 1. Mapping the landscape

    We map out which systems you have, what they do, and where they get in each other’s way. That’s often where the real bottleneck lies.

  • 2. Defining the source model

    For each piece of data, we identify which system is the source. This is the step that prevents the most problems later on and takes the least amount of time.

  • 3. Decoupling a single component

    We start with the component that’s causing the most trouble and decouple it, while the rest continues to run.

  • 4. Connect and monitor

    All connections are placed in the same connection layer with monitoring, so you can spot a failure before your customer reports it.

  • 5. Next Step or Stop

    If the step delivers what we expected, we move on to the next part. If not, we stop—and you’ll know why.

Three organizations with multiple systems that needed to work together.

Landscapes We Built

  • La Place

    We'll take care of a new flavour

  • Althen

    Creating two new websites to generate increased traffic and prospects in the B2B market.

View all our case studies View all our case studies

Independent advice, no bias.

How we connect the pieces

All integrations between your systems via a single platform

Open-source integrations and custom automation

Headless content with an editor that empowers your editorial team to publish

A React framework for building SEO-friendly and interactive web apps
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Let's discuss your growth opportunity

In one hour, we’ll go over your systems: where they’re getting in each other’s way, which part is causing the most trouble, and whether decoupling them would benefit you. It takes just one hour and doesn’t commit you to anything.

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Agreement 

Meet Your Specialists

Tim Sol
Business Consultant
Paul van der Meijs
Head of Technology
Meet the whole team Meet the whole team

What does composable commerce cost?

In addition to development and integrations, you pay a license fee per system, and that adds up. On the other hand, you can replace a component without having to rebuild your entire store.

What you always get: a source model before any integrations are made, starting with a single component instead of a large-scale project, monitoring for every integration, and advice to stop if a step isn’t yielding results.

Want to know which component is causing you the most trouble? Schedule a consultation, and we’ll walk through your systems together.

Schedule a consultation Go to the contact form

Frequently Asked Questions About Composable Commerce

01/ What is composable commerce?
An approach where you choose the best system for each component and connect them together: your online store, your product data, your search function, and your payment processing. Instead of a single package that does everything halfway, you build your system from components that you can replace.
02/ What is the difference between headless and composable commerce?
Headless is about a single separation: separating your frontend from your commerce engine. Composable goes a step further and uses a separate system for each function. Headless is therefore part of a composable landscape, and you can operate headlessly without being composable.
03/ When is composable commerce too much?
As soon as you’re maintaining more integrations than you’re using features. Every system you add is an extra contract, an extra vendor, and another place where something can go wrong. With a well-organized product range and a single country, you can often get by with fewer components.
04/ How do you prevent isolated systems from becoming unmanageable?
With documentation and one rule: one source system per piece of data. Prices come from your accounting system, product data from your PIM, and customer profiles from a single source. As long as that’s established, everything remains manageable. Without that agreement, you’ll end up with systems that overwrite each other.
05/ How much does composable commerce cost?
In addition to development and integrations, you pay a license fee per system, and that adds up. On the other hand, you can replace a component without having to rebuild your entire store. Every project is custom-built, so we’ll work out the costs with you on a per-component basis.