Build vs. Buy: How Composable Commerce Combines the Best of Both for B2B

If you’re looking to venture into the ecommerce business, one prominent question is – whether you should buy or build a platform to host your ecommerce website. Well, you can have both with composable commerce.

Composable commerce is the next step in the evolution of e-commerce technology. Many businesses have either moved or are on their way to re-platforming to composable commerce. Why? Shopping behavior is changing, and businesses relying on traditional monolith solutions are either struggling to adapt or taking too long to adapt unlike Composable commerce, which allows businesses the flexibility to choose from different vendors and agility to add, and customization (remove and replace functionalities). It also scales operations as demand surges and declines. Now, when shopping behavior is changing fast, composable commerce empowers businesses to leave no stone unturned in delivering a superior customer experience.

Composable commerce could be the answer if you’re in the dilemma of whether you should build or buy an ecommerce platform. Let’s explore other aspects that might help you decide.

Flexibility: Build vs. Buy in Composable Commerce for B2B Companies

One of the major aspects to consider when you’re deciding whether to build your platform or buy is the flexibility to integrate with different business applications that enable ecommerce business’ success, such as payments, logistics, finance & accounting, etc.

Composable commerce platforms are modular applications. They can integrate with services via API-first architecture. What’s more, the platform’s independent services can be taken out or used to build other experiences. This flexibility allows you to stay ahead of the customer’s expectations.

Agility: Build vs. Buy in Composable Commerce for B2B Companies

The time required to adapt to customer expectations is a critical aspect of an ecommerce business. A platform built in-house may have all the resources to respond to changing consumer needs, but it often takes time. Usually, it is due to integration issues or tech stack challenges.

Composable commerce leverages flexible technologies, such as microservices, APIs, cloud, Jamstack (JavaScript, API, and markup languages) architecture, etc., to introduce features, functionalities, and experience quickly. This can drastically reduce time-to-market and take customer experience to the next level.

Scalability: Build vs. Buy in Composable Commerce for B2B Companies

Is your ecommerce platform sufficiently scalable to handle the traffic when a sale or a large-scale campaign goes live? Can you make sure all the components work well, too? Composable commerce platforms are scalable and can adapt to the changing demands of the market.

Cost Analysis: Build vs. Buy in Composable Commerce for B2B Companies

Cost is the final nail in the coffin when you’re considering between buying or building an ecommerce platform. Building and maintaining an ecommerce platform takes money. But when you have a team that takes care of it, you’re responsible for managing the human resources, too. The initial investment in building the platform may be small, but the long-term cost can be significantly high. Alternatively, when you buy a platform, you’re hit with an upfront cost, but maintenance cost is still applicable. However, you don’t have to worry about managing the people as it can be outsourced.

Simply put, arriving at the decision to build or buy an ecommerce platform from a cost perspective is easier said than done.

Here are a few more things you can consider to decide the cost.

1. Cost of technology: Operationally, as an ecommerce business scales, there’s a need to build logistics, warehouse management, finance and accounting, and other applications that streamline the ecommerce operations. For each application, you will need a hosting service, application performance tools, etc. This can cost anywhere between $10,000 and $1,00,000 a year.

This cost is expected to increase as your operations scale because your platform will need more resources to operate optimally.

This cost is expected to increase as your operations scale because your platform will need more resources to operate optimally.

When you buy an e-commerce platform, you don’t usually have to worry about these costs. You pay a certain recurring platform fee.

2. Cost of data and security compliance: When you’ve an ecommerce platform, security and privacy are the top priority. Regulations like PCI-DSS, GDPR, CCPA, etc. are mandatory. These compliances can cost anywhere between $10,000 and $1,00,000 a year, depending on the size of the operations of your business.

3. Salaries: Depending on the size of your ecommerce business, you might have to hire a CTO or an Engineering Manager, who in turn will hire developers and engineers.

User-Centric Approaches in Composable Commerce: How Build vs. Buy Affects User Experience

User experience is super important when we’re envisioning an ecommerce platform. Chances of how well your ecommerce business grows can depend a lot on how users feel when they’re interacting with your website. Whether you choose to build or buy, user experience can’t be compromised.

User experience includes navigation of the ecommerce website, layout of the product pages, SEO, website search, loyalty programs, etc. When you’re building, you need a Product Manager, a UX designer, and a marketing manager to manage these aspects of user experience. When you buy, these aspects are mostly covered with in-built features.

The modular approach of composable commerce takes care of nearly every aspect of user experience.

The Role of AI in Deciding Between Building or Buy Composable Commerce Solutions

AI is critical now for ecommerce businesses. It enables product recommendations, order re-routing, inventory management, and decision-making in various other aspects of the business.

AI developments in ecommerce are expected to grow stronger. Things like dynamic pricing, fraud detection, product experience, etc., are going to get better with AI. Within the composable commerce landscape, AI is shaping logistics, experiences, customer service, etc.

SHEIN uses AI to personalize shopping experiences for its customers by recommending products. Similarly, Gopuff uses AI to find the most efficient routes for its delivery partners.

Building a Custom Solution: Critical Skills Required for Success in Composable Commerce

Building a custom ecommerce platform requires an extensive set of skills. The primary ones are:

1. Understanding of the Cloud and its development
2. Microservices development and implementation
3. Building and maintaining APIs
4. Data analysis
5. Product management
6. Marketing

Conclusion

Whether to build or buy an ecommerce platform is a common dilemma when you’re venturing into an ecommerce business. Aspects such as flexibility, scalability, and agility are essential to consider and can easily help you arrive at a decision. Composable commerce platforms nearly end the dilemma with their modern capabilities. With it, you can achieve both – buy and build.

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