Three Indispensable Modules for a Powerful Commerce Backend
The foundation for more scalability in retail
A powerful commerce backend is the answer to the complex requirements of digital commerce. Functions such as wishlist, checkout and real-time inventory reservation should be efficiently managed in the background - while the front end is individually tailored to different touchpoints and customer groups. The aroma® Unified Commerce Suite starts right here: with a high-performance, API-based backend that offers maximum flexibility, scalability and speed.
Why Modular Architecture Is the Future
In a world where customer expectations must be met in real time, the commerce backend determines success or frustration in digital commerce. Traditional e-commerce platforms quickly reach their limits: monolithic architectures, long development cycles, and a lack of flexibility slow down innovation. Modern retail models such as click & collect, flash sales, and cross-channel shopping carts require a backend that responds in real time—independently of the frontend. The solution: headless commerce.
This approach separates the front end (e.g., web store, app, POS) from the back end. Both sides communicate flexibly with each other via standardized APIs. This enables:
The headless approach therefore achieves a streamlined, flexible IT architecture with fewer dependencies, lower operating costs and greater agility. Modules of a Unified Commerce Suite, such as aroma® from Arvato Systems, can function between e-shop, ERP, warehouse and POS - or completely replace the classic store system with a modular commerce backend. In modern architectures, systems such as CMS, PIM or search solutions then take over the front-end tasks, while the suite controls all core functions in the background:
- Product presentation & UI: via CMS
- Product catalog & search: via PIM and search engine
- Pricing & Promotions: aroma® Commerce Backend
- Cart & Checkout: aroma® Commerce Backend
Three Key Modules in the Commerce Backend
Cart Services
The shopping cart is no longer just a cache for products - it is a central element of the customer journey. In the commerce backend, modern Cart Services that enable a seamless, cross-channel shopping experience with maximum flexibility and performance.
Functional highlights:
- Persistent shopping carts: A customer places a product in the shopping cart in the app, sees it again later in the web store and can finally buy it in the store - without losing data.
- Cross-channel synchronization: All touchpoints (web, app, POS, customer service) access the same shopping cart - in real time.
- API-first architecture: The shopping cart is fully controllable via APIs and can be flexibly integrated into existing systems.
Session-independent: Even without a login, a shopping cart can be saved and restored later.
Pricing & Promotions
Pricing and promotions are key levers in e-commerce - but only if they are flexible, personalized and controllable in real time. In the commerce backend, a modular Prices & Promotions Engine, whichrepresents exactly that: a rule-based, high-performance solution for modern pricing strategies.
Functional highlights:
- Rule-based pricing logic: Prices can be dynamically adjusted depending on customer segments, locations, times or shopping cart content.
- Promotion engine: Support for complex action logic such as:
- "Buy 3, pay 2"
- "10 % discount on the cheapest product"
- "Free items from an order value of €100"
- Real-time calculation: All price and discount information is calculated live - even under high load.
- Multicurrency capability & tax logic: Ideal for international stores with different markets.
Retail companies are obliged to state the lowest price of the last 30 days when offering discounts. A Prices & Promotions Engine for central price control provides an elegant solution: the rule-based pricing logic allows historical price data to be automatically recorded and evaluated. This means that the "Lowest Price Last 30 Days" can be displayed correctly and integrated into the promotion strategy - for example, through targeted discounts or personalized offers.
Inventory & Availability
An inventory module ensures that all sales channels have access to current inventory data at all times - regardless of whether they are online stores, apps or brick-and-mortar stores. Retailers who have connected such a module in their commerce backend can thus implement use cases, such as Ship-from-Store (products are shipped directly from the store if available there) or Click & Collect with real-time check (customers can see immediately whether a product is available in the desired store).
Functional highlights:
- Central inventory logic: Consolidation of warehouse stocks from different sources (central warehouse, branches, dropshippers) in a uniform data model.
- Real-time availability check: Fast queries via APIs enable immediate display of product availability - even under high load.
- Reservation logic: Products can be reserved for specific time periods or customers, e.g. for Click & Collect or Instore Pickup.
- Inventory forecasts & safety stocks: Integration of forecasting logic to avoid out-of-stock situations.
Conclusion: The Modular Commerce Backend for More Performance in Digital Commerce
Headless Commerce offers companies the flexibility, speed and scalability they need to compete in a dynamic market environment - and the commerce backend is the strategic foundation.
The strength of a headless commerce backend is particularly evident during peak periods such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday: the modular architecture allows individual services to be scaled in a targeted manner to ensure stable performance and a smooth shopping experience even with heavy traffic - across channels and in real time.
Whether for international brands, retailers with branch networks or digital pure players - the aroma® Unified Commerce Suite from Arvato Systems offers precisely this modular architecture to not only implement the headless approach, but to use it strategically.
El comercio digital describe el comercio electrónico a través de canales digitales como tiendas online, mercados y aplicaciones móviles. Esta moderna forma de comercio permite a las empresas ofrecer sus productos en todo el mundo. Con el comercio digital, las empresas pueden ampliar su gama de productos, dirigirse a nuevos grupos objetivo y aplicar estrategias de ventas innovadoras para aumentar su éxito.
Arvato Systems es sinónimo de soluciones innovadoras en el ámbito del comercio digital. Con un profundo conocimiento del sector minorista y de bienes de consumo, ofrecemos servicios personalizados que cubren toda la cadena de procesos. Desde una gestión óptima de datos maestros y artículos hasta arquitecturas de comercio electrónico personalizadas y potentes sistemas de fidelización de clientes: le ofrecemos soluciones integrales para su éxito digital.
Written by
Dr Nasser Kaspari has been an expert in e-commerce and omnichannel at Arvato Systems for over 25 years. He supports retail companies in implementing their omnichannel strategies and identifies digital requirements to improve cross-channel processes and the customer experience in the long term.