Headless CMS trends for 2023

Personalization

According to Google, the average person shifts between three different devices to complete a task and uses over 10 channels to communicate with businesses. This indicates that an omnichannel experience has become increasingly important. Visitors want the same interaction across different platforms, and pick up right where they left off. A perfect example is online shopping. When you visit a store via their website on the computer and later on their smartphone app, you want both experiences to correlate with each other. Recently viewed, the wishlist, and the shopping cart, it has to be the same. 

Personalized experiences have become an important part of the customer experience. According to Forbes, 74% of website visitors are frustrated when their visit is not personalized. Additionally, 91% of the customers add that they are more willing to shop with a brand that offers relevant offers and recommendations. This enhances the idea that personalized omnichannel customer experiences are becoming more important. 

Furthermore, people are more connected with a brand and expect some sort of personality and human touch when they communicate. Due to technology nowadays it is possible to connect user data across almost every touchpoint. 

Using a headless CMS in combination with personalization can be beneficial because it allows for a more seamless and effective implementation of personalized content. With a traditional, monolithic CMS, the content is usually tightly coupled with the presentation layer, which can make it difficult to customize and personalize the content for different users. By using a headless CMS, the content is decoupled from the presentation layer and can be accessed and displayed in a more flexible and dynamic way, making it easier to tailor the content to the specific needs and interests of individual users.

In summary, using a headless CMS in combination with personalization allows for more flexibility and control in how personalized content is created, managed, and delivered, which can lead to a better user experience and improved engagement with the content.

Cookieless personalization

The rise of concern about data privacy among customers has increased. People are worried about what kind of personal information is being shared, with brands or other third parties. Research has shown that 48% of consumers don’t mind personalization, as long as their data is protected. 

Website visitors don’t want to be tracked for (all) internet use, let alone sell their data to third parties. A few big names have already started with changes regarding data privacy. Safari (browser for Apple users) introduced functionality that enables you to decline tracking by coupled websites. Safari prevents, by default, many third-party trackers; it is possible to block all cookies in the settings, but this might affect the browsing experience. Nevertheless, Apple isn’t the only big name that focuses more attention on data privacy. Google is starting a third-party cookie phase-out, which makes it harder for marketers to personalize experiences. 

AI-generated content

We said it last year, and we’ll say it again in 2023. AI-generated content will play a part in the delivery of content services. Not only does AI-generated content offer content administration and generation, but it will also improve personalization through data management. This phenomenon implies that machines help the organization and the centralization of content. 

MACH architecture

An upcoming trend in the world of software architecture is MACH. A MACH architecture is a modern approach to building software and systems that take advantage of the full benefits of distributed cloud computing. It provides agility through the use of microservices, and the API approach and gives you the flexibility of a headless technology. MACH is an acronym for Microservices, API-first, Could-native, and Headless. The idea that dominates with MACH is that you’ll use one base system, and from there on you’ll start building your website. 

This architecture indicates that you’ll add microservices to your website and make sure that every aspect of the website functions optimally. For example, there will be different technologies used for a wishlist, a shopping cart, and payment. This is so, because every microservice is specialized in one service, and this makes sure your website will function optimally.

MACH is dominant for companies selling in an omnichannel model, every platform will have the same main idea and offer the same layout. MACH brings flexible technologies together.

Composable stack

According to MarTech is a composable stack ‘an ecosystem of technologies composed of individual architectural elements that are integrated to form a best-in-class overarching solution’. 

A composable stack focuses on defining user experience by using package business capabilities. It is a conceptual approach for building and constructing experiences. The model is for combining business capabilities and considering the elements of the technology stack, the UX, and the businesses. 

Additionally, it resonates with the idea that monolithic systems are outdated, and cannot offer the same capabilities as a composable architecture can. With using a composable stack, digital experiences will improve, they will be more engaging, frictionless, relevant, and above all, personal. Besides, businesses have more flexibility and scalability, which results in saving money and improving efficiency. It will be easier to develop, deploy and scale systems, there is no need to maintain the whole system but only parts of it. Who in addition function individually. Sounds like a MACH architecture, but it is not. 

Composable vs MACH

Composable architecture and MACH architecture sound really similar, but there is a difference between the two. A composable architecture brings it all together, it equips the brands with core technologies, like MACH, assets like partner integrations, written guides, and the full support to compose and optimize a unique solution. However, MACH is a part of a composable tech stack. 

MACH is a technical approach for building software and systems in a distributed cloud environment. Due to the microservices and the APIs, this architecture is modular and flexible which enables businesses to have a more agile development. It is about the technical delivery of components and how you build the system using the best technical practices. 

A composable architecture focuses on the business capabilities, what is important to the business? This could be, for example, reviews. It focuses on the entire customer journey. 

Make it work

The main idea that surfaces all these trends is that a monolithic system will not suffice in the year 2023. Monolithic systems are not scalable, flexible, or agile and are a bit outdated. In addition, a common factor is personalization. It is getting more important but there is a conception that personalization is hard to implement, the same applies to getting rid of your monolithic system. This isn't the case, start with your monolithic system and peel it layer by layer. For 2023, the ideal outcome would be a headless composable platform, with personalization and AI-generated content. Sounds like a lot, but we can help you realize this. We hope you achieve greatness this year.