20 Things You Didn’t Know about Commercetools
Powering e-commerce is a vital part of modern society, and headless business dynamo Commercetools is leading the way. This smart business provides services to numerous businesses that make sales online. Most of the businesses they serve have fifty to two hundred employees and make between ten and fifty million dollars in annual revenue, but they also serve much larger businesses. Intriguingly, Commercetools is created from open-source software. Here are twenty more things you didn’t know about Commercetools.
20. What is Commercetools
Commercetools provides e-commerce APIs. An API or application programming interface allows applications to communicate with one another, both inside and outside of the commerce platform. This company works with B2C (Business-to-Consumer) and B2B (Business-to-Business) sellers to build customized check-out, payment, marketplace social commerce, and other services. In short, they make it possible for people and businesses to buy and sell online. Using Commercetools APIs helps companies get products to buyers.
19. Improve Site Speed
Slow load times plague internet business. When customers have to wait for the screen to come up, they lose interest very quickly and move on. A business can lose a lot of money if its site speed isn’t up to par compared to competitors. With Commercetools, you can actually improve your site speed by streamlining processes. Digital transformation isn’t always about the obvious things like shopping carts and safe checkout systems. A faster, more agile website can translate into a higher turnaround and more sales. One of the benefits of headless commerce is the ability to tweak all the backend processes.
18. Looking for Chatbots to Improve Workflow
Talking to a live human is a great way to connect to customers and ensure their needs are met in any B2C situation. However, adding chatbots to improve workflow will help. An automated system that gathers the initial information before sending consumers on to speak to a customer service representative helps direct inquiries where they need to be. Commercetools can help businesses connect chatbots to an existing business. Consumer expectations are high, and living up to them means having the communication tools they want to see when reaching out to a business for services and inquiries.
17. Augmented Reality
When you think of augmented reality, you probably think of game apps that transpose images on what your phone camera films, or maybe VR headsets. While those are both great examples of the genre, there’s much more to AR than fun and games. Virtual models, designs, 3D walkthroughs, and more are becoming a part of everyday business models. If a customer or business can’t hold something in their hands, they can still walk around it and see it from every angle with augmented reality. It’s very cool tech, but leveraging it can be tricky. Fortunately, Commercetools can customize a solution that will let your business use AR to demonstrate or create new products and services.
16. IOT
Does Alexa talk about your business? Like other smart home devices, you need to connect to the Internet of Things to connect to the growing population of people who rely on it. From smart homes with video doorbells to pet monitoring gadgets, thermostats, and more, you don’t have to run an IoT business to connect with one. Commercetools helps connect the IoT. When you become part of the smart-world, you are moving into the future.
15. Sustainability and Accountability
Every business in the twenty-first century needs to consider its sustainability practices. Customers and other businesses don’t merely ‘hope’ you are doing the right thing. People ask about carbon footprints, and they want to know what you’re doing to reduce your impact on climate change. Like any ‘woke’ business, Commercetools is transparent about where it stands on these crucial issues. Supporting the Black Lives Matter movement is something many corporate entities shy away from, but not Commercetools. This company is open about supporting equality and human rights. They are actively working to dismantle racist policies and systems, educate themselves on what causes and supports these abhorrent and oppressive norms, elevate minorities, support Black-led movements and organizations, and openly speak out against all forms of racism and exclusion. Additionally, Commercetools supports the Time Is Now Foundation. The foundations’ goal is to help make the world a better place through education about climate change.
14. Enabling Omnichannel Commerce
M2M or machine-to-machine connections are as important as B2B and B2C interactions. Moreover, B2B interactions are becoming more automated, so M2M is becoming part of commerce for most businesses. As Commercetools points out, “Besides integrating services, retailers must also be able to connect to third-party systems such as buyer’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).” Seamless integration isn’t only convenient; it’s necessary moving forward as a digital (or partially digital) entity. Growth strategies, new partnerships, and more rely on machines talking to one another.
13. Think Small To Grow Big
Rigid systems don’t work in the ever-changing field of internet commerce. Commercetools uses microservices-based architecture. Not only will this help businesses meet their new and varied tech requirements, but it’s also scalable in the future. Adding new services and replacing outdated or unnecessary functions shouldn’t mean you need a whole new system. Flexibility is key in the digital landscape. Some companies’ business model involves selling time-limited products. Hence, customers have to replace them in the future, but Commercetools leads the industry through innovations like its scalable headless back end.
12. Always Seeking The Best and Brightest
Like many growing businesses, Commercetools is hiring. While the number and type of jobs available will vary as positions are filled, there’s a lot of growth potential with this essential business. Since e-commerce isn’t going anywhere, choosing a career with Commercetools is a great way to ensure you have a future in this increasingly job-insecure world.
11. Commercetools Cares About People
Many people worry about working for a large corporation because they often have a reputation for mistreating employees. Fortunately, Commercetools is not one of those employers. In fact, it prides itself on being an outstanding employer with a real desire to treat people the way they deserve. According to Commercetools, its philosophy is efficient and approaches human time commitment as a valuable resource rather than a replaceable commodity. “An average person spends 90000 hours at work in a lifetime. Since our people have trusted us with their time, we take “being a good employer” very seriously. From Berlin to London, Durham to Sydney, we offer benefit programs that aim at making our people’s one-third of the lifetime at work and two-third outside of work enjoyable.”
10. Transparent Constant Improvement
You can’t stay ahead of the wildly changing world of e-commerce, and more importantly, live up to promises for scalability without perpetual improvement. Some companies do everything behind locked doors and share as little as possible about what’s new and changing inside the business, but not Commercetools. On its website, this company has an entire page dedicated to platform documentation. With multiple monthly updates, it’s easy to follow the progress and see all the changes, new and improved services, and upgrades. You’ll also find developer tutorials, SDKs, and tooling information.
9. Education Resources for Growing Businesses
A good customer is an educated customer, and great businesses work to keep their clients on the cutting edge. Commercetools offers numerous resources for current and potential e-commerce customers who are looking into APIs. Customer case studies show off what headless commerce can do for many different applications and platforms. Meanwhile, info sheets and other studies provide additional information. There are e-books on relevant topics like the evolution of modern commerce. However, you prefer your educational resources Commercetools has more than you’d expect. You can even listen to a podcast or attend webinars on e-commerce. Staying up to date on the world of e-commerce is difficult, but this is one business that is helping everyone keep up.
8. German Ingenuity, Easy US Access
Based in Munich, Germany, Commercetools is a superb example of German ingenuity with the world’s most flexible e-commerce platform. However, Munich isn’t their only location. The US headquarters is located in Durham, North Carolina. Considering the USA’s plethora of computer-based businesses and how easy it is to find universities that offer computer science and programming-based degrees, it’s a smart move for many international internet-based businesses.
7. Working With Big Business
While much of Commercetools business comes from mid-size businesses with two hundred or fewer employees, they also work with industry titans. Audi, AT&T, Berberry, Boots, BMW, and Vistaprint, are just a few of the many corporations that run on unique, tailored headless platforms from this incredible company. Naturally, you don’t have to run a billion-dollar company to need a reliable and flexible e-commerce solution. Still, the sheer versatility of Commercetools allows them to work with any online business platform.
6. Big Backers Big Worth
You don’t get to be a leader in your field without money. For visionaries like Commercetools, that means finding big backers to expand operations. This month, CEO Dirk Hoerig confirmed to Yahoo’s Ingrid Lunden that Commercetools Series C funding garnered $140 million. Backers included Accel, Insight Partners, and the REWE Group. In 2019, Insight led an increase in the e-commerce platform’s funding by a massive $145 million, which brought it up to around $300 million. While that’s impressive, the latest round of funding, only two years later, brings Commercetools up to an estimated $1.9 billion.
5. Headless Commerce Means Freedom
Dirk Hoerig, the co-founder of commercetools, was the one who originally coined the phrase ‘headless commerce’ back in 2013. Headless commerce means all the backend processes like data storage are separate from the front end of the business. Commercetools uses a flexible API to expose all these data, which allows its customers to attach numerous types of ‘heads.’ Voice assistants and web-based shops are just two examples of these types of heads.
4. Ahead of the Game
E-commerce has been growing steadily for decades, which means there are many new faces in the marketplace. Especially with the challenges of Covid, there are more API providers than ever before and more businesses and customers that need their services. However, Commercetools isn’t a startup that jumped on the 2020 internet commerce boom. Denis Werner and Dirk Hoerig founded this business in 2006.
3. Get a Sixty Day Trial
Learning to work with a headless e-commerce site is a big commitment, even if you’re a giant like Lego or AT&T. To make things easier, Commercetools offers new clients a sixty-day trial so you can test out the differences for yourself and your business. Rather than providing businesses a list of things they ‘can and can’t do,’ they will work with your platform to customize a solution for your business needs.
2. Tailored Commerce Solutions For Businesses and Customers
With so much competition in the API and e-commerce fields, it’s hard to choose the right one. Many offer options from a preformatted list, which is a fine business model, but pigeonholing every business into tidy boxes is not the best way to go if you want to lead the field instead of merely participating. Commercetools works with every business individually to tailor their experience, facilitating both the seller and buyer experience.
1. Highly Lauded
The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce evaluates digital commerce platforms based on two simple principles. First, Completeness of Vision and second Ability to Execute. The scale has four sections for Niche Players, Challengers, Visionaries, and Leaders. In August, Commercetools landed firmly in the Leader category for 2021.
Final Thoughts
Every time you pay for something online, a business like Commerecetools help make that transaction possible. Secure payment formats are essential in e-business, and a trusted name like Commercetools is a smart way to handle that business. The headless, decoupled backend means businesses can make adjustments independent of the front-end ‘heads, ‘ which helps streamline business for some of the world’s largest companies.
