For many years, the go-to construction for a lot of ecommerce companies has been an all-in-one monolith setup, which ties collectively the front-end — or digital storefront — and the backend — or server-side.
Whereas a monolith answer could be the appropriate transfer for small- to mid-sized companies with restricted necessities, this sort of expertise can current some challenges as your small business strikes into the enterprise area and requires higher complexity, similar to increasing into new areas or promoting by means of a number of marketplaces and social channels.
The answer? MACH structure.
In line with the MACH Alliance, MACH (microservices, API-first, cloud-native SaaS and headless) is an trade tech commonplace describing trendy expertise. In contrast to monolithic structure, MACH permits enterprise house owners to decide on the expertise that finest meets their wants and future roadmap.
Established in 2021, the annual MACHathon occasion is a chance for groups all over the world to showcase their most ground-breaking, revolutionary concepts utilizing MACH expertise and composable architectures.
This yr, BigCommerce was thrilled to get in on the motion — and take dwelling three MACHathon awards!
MACHathon 2022: Speed up at MACH Velocity
With a theme of “Speed up at MACH Velocity,” this yr’s MACHathon challenged contributors to “spotlight an actual problem and present how this expertise is the answer for driving development, conducting one thing higher or faster than earlier than, or serving individuals in higher methods.”
To take part within the occasion, every MACHathon crew was required to submit a three-minute demo video explaining their challenge, why they selected it, which applied sciences they used, their outcomes and the way they plan to proceed their challenge after the MACHathon.
Moreover, every crew submitted structure diagrams of their answer and documentation explaining why they selected the tech stack they used.
With €3,250 in prizes, the MACHathon culminated in six awards for the initiatives that demonstrated social significance, feasibility, use of MACH expertise and innovation.
Composable Commerce Constructed for Development
Partnering with Contentstack and Uniform, BigCommerce and our MACHathon crew — referred to as “Rage Towards the MACHine” — wished to create a method to launch new websites rapidly and seamlessly.
Iris Schiefer, Senior Enterprise Account Government at BigCommerce, used Italian lingerie model La Perla to assist clarify the crew’s challenge and purpose.
Whereas La Perla already had a principal ecommerce web site, in January 2022, the model determined to launch a number of storefronts. This included one for its cosmetics and perfume subsidiary, La Perla Magnificence, which might have a barely totally different feel and look and goal a special viewers than its principal ecommerce web site.
“We thought, ‘What if we may make that actually simple for retailers to spin up a brand new web site, make it feel and look totally different, be capable to check and be taught in new markets, take the location down, be taught, reiterate, launch and check once more, and be capable to have these elements prepared to make use of once more,” Scheifer stated. “So we created a composable commerce stack accelerator.”
With the accelerator, a enterprise proprietor can select an internet site theme and launch a brand new storefront in just some clicks, explains Hadi Farhat, a Senior Gross sales Engineer at BigCommerce who labored on the challenge with Tim Benniks and Ante Sepic of Uniform.
Primarily based on Uniform expertise orchestration (detailed in Uniform’s MACHathon weblog submit), a BigCommerce headless commerce and a Contentstack headless CMS, the accelerator gives tech groups with a fast and simple answer to check and be taught — with out the necessity for heavy improvement on the backend.
“Our purpose was to indicate that scaffolding composable stacks is one thing accessible to all stakeholders, not solely builders,” talked about Benniks. “Through the use of the Uniform orchestration layer, entrepreneurs have been in a position to preview and edit the content material saved in each BigCommerce and Contentstack in a single place. For them it was a seamless expertise — and it appears like we achieved our purpose, as a result of the viewers simply liked it.”
If you wish to know what all of the hype is about, try the Rage Towards the MACHine demo video.
BigCommerce Wins 3 MACHathon 2022 Awards
In late June 2022, within the coronary heart of London, the MACH Alliance hosted a bunch of government leaders, expertise decision-makers and front-end builders from all over the world for its annual MACH ONE Convention.
Whereas the two-day occasion was jam-packed with keynote audio system, breakout classes and profession improvement alternatives, the convention saved one of the crucial thrilling classes for final: the winner shows of this yr’s MACHathon — and we’re excited to announce that BigCommerce fashioned a part of the stack for 3 out of the six successful initiatives!
MACHnificent Champion: For the general winners of the MACH Alliance MACHathon (sponsored by Actindo).
The Integration Champion: For the crew with probably the most revolutionary mixture of options stacked collectively (sponsored by Contentstack).
The Maturity Champion: For probably the most full end-to-end answer (sponsored by Fluent Commerce).
The Remaining Phrase
With competitors heating up within the ecommerce trade, creating an internet site that stands out is essential for fulfillment. However an internet site that stands out is one that gives the very best person expertise on the frontend and the very best developer expertise on the backend.
With MACH expertise, enterprise house owners now have the pliability and agility to future-proof their enterprise expertise and enhance their ecommerce digital experiences.