Over the last decade, eCommerce has become an integral part of the global retail business because of massive digitalization. Last year, more than 2 billion people did online shopping, from buying essential to non-essential products. It is estimated that eCommerce sales have generated a revenue of $4.28 trillion worldwide. The JAMstack architecture is meant to make the website swifter, secure, and scalable. This is the reason Why Use JAMstack for eCommerce in 2024?
It is based on the principle of pre-rendering the website pages. It depends on the concept of delivering frontend content that is hosted on the CDN provider and if at all backend is used then it utilizes APIs.
Thus, it would be appropriate to say that JAMstack for eCommerce could be the best choice in modern times. Looking at the adoption rate of JAMstack, a whopping 85% change has been noticed from 2019 to 2020. This increase accounts for desktop websites alone.
If you look at the increase in the use of JAMstack mobile web pages, then it shows a rise of 147%. Therefore, more and more businesses are becoming inclined towards using the JAMstack framework.
So, from this blog, let’s discover the reasons that justify and support the use of JAMstack for eCommerce in 2024. Before delving deeper into why you should use JAMstack eCommerce solutions, let us understand what JAMstack is in brief.
Explaining JAMstack in brief
JAMstack is an architectural pattern of web app development. JAMstack is a tech stack comprising client-side JavaScript; reusable APIs (Application programming interfaces); and prebuilt Markup. The chief components of JAMstack are explained and elaborated below:
JavaScript is the most widely used language to write web apps and it includes plenty of frameworks and SDKs.
APIs are responsible for carrying out the HTTP requests to transfer data to the server-side of the application through an interface or resource.
Markup is HTML rendered before time through a static content generator. Responsible for imparting the appearance of the web app’s pages, it is either built with the static-site generator or it is dynamically assembled when the page loads.
In the traditional website development systems, APIs powering the plugins and extensions for web platforms were limited by the boundaries of the monolithic systems. But JAMstack gives more freedom to the APIs.
9 reasons why JAMstack for eCommerce is the ideal choice in 2024
In the below segment of the article, let us see how JAMstack is beneficial for eCommerce businesses.
Best-of-Breed approach
If a developer is going by the best-of-breed approach, then JAMstack is the ultimate solution to adopt. Best-of-breed solutions are flexible and economical because you only pay for what you need the most. This approach allows you to choose the best tools, tech stacks, and CMS to offer top-notch services to your clients.
The most advantageous aspect of the best-of-breed approach is that each tech stack has its own individuality and functionality. Even though tech stacks are performing in integration with other tools, any update, problem, or change in one tool won’t affect the others.
Also, if you no longer need one particular tool in the whole group, you still could keep the rest. This makes the best-of-breed approach less risky compared to all-in-one solutions.
Faster site loading speed
JAMstack offers a simple setup because the static files are hosted on CDNs. This ensures that the static websites function with speed and maintain a higher performance throughout. Speed is the most important factor for the successful operation of eCommerce sites.
The speed of the website not only impacts the SEO but also the user experience. As per Small SEO Tools and Strange loop, even a one-second delay in page loading speed will reduce the conversion rate by 7%.
Superior user experience
With JAMstack, you can design customized storefronts to provide unique shopping experiences. The developers can now offer a complete front-end layer. The JavaScript SDKs can help to develop user-friendly shopping experiences for customers.
Convenient for developers
Developers enjoy a lot of freedom when it comes to developing websites with JAMstack. Developers have access to a full stack of development starting from making the user interface to database and servers. For backends, they can depend on third-party services (APIs) while they can fully focus on the front-end.
This helps the developers immensely as it eases the development process and reduces the cost as well as the time of development. It is also easier to add new features because developers can work on the front-end and back-end simultaneously.
Other than this, storefront app development and hosting are decoupled, storefront code changes are hosted through static-site providers, the storefront app loads within the shopper’s browser directly, and content updates happen via a CDN or headless CMS.
Secure site
JAMstack sites are highly secure because it doesn’t rely upon a traditional database or servers which is mainly prone to cyberattacks. JAMstack websites also don’t have access to sensitive user data. Thus, JAMstack websites and web apps are safer and more secure than traditional websites.
SEO ready
JAMstack for eCommerce is crucial because eCommerce stores are very much in need of organic traffic. As the JAMstack websites are fast and static, it helps in obtaining a better ranking in Google. This is because Google prefers static sites as they are faster, lighter, and easily scannable. Hence it improves the ranking and ultimately it means obtaining higher organic traffic.
Scalable and Omnichannel
JAMstack is great for websites receiving higher traffic because attaining scalability is not an issue with JAMstack. Scalability is essential for eCommerce because they may experience a sudden rise in traffic and to handle that, eCommerce websites need to be easily scalable. Whenever the traffic suddenly peaks, the CDN can handle it.
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a global network of file servers. CDN reduces the physical distance between the server and the customer, thereby minimizing the loading lags.
Therefore, JAMstack supports the rise in website traffic as well as an increase in the products and services seamlessly and reliably. Therefore, eCommerce websites can host end-of-season and festival special sales without worrying about site crashing issues.
JAMstack websites are operational on the web as well as mobile browsers. So, they help achieve conversions from both platforms, and hence it is ideal for omnichannel marketing purposes.
Reduced maintenance costs
With JAMstack, the website development, maintenance, and hosting costs are quite low. There is no need for developers to update tools. Static websites don’t need much storage space, unlike dynamic websites.
Users also don’t face error 500, database connections errors, and several other problems. Therefore, maintenance of websites becomes an easier and cheaper affair compared to traditionally built websites.
Competitive advantage
JAMstack offers a competitive edge to businesses in the form of enhanced security measures, better performance, scalability, rapid development, ease of use for developers, and ultimately reduced cost of development and maintenance.
JAMstack success stories
Chief users of JAMstack are developers, agencies looking for opportunities to build something in a different way, and businesses who wish to gain a competitive edge and reduce their website expenditures. Here is an eCommerce platform that is leveraging JAMstack’s solutions.
Shopify – It is a popular subscription-based eCommerce platform that offers people the option to build their eCommerce stores easily with complete eCommerce dashboards. With Shopify, customers can get an eCommerce website, mobile app, and even video games.
Shopify also offers Storefront APIs which use GraphQL and this helps customers to build a shopping cart, checkout pages, add product configuration, support adding multiple currencies and languages, and help to achieve much more.
Top companies which use Shopify are:
- KKW Beauty founded by Kim Kardashian in 2017 hosts the online stores in Shopify. It has a current market value of $1 billion.
- Kylie Cosmetics, another Beauty brand founded by Kylie Jenner in 2015 uses Shopify and is valued at $1.2 billion.
- Hyatt Hotels Corp having a market cap of $8.35 billion uses Shopify’s platforms.
Also Read: Top JAMstack Frameworks to Choose
Final Thoughts
About 67% of millennials prefer shopping online nowadays. Hence bad user experience can be deadly for eCommerce sites. Two things that can particularly mar user experience are if the site loading speed is poor and if the site is not secure.
It is quite evident that the eCommerce industry is constantly evolving and hence it needs to have a fast-performing, scalable, and secure website that is capable of rendering optimum user experience.
JAMstack has just the right ingredients to support the smooth functioning and successful performance of the eCommerce websites. Therefore, upcoming businesses can look towards JAMstack for eCommerce website development. Besides this, JAMstack is also useful for making custom landing pages, software, and SaaS-based solutions.