MACH for Modern Retail: The Benefits of API-first Technology
Posted by Amanda McLaughlin on Jan 28, 2022
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This is part 2 of our MACH series where we focus on API-first tech and how it enables brands to provide better customer experiences. Check out the other articles on microservices, cloud technology, and headless commerce.
Retail isn’t about product and desire anymore, it’s about the whole experience. Elevating the customer experience beyond the ordinary is every brand’s priority, but there’s always still work to do.
The issue isn’t collecting data. It’s not even knowing what data is worth paying attention to. The issue is making sure you use the right technology to make full use of that data.
Most important is opening up your data for all of your systems to access or use. Following on from part one of the series on cloud technology, in this second part we’re talking about the specific part of MACH architecture that makes that happen – API-first technologies.
Retail IT must be fast and flexible. To keep up with competitors, customers, the market (basically everyone), brands must integrate new systems and help existing systems to communicate and share data. It’s the application programming interfaces (APIs) that make this innovation possible, with minimal risk.
But what are APIs? They’re essentially a universal translator. They expose the data of applications, and translate it so that applications can talk to one another. Basically, they form agreements between applications, sort of a “Yes, you can use this data if you adhere to my rules.” A software intermediary.
You can think of APIs like the controls to your car – your throttle, brake, and steering wheel, but also the information dials, like your speedometer or gas meter. You don’t need to know how they work in order to drive the car (which in fact will vary from model to model). As far as you’re concerned the controls are the same. Meaning you can hop behind the wheel of almost any car and drive off into the sunset.
So, if the controls are like the APIs of cars, that means the action of “press your foot down on this pedal to go faster” is like a website API saying “give me a line of code and I’ll execute a reply.” The outcome is the same, whatever application is initiating it.
API-first architecture lets you create a unique customer experience that looks and works precisely the way you (and your customers) want it to.
The really cool thing about APIs is that their functionality and data are separate from how they are used by the application. Therefore, any application can access the API and use its data in new environments.
This is particularly important for retail brands. Consumers now spend about 155 minutes of their time per day on tablets, mobile devices, and anything ‘smart’ that’s connected to the Internet. So, the fact that APIs enable every device to be able to send and receive data means they can be used in a commercial context.
As there only needs to be one API used across different channels or devices, it saves a huge amount of time for brands. It means you don’t have to develop new logic for every new touchpoint (like pricing), which significantly speeds up your time-to-market.
Having the ability to use APIs in a vast range of situations minimizes downtime and lets you support new channels and ways for your customers to shop, without bothersome backend retooling.
In fact, APIs make managing many aspects of your database easier and more accurate. For example, you can maintain your existing master systems for products, pricing promotions, and inventory, ensuring consistent and complete information across your entire enterprise.
To stretch the previous analogy a little further, imagine you’re a valet. Your job is to park cars, but you don’t need to know how any particular car works to do that. Nor do you need to own them. You just need to use its controls (its APIs) to complete the action required – parking.
That’s essentially how integrating new customer experience services works, too. The APIs are there, with predefined controls. All you need to do is pop in the new service that meets what your customers are after.
What makes that exciting? It changes the way you play the tooling game. Instead of the emphasis being on implementing one new technology, it shifts to experimenting with a variety of new technologies. Customers don’t like it? No problem. Swap it out and test another.
Being API-first is just one piece of the puzzle that makes innovation with MACH technology possible.
Through MACH environments, brands are creating truly connected experiences for their customers. A venture that is becoming increasingly difficult with the ever-changing nature of retail.
MACH architecture empowers brands to build, test, and implement capabilities simply and quickly. NewStore carries the MACH certification seal. That seal is a badge of confidence that NewStore is a best-in-class company delivering a future-proof solution.
To find out more about MACH, reach out to one of our experts today.
