Watch this Tech Talk: https://do.co/video_ebull This discussion details the journey an agency takes when making the switch to building clients' e-commerce stores to be headless. About the Presenter Ed Bull has been the Creative Director & Co-owner at an e-commerce agency called Limesharp for over 10 years, working alongside brands to craft first class e-commerce solutions that deliver results and drive growth. They have extensive experience working with luxury fashion and beauty brands. Limesharp is considered a creative agency that is led by exceptional design and rooted in solid technical know-how, crafting simple but refined customer experiences. New to DigitalOcean? Get US $100 in credit when you sign up: https://do.co/deploytoday To learn more about DigitalOcean: https://www.digitalocean.com/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/digitalocean Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DigitalOcean Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedigitalocean/ We're hiring: http://do.co/careers

2. ● We are a creative led digital agency who work
alongside brands to create bespoke eCommerce
Solutions.
● We have over 10 years experience both designing
& building eCommerce stores.
● We specialise in the luxury / premium fashion &
beauty sectors.
● We are an accredited Magento Solution partner in
the United Kingdom & Asia Pacific.
→ London Office @ The Pill Box
ABOUT US

3. WHAT IS HEADLESS ECOMMERCE?
● Building a website in a headless method de-couples the frontend from the
backend
● Traditionally eCommerce sites are built using an in-built PHP templating system
● This is called a Monolithic Architecture
● By separating the frontend layer from the backend you move to a Microservices
Architecture
● With an ever-increasing volume of channels and digital touchpoints, Headless
Commerce is a powerful strategy

4. OUR PROBLEMS
● Magento can be slow
● With the introduction of Magento 2
frontend development is cumbersome
● XML to move blocks, Why Tho?
● Recruiting Full Stack Developers is
tough
● The cool kids want to use Angular,
React, Vue

5. OUR GOALS
● Control the frontend
● Build native app like websites
● Blazing fast Magento sites
without page re-loads
● Faster time development cycles
● Recruit the cool kids
● Integrate seamlessly with 3rd
party services

6. THE JOURNEY
● Our lead developer was commuting
from London to Leicester
● 2 hours a day over a 3 month period he
started playing with the API
● After each Monday Morning Team
meeting he would present the progress
● Nobody could believe how fast the
demo store was

7. TECHNICAL DECISIONS
● REST & GraphQL
● Vue vs React
● How we handle sessions

8. ROADBLOCKS
● Taking the plunge with a first commercial project
● Catalog API performance
● Cache layers
● Error handling
● Frontend State management

9. HOSTING ARCHITECTURE
Our partner Cloudways

10. HOSTING ARCHITECTURE
Hosting Magento as
an API only

11. HOSTING ARCHITECTURE
How we kept hosting
affordable for SME’s

12. ROADMAP
● PWA
● Magento is releasing Storefront
API
● Removal of the middleman