Headless is dead—long live headless

Headless commerce in general, and headless CMSs specifically, have been hailed as the true way forward for online businesses. People are generally right to believe so, as the headless architecture is optimal for omnichannel publishing, and when compared to its traditional counterparts, considerably more future-proof. However, there is usually a problem that haunts headless CMSs and their users: they are primarily geared towards developers, leaving content editors, marketers, and even project managers in a quasi second-tier position. Despite the obvious awareness of content’s importance and the resources spent on its creation, In 2020 29% of companies reported no further success in their content marketing strategy compared to 2019. Even more concerning, 38% of companies judged their performance to be average and/or below (1). It is worth noting that in the same time period, headless systems have enjoyed growing rates of popularity.

This talk aims to offer a different way of being headless, one that does not have to sacrifice the experience of those who spend the most amount of time with the system (content creators and marketers), while keeping the integrity and flexibility of a headless system. While headless CMSs managed to solve many of the problems associated with monolithic systems, they fell short on offering optimized editing capabilities, partly due to their nature. However, this presentation argues that a third option is a valid choice, one that takes the API-first agility of headless systems, while at the same time keeping content creators and marketers and their experience front and center.

Drawing from the previous experiences of Storyblok’s founders as developers in different agencies, I argue that an API-first CMS can address the pain-points of marketers and developers simultaneously, if it manages to:
- Offer a visual editor with a true live preview
- Implement a component-based approach as a default
By keeping these capabilities as core philosophies, and not mere features, a headless CMS can break itself from the flaws that are usually associated with its architecture.

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1- Semrush, Content Marketing Statistics You Need to Know for 2021. https://www.semrush.com/blog/content-marketing-statistics/