The Power of commercetools Foundry

This week during the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference in New York, commercetools unveiled a new offering: commercetools Foundry. Drawing from their extensive experience with over 500 leading global brands and insights from their partner network, including Aries, commercetools has introduced a pre-composed solution that integrates four key components: Composable Commerce, Frontend, Checkout, and Connect.

Composable Commerce

Frontend

Checkout

Connect

This suite, designed to streamline implementations, includes a comprehensive blueprint, an AI-powered developer assistant, and a series of best practice guides. The goal is to reduce implementation times, enabling companies to launch faster with less effort. Initially focused on B2C retail, commercetools Foundry is expected to expand with more options in the near future.

The concept of accelerators is familiar in the composable commerce world. They’re intended to expedite implementation and reduce costs. However, many existing solutions fall short, serving merely as starting points for projects. They are more akin to a boilerplate, prototype, or MVP. These are often static code repositories making broad assumptions about a retailer’s service choices, functional requirements, and architectural preferences.

Most often, these include a ReactJS front-end, integrated with commercetools and a single CMS. Any deviation from these assumptions, from needing server-side rendering for SEO to needing custom data models, negates all time-saving benefits. You can no longer copy & paste this code base and instead start the project from scratch.

commercetools Foundry, while addressing similar issues, takes a distinct approach. Instead of offering a rigid, pre-built codebase, Foundry emphasizes flexibility by integrating top-tier products from commercetools for the frontend, APIs, and integration hosting. This clarity allows for a clear and distinct delineation of responsibilities between Foundry and the implementation.

A notable exception is Aries’ MACH Booster. Instead of the common approach of rigid prebuilt code, MACH Booster represents, well, an actual accelerator. MACH Booster consists of advanced developer tools, including CLI utilities, that adapt to the specifics of a composable project. It inputs parameters such as the choice between Netlify or commercetools Frontend, k8s or Connect, Storyblok or Amplience, and Algolia or Constructor. The tools then generate the necessary components, which can be further extended and styled accordingly. In addition, the CLI offers a streamlined method for applying updates and patches over time.

This tool-centric approach to enhancing developer productivity aligns perfectly with commercetools Foundry. Since both emphasize flexibility, maintainability, and speed instead of simply creating code debt, clients can leverage both solutions if desired. Using both MACH Booster and commercetools Foundry results in the ideal situation for reduced implementation times and ensuring confidence in the composable project.

Are you interested in commercetools but are unsure where to start? Do you need more details on what implementing commercetools looks like for you? Aries offers a fixed-cost commercetools Implementation Assessment. Don’t hesitate to contact us. We are excited to meet you!