What are Microservices and how do they support Omnichannel Retail?

For example, a new mobile OS gets released and retailers need to make their Omnichannel customer journeys compatible, or a new payment platform such as Klarna gets released, and retailers want in on the action.

In the traditional technology world, this requires a lot of planning and weeks of expensive hard coding by the technology provider, as it’s too complex for the retailer to manage, and vast amounts of hard-wired coding would be impacted.

Tooling is critical:

With Microservices and the WYSIWYG tools to manage them, retailers can quickly make changes and build new services that can be used multiple times by any channel, without needing to involve the technology provider. Because the Microservices are set up granularly, it’s feasible to drag in a new process element into a workflow and off it goes.

You can create and stitch together reusable Microservices in any configuration needed, and change them on the fly. This Low-Code development & flow-based programming approach saves time and money, and means that the retailer can catch up quickly as things change.

Tooling plus pre-built

A blend of build vs buy offers the most flexibility in any situation, so a platform that delivers pre-built Microservices for process such as build a basket, promotions, loyalty, customers and orders means retailers get up and running quickly and can self-manage going forward.

Microservices should not be a black box, off limits to the retailer. A Microservices tooling capability gives the retailer a way to low-code flexibly, and a common business logic layer, becoming the common engine for all stores, online channels and apps.

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