Composable commerce in plain English

In plain English, you pick a specialist tool for each job and connect them, instead of buying one all-in-one system. Think of it like building with individual components rather than using a single, solid block. You select the best tool for each specific task and link them together to form your platform.

The MACH Alliance describes this approach through three core tenets:

  • Modular: every component is replaceable.
  • An open ecosystem: you are not tied to one vendor.
  • Flexible: the setup adapts to new markets, products and channels.

These principles define how a modern commerce stack functions. The MACH Alliance also states that composable systems allow you to change one thing without breaking another. Because the parts are modular and independently deployable, they are not tightly coupled. This means you can update or replace a single part without needing to rebuild the entire system from scratch. You work with independent pieces that communicate with each other, providing a way to build a custom application by combining best-of-breed vendors.

Composable vs traditional and headless commerce

Traditional commerce is one suite, headless splits the front end from the back end, and composable splits the whole stack into swappable parts. Traditional, monolithic commerce means one software suite offers most commerce functions in a single structure. This approach creates technical constraints for your team. Because the software is built as one unit, development teams have to redeploy the wider platform to change or add functionality. This makes updates difficult.

Headless commerce decouples the front end from the back end. Composable commerce goes further by breaking the whole stack into interchangeable components. All composable set-ups are headless, but not all headless set-ups are composable. While a headless setup separates the user interface from the logic, it might still rely on a single vendor for everything behind that interface. This can lead to the same limitations found in monolithic systems if the back end remains a single, rigid block.

In a composable set-up, modules can be replaced or extended without rebuilding the rest of the system. You work with independent parts instead of one large block. This modularity means you can swap a single component for a different one from another vendor. You do not have to rebuild the entire platform every time you want to change a specific function.

How it works: MACH and packaged business capabilities

A composable store is a set of services that talk to each other through APIs. The MACH Alliance formed in 2020 to promote open technology ecosystems using these four principles:

  • Microservices-based: the system is built from small, independent parts.
  • API-first: tools connect through standard interfaces.
  • Cloud-native: the technology is built for the cloud.
  • Headless: the front end is separate from the back end.

These individual parts often take the form of Packaged Business Capabilities (PBCs). These are prebuilt, ready-to-use sets of business functions. You can plug these into your company's systems to perform specific tasks. Examples include a digital basket, a payment gateway, or a content management system.

For a brand owner, this means your store is built from separate services such as the storefront, CMS, payments, and search. You can swap these components as you grow to meet new business needs. We often use Webflow for content with a custom back end for checkout and pricing.

A real composable stack for a smaller brand

A composable stack can be five tools rather than fifty. Big Rocket built LuxuryTrainTickets.com and we still run it today. It uses a specific set of tools to solve complex commerce problems:

  • Webflow: pages, CMS and SEO, edited by the team
  • Foxy: cart, checkout, deposits and balances
  • Stripe: card payments, routed by currency
  • Cloudflare: background tasks that monitor supplier pages
  • Mailchimp: guest and campaign emails

We chose these specific tools because the business requirements demanded it. The core problem involves selling journeys with several cabin grades, managing three different currencies, and handling dates that sell out. Using a single, rigid platform would make these requirements difficult to manage. We built this booking system to handle those specific complexities through modularity.

The setup manages over 50 Venice Simplon-Orient-Express trips through a single CMS. Each trip shows three cabin prices in pounds, dollars and euros. If an operator has not shared a price, the system shows POA instead of a guessed amount. Cloudflare tasks monitor supplier pages so that any price updates are flagged for review. We use Webflow as a user-friendly front end so the team can edit content easily without worrying about the technical logic behind it.

In sales, it made £1M+ in its second year and makes £2.5M+ a year now. This revenue comes mostly from organic search.

What a small composable stack costs to run

Running a small composable stack costs a few subscriptions plus payment fees, and the build is a separate, one-off cost.

  • Site and CMS: Webflow Premium, $25 a month billed yearly
  • Cart and checkout: Foxy Starter $30 a month billed annually with 100 transactions included, or Growth $65 a month for multi-currency checkout
  • Payments: Stripe 1.5% + 20p per standard UK card, more for international cards and currency conversion, no monthly fee
  • Background tasks: Cloudflare Workers free for up to 100,000 requests a day, or from $5 a month

These dollar prices have tax added at checkout, so UK businesses should allow for 20% VAT. These are list prices from each vendor as of October 2026, not LuxuryTrainTickets.com's own bill. Email tools are not included in this list.

Benefits, trade-offs and barriers

Composable lets you build what an off-the-shelf shop can't, at the cost of more parts to connect and look after. You gain the ability to solve specific business problems that single-suite platforms cannot handle. For example, custom checkouts can manage complex requirements such as:

  • Dated items: handling booking options for specific dates.
  • Product variety: managing bundles and gift selections.
  • Pricing logic: applying supplier and seasonal rates.
  • Payment structures: handling deposits and remaining balances.
  • Global sales: supporting multiple currencies.
  • System connectivity: linking to inventory, order, and email systems.

There are trade-offs to consider when moving away from a single suite. BigCommerce lists three main barriers to this approach. The first is integration complexity, because every part must talk to the others through APIs and bugs can occur in the gaps between them. The second is a skills gap, as teams need expertise in API-first and cloud development. The third is that marketing teams often have to work across several different vendor dashboards instead of one place.

You do not have to adopt everything at once. Salesforce suggests that composable does not have to be an all-or-nothing decision. A business can start incrementally with the parts that matter most, such as building the front end first and adding the checkout later. You can start small and add parts in stages.

Is composable commerce right for your business?

If you sell a modest catalogue with rich content, an all-in-one platform is usually enough. Composable earns its keep when you deal with bookings, complex pricing, deposits or several currencies.

For simpler projects, you might choose a single suite. Webflow offers all-in-one ecommerce plans as a starting point, with prices of $29 a month (Standard: 500 ecommerce items, 2% transaction fee), $74 (Plus: 5,000 items) and $212 (Advanced: 15,000 items), all billed yearly. These plans use Webflow's own checkout and allow your team to edit everything inside the platform.

Native Webflow Ecommerce fits if:

  • You manage a smaller catalogue.
  • Your brand requires rich content.
  • The team wants to edit everything within one system.

Other businesses require more flexibility through custom ecommerce. For these setups, tools like Foxy add a cart and checkout to an existing Webflow site. This allows you to keep content in Webflow while using a separate back end for logic.

Webflow plus a custom back end fits if:

  • You need to manage bookings.
  • The business has complex pricing or multiple currencies.
  • You must handle deposits and remaining balances.

Ivy's Reserve runs on native Webflow Ecommerce.

Please talk to us if you want to discuss your requirements.

Sources

Researched and fact-checked with the help of AI tools and Ahrefs data.