For many years, the go-to construction for a lot of ecommerce companies has been an all-in-one monolith setup, which ties collectively the front-end — or digital storefront — and the backend — or server-side. 

Whereas a monolith resolution is likely to be the fitting transfer for small- to mid-sized companies with restricted necessities, this sort of expertise can current some challenges as your corporation strikes into the enterprise house and requires higher complexity, corresponding to increasing into new areas or promoting by means of a number of marketplaces and social channels.

The answer? MACH structure.

Based on the MACH Alliance, MACH (microservices, API-first, cloud-native SaaS and headless) is an trade tech commonplace describing trendy expertise. In contrast to monolithic structure, MACH permits enterprise homeowners to decide on the expertise that greatest meets their wants and future roadmap.

Established in 2021, the annual MACHathon occasion is a chance for groups all over the world to showcase their most ground-breaking, revolutionary concepts utilizing MACH expertise and composable architectures. 

This yr, BigCommerce was thrilled to get in on the motion — and take dwelling three MACHathon awards! 

MACHathon 2022: Speed up at MACH Pace

With a theme of “Speed up at MACH Pace,” this yr’s MACHathon challenged individuals to “spotlight an actual problem and present how this expertise is the answer for driving development, carrying out one thing higher or faster than earlier than, or serving folks in higher methods.”

To take part within the occasion, every MACHathon staff was required to submit a three-minute demo video explaining their undertaking, why they selected it, which applied sciences they used, their outcomes and the way they plan to proceed their undertaking after the MACHathon. 

Moreover, every staff submitted structure diagrams of their resolution and documentation explaining why they selected the tech stack they used.

With €3,250 in prizes, the MACHathon culminated in six awards for the initiatives that demonstrated social significance, feasibility, use of MACH expertise and innovation.

Composable Commerce Constructed for Progress

Partnering with Contentstack and Uniform, BigCommerce and our MACHathon staff — known as “Rage In opposition to the MACHine” — needed to create a method to launch new websites shortly and seamlessly. 

Iris Schiefer, Senior Enterprise Account Govt at BigCommerce, used Italian lingerie model La Perla to assist clarify the staff’s undertaking and objective.

Whereas La Perla already had a essential ecommerce website, in January 2022, the model determined to launch a number of storefronts. This included one for its cosmetics and perfume subsidiary, La Perla Magnificence, which might have a barely completely different feel and look and goal a special viewers than its essential ecommerce website.

“We thought, ‘What if we might make that basically straightforward for retailers to spin up a brand new website, make it feel and look completely different, be capable of check and be taught in new markets, take the positioning down, be taught, reiterate, launch and check once more, and be capable of have these parts prepared to make use of once more,” Scheifer mentioned. “So we created a composable commerce stack accelerator.”

With the accelerator, a enterprise proprietor can select an internet site theme and launch a brand new storefront in only a few clicks, explains Hadi Farhat, a Senior Gross sales Engineer at BigCommerce who labored on the undertaking with Tim Benniks and Ante Sepic of Uniform. 

Primarily based on Uniform expertise orchestration (detailed in Uniform’s MACHathon weblog publish), a BigCommerce headless commerce and a Contentstack headless CMS, the accelerator supplies tech groups with a fast and straightforward resolution to check and be taught — with out the necessity for heavy improvement on the backend. 

“Our objective was to point out that scaffolding composable stacks is one thing accessible to all stakeholders, not solely builders,” talked about Benniks. “Through the use of the Uniform orchestration layer, entrepreneurs have been in a position to preview and edit the content material saved in each BigCommerce and Contentstack in a single place. For them it was a seamless expertise — and it seems like we achieved our objective, as a result of the viewers simply beloved it.”

If you wish to know what all of the hype is about, try the Rage In opposition to the MACHine demo video.

BigCommerce Wins 3 MACHathon 2022 Awards

In late June 2022, within the coronary heart of London, the MACH Alliance hosted a gaggle of government leaders, expertise decision-makers and front-end builders from all over the world for its annual MACH ONE Convention. 

Whereas the two-day occasion was jam-packed with keynote audio system, breakout periods and profession improvement alternatives, the convention saved probably the most thrilling periods for final: the winner displays of this yr’s MACHathon — and we’re excited to announce that BigCommerce fashioned a part of the stack for 3 out of the six successful initiatives! 

• MACHnificent Champion: For the general winners of the MACH Alliance MACHathon (sponsored by Actindo).
• The Integration Champion: For the staff with probably the most revolutionary mixture of options stacked collectively (sponsored by Contentstack).
• The Maturity Champion: For probably the most full end-to-end resolution (sponsored by Fluent Commerce).

The Remaining Phrase

With competitors heating up within the ecommerce trade, creating an internet site that stands out is essential for fulfillment. However an internet site that stands out is one that provides the perfect consumer expertise on the frontend and the perfect developer expertise on the backend. 

With MACH expertise, enterprise homeowners now have the pliability and agility to future-proof their enterprise expertise and enhance their ecommerce digital experiences.