From Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Composable | The Loop

When (and why) it’s worth migrating

In recent years, the eCommerce ecosystem has changed dramatically. The monolithic model, which offered stability and fast delivery for years, is now showing clear limitations when it comes to personalization, time-to-market, and scalability.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) has long been the go-to for many brands—especially in fashion and luxury. But today, more and more companies are exploring the shift to a composable architecture. And it’s not just a trend — it’s strategic.

What does “Composable” mean?

Put simply: it’s about building your eCommerce platform as a set of specialized modules, each responsible for a specific function (CMS, search, checkout, PIM, etc.), all connected via APIs.

This architecture is based on:

Headless frontend
API-first approach
Best-of-breed components
Cloud-native, SaaS-based services

When is it worth migrating?

Not always. But there are clear signals that indicate the right timing:

1. Customization limits

If your teams constantly struggle to deliver modern UX or dynamic marketing campaigns, SFCC might be more of a constraint than a solution.

2. Slow time-to-market

In a composable ecosystem, you can update just the affected module (e.g., CMS or checkout) without touching the entire monolith. Development and testing cycles shrink significantly.

3. Performance and SEO

Modern frontend frameworks like Next.js or Nuxt provide top-tier performance, fast loading times, and excellent SEO readiness.

4. Global expansion

Composable setups make it easier to manage different languages, currencies, catalogs, and UX variations per market.

5. High management and licensing costs

The monolithic solution has very high licensing and maintenance costs.

Real-world example: a global fashion brand

One of our clients, a fashion brand with over 35 online stores worldwide, was on SFCC. After years of patches and workarounds, they decided to migrate to a composable stack with Nuxt.js - Vue.js, Commerce Layer, Contentful and Algolia.

Results after 8 months:

0 downtime during the golive
-50% opex related to software licenses
35% reduction of time to market for new feature releases

The most interesting part? Even though the migration was carried out as a like-for-like transition (all the existing features from the old solution were migrated to the new one), a series of UX and UI improvements were implemented during development, resulting in a smoother and more high-performing user experience.

How to approach the migration: strategic checklist

Technical and functional audit
Map dependencies, analyze blockers, identify pain points.
Progressive roadmap
You don’t need — and shouldn’t try — to do it all at once. Start with headless, then move to checkout, PIM, and so on.
Training and change management
Teams need to be ready to work with modern technologies, APIs, and distributed models.
Choose the right partners and stack
There is no “perfect composable stack”. It depends on your team, goals, and budget.

Are you ready for a composable migration?

Strategic and technical checklist

✔️ Do you have internal or external teams skilled in APIs, headless, and JAMstack?
If not, consider onboarding partners or upskilling before you start.

✔️ Are your stakeholders (marketing, eCommerce, product) frustrated by current limitations?
Pain is often the best trigger for change.

✔️ Is your current infrastructure holding you back in terms of performance or UX?
If everything’s running smoothly, maybe it’s not time yet.

✔️ Do you need to scale quickly into new markets or channels?
Composable is ideal for omnichannel and multibrand growth.

✔️ Have you already decoupled your frontend, at least partially?
If you’re already using a headless storefront, you’re halfway there.

✔️ Do your budget and resources align with a 6–18 month roadmap?
This isn’t a fast & cheap project. It needs vision — and patience.

Real composable stacks: what brands use

Area	Tools	Pros	Cons
Commerce Engine	Commerce Layer, Elastic Path, commercetools	Highly flexible, API-first	Enterprise cost, steep learning curve
CMS	Contentful, Sanity, Strapi, Storyblok	Great editor UX, versioning	Price (some), technical UI
Search	Algolia, Meilisearch	Fast, customizable	Algolia can be expensive
Checkout	Checkout.com, Adyen, Stripe	Solid integrations	Some vendors are rigid
Frontend	Next.js, Nuxt.js, Vue Storefront, Astro	Excellent performance & SEO	Requires full JS teams
CDN & Edge	Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare	Ultra-fast deployment	Scale-up costs to consider

A great way to start is to use low-friction tools like Contentful + Nuxt.js + an external commerce API, while keeping SFCC (or Magento, Shopify Plus, etc.) as the backend for inventory and orders. This allows you to experiment, validate, and move forward with a gradual full migration.

Want to talk about it?

I’m currently working with several brands on this kind of transition. If you want to explore whether composable is right for your business, feel free to reach out.