Composable Commerce: Trend or Old Concept?

- Atul Jain | 17-07-2025

In recent years, “composable commerce” has been widely positioned as a breakthrough innovation. Industry events, vendors, and consultants often present it as the next big thing.

But let’s take a step back.

Back in 2007, together with Tom Van de Walle , we built a composable commerce architecture for Dexis Belgium – well before the terms composable commerce were coined.

Here’s what we did at that time:

We used Intershop (from Intershop Communications ) as the transactional core and basket engine.
We integrated Fredhopper for search and merchandising.
We built custom web services to fetch real-time pricing and stock from AS400 systems.
We used external storage to expose invoice PDFs within the e-commerce platform.

Was it called “composable commerce”? No. Did it solve real, complex business problems in a modular, scalable way? Absolutely.

Let’s not get stuck in debating who invented what and when. The real question is: What problems does composable commerce solve, and why do organizations adopt it?

In our experience, organizations choose composable commerce because they:

Need flexibility in architecture to support growth and omnichannel experiences.
Want to build modern digital touchpoints such as agentic commerce, mobile apps, or POS.
Aim for faster time-to-market.
Seek a lower total cost of ownership in the long run.

Now, 17 years later, the market is split between monolithic and composable approaches.

My view? Both are valid. The right choice depends on your business context, organizational maturity, and long-term goals.

Composable Commerce is best for companies that:

Have complex requirements that one platform can’t meet alone.
Operate a mature e-commerce team and want to accelerate change.
Have a longer investment horizon (5+ years).
Possess strong in-house tech capabilities.

Monolithic Platforms are best for companies that:

Have standard commerce needs already well-served by today’s platforms.
Are early in their eCommerce journey and focused on building traction.
Lack deep in-house tech teams.
Want to launch quickly with minimal complexity.

What are your criteria when deciding between monolithic and composable?

Let’s keep the conversation practical and focused on solving real business challenges — not buzzwords.

From strategy to success

At Neortus, we help develop scalable, customer-centric, and integrated e-commerce solutions. Whether you’re building a new platform, optimizing your current systems, or aiming to create a seamless omnichannel experience, we deliver the best digital solution. Get in touch with us today.