Why not go for the tried and tested?

Whether you're a T-shirt designer, a manufacturer of arts and crafts or a local retailer who finally wants to go digital, everyone needs an online shop at some point to make their products accessible to a wider customer base.

Inexperienced people who are not familiar with the web world or companies looking for a quick solution without high agency costs will probably initially turn to shop builders such as Shopify and Shopware.

Companies that already have a website and a WordPress infrastructure or want to involve a professional agency will quickly end up with WooCommerce.

But what if it's no longer just 100 orders a week, you want to connect your stationary shops to the eCommerce system and also need product data from external sources, such as suppliers? Then you quickly need paid plugins, or the customisations for the special solutions become expensive, as the systems can only be expanded at great expense.

This is where Medusa comes into play.

What makes Medusa different from the others?

Medusa is an open source headless eCommerce framework that focuses on modular and highly customisable solutions.

• The headless approach provides a backend that is separated from the frontend. This means that you are not dependent on a predefined structure in the front end, but can use a framework that meets your own requirements.
• Thanks to the open source approach with a strong community, there are no costs for plugins or revenue shares.
• Thanks to the modular structure and a large number of plugins, developers can adapt the shop to new requirements more quickly and easily.
• Medusa provides many functions that increase scalability natively, which other systems only support through plugins - for example multi-store functions or API/webhook connections.

Modular to the webshop

Modularity is one of Medusa's greatest unique selling points. Medusa uses a plugin architecture that makes it possible to add, remove or customise functions without changing anything in the core. This enables customisation solely by extending a module or even by replacing a native module with one of your own or a third-party module.

The admin interface can also be easily customised and supplemented with your own information or modules.

An API-first approach increases the scalability and independence of the backend. This makes it easy to connect Medusa to external ERP, PIM or CRM systems.

The backend is also scalable independently of the frontend. This means that a shop can quickly become a multi-channel system.

The native multi-store and multi-warehouse functionality makes it very easy to control different frontends for different brands, for example, or to create warehouses in different countries with individual shipping rules.

Example:

If digital products are also to be sold in addition to physical products, a new data model and custom module can be created quickly and easily. The module can be developed, tested and activated separately from the existing modules.

This means that if one module fails, the others continue to function and the shop is still accessible.

A serious alternative?

This modularity and freedom make Medusa a serious alternative to established systems. You are not tied to a rigid platform, but can easily expand your system and avoid high costs for existing plugins. The open source approach also reduces costs, as there are no licence fees or royalties.

Of course, the programming work and effort involved is significantly higher, but the end result is a highly customisable and scalable eCommerce solution in which the backend and frontend can be expanded independently of each other.

Medusa should have many advantages, especially for companies with a specific focus or strong growth in the eCommerce sector.

Sounds interesting?

Have you already had any experience with Medusa or does it sound exciting to you?

Let us know what you think of Medusa's headless approach. Maybe you've just reached the limits of established systems yourself and are looking for alternatives or are looking for a strong eCommerce system, then get in touch, maybe we can discuss the pros and cons together and find the right system for you.

For your input and feedback just write to me at julien.seerig@esveo.com