# Headless

> A commerce architecture in which the customer-facing front end is separated from the platform that holds the catalogue, pricing and checkout, the two connected by APIs.

Source: https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/headless/

## Terms of Trade · Edition 1: The PE deck

Definition

A commerce architecture in which the customer-facing front end is separated from the platform that holds the catalogue, pricing and checkout, the two connected by APIs. The promise is a front end that can change at the speed of trading without touching the systems beneath it.

Field note

Headless is not the ecommerce team running around on Black Friday week. It is a technology proposition that promised much, until retailers spoiled it with IT: the front end that was going to move at the speed of trading now needs a developer to change a banner, and the developer is on a different floor with a different backlog.

Board question

How many people, and how many days, does it take to change the homepage on a Tuesday?

Applied through

[Should we replatform](https://barkingcat.ai/thinking/should-we-replatform/), and [Operational Excellence](https://barkingcat.ai/the-cats-whiskers/operational-excellence/) in the Cat’s Whiskers, internally ready before externally funded.

Related terms
- [Composable](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/composable/)
- [Replatform](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/replatform/)
- [Core Web Vitals](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/core-web-vitals/)
- [Site search](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/site-search/)

## Contact

steve@barkingcat.ai

Barking Cat Advisory Limited. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17338003.