Insights
Contentful Offers Future-Proof Scalability
When it comes to scaling your content operations, Contentful CMS leads the pack.
- Article
- 6 MIN READ
- Aug 26, 2021
Head of Platform Strategy
Summary
When it comes to choosing a content management system, there is a lot to consider. At Apply Digital, we often recommend Contentful because of their sophisticated ability to provide a wide range of content options, all existing within one robust structure.
This combination of features makes it possible for organizations to scale, shift, and change their content presentation as well as their back-end. Because of Contentful’s modular approach, teams can simplify their workflows, avoid adding duplicate content, and experience greater control and security around their data.
In this article, we’ll explore a few of the factors that make Contentful a great platform of choice for future-proofing your business.
Scalability is key in competitive markets
In 2021, the world saw a massive uptick in eCommerce growth as a result of the pandemic. Specifically, we saw eCommerce sales rise to $870 billion in 2021, up 14.2% compared to 2020. As more people continue to head online to compare products and services, businesses must evolve their tech infrastructure to put their best foot forward.
Having a content platform that enables you to scale as the market shifts is paramount. Staying locked into legacy systems with limited flexibility will result in poor user experiences and lower revenue over time.
Using a headless CMS like Contentful is a great way to invest in the future of your business. Contentful enables you to branch out to new digital channels, handle payments, and test new content all from one place. This is possible due to the headless CMS’s API and microservices-enabled infrastructure, which create a high degree of flexibility on how you service your customers online.
Prepare for increases in web traffic
With the rise of eCommerce transactions, like we mentioned earlier, a key component in building for scale is accounting for your projected increase in traffic and user activity. As your growth goals change, your infrastructure should evolve to adapt and support them.
Holidays, massive events, new trends, and unexpected events like the Covid-19 pandemic can all contribute to a high volume of requests, searches, and transactions on your digital properties.
For a monolithic structure or a small server, this could result in slow loading times and even crashes, which could damage your brand. Data shows that with every additional second that a website delays its loading, the conversion rate of users on your site drops by more than 4%.
Leverage modular design
Conventional monolithic CMS platforms have their place for aggregating content in an all-in-one solution, but they often impose limitations around content management. These restrictions can make scaling a challenge. Since changes must happen progressively, making updates can feel bulky and may slow down your website.
Contentful, on the other hand, is a headless CMS. This means your team can benefit from the decoupled nature of the system — your front-end can operate in multiple instances, separate from activity in the back-end. This means you have greater control over making content updates and testing new features using microservices.
Simplify your tech stack
If you plan to scale your business and the tech supporting it, you need to think about your omnichannel experience. These days, customers expect highly sophisticated experiences across any device.
There are many ways to approach this. For example, some teams will use more than one CMS. However, content management complications can arise quickly with this approach. Too many tools can result in a loss of data governance, content duplication, and teams may perform redundant tasks. Trying to scale your operations and reach in this environment can be daunting.
This is why we recommend going with a highly flexible, headless CMS like Contentful that lets you easily integrate with other tools. This helps you prepare for any shift in the market, and supports a variety of your growth goals.
In summary: Benefits of Contentful for scale
Using a headless platform like Contentful helps you prepare for scale, and align your team efforts. It provides the following benefits:
You have freedom to choose the programming languages used, and there is a high degree of compatibility with API-linked microservices.
It facilitates sophisticated content management through its content hub and API-managed content repository. Your team can reuse design and developer elements, minimizing duplicate content, and increasing cohesiveness across your channels.
Contentful operates with robust infrastructure, and integrates well with other tools. As you require microservices and features like shopping carts or search engines, the infrastructure automatically manages the resources needed to power these activities, which maintains service quality for your users.
At Apply Digital, we believe platforms like Contentful can deliver compelling digital experiences and give teams the peace of mind needed to prepare for new challenges. If you would like to discuss how we can help you future-proof your platform, reach out to someone on our team today.
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