What are commerce accelerators and how can they transform your implementation?

Business leaders implementing new commerce platforms face a fundamental question: Should they build everything from scratch or leverage existing accelerators to speed up delivery? With implementation timelines reduced by up to 50% and maintenance costs significantly lower, the case for accelerators is compelling — when you select the right type for your needs.

A commerce accelerator is a pre-built foundation usually provided by system integrators (SIs) for your commerce project that includes common features, standard integrations and proven architectural patterns developed through multiple implementations. 

Think of an accelerator as starting with 40-60% of the work already done, allowing you to focus on what makes your business unique, rather than reinventing standard functionality.

At its core, an effective accelerator follows these principles:

• Provide foundational components: This doesn’t mean “cheap” or “low-quality.” It means essential. The accelerator includes only the necessary components to deliver the commerce project, stripping away anything that doesn’t directly contribute to the fundamental goal.

• Offer a viable solution: The accelerator must be functional and deliver tangible value. It’s not a prototype or demo, but a real, working framework that can effectively address core commerce needs.

• Enable fast implementation: This emphasizes the purpose to significantly increase the speed and effectiveness of delivery. An accelerator isn’t just about incremental improvements, it’s about creating a catalyst for rapid progress while facilitating iterative development.

As Interflora UK demonstrated in their recent implementation, a well-chosen accelerator enabled them to transform 20 years of legacy technology across three websites in just 9 months, reducing hosting costs by 20% and achieving zero downtime.

Surface-level similarities can make it challenging to distinguish between demos and real accelerators. Both often feature clickable frontend websites, but the differences become clear when you examine these seven key areas:

1. Customization depth: Real accelerators offer deeper customization than demos. While demos typically allow only surface-level changes like branding, accelerators permit significant adjustments to core functionality and business logic.

2. Code access and ownership: With real accelerators, you’ll have full access to the source code and, in many cases, the code becomes your owned asset after purchase. Demos usually provide limited or no access to the codebase.

3. Integration readiness: True accelerators have real, production-ready integrations with third-party services, not just simulated connections that look good in controlled environments.

4. Scalability and performance: Accelerators are built to handle real-world scenarios. A real accelerator will have performance metrics and scalability test results to validate its capabilities.

5. Documentation and knowledge transfer: Comprehensive technical documentation, architecture diagrams and knowledge transfer sessions are hallmarks of a real accelerator, which are crucial for long-term success and team enablement.

6. Lower total cost of ownership: A true accelerator should offer significant cost advantages over time (typically, around 30% reduction) compared to custom development.

7. Time-to-market impact: Real accelerators significantly reduce development time, with typical savings of 30-50% compared to custom development, as demonstrated by Interflora UK’s 9-month implementation timeline for a complete commerce transformation.

A minimum viable accelerator (MVA) includes seven essential pillars that together create a solid foundation for commerce implementation:

1. Pre-built core modules: Essential commerce features ready to use, including product catalog, checkout process, user authentication and basic order management. These modules should follow MACH® principles (microservices, API-first, cloud-native, headless).

2. Integration capabilities: Connections with essential external services like payment gateways, headless CMS and analytics tracking. These integrations need to handle errors gracefully, manage timeouts and provide basic monitoring.

3. Customization and extensibility: Flexibility to adapt to different business needs through configuration options that extend out-of-the-box capabilities, simple rules engines and plugin systems. Common business needs should be met through configuration, not coding.

4. Scalability and performance: Built to grow with your business needs, with deployment on major cloud providers, infrastructure as code, basic scaling and fundamental performance optimization.

5. DevOps and CI/CD: A clear path from development to production, with a basic CI/CD pipeline, automated testing, code quality checks and simple deployment processes.

6. Security and compliance: Essential security measures, including data encryption, basic user roles and permissions and compliance with relevant regulations like GDPR or PCI. Industry-specific accelerators may also ensure compliance with regulations that affect certain markets, such as HIPAA for healthcare in the US.

7. Documentation and support: Comprehensive guides for setup, configuration, and integration, ensuring teams have what they need to succeed.

Understanding the differences between various accelerator types is crucial for selecting the right solution for your business. While all offer similar surface-level benefits, like speeding up development, they differ in terms of their impact, level of customization and overall influence.

Storefront accelerators

Storefront accelerators focus primarily on the design and user experience layer, providing:

• Pre-designed templates and themes for common commerce cases (Home, Category, PDP, Cart).

• Built-in responsive design for multiple devices.

• Basic customization options for brand alignment.

• Often integrated with specific eCommerce platforms (though typically for demo purposes).

Storefront accelerators provide a quick ramp-up of the design process but have a narrower focus, mostly on design, with limited impact on the full implementation.

Headless accelerators

Headless accelerators focus on decoupling frontend and backend systems, enabling:

• API-based architecture for backend functionality.

• Support for multiple frontend frameworks (Next.js, Nuxt.js).

• Easier integration with various content management systems.

• Ability to deliver content to multiple channels.

Headless accelerators have the biggest impact on the frontend implementation, but mostly leave the backend as-is, which limits flexibility and scaling potential.

Composable accelerators

Composable accelerators offer a fully modular, mix-and-match approach to commerce architecture:

• Pre-built, interchangeable modules for core commerce functions.

• Ability to integrate best-of-breed solutions.

• Flexibility to swap out or upgrade individual components.

• Support for complex, unique business requirements.

Composable accelerators can have the biggest impact on the entire commerce project, not just the frontend. They simplify the complexity that may come from composable projects.

In Interflora UK’s case, choosing a composable accelerator (Gradient Edge’s Keystone) enabled them to integrate best-of-breed solutions, including commercetools, Algolia, Amplience and Worldpay, creating a flexible system that could adapt to their specific business requirements.

In addition to technology-based accelerators, they can also be specific to certain industries, from healthcare and automotive to B2B organizations. 

The number of B2B-specific accelerators has increased in recent years, as manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors aim to speed up their eCommerce projects. B2B organizations digitizing commerce for the first time have been among the main beneficiaries of accelerators designed to meet their business requirements.

Understanding how systems integrators monetize their accelerators is crucial for informed investment decisions and avoiding unexpected costs. There are multiple engagement models, with “Free with Service Engagement” being the most common approach across the industry.

Systems integrators may offer their accelerator through various models, including: 

• Open-source options.

• Subscription packages.

• Foundation + build arrangements. 

• Blended consulting packages

• Tiered licensing

• Managed service offerings. 

Each model represents different trade-offs between upfront costs, ongoing expenses and the level of customization and support provided.

The right monetization model depends on your organization’s specific needs, internal capabilities and long-term plans. For example, Interflora UK benefited from an implementation approach that included knowledge transfer, allowing its internal team to achieve self-sufficiency in managing and evolving its digital commerce platform.

Even with accelerators, significant price differences between vendors persist. The reason for these variations has shifted from basic implementation costs to five key factors:

1. Accelerator maturity: Every vendor’s accelerator is at a different stage of development, from newer models with basic features to proven models with years of refinements.

2. Implementation philosophy: Vendors have distinct approaches, from “configuration-first” (focusing on system configuration) to “custom-first” (expecting significant custom development).

3. Strategic priorities: Some prioritize rapid deployment with minimal customizations, while others take a more strategic view with greater investment in architecture planning.

4. Cost structure variations: Different vendors build accelerator costs into their quotes in distinct ways, affecting licensing, updates, training and support.

5. Quality assurance approaches: Vendors differ in how they handle testing of customizations and integrations, impacting both initial costs and long-term maintenance.

Understanding these variations can help you better evaluate vendor proposals and identify which approach aligns best with your business needs.

The value of commerce accelerators extends far beyond faster implementation times. A comprehensive ROI assessment should consider these five key dimensions:

1. Implementation efficiency benefits

Accelerators typically reduce implementation timelines by 30-50%. They eliminate the need to build standard functionality from scratch, while providing more reliable estimates and delivery schedules.

2. Total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits

Accelerators create solutions that are easier to maintain and upgrade thanks to standardized and documented code. They also include knowledge transfer and operational best practices.

3. Business agility enhancements

Accelerators accelerate new feature development. For instance, Interflora UK is now able to design new campaigns in days instead of weeks. Accelerators are usually designed for omnichannel from the start and provide frameworks for testing and analytics.

4. Risk mitigation advantages

Battle-tested across multiple implementations, accelerators incorporate performance best practices, such as built-in security standards. 

5. Future-proofing capabilities

Accelerators are continuously updated to incorporate new technologies while preserving flexibility. They emphasize integration capabilities and create a foundation for ongoing innovation.

Getting started with commerce accelerators begins with a mindset shift: From rigid, one-size-fits-all platforms to a flexible, modular ecosystem built around your unique business goals.

Start by identifying the parts of your current commerce stack that are creating bottlenecks — whether it’s checkout, product search or promotions — and evaluate whether best-of-breed alternatives could deliver better performance or customer experiences.

From there, focus on creating a meaningful assessment process:

1. Create a clear requirements package:

   • Share a detailed assumptions document listing business rules, technical constraints and operational requirements.

   • Supply concrete data examples for critical aspects like product catalogs and customer data.

2. Ensure equal information flow:

   • Host joint vendor Q&A sessions where all questions and answers are documented.

   • Set up a shared documentation repository for all requirements updates.

3. Evaluate vendor capabilities:

   • Ask about specific customization options available.

   • Request examples of past customizations for other clients.

   • Inquire about integration readiness and performance metrics.

   • Review documentation and knowledge transfer processes.

For many businesses, a pilot approach like Interflora UK’s can be valuable. They used Gradient Edge’s Keystone accelerator to test technology choices, demonstrate how best-of-breed solutions could integrate and validate key design decisions before fully committing to the implementation path.

Remember: When evaluating accelerators, look beyond the initial implementation costs to understand the total value across multiple dimensions: Implementation efficiency, total cost of ownership, business agility, risk mitigation and future-proofing capabilities.

Discover all accelerators provided by our System Integrator partners in our Solution Hub.