Introducing the Demo Store.
We’re happy to announce the release of our Demo Store project, which includes a static-site generated store template (that also supports server-side rendering) built with Next.js. This release represents our ongoing commitment to lightening the technical load of ecommerce development. Composability — as defined by breaking down store architecture into independent microservices and micro frontend components — can sound powerful and intimidating at the same time. The Demo Store is another way we’re providing tools to ease the burden on developers and brands, paving the way towards implementing a composable stack and unlocking the true potential of their stores.
The Demo Store includes all of the major benefits of building a store with Commerce Layer: it’s natively multi-market, it can work with any other API (like payment gateways or in-store search engines), and it leverages our own frontend components such as:
- React components
- Hosted Cart (embedded via iframe)
- Hosted Checkout
We also made the conscious decision to exclude third-party services that most brands rely on — a CMS, search function, PIM, etc. — in order to maintain the freedom for brands to select and implement the services they prefer. As long as your preferred service has an API endpoint, it can work seamlessly with the Demo Store.
Using the Demo Store as a template
The demo-store repo is a fully-functional store template that includes search, catalog management, and our full suite of APIs and commerce apps. This repo is perfect for developers who are trying to activate quickly and do not have complex or unique requirements for their stores. For quick launches — this template simply needs to be filled in with content and product information and it’s ready to sell. The demo-store repo includes:
- A built-in search engine powered by Fuse.js
- A full catalog management system with taxonomies and taxons
- Single product variant management
- Multi-language support
- Extensive set of features provided by Commerce Layer APIs, including multiple currency price lists, inventory models that support multiple warehouses, market-specific payment gateways, delivery options and carrier accounts, and much more
All it needs is your content, product, inventory, and payment information to get up and running. You can also import your data at scale using our Import API, which you can learn more about here.
Since we’ve built the Demo Store using Commerce Layer micro frontends such as our hosted cart and checkout applications, it’s easy to implement any of the updates we make to them to any store built using the demo-store repo.
A composable sandbox to play in
The demo-store-core repo contains the source code of our project. Developers who want to dive into the inner workings of a composable store or require more customization for their composable projects can fork our demo-store-core repo. It’s a great place to explore the inner workings of a composable store and serve as a reference for developers and brands who are interested in replatforming.
Our demo-store-core repo also gives developers complete freedom to customize any aspect of the store. This makes it a more ideal starting point for brands who want to begin the composable journey, but have much more specific and sophisticated requirements around the look and feel of their store. In this way, the Demo Store provides an ideal starter kit for developers — without locking them into a setup that makes future customization difficult.
Demo Store repo and documentation
Part of our mission is to provide developers with as many tools and resources as we can to streamline the building and maintaining of composable commerce as much as we can. From our raw APIs and React components to our Drop-in library and commerce micro frontends, every release we make is with easing the development load as much as we can.
The Demo Store — along with all of our products — is another example of the commitment we have to making the development process easier for ecommerce developers, no matter how simple or complex the use case may be.
Our documentation on Github also has more information that goes into more detail about our Demo Store, be sure to check it out here.