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A growing number of retailers are adopting MACH-based architectures to enable and support digital innovation and business agility, writes Miya Knights, Retail Technology Publisher<\/strong><\/p>\n A recent event suggests retail is leading microservices-based, application programming interface (API) first, cloud-native and headless (MACH) adoption in growing numbers.<\/p>\n Retailers represented the largest industry group at the second annual event hosted in Amsterdam last week by end user and certified supplier members of the MACH Alliance.<\/p>\n The industry practitioners said MACH technology architecture principles were becoming essential in helping them keep pace with digitally-turbocharged customer demand.<\/p>\n Common benefits cited by the retailers who spoke with Retail Technology Magazine<\/em> at the event, including ASICS, Very Group, LEGO and IKEA, were speed, agility and efficiency.<\/p>\n Overcoming monolithic constraints<\/strong><\/p>\n Niall Edwards, LEGO Group VP Technology, said the move towards a so-called \u2018composable\u2019 MACH-based approach arose out of two main industry trends.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of retailers that had matured over the previous 10 years using a best-of-breed approach with monolithic platforms had gotten to a point of frustration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This platform approach resulted in slow and costly upgrade cycles that failed to deliver proportionate benefit, which was why LEGO embarked on a MACH journey six years ago.<\/p>\n Becoming a founding MACH Alliance Ambassador three years ago, Edwards added: \u201cWe were frustrated by all kinds of various constraints, saying there must be something better.\u201d<\/p>\n Harnessing agile composability<\/strong><\/p>\n Anca lordanescu, IKEA VP Engineering and MACH Alliance Ambassador, expanded on the benefits of enabling MACH principle of composability. \u201cIt\u2019s all about decoupling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started first decoupling our processes from the tech. We said: \u2018Let’s break the monoliths and create microservices, move everything to cloud, and remove point-to-point integrations.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThen we created standardised, decoupled and reusable components that we could map shopping journeys onto the customer experience and create an open UX [user experience].\u201d<\/p>\n She explained that 70% of IKEA\u2019s sales are still completed in its stores, where her focus was now on how to enable MACH principles to build the store of the future.<\/p>\n Looking beyond digital experiences<\/strong><\/p>\n lordanescu added: \u201cWe\u2019re putting customers in the store in the centre. Do they want inspiration, or to just get in and out? We can cater to many different journeys with MACH.\u201d<\/p>\n Echoing the flexibility and agility benefits lordanescu highlighted, Mindy Montgomery, ASICS Associate Director of Product Management, hailed MACH for brand enablement support.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have the luxury of having a very mission-driven organisation that has a long-term strategy,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cThat makes brand enablement super easy.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it’s a matter of identifying what pieces are missing and asking, \u2018how do we build that incrementally and deliver value as we go?\u2019 I think MACH architecture really supports that.\u201d<\/p>\n Building differentiated experiences<\/strong><\/p>\n ASICS is using a headless content management system (CMS) from MACH-certified vendor, Contentstack, for business users to manage content more effectively in different regions.<\/p>\n Montgomery added: \u201cWe could give regions more control over their asset types and how they roll out things, because the business is structured quite differently around the world.<\/p>\n \u201cThe customer experience on mobile or in-store or web is vastly different in Japan than North America, for example. But it’s still using the underlying platform that we’ve built out.\u201d<\/p>\n A MACH approach also allows ASICS to maintain brand control outside of its ecosystem, with retail and sporting events partners, such as Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods and the US Open.<\/p>\n Future-ready IT enablement<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe have a long term vision whereby we’re pushing into their websites, where they’re calling into Contentstack to get the content,\u201d Montgomery explained.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to make sure we’re presenting our products consistently across any channel, including some, like VR and AR [virtual and augmented reality] that don’t yet exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Hornby, The Very Group Digital Customer Experience Director, said MACH enabled an out-of-support ecommerce platform migration. But, like ASICS, consistency was also key.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve built a design system that we’ve referred to as Fuse,\u201d he said. \u201cNow, that’s making the end to end journey far more consistent, far more contemporary.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at some of our sites today, our brand strength is very strong in the upper funnel, and then weakens as you go through the journey and becomes far more functional.\u201d<\/p>\n Ensuring consistency, accessibility<\/strong><\/p>\n Hornby continued: \u201cWe have lots of different instances of the same buttons, and design and engineering tasks are unnecessarily arduous. Whereas the design system is creating far more brand strength and consistency, while also making the end-to-end journey doubly accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicolas Pastorino, Interflora Group Chief Product and Digital Officer, said the flower delivery network adopted MACH principles to rationalise its IT infrastructure on a global scale.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen aligning and converging seven business units in different countries, we have to talk about organisations and cultures, and the technology was a natural follow-up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pastorino agreed with his fellow retail attendees that MACH principles were helping to meet a diverse set of needs and historically fragmented business model.<\/p>\n Unifying technology approach<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYou need data to make decisions,\u201d added Pastorino. \u201cBut you are running on limited resources, time and dollars. So you need to best allocate time to go fast.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is especially true for let’s say older companies like us that have some legacy and have a large community of stakeholders, such as our several thousand florists.\u201d<\/p>\n He concluded by observing that the technical approach advocated by the MACH Alliance offered benefits to older, as well as new, digital-first organisations.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if you’re an established player in a mature market, with a long history, including a long technological one, you can change quickly and still gain a lot from such changes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n