Welcome to the deep dive your essential shortcut to gaining real knowledge quickly.
Hey everyone. So today we're
We're really diving into the engine room of modern enterprise retail. We actually
had a request from a listener. Oh, yeah
Yeah, someone looking to understand how these
Massive companies, you know the ones handling complex B2B sales are running huge
multi-venture marketplaces
Uh-huh how they manage their commerce ops without just using simple off-the-shelf
software, right?
We're definitely moving way beyond the basic online shopping cart here. Our mission
today is
Well, it's to demystify one of the biggest shifts in digital commerce this whole
idea of headless architecture
And we're gonna use a framework called vendor as our guide
We'll explain why this kind of customizable open source solution is becoming well
pretty essential for businesses with really complex
Unique needs especially trying to make it clear for beginners. Exactly. We've been
digging through the key info
pulling insights straight from
The vendor github repository their docs in there kind of core marketing philosophy
It really spells out why they're built for scale and flexibility
Okay, but before we unlock the power of headless commerce, let's quickly thank the
supporter of this deep dive
This segment is brought to you by safe server great partner
Yeah
Safe server takes care of the specialized hosting you need for advanced software
like vendor and they support you on your whole digital transformation journey
You can find out more and get started at
www.safeserver.de
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Right, then let's focus on vendor. It calls itself a customizable commerce platform
built for scale
Okay, so let's start at ground zero for our learner
Like you said when most folks think about selling online
They probably picture one single platform doing everything right the storefront
inventory payments. Yeah all in one
So what exactly is headless commerce and maybe more importantly?
Why would a major company pick a specialized open source thing like vendor over say
a big standard sauce platform?
Yeah, that's the key question
See the core problem with those traditional all-in-one systems is they can be
really rigid
Everything's tightly coupled tightly coupled meaning the front end the website the
customer sees is stuck together with the back end the inventory the pricing
Logic all that stuff. Yeah, if you want a new mobile app or maybe some fancy voice
interface
Yeah, you just have to hope your big platform supports it easily often. It doesn't
headless commerce completely decouples those parts think of it like
Like a body and a head they're separated but they're connected by let's say a
central nervous system and that nervous system
That's the API the application programming interface precisely vendor is the body
in this analogy
It's that robust back end built with TypeScript and no JS. This is the brain the
logic center
Inventory pricing rules order security everything
Okay, the head is the front end the part that customer actually interacts with and
that could be anything a website sure
But also a mobile app of VR experience, maybe even a smart kiosk in a store
So the vendor core doesn't really care how you're shopping whether it's your phone
or some smart fridge screen
It just does the commerce part exactly that and that separation is absolutely key
to doing real
Multi-channel commerce effectively you use the same single back end that vendor
core to power every single customer touch point
You can dream up and for big companies that consistency and scale is
Critical got it. So the source is defined vendor as an open source headless
commerce platform an enterprise ready framework
Let's talk tech for a second. Why type script and no JS. What's the benefit there?
Well, it's really a choice geared towards stability and speed type script. It adds
static typing to JavaScript for non-devs
That just means the code is more robust less prone to certain kinds of errors
Developers can build faster and with more confidence fewer bugs basic your bugs.
Yeah, and no GS
It's built for handling lots of connections at once high concurrency means the
platform is designed for speed and can handle massive traffic spikes without
You know falling over which is important for enterprise scale
And what is the core platform actually give you right out of the box? It provides
two main pillars really first
There's the commerce framework. They describe it as lean unopinionated foundational
blocks
It's built on another powerful framework called nest.js nest.js. Yeah, I think of
nest.js is like a
Really solid well understood architectural blueprint for building complex
applications
It helps ensure the whole system is structured logically like a big organized Lego
kit
Scalable defendable. Okay Lego kit. I like that and the second pillar that sounds
like it's more for the business users
The ones not writing code exactly. That's the operational side a highly
customizable admin dashboard
This is the interface for the day-to-day stuff managing orders products customers
pricing
Yeah, it's built with modern tools like react and tailwind. So it feels
Well modern. Yeah, not like some clunky system from 10 years ago, right and
something that really jumped out
Especially thinking about developers is the speed they claim you can get started
the sources boast vendor can be up and running locally in
Less than two minutes. Just one command. Yeah, that seems fast that immediate
feedback must be a huge draw
Oh, it absolutely is that rapid setup just lowers the barrier to entry massively
teams can kick the tires test it out
Almost immediately see if it fits. Okay, but let's pivot to the really critical
question the trade-off
Why would a huge company choose to build their commerce system on an open source
framework?
I mean that means taking on more the engineering load themselves, right?
Why not just pay a subscription to a big convenient sauce platform? That is the
core conflict, isn't it?
It's control versus convenience saws definitely offer simplicity upfront
But you are fundamentally constrained by their platform their features their
roadmap. You're locked in they're locked in
Vendor is explicitly built as they say for when standard saws platforms can't
accommodate your unique business model
If your business needs something special and you have to create three clunky
painful workarounds
Just to launch your new product line on a saws platform. What's not convenient
anymore. Is it?
It's actually holding you back costing you time and money. Okay, so if my business
has really complex needs
Maybe I offer a unique service alongside physical products or I have intricate
loyalty tiers or
Weird shipping rules. I need a system that bends to my needs not the other way
around precisely and that deep
Customization is primarily handled through vendors extensible plug-in architecture.
This is the key
This is where you build that say 10% of unique functionality that really differentiates
your business, right?
You can tailor pretty much every single aspect of the commerce solution using these
dynamic plug-ins and they become reusable modules, too
So you're not hacking the core system. You're extending it properly in a structured
maintainable way. That makes a lot of sense
What about those big enterprise level features? Does it handle things like global
operations out of the box?
Yes, internationalization is built right in from the start. It's designed for
seamless global operations
It supports multi currency transactions cross-border omni-channel commerce
Complex tax rules all without needing massive re-engineering later on okay and
critically important for big companies
Mm-hmm security and ownership. We keep hearing vendor is 100%
Independent OSS open source software
What does that actually mean for a company putting its business on this platform?
It means they achieve full ownership of the platform. That's a really powerful
argument, especially for large
Maybe more risk averse organizations
They avoid being tied to the whims the roadmap changes the sudden pricing hikes of
a closed proprietary SaaS provider
They control their own destiny technologically speaking doesn't open source
sometimes come with worries about support maintenance
Guarantees if something breaks who fixes it
That's a fair point and that's where the licensing model comes in
The core platform is licensed under the GPL v3 now for the listener
This basically ensures the core code stays free and open the community can review
it improve it use it
But for those large enterprises that need, you know legal assurances dedicated
support channels guaranteed response times
They offer a commercial license to the VCO this list companies manage their risk
effectively
While still getting all the flexibility and ownership benefits of the open source
core
So you get the ownership and the flexibility but you can buy a safety net if you
need it. Got it
Okay, let's shift gears now to the practical side. Where is all this power actually
being used?
When we talk about complex commerce, what specific real-world business models are
we seeing vendor enable?
Yeah, vendor really seems to shine in I'd say three main areas where those
traditional
Simpler commerce solutions tend to struggle or just break down completely. Okay
area one first up B2B e-commerce business to business
Right. Give us a simple example of why a standard online store platform often fails
here
Well, B2B is just fundamentally more complex than selling directly to consumers,
right?
Think about a distributor network. Maybe customer a gets a special 15% discount,
but only on bulk orders over ten thousand dollars
Meanwhile customer B needs all their orders over
$5,000 to be approved by two different managers in their company before the order
is even processed a
Typical D2C platform just can't handle that kind of granular logic. Yeah
So vendor allows companies to take these really complex workflows things involving
custom pricing tiers per customer
multi-step approval chains
Deep account hierarchies where one person manages multiple sub accounts and turn
them into smooth reliable digital experiences
It adapts to those specific industry needs that level of custom roles. Yeah,
definitely beyond the usual Shopify store
Okay, what about marketplaces? That sounds complex, too
That's the second major area multi-vendor or multi-tenant commerce think building
your own Etsy or maybe a specialized b2b marketplace
Or even an Amazon competitor if you're ambitious building that requires really
sophisticated tools
You need to manage potentially hundreds or thousands of separate sellers each maybe
with their own separate inventories
You need to give them customizable storefronts so they can maintain their brand
identity
They need their own individual seller dashboards to manage their products and
orders
Wow. Yeah, and all the while the central platform operator
You needs to handle the commissions the payout schedules the overall permissions
taxes
It's a huge architectural challenge and vendor provides the framework to manage
that complexity without building everything from scratch
Okay, b2b marketplaces. What's the third area custom D2C exactly custom D2C models?
This is really about breaking free from what they call cookie cutter commerce
It's for brands whose business model is their unique selling proposition. Give me
an example
Okay, think of a company selling highly personalized maybe made to order furniture
They might have a dynamic 3d configurator on their website where you choose the
wood the fabric the size and that
Configuration needs to link directly to complex supply chain logic, maybe even
trigger specific manufacturing processes
Or think about a subscription box service with five different tiers
Complex bundling rules variable shipping schedules and maybe add on purchases
things that require unique logic unique logic
Exactly, if your brand's vision relies on that kind of custom experience
Maybe blending digital and physical touch points in a novel way
Vendor use you the underlying toolkit to actually write and execute that unique
business logic
Okay, so for those kinds of complex niche applications, the flexibility is
definitely worth the extra engineering effort compared to sauce
Let's talk about that engineering effort for a sec the developer experience or DX
What is the tech stack offer developers to make building and crucially maintaining
these complex systems easier?
Yeah, they seem to focus heavily on tools that boost developer productivity and
importantly maintain ability
We already mentioned TypeScript in nest.js which provide that structure and safety
net and crucially a really big one
Is that they expose pretty much all their functions in data via graph QL. Okay
graph QL for the beginner listening
What does graph QL actually do for the business? Why is that better than older ways?
Okay, think of it like a
Really efficient very specific waiter in older systems using something called rest
API's
often when your app asks for data the server might send back a whole bunch of
information maybe way more than you actually need for that specific
Screen like getting the entire menu when you just ask for the price of coffee
wasted data exactly wasted data wasted bandwidth
Graph QL lets the developer writing the front-end app request exactly the specific
pieces of data
They need for that particular view and absolutely no more
Just give me the product name price and inventory account for this specific ID
Okay, this dramatically reduces the amount of data flying back and forth which
makes the website or app feel much faster much more responsive
Especially on mobile networks. It's way more efficient and those saved milliseconds
as we know can translate into millions in revenue for big e-commerce sites
Absolutely performance is key. They also focus a lot on automation tools for
developers. They provide a CLI
That's a command line interface basically text commands and an automation SDK a
software development kit
Okay, that sounds like pure tech jargon again
Can you translate the business benefit of a CLI and an automation SDK? Sure think
of it like this
These are tools that automate the boring repetitive error prone parts of coding
testing and deploying the software
Okay
So it helps streamline the workflow when a developer makes a change say they add a
new discount rule
These tools help ensure that change gets automatically tested in various ways and
the deployed reliably across the entire system
Maybe to multiple servers it saves tons of developer time
Reduces the chance of human error during deployment and helps keep the whole
complex infrastructure running smoothly and consistently
It's about efficiency and reliability got it less manual work fewer mistakes
Okay, and finally the lifeblood of any open source project like this the community
What do the sources tell us about the health and activity of the vendor ecosystem?
Is it alive and well?
Yeah, the stats look pretty solid. Actually, it's a good sign of project health on
Github, which is where the code lives. It has six point six thousand stars and one
point two thousand forks
That indicates quite a bit of active interest in usage stars and forks
Basically measures of popularity and people tinkering with it pretty much. Yeah
popularity and engagement
But maybe more importantly it has a large contributor base
239 contributors listed Wow
239 people have actually submitted code or improvements. That's significant
That means a huge amount of peer review and development happening outside of just
the core founding team
Correct that diversity of contribution is really healthy for an open source project
The source has also mentioned an active community of over 3,000 developers globally
interacting in places like slack or discord and there are testimonials highlighting
the quote
Astonishing level of involvement from the core vendor team themselves in those
community channels
providing apparently fast and helpful support
For an enterprise that's going to rely on this platform as a core piece of
infrastructure for years having that active supportive ecosystem is
Basically a non-negotiable requirement. It provides confidence. Absolutely
Okay, let's try to wrap this deep dive up thinking back to our learner the person
just trying to get their head around this complex
commerce landscape
What's the key takeaway here? What does vendor really represent?
I think vendor represents the modern necessity for businesses whose models just don't
fit in the standard box
It's the flexible powerful back-end the body for commerce systems that have
fundamentally outgrown the limitations of those
Easier but more rigid standardized sauce platforms, right? It provides that
essential separation
the headless architecture we talked about
Allowing you to build any front-end you want and it gives you the enterprise grade
tools and the extensibility needed to manage truly complex
Business logic whether that's b2b marketplaces or unique DTC offerings
So it frees businesses from the constraints of someone else's pre-built roadmap
Exactly by offering true code ownership and massive extensibility
It's the ultimate customization toolkit really but specifically designed for
commerce complexity
Makes sense the ultimate customization toolkit for commerce complexity
I like that and before we sign off just a final reminder that this deep dive was
supported by safe server
They're your partner for the specialized hosting and digital transformation
solutions that help you actually leverage the power of platforms like vendor
You can learn more at www.safeserver.de
Thanks again safe server
okay, finally as always a provocative thought for you the listener to consider as
The demand for these hyper customized online experiences keeps growing needing
complex b2b pricing unique subscription models
Multi vendor logic will this shift towards flexible developer centric headless
frameworks like vendor actually become the new default
Could they eventually leave the traditional monolithic ecommerce platforms behind
kind of like relics gathering dust in the face of accelerating digital?
Complexity hmm definitely something worth mulling over where does the balance
between convenience and control ultimately land?
Thanks for joining us on the deep dive. We'll catch you on the next one