WHY REPLATFORMING ISN’T YOUR ONLY OPTION. MEET ADOBE COMMERCE OPTIMIZER (ACO)

Replatforming sounds like progress, until you’re knee-deep in budget blowouts and lost months.

Adobe Commerce Optimizer (ACO) gives eCommerce teams a way to modernise without starting over. No full rebuild. No lost time.

It’s built to modernise your most critical customer-facing pages-home, category, product-without disrupting your proven checkout or backend operations.

Plus, it’s technology-agnostic, working with nearly any legacy platform.

It’s built for teams that want better performance, faster features, and lower overheads, without ditching the things that already work.

Here’s how it works and why it matters.

INTRODUCTION

Replatforming is a significant undertaking, often requiring substantial investments in time, resources, and expertise. Adobe Commerce Optimizer (ACO) offers an alternative approach, enabling businesses to enhance their existing e-commerce platforms without the disruption of a full migration. It’s a low-risk way to test modern storefront experiences incrementally, with measurable results.

This article provides a technical analysis of ACO, focusing on its architecture, key features, and benefits.

FACT: AI-driven product recommendations powered by ACO have been shown to increase average order values by up to 20%.

TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE

ACO is designed as a composable e-commerce solution, leveraging a modular architecture that can be easily integrated with existing platforms. At the heart of ACO is the Composable Catalogue Data Model (CCDM), which serves as a centralised repository for all product information.

This catalog model scales effortlessly, supporting millions of products across hundreds of sites-ideal for brands eyeing global expansion.

2. KEY COMPONENTS AND TECHNOLOGIES

Composable Catalogue Data Model (CCDM)

The CCDM provides a flexible and extensible schema for managing product data. It supports a wide range of product attributes, including images, descriptions, pricing, and inventory levels. APIs enable seamless integration with PIM and ERP systems, ensuring data consistency across all channels.

Headless Implementation

ACO can be deployed as a headless e-commerce solution, separating the front-end presentation layer from the back-end commerce engine. This approach provides several advantages:

Flexibility: Developers can use any front-end technology to create engaging customer experiences.
Performance: Decoupling the front-end from the back-end improves page load times and overall performance. Edge Delivery Services ensure lightning-fast storefronts with perfect Lighthouse scores, directly boosting SEO and organic traffic.
Scalability: The front-end and back-end can be scaled independently to meet demand.

AI-Powered Commerce Tools

ACO integrates Adobe Sensei to provide intelligent features such as:

AI-Driven Search: Improves search relevancy and accuracy.
Personalised Recommendations: Suggests products based on customer behavior. Leverages generative AI (like Firefly) for automated content creation and product image variations, streamlining merchandising workflows.

Edge Delivery Services

ACO leverages Adobe’s Edge Delivery Services to deliver lightning-fast storefront performance.

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3. WHY THIS MATTERS: A TECHNICAL AND STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE

Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): By avoiding a full replatforming, ACO significantly reduces the cost and risk associated with modernising your e-commerce platform. Analytics dashboards provide before-and-after reporting to prove ROI.
Faster Time to Market: ACO can be deployed more quickly than a full replatforming, enabling businesses to launch new features and experiences faster.
Increased Agility: The modular architecture of ACO enables businesses to easily customise and extend their e-commerce platforms. It’s a stepping stone for brands considering gradual cloud migration.

FACT: ACO achieves lightning-fast storefronts with a design focused on a perfect Lighthouse score of 100, improving site speed and reducing bounce rates.

4. WHO IS THIS FOR?

ACO is ideally suited for:

Businesses using legacy e-commerce platforms that want to future-proof their stack.
Organisations seeking to improve performance and scalability without replatforming.
Companies prioritising incremental, non-disruptive upgrades over full migrations.

FACT: Businesses using ACO report a 60% reduction in time-to-market for launching new storefront features compared to traditional methods.

5. OUR THOUGHTS

Adobe Commerce Optimizer is a compelling alternative to replatforming, offering a cost-effective and agile way to modernise your e-commerce platform.

Its low-risk, high-reward approach makes it ideal for brands eyeing gradual cloud adoption.

We’re eager to assist our clients in evaluating and implementing ACO to unlock these benefits.

6. ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS

If replatforming feels like a sledgehammer for a screw, ACO might be the smarter move.

It’s the low-risk path to next-level performance-no upheaval required.

We help brands modernise without blowing things up.

Want to see how that could look for you?

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