What is the 'new digital divide'?

The new digital divide is the gap between legacy platforms and brands that rely on monolithic commerce stacks, and those that adopt composable, API-driven architectures which enable faster iteration, better personalisation, and improved customer experiences.

Why will composable commerce disadvantage legacy brands?

Composable commerce allows brands to swap services quickly, innovate at the experience layer, and optimise for conversions. Legacy brands with rigid stacks face slower release cycles and higher integration costs, making it harder to keep up with modern customer expectations.

How should established brands prepare for this shift?

Start with a migration roadmap that prioritises experience-critical components (checkout, personalization, search), invest in API-first partners, and treat composability as an iterative process—pilot one capability at a time to reduce risk.

The new digital divide:

Why Composable Commerce Will Leave Legacy Brands Behind

Increase your release speed or risk falling behind competitors. Composable commerce is helping modern brands move ahead, but you can catch up without overspending. Traditional platforms are now holding back growth.

Insights +

13th of October 2025 | +5 minute

Legacy Platforms Have Become a Growth Bottleneck.

This change is creating a new digital divide:

Legacy brands across Europe and the U.S. are finding that their e-commerce platforms are holding them back.
Picture two companies. SwiftRetail, built for the digital age, rolled out an AI shopping feature in a matter of weeks. HeritageMart, relying on older technology, is still waiting after a year. The all-in-one sites that used to work now hold back growth and customer satisfaction. At the same time, newer competitors use flexible, API-based systems to move quickly and deliver better experiences.

This shift is creating a new digital divide. Some brands can make changes every week, while others wait months or even years to update.

What Is Composable Commerce?

Composable commerce splits your front-end (what customers see) from your back-end (data, checkout, inventory) and connects them through APIs. Think of APIs like Lego bricks — each part fits together, and you can swap or upgrade pieces without rebuilding the entire system.

Rather than being tied to a single vendor or CMS, brands can choose the best tools for each function, such as content, search, payments, analytics, and personalisation. For a detailed breakdown of how composable architecture works and where it’s headed, see Composable Commerce 2025: Pros, Cons, and Examples from The Future of Commerce.

Gartner’s analysis also predicts that by 2025, organisations adopting composable architectures will outpace competition by 80% in feature implementation speed — a clear signal that flexibility is the new growth engine.

“By 2025, organizations adopting composable architectures will outpace competitors by 80% in feature implementation speed."

Industry Insight — Gartner (2025)

“When speed, flexibility, and customer experience are your only sources of competitive advantage, monolithic tech becomes your own anchor. Composable architecture isn’t just a switch — it’s survival.”

— Mattias Aybar, Founder, Blank Street Studio

Why Legacy Systems Are Failing

Old platforms like Magento 1 and WooCommerce weren’t built for omnichannel needs.
Customers now expect smooth transitions between mobile, social, and in-store experiences, but older systems have trouble keeping up.

The result:

- A 0.5-second delay in page load time can result in a 5% drop in conversions, directly impacting revenue.

- SEO and Core Web Vitals penalties. Major search engines have been known to reduce site rankings based on poor performance metrics, which affects visibility and traffic acquisition.

- High costs for every redesign or campaign launch. Organisations often underestimate the hidden expenditure related to legacy systems, which can add up to 30% more in unexpected costs across project timelines.

- Limited control over personalisation and automation. Without the ability to quickly adjust and automate, brands report up to a 20% decrease in overall customer satisfaction and engagement.

The Price Gap — and Why It’s Worth It

Initial build

Monolithic: ∼ €10K–€40K

Composable: ∼ €50K–€150K+

Custom React/Next.js + APIs = long-term flexibility.

Monthly maintenance

Monolithic: ∼ €300–€1K

Composable: ∼ €1K–€3K

Multiple vendors early; modular upkeep stabilises.

Future changes / features

Monolithic: ∼ €5K–€10K per redesign

Composable: ∼€1K–€3K per module

Ship updates in days, not months.

ROI after 12–18 months

Monolithic: ∼ +10–20% revenue

Composable: ∼ +30–70% revenue

Speed, personalization, SEO uplift.

Summary:

Composable costs more upfront but pays off in agility and conversion. For instance, brands that have transitioned to composable architectures observed 20% faster launch times and a 15% increase in conversion rates, showcasing the tangible benefits for decision-makers.

A composable setup can see a 20-30% boost in online sales within six months, proving the substantial payoff of higher initial investments. Early stats show companies experience a return on investment within 12 to 18 months, making the initial spending worthwhile in the longer financial plan.

Monolithic systems seem cheaper, but their hidden costs, like slow innovation, redevelopment cycles, and lower customer experience, quickly add up.

The digital divide | Decoration image by Blank Street Studio

CX — The Heart of It All

Customer Experience (CX) shapes the impression at every touchpoint, from click to repeat purchase. In the era of AI-driven retail, CX is the growth lever.

Fast, personalised, and seamless journeys no longer delight users; they’re simply expected.

Composable setups empower teams to test, personalise, and optimise CX continuously — without waiting for a full rebuild.

Fear of Falling Behind (and How to Avoid It)

Small-to-medium companies often fear that going composable means massive budgets and a technical overhaul.

However, it can be done modularly, one layer at a time. To mitigate common migration risks such as downtime and data loss, companies can implement robust backup systems, schedule migrations during off-peak hours, and conduct thorough testing before fully launching new systems.

Collaborating with expert partners also ensures that integration issues are proactively addressed, providing a more manageable transition. This strategy reassures risk-averse leaders by demonstrating a commitment to maintaining stability while advancing technologically.

- Rebuild the front-end for speed and UX.

- Integrate AI-driven search or personalisation next.

- Unify your analytics, SEO, and lifecycle marketing systems.

Each step compounds results, and every layer adds enterprise-grade performance without the corporate bloat.

“E-commerce agility is now strategy. The brands that can deploy faster, test faster, and personalize faster will own the next decade."

— Dirk Hoerig, CEO of commercetools

“Legacy brands shouldn’t fear technology — they should fear stagnation. Composable architecture lets smaller teams move like giants.”

— Mattias Aybar, Founder, Blank Street Studio

How Blank Street Studio Helps You Catch Up

At Blank Street Studio, we guide legacy producers and established brands through digital transformation in three modular phases. After the initial consultation, we conduct a comprehensive digital assessment, providing a detailed roadmap tailored to your specific needs.

This is followed by a pilot phase to test key strategies before full implementation. These stages ensure a smooth transition and empower you with the confidence to make informed decisions throughout the process.

- Digital Hygiene: Rebuild foundations, improve load speed, SEO, and UX.

- Revenue Expansion: Add personalisation, AI-driven product experiences, and lifecycle marketing.

- Bold Play: Launch new digital brands or joint ventures with measurable ROI.

Every phase connects design decisions to financial outcomes such as conversion rates, EBITDA, and enterprise value, turning design into measurable growth.

To ensure transparency and build trust in our approach, we utilise comprehensive dashboards and conduct regular reviews to track and report on these metrics. Key metrics we focus on include average order value, customer retention, and cart abandonment rates.

This systematic tracking allows you to see how our strategies directly impact financial performance, aligning design with your business goals.

Ready to start bridging your digital gap?

If your website feels slow, outdated, or hard to evolve, you’re already behind — but not for long. Start with a performance audit or strategy call to understand your current capabilities and identify growth opportunities.

During the audit, our experts analyse key performance metrics, assess system architecture, and evaluate user experience. The strategy call explores actionable insights and outlines a roadmap tailored for your composable commerce transformation.

Book a Digital Rebuild Consultation →

Published by Team BSS

We engineer brand systems for leaders: decisive strategy, refined design and performance-first commerce. If you expect clarity and commercial lift, we should talk.

Request a Strategic EvaluationReach Out Now

The Latent Brand Framework™See More of Our Expertise

Ready to elevate your brand?

Let's bring your ideas to life ®

Let's TalkGet in Touch