CommerceLayer is an incredible headless e-commerce system that we have used extensively over the last couple of years to develop custom e-commerce solutions. The issue with CommerceLayer, however, is that even though the backend functionality and API’s are powerful and extremely easy to use, the frontend tools provided out-of-the-box are not necessarily adequate for many use cases. And while CommerceLayer has made amazing progress with their new App Elements platform, customization remains tedious and, over time, can become quite overwhelming due to the complexity of having to manage various repos, as well as keep on top of underlying dependencies.
A better solution, in our view, is to connect the CommerceLayer API to Retool, which is the leading low-code tool for quickly developing internal software dashboards and apps. Once you connect CommerceLayer to Retool, you gain access to all of Retool’s components and functions to build highly customized apps both for desktop and mobile.
Some of the benefits of connecting Commerce Layer to Retool include:
- Easy customization of data display via drag and drop Retool components, with no need to fotz around with React, or CSS libs.
- Quick integration of other connected 3rd party APIs so you can display all your necessary data in one app with little coding.
- Fast development of serverless functions so you can supplement data from Commerce Layer and even update this data as needed.
- Less painful upgrades, as Retool managees all the necessary dependencies and components for you, allowing to focus on getting the data you need and displaying it how you want.
- Simpler management of user auth by leveraging Retool's own internal user roles and functionality.
- Painless development of mobile apps that will delight your customer service reps.
The bottom line is that Retool provides a faster, and more scaleable platform for data from 3rd party API's, making Retool the ideal frontend for your Commerce Layer data.
We have a created a short demo video below to show what we have done to create some internal apps. In addition, we have included some screenshots below to demontrate the mobile app we have built with Retool and our Commer Layer integration.
If you are interested in setting up a Retool + Commerce Layer integration for your store, please contact us.