E-Commerce & CMS Trends 2026

Topic 1: Modular e-commerce as the standard architecture

E-commerce is becoming less “one system for everything” and more an interplay of a shop frontend, commerce capabilities, content, integrations, and specialized services such as payments, ERP or PIM, shipping, marketing, and BI. In 2026, we expect clearer domain separation, API-first integrations, and swappable building blocks without requiring a big-bang rewrite to become even more established.

From our experience, Vendure is an excellent fit for this approach. Vendure is API-first by design, highly extensible, and works well in many scenarios where the desired solution should be built headless or modular.

Topic 2: CMS editor experience and extensibility matter most

Headless has long been a given in many areas of web development, such as CMS and e-commerce. What really matters is how quickly editors can publish content, how reliably it works across channels, and how well existing content can be reused as building blocks. Modular content with blocks, reliable preview capabilities, and clear content modeling are especially important.

Our favorite and recommendation in the CMS space is DatoCMS. It’s the tool we prefer to work with because it often delivers exactly the right combination of editor experience, extensibility, and clean, structured content in real projects.

Topic 3: A central API as the data hub

The more modular the stack, the more valuable a central API layer becomes, meaning a platform API acting as an integration layer. This prevents point-to-point coupling and ensures rules and data remain consistent. A central API provides unified data for frontends, apps, and partners, consolidates business rules such as pricing, availability, customer segments, or promotions, and integrates ERP, PIM, CRM, and other surrounding systems cleanly without overloading the shop core or frontend. This makes the platform extensible long term, for example for new channels, new tools, or new markets.

Topic 4: Data and tools from Switzerland or the EU

Current developments are pushing data location and dependencies further into the spotlight of architectural decisions. Many companies want to reduce risk, not only technically but also organizationally. We therefore expect CH or EU hosting and CH or EU-oriented tools to be preferred more often for core systems and sensitive data. US tools should not be excluded categorically, but they should be assessed more deliberately.

Conclusion

In 2026, modular platforms will continue to gain importance. Modular e-commerce with Vendure, a strong headless CMS like DatoCMS, and a central API hub as a stable core form a very robust foundation. In addition, CH and EU locality for data and tooling will become an increasingly relevant decision factor for many companies.

If you want to modernize your e-commerce or CMS landscape, we’d be happy to run a short architecture check covering a modular setup, the central API, integrations, and data flows, and then propose a realistic implementation and migration plan.