TUI Nordic runs complex digital sales for package tours, flights, and add‑ons across multiple countries and brands. The team managed over 160 microservices integrated into a web estate that grew around a legacy publishing tool. That tool slowed editors, blocked developers, and made even small changes risky.
TUI Nordic — a large enterprise, HQ in EMEA, travel/aviation sector.
After a staged migration to an API‑first headless cms, TUI’s mobile funnel moved faster and converted more buyers. The team now ships content and UX updates without waiting for monolithic release trains and coordinates changes across web, app, and kiosks using a single content model.
Why Monolith Held TUI Back
The legacy stack coupled the content to the presentation. That coupling created bottlenecks:
- Slow releases: shared templates blocked independent changes.
- Editor friction: complex forms hid reusable content.
- Fragile pages: theme updates risked regressions.
- Integration drag: each vendor needed custom glue.
- Mobile lag: Heavy pages hurt conversion on 3G/4 G networks.
Editors waited on developer sprints. Developers waited for release windows. Meanwhile, merchandising teams needed near‑real‑time control over price blocks, ancillaries, and seasonal packages. The old stack could not keep up.
Migration to API‑First CMS
TUI adopted a headless api first approach and delivered it in sprints without freezing the storefront.
Decision factors
- Omnichannel delivery: one model for web and app.
- Performance first: CDN edge rendering and caching policy.
- Extensibility: SDKs and webhooks for 160+ services.
- Governance: roles, workflows, non‑prod environments.
- Commerce fit: compatibility with headless commerce patterns.
Timeline and steps
- Week 0–2: audit schemas, map legacy content.
- Week 3–4: define content model, locales, governance.
- Week 5–8: ship migration tooling; cms headless api gateway.
- Week 9–12: dual‑run pages behind feature flags.
- Week 13–16: move homepage, PDP, deal blocks.
- Week 17–20: retire legacy routing, finalize redirects.
Change management
- Train editors in block‑based authoring.
- Gate changes through preview and content checks.
- Use an internal workflow orchestrator to sequence publish events across micro‑services.
Internal SEO teams updated critical templates (product and category) to structured, reusable blocks. Commerce teams gained control over availability and price components without code changes.
Architecture Highlights
Composable layout at scale
- Content layer: API‑first CMS with locales and versioning.
- Experience layer: Next-gen frontends for web and app.
- Commerce layer: pricing, inventory, and ancillaries via GraphQL/REST.
- Search & recommendations: micro‑services wired through webhooks.
- Automation: orchestrator sequences publish, cache, and reindex.
Legacy vs headless
Industry context
Independent research shows the shift. WP Engine’s 2024 global study reported 73% of surveyed organizations now use headless architecture, up from 2021 and 2019 levels.
Survey data from Storyblok’s State of CMS 2024 indicates that teams switching to headless most often reported higher ROI and productivity, with only ~0.25% seeing no benefits at all.
A 2025 update on CMS usage trends further highlights the benefits of headless: faster time-to-market, improved performance, enhanced security, and measurable ROI gains.
Business Results
KPI highlights
- +11 % mobile e-commerce conversion uplift
- 5× faster content production
- 160+ micro-services integrated
The team reached its targets without publishing funnel internals. Editors now publish seasonal campaigns in hours, not days. Developers deploy UI slices independently and uphold performance budgets.
What drove the uplift
- Lighter pages: smaller bundles and image policies.
- Fewer steps: modular PDP and checkout blocks.
- Faster edits: self‑serve content for promotions.
- Safer changes: feature flags and preview gates.
Operational wins
- Pre‑approved patterns cut review cycles.
- Cache automation reduced origin load.
- Endpoint contracts stabilized integrations.
Shared content blocks created a consistent user experience.
Lessons & Next Steps
What Worked
Model content before writing code. Replace plugins with focused services.
Track Core Web Vitals as part of the CI/CD gate. Empower editors with reusable blocks.
Maintain a single release cadence for products, SEO, and merchandising.
Roadmap
- Q3 2025 – Expand edge caching with stale-while-revalidate strategy.
- Q4 2025 – Consolidate long-tail locales and centralise translation workflows.
- Q1 2026 – Launch server-side A/B testing at checkout.
- Q2 2026 – Extend composable content to bundles and ancillaries using future-proof headless commerce architecture.
KPI Ownership
- Conversion Rate – Owned by Growth Squad, monitored via Looker dashboards.
- Page Speed – Tracked by platform team; p95 LCP capped at 2.5s.
- Content Velocity – Editorial ops target: 120+ structured blocks per week.
- Service Latency – SRE team maintains 95% of calls under 200ms.
KPIs are reviewed weekly during Ops Monday meetings and feed directly into quarterly OKRs.
What to Improve
- Expand edge rules to cover all media variants.
- Automate schema markup across headless ecommerce templates.
- Introduce contract testing for 3rd-party APIs.
- Train new hires via a headless API-first accredited professional program.
Next steps
- Add deeper headless ecommerce patterns for bundles and ancillaries.
- Extend personalization across markets with privacy guardrails.
- Build a roadmap for future-proof headless commerce, including generative content review and LLM‑ready metadata.
If you plan a similar move, partner with a delivery team that understands content modeling, performance, and commerce. Inbybob_ can act as your headless commerce agency and implementation lead:
- Headless implementation
- Platform evaluation
- API‑first approach
For broader market proof points and brand examples, review Contentful’s case studies.
FAQ
What is an API‑first headless CMS?
An API‑first headless CMS stores content centrally and serves it via APIs. Front ends, such as web, app, kiosk, or voice, consume that content independently. This decoupling improves flexibility, performance, and governance in omnichannel delivery.
How does a headless CMS improve e‑commerce conversion?
It reduces page weight, simplifies integration with pricing and availability services, and enables rapid updates to content and user experience. Teams ship more minor, safer changes, keep mobile fast, and test ideas without platform lock‑in.
What makes a composable platform future‑proof?
Standards‑based APIs, contract tests, portable content models, and vendor independence. You can upgrade parts without needing to migrate everything. You can also align with B2B best headless e-commerce platforms as needs evolve and bring in a headless API-first accredited professional partner when scaling.
