How See’s Candies Future-Proofed Their Digital Business

The reality of technology change in ecommerce is that there is never a good time. Anything major needs to avoid disrupting the business and distracting everyone’s attention away from the business of selling products. So a modern technology project just cannot take 18 months of everyone’s time and potentially fail or cost twice what your so-called partner said it would. You need short projects, minimal timeline risk, and a partner who will do what they say they will do, when they said they would do it for the price they told you it would cost. But how is that going to be possible? Everyone is different, everyone has bodies buried in their SFCC build, everyone has other work to do. Well that’s what a partner should be there for - to take on the risk and work out ways to make the project as predictable and painless as possible while leaving you with a great outcome you can support yourselves if you wish.  That’s what 64labs does.

The Reality Check: Timelines and Hidden Delays

You want this over with. And so does everyone else. But on average if you use traditional system integrators a composable storefront project can take 9 months for hybrid, and more like 18 for a full build. 

Here’s how the competition typically breaks down (without naming names):

• “Standard” big consultancies: Projects take 12–18 months. If they can convince you to do hybrid they will. More money for them. Longer engagement for them. Phase 2s and Change Orders for them. No value for you.
  
• Boutique agencies: 9–12 months is often quoted, especially for complex multi-country or multi-brand work. There are some good companies in this bracket. But velocity requires experience and if this is their first rodeo they are going to make friends with the dirt a few times during your project before they get back on the horse. That takes time.
  
• Unassisted Internal team: This is the riskiest and likely longest project pathway of all. It is not that your team isn't great. But they have a day job. They cannot commit full time to a composable project, they cannot give it their full attention. And they have minimal experience of a composable build and what can derail these kinds of projects. They are good people. They want to do the project. But on their own they will make mistakes that will cost you months or lead the project into the weeds.
  

What 64Labs Actually Delivers

This is where it gets different. With 64Labs, the average timeline for a full composable storefront is 16–26 weeks from kickoff to launch. That’s four to six months: not a number picked from thin air, but what 10 real projects have taken.

How does it break down?

• Sprint 0 (Discovery, Accelerator application, Architecture and CMS): 4 weeks, focused on sharp requirements, practical, production-grade engineering by our top team, and actionable project plans. You are going to see the site working end to end, potentially in multiple locales, with new CMS integrated, at least with standard tooling on board. Cost: $185k
  
• Scopotype: 8 weeks of hands-on engineering, core commerce logic, problem solving, custom code rebuilds, 3P re-integrations, CMS rollout, and the plan to finish the site with your team or partner. Cost: $385k
  
• Build to Launch: 4 to 12 weeks, flexing with the messiness of multi-country or multi brand legacy integrations, the volume of migration work, the urgency of launch, the capacity and capability of your team. Cost: $100k to $300k
  
• Launch: 4 weeks prepping for launch for two weeks with final QA, planning and executing the production cutover or AB split, and full post-launch support for two weeks post launch. Cost: $65k
  

No long-winded up-front planning, no boomerang back to the drawing board at every misstep, just real delivery. If we miscalculate, we just get on and do the work required to catch up. No change orders, no problem.

How Much Should You Pay?

Here’s a painful reality: some named agencies will pitch you composable storefronts with sticker prices starting at $1.5 million, with the meter running for every slightly off-the-beaten-path integration and every dashboard tweak. 

• Big consultancies: Commonly north of $1 million before post-launch support and "phase two" fees.
  
• Boutiques: $750,000–$1.1 million is typical, with heavy change-orders and phase 2s as the project gets real.
  
• Low-cost players: Sub-$500,000 builds exist, but usually with rigid templates, reduced flexibility, and less robust engineering.
  

At 64Labs, the cost is clear and tied to real deliverables. Sprint 0, Scopotype, Build to Launch, and Launch are all included and laid out from the start. With just $600,000–$850,000 for a ready-to-scale composable storefront there is no nickel and diming and no “gotcha” line items. 

Plus, if you want us in your corner post-launch, you’re looking at $60,000–$100,000 per month, tailored to what you actually need.

Why the Gap? What Drives Time and Price

The gap is real, and most of it comes down to three things:

• Integration and Migration Complexity: More systems, clunkier legacy platforms, and higher custom logic add time and cost everywhere. You can either find a partner who will shoulder that risk - the 64labs model. Or you can find a partner that sees complexity and uncertainty as a way to squeeze more money from the project.
  
• Team Decisiveness: The fewer drawn-out meetings and “maybe next sprint” calls, the quicker things go. For SIs who rely on billable hours post-launch, and who are licking their lips at a phase 2, there is no hurry, no need to get things done, no need to make difficult decisions early.
  
• Expectation Management: Big players pad timelines for margin and risk; template shops skip real discovery, do less custom work, and shove more to “phase two.” With 64labs you get a fixed price for a well understood piece of work and an experienced team who have seen your problems before.
  

Project Breakdown at a Glance

Bottom Line

If you are serious about going composable, you want your storefront built around a playbook that has actually shipped multiple times, without the runarounds or sticker shock. The true cost is not just the fee; it’s the lost opportunity when launch dates slip and value never lands. At 64Labs, “on time” and “on budget” are not wishful thinking; they are the standard, backed up by actual reference projects. Ask us for names.

Monolithic commerce platforms still dominate the legacy install base. But composable architecture is quietly and quickly becoming the default for brands that want to move fast, personalize better, and scale smart. Here’s why.

Two Paths. One Direction That Matters.

At some point, every digital team hits the same wall: is your commerce platform pushing you forward, or is it quietly holding you back?

Monolithic platforms are familiar. Everything in one place. One contract, one vendor, one roadmap to follow. That made sense when stability was the goal. But the game has changed.

Composable commerce is built for movement. It splits the stack into parts - CMS, search, checkout, personalization - and connects them through APIs. So each part of your business can evolve on its own terms.

This isn’t a backend engineering preference. It’s a strategic foundation for shipping faster, experimenting more, and building digital experiences that keep up with the customer.

Why Composable is Pulling Ahead

Modern brands move on short timelines. Product drops, geo-expansion, A/B tests, loyalty programs, AI-driven content - none of that fits neatly inside the old dev cycle.

Monolithic platforms slow things down. One small update means full regression testing. Teams queue up behind each other. Deadlines slip. Innovation fades.

Composable fixes that. You want to try a new CMS? Plug it in. Want to update the frontend? Do it without touching the checkout. Want to test two search vendors? Go for it.

Decoupled systems let every team move at their own pace. No more waiting for a single system to catch up.

Tradeoffs Worth Knowing

There are still situations where a monolith makes sense. Simpler teams, tighter budgets, fewer moving parts. If your business needs one site and one language, all-in-one can be fine.

But once you scale, that simplicity becomes a constraint. You’ll find yourself spending more time working around the platform than improving your experience.

Composable takes more planning upfront. You need to pick tools, define APIs, structure your stack. But once it’s in place, you’re in control. Not locked to a vendor’s roadmap. Not bottlenecked by a bundled release schedule.

What It Looks Like Day to Day

Say your team wants to relaunch the site, overhaul search, add personalization, and expand to three new countries. And marketing still needs to push campaigns live weekly.

In a monolithic setup, that’s a six-month program with a lot of dependencies and delays.

In a composable world, content updates go through the CMS, personalization gets tested in isolation, and the frontend evolves alongside the rollout. Each stream moves independently. That means fewer collisions and more shipping.

The Wrap

Monolithic platforms had their moment. And for some teams, they’re still good enough. But if your brand is growing, diversifying, or trying to accelerate, composable is probably the better fit.

It gives your teams control. It frees you from outdated timelines. And it lets your tech stack evolve with the business, not behind it.

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The Big Question Everyone Asks

If you're leading digital at a large retailer or a multi-brand group, this has probably come up already: "How fast do we get a return on a composable build?"

Fair question. Composable projects do require upfront investment. They need time, budget, and executive attention. But the payoff isn’t just in the tech you launch. It's in the legacy systems and workflows you leave behind.

The value shows up when your teams stop waiting for dev queues, start shipping faster, and no longer rely on expensive workarounds to do basic things.

A composable storefront doesn't just pay off the build. It clears the debt that’s been building inside your stack for years.

Where the ROI Actually Comes From

Most people frame ROI too narrowly. They ask if composable saves money compared to what they’re already doing. And if it makes money if all they do is change the front-end framework. It does both. But the better question is whether it clears the friction that keeps your teams from doing their best work.

Here’s where the real value tends to land:

• Faster time to market: Marketing and merch teams push campaigns, content, and experiments without waiting for staging, QA, or a dev sprint to open up.
  
• More autonomy across teams: No more Jira tickets for basic content updates. A well-structured CMS lets non-technical teams work directly inside the experience. This autonomy stretches right through to some elements of structure like menus.
  
• Less tech debt: When you replace rigid templates and legacy CMSs with modular systems, maintenance gets lighter and upgrades stop being emergencies.
  
• Better customer experience: Faster front-ends and personalized flows drive stronger engagement (+20-40 %) and better conversion (~+20 % on mobile). That has real revenue impact.
  
• No wasted license spend: Composable means using the tools you actually need. You’re not paying for a suite full of features no one uses. This somewhat relies on your ability to negotiate good deals from new vendors and better deals from your platform. But composable opens this door and all of these guys want your business a great deal.
  

What Actually Drives ROI

Not every composable build hits its targets. The architecture helps, but the outcome depends on the process.

• Don’t start at the starting line: Many accelerators other SIs brag about are just reskinned versions of the Composable Storefront Sample from Salesforce Commerce Cloud. They are essentially worthless. The 64labs Accelerator is an integrated set of code, process, and embedded expertise where key decisions have been made based on experience, where full-feature integrations have been pre-built with the vendor overseeing, where there is a way to getting the site done quickly that we stand behind in our contracts. With 64labs you start a 100 m race 40 m from the finish.
  
• Pick the right partners: Composable tools only deliver if they play well together. That’s why we work directly with partners like Contentstack, Amplience, Algolia, Vercel, Adyen, and Dynamic Yield to build fast and smooth. But your key partner is your engineering partner. There are some other good partners out there. But no one has the experience and focus on composable of 64labs.
  
• Enable internal teams: We don’t just ship the site. We do a handover right. Your team gets documentation, training, and structured onboarding. They have helped build parts of the site. They retain access to our top people post-launch even without a contract. If they can manage the platform without us, we’ve done it right.
  

If you want us to stick around and keep the momentum of the build going, and there can be a strong case for that for some retailers upgrading in other areas of the enterprise stack (ERP, OMS, WMS) whose team cannot own the architecture right away, 64labs can hold the fort and improve the weaponry while that work gets done.

Let’s Talk. Want to see what ROI from composable could look like for your storefront? Contact us here.