The world of online shopping is changing rapidly, and a new approach called “headless commerce” is gaining popularity among brands. This shift is driven by several important trends in the ecommerce landscape that business owners should pay attention to.
With countless new online stores opening, it’s crucial for brands to find unique ways to stand out in a crowded market. Additionally, the cost of attracting customers is rising, pushing brands to focus on building lasting relationships through personalized and diverse shopping experiences. The recent decline of third-party cookies has further emphasized the need for innovative approaches to create tailored customer journeys.
In 2026, the global ecommerce market is projected to reach a staggering $8.1 trillion, underscoring the immense opportunities available. To succeed, businesses must capture shoppers’ interest, convert them into loyal customers, and keep them engaged. This is where headless commerce enters the picture, offering the freedom to craft exceptional shopping experiences across various touchpoints without being limited by design or development constraints.
In this article, we’ll discuss the concept of headless commerce, its benefits, and how you can take your first steps if it aligns with your business goals.
What is Headless Commerce?
At its core, headless commerce represents a paradigm shift in the way e-commerce systems are structured. In the traditional commerce model, the front-end presentation layer (such as a website or app) is tightly coupled with the back-end systems responsible for handling operations, inventory management, and more. This interconnectedness, while efficient to a certain extent, often limits flexibility and scalability.
Headless commerce, on the other hand, liberates businesses from this constraint. It enables the separation of the front-end and back-end, allowing them to function independently while communicating seamlessly through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This decoupling empowers businesses to design and deliver unique, tailored customer experiences across various touchpoints, including websites, mobile apps, social media, IoT devices, and emerging technologies like voice assistants.
To fully comprehend the significance of headless e-commerce, it’s essential to understand the core components involved:
Front End and Back End:
The front end refers to the customer-facing interface where users interact with a business’s digital storefront. This includes websites, mobile apps, and even IoT devices like smart mirrors and vending machines. Conversely, the back end encompasses the systems, tools, and processes that manage operations behind the scenes, such as inventory management, order fulfillment, and data storage.
APIs and Connectivity:
APIs serve as the backbone of headless commerce. They facilitate real-time communication between the front-end and back-end systems. This enables businesses to seamlessly exchange information and data, ensuring a smooth customer experience across various touchpoints. APIs enable businesses to connect diverse systems, such as Content Management Systems (CMS), Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms, and Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs).
What is Traditional Commerce?
Traditional commerce consists of monolithic ecommerce platforms like Magento or Adobe Commerce. In these systems, the front-end website and the back-end commerce functionality are coupled together and provided by the same vendor.
Some characteristics of traditional commerce include:
- Tightly coupled front-end and back-end – The presentation layer and business logic are part of the same codebase and platform. Difficult to separate.
- Limited omnichannel – Designed primarily for desktop websites, so limited capabilities for other devices.
- Vendor lock-in – Typically rely on all areas of the platform from a single vendor.
- On-premise hosting – Traditional platforms often require hosting on company servers and hardware.
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How Does Headless Commerce Work?
The fundamental principle underlying headless commerce is the utilization of APIs to enable communication between different layers of an e-commerce system. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how headless commerce works:
Decoupling the Front End and Back End
In the headless architecture, the front-end presentation layer is separated from the back-end commerce functionality. This separation allows businesses to upgrade or modify either layer without affecting the other. This flexibility is particularly advantageous when introducing new touchpoints or features.
Leveraging Backend Systems
Headless storefronts can leverage various backend systems to support different functionalities. These systems can include a Content Management System (CMS) for managing customer-facing content, a Progressive Web App (PWA) for enhanced web experiences, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform for customer data management, and a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) for orchestrating omnichannel experiences.
Real-Time Communication through APIs
When a customer interacts with a headless storefront, such as making a purchase or browsing products, the front-end sends API calls to the relevant backend systems. These API calls allow data and information to flow seamlessly between the layers, enabling a consistent and up-to-date user experience.
Personalized Customer Experiences
By using headless commerce, businesses can create highly personalized customer experiences. For instance, they can integrate data from the CRM to offer tailored recommendations or utilize IoT devices to enable innovative shopping experiences, such as interactive mirrors that display virtual outfits.
Scalability and Future-Proofing
Headless commerce enhances scalability since new touchpoints and features can be integrated without disrupting the existing architecture. This future-proofing is crucial in an era of rapid technological advancements and changing customer preferences.
In contrast, traditional commerce platforms tightly integrate the front-end and back-end, limiting the ability to swiftly adapt to new technologies and channels. While traditional systems are efficient and straightforward, they often fall short in delivering the level of personalized and immersive experiences that modern customers demand.
The Problem with Traditional Shopify
Traditional commerce platforms, like Shopify, have been widely embraced for their user-friendly interfaces and quick setup, they often fall short in meeting the demands of growing and ambitious retailers. Traditional platforms tend to package various components—such as front-end design, back-end functionality, and payment processing—into a single monolithic structure. This may initially seem convenient, but it can lead to several limitations as a business expands.
One of the most prominent challenges lies in design flexibility. Traditional platforms often provide pre-designed templates that limit a retailer’s ability to craft a unique and visually impressive online storefront. As brands strive to stand out and provide personalized shopping experiences, the lack of customization within these templates becomes a significant drawback. Additionally, any alterations to the design or functionality require changes across the entire system, leading to time-consuming updates, potential downtime, and revenue loss.
Headless Commerce vs. Traditional Commerce
Headless Commerce
Headless commerce takes a decoupled approach by separating the front-end and back-end components of an e-commerce platform. This allows for complete customization of the user interface, providing retailers with the freedom to design an online store that perfectly aligns with their brand identity. Despite the separation, communication between the front-end and back-end remains intact, making it easy to integrate third-party services.
The primary advantage of headless commerce lies in its flexibility and agility. Retailers can make changes to the front end without disrupting the underlying back-end architecture, allowing for rapid updates and optimizations. For instance, brands can leverage their existing content management systems (CMS) to push content to the front end, enhancing the shopping experience without requiring modifications to the commerce back end.
Traditional Commerce
Traditional commerce platforms, often referred to as monolithic platforms, offer an integrated solution where the front-end and back-end components are tightly interconnected. These platforms are known for their ease of setup and comprehensive features, such as storefront creation, payment processing, and order management. However, as retailers experience growth and strive for enhanced customization, traditional platforms can become limiting.
From a design perspective, traditional commerce platforms provide templates that may not cater to unique branding and design aspirations. As retailers attempt to create captivating visuals, interactive elements, and tailored experiences, the constraints of these templates become evident. Moreover, making updates to the platform can be cumbersome, involving multiple interconnected changes that risk downtime and revenue loss.
5 Benefits of using Headless Commerce
1. Complete Customization
In the competitive world of e-commerce, establishing a distinctive brand identity is non-negotiable. While traditional commerce platforms provide a quick launchpad, their limited visual themes can stifle creativity and hinder the realization of a unique brand experience. Headless commerce redefines this landscape by allowing businesses to wield complete customization from the outset. Brands can tailor every aspect of their online store to resonate with their identity and values, ensuring that every interaction with the customer is on-brand.
The ability to split-test designs in real-time further enhances this benefit. This empowers businesses to optimize customer experiences and conversion rates by swiftly experimenting with different layouts and visual elements. Moreover, as the front-end is detached from the back-end architecture, businesses can confidently make changes to the visual interface without the fear of disrupting the underlying infrastructure. This independence streamlines the design process, reduces risks, and ultimately leads to a more engaging and compelling shopping experience. For instance, Offlimits, a Shopify merchant, utilized a headless solution to create an immersive and gamified checkout process, transforming cereal purchases into an exciting adventure.
2. Faster Page Loading Times
In today’s fast-paced digital world, attention spans are limited, and loading speed can make or break user engagement. Traditional commerce platforms often struggle with slow page loading times due to their integrated front-end and back-end systems. This friction can lead to visitor bounce rates and abandoned shopping carts. Recognizing this, headless commerce emerges as a game-changer by dramatically improving page loading times.
The separation of front-end and back-end architecture in headless commerce ensures that the heavy backend processes do not impede the user experience. Consequently, businesses can deliver lightning-fast transitions between homepage, product pages, blog posts, and checkout, captivating users and reducing bounce rates. Research indicates that a mere one-second improvement in loading speed can generate thousands of dollars in daily revenue for an e-commerce site. By adopting a headless architecture, businesses can secure a competitive edge by providing seamless and rapid interactions that keep customers engaged and committed.
3. Less Need for IT Support
One of the most significant bottlenecks in e-commerce development lies in the reliance on IT support for frontend changes. Traditional platforms often necessitate intricate development processes for even minor design alterations, inhibiting swift responses to market demands. Headless commerce disrupts this paradigm by allowing marketing and design teams to drive front-end changes independently and efficiently.
The decoupling of the frontend and backend empowers marketing and design teams to launch new shopping experiences and campaigns promptly. This newfound flexibility not only expedites changes but also supports internationalization efforts, enabling the seamless incorporation of multi-currency and multi-language options. Brands like Kotn have harnessed headless commerce to amplify their site’s responsiveness during peak traffic periods, resulting in a more agile and customized user experience.
4. More Control and Faster Scaling
Legacy systems and software integrations can impede scalability and innovation. Headless commerce, with its modular architecture and powerful APIs, eradicates these limitations. By providing the flexibility to integrate various systems—such as ERPs, PIMs, and IMS—businesses can curate a tailored shopping experience while sidestepping the constraints of language compatibility.
The capacity to adapt swiftly and choose preferred programming languages empowers businesses to stay aligned with technological shifts. This adaptability enables them to respond nimbly to market changes, ensuring that their commerce ecosystem evolves at a pace congruent with the rapidly changing e-commerce landscape.
5. Faster Time to Market
One of the most significant challenges in e-commerce development is reconciling the differing timelines of frontend and backend teams. Traditional platforms often grapple with synchronization issues, slowing down the development process. Headless commerce surmounts this obstacle by enabling independent progress on frontend and backend tasks.
With a headless architecture, frontend and backend development can occur concurrently, facilitating rapid iteration and experimentation. Teams can operate in parallel, free from the interdependencies that frequently plague development cycles. This synchronized approach accelerates the development timeline, resulting in quicker time-to-market for new features, campaigns, and improvements.
Common Use Cases for Headless Commerce
Beyond its transformative benefits, headless commerce is a versatile solution that addresses an array of business challenges and aspirations. Here are a few common use cases that illustrate its prowess:
- Integrating Multiple Channels
In an era of multi-channel commerce, headless architecture shines as a unifying force. It seamlessly integrates diverse channels, enabling brands to deliver consistent content experiences across each touchpoint. This integration occurs without the burden of managing separate tools, streamlining the process and allowing brands to connect with customers wherever they are.
- Enhancing Security and Compliance:
The landscape of compliance and security is complex and ever-evolving. Headless commerce, when combined with a robust SaaS provider, reduces the burden on internal IT teams by handling critical concerns such as PCI compliance, fraud protection, and checkout security. This partnership allows businesses to focus on growth and innovation while entrusting the intricacies of security to capable hands.
- Limitless Personalization:
Headless commerce’s open architecture unlocks a world of personalization possibilities. By seamlessly integrating platforms for ERP, CRM, and more, businesses can build tailored experiences that resonate with individual customers. The freedom to customize and integrate using APIs and SDKs empowers brands to explore new realms of customer engagement.
Shopify Headless Pricing
If you want to comprehend the financial implications of adopting headless commerce through Shopify, you must navigate through the various pricing tiers the platform offers. The cost structure is intricately linked to the complexity of the build and the Shopify plan chosen. Here’s a breakdown of the applicable plans:
Basic ($29 per month)
Even the entry-level Basic Shopify plan provides the potential for headless commerce integration. However, this tier might be more suitable for businesses in the initial stages of growth who are not yet ready to fully explore the headless approach.
Shopify ($79 per month)
The Shopify plan offers an intermediate level of features and is a common choice for businesses that are looking to expand their capabilities beyond the Basic plan. It’s important to note that while headless integration is feasible, its true potential is best realized with more advanced plans.
Shopify Advanced ($299 per month)
This tier is designed for businesses that demand a higher degree of functionality, scalability, and customization. While the headless approach is viable here, it’s in the higher plans that it truly shines.
Shopify Plus ($2k + per month)
Shopify Plus is the pinnacle of Shopify offerings, tailored for enterprise-level businesses. This is the tier where headless commerce finds its fullest expression. However, with great power comes significant costs.
Should you go Shopify Headless?
Considering whether to adopt Shopify Headless? This decision involves numerous factors that deserve careful examination. It’s wise for merchants to avoid hasty choices and instead engage in discussions with experienced professionals to gauge the appropriateness of transitioning to a headless e-commerce setup. We’ve observed that advising brands against Shopify Headless is often more beneficial, given our track record of assisting numerous brands in migrating away from it.
The decision to go headless comes with substantial costs and complexities that demand attention. It’s crucial to recognize the significant disparities between headless Shopify and conventional Shopify setups. A thorough consideration of the pros and cons is essential:
Cons of Shopify Headless
- Necessitates expertise of a Shopify developer, limiting control over visual updates.
- Involves intricate integrations with third-party systems.
- Compatibility issues with certain third-party tools.
- Limited availability of APIs for many apps (specifically in Shopify).
- Requires high maintenance, managing two distinct technologies/platforms.
- Risks functional loss within the platform, like content staging.
Benefits of Shopify Headless
- Significantly improved page loading speeds.
- Customized headless checkout experience.
- Enables tailored on-site interactions.
- Integration capabilities with trusted tools.
- Transforms various screens into digital storefronts.
- Supports custom URL structures for branding.
- Facilitates expansion beyond traditional commerce.
- Empowers sales across diverse digital channels, all manageable from a centralized backend.
- Enables execution of server-side processes on-site, a challenge on traditional Shopify.
7 Headless Commerce Platforms
1. Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is a pioneer in the headless commerce landscape. It offers powerful headless capabilities that seamlessly integrate with top content management systems (CMS) and front-end solutions. This integration empowers brands to transform any screen into a virtual storefront, ensuring consistent and engaging user experiences across platforms. Shopify Plus also boasts the Storefront API, enabling brands to design fast and interactive storefronts for web, mobile, and even unconventional platforms like video games. The platform’s versatility extends to its integration with various business systems such as ERP, PIM, CRM, and CMS. Whether you’re looking for prebuilt solutions or enhanced customization through skilled developers, Shopify Plus caters to mid-market and enterprise businesses alike.
2. Adobe Commerce
Formerly known as Magento, Adobe Commerce stands out for its extensive customization capabilities. While the platform offers almost limitless customization options, it’s important to note that such flexibility often comes with a higher budget requirement. Adobe Commerce enables brands to craft app-like experiences across multiple touchpoints, including mobile apps, IoT devices, and AR/VR environments. Through headless API-first delivery, the platform ensures quick-loading interactive shopping experiences, enhancing customer engagement.
3. BigCommerce
BigCommerce, akin to Shopify Plus, provides a platform for building a headless architecture. With a smaller user base than Shopify, BigCommerce still offers robust headless commerce features. It includes integrations with well-known CMS, DXP, and front-end frameworks such as Next.js, Gatsby.js, and Nuxt.js. Additionally, prebuilt plugins facilitate integration with WordPress, Contentful, Prismic, and Contentstack.
4. Fabric
Fabric takes a headless-first approach and emphasizes flexibility in its usage. Businesses can opt for the full platform or individual components like its OMS or XM. With over 300 API endpoints, Fabric empowers web developers to create unique business models and experiences. Integration possibilities with third-party systems further enhance its adaptability.
5. Foxy
Foxy’s mission is to enable brands to sell their products anywhere, with a strong focus on seamless checkout experiences. The platform handles checkout processes, customer portals, and integrations with marketing tools, CMS, and payment providers. These integrations work harmoniously to create fast-loading and high-quality customer journeys.
6. Spree
Spree targets subscription services, B2B brands, and marketplaces. Its lightweight API facilitates the design of storefronts, seamless checkouts, and mobile apps. The platform connects effortlessly with essential third-party systems such as ERP, PIM, and warehouse management. Pre-built integrations like Next.js Commerce and Vue Storefront 2 enhance the user experience.
7. Oro
Oro specializes in headless commerce solutions for enterprise B2B brands. The open-source platform offers features tailored for wholesalers, including support for unlimited SKUs and personalized product catalogs. Flexible multi-website and marketplace management capabilities simplify the control of multiple web stores from a centralized admin console.
Is Headless Commerce a Fit for all Ecommerce Stores?
Headless commerce isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for all ecommerce stores. The suitability of headless architecture depends on various factors specific to your business goals and resources. If your current traditional architecture is yielding positive results and your resources are limited, transitioning to headless might not be justifiable in terms of time and financial investment.
However, if you’re aiming for enhanced personalization, unique customer experiences, and more agile development, and you possess the necessary development capabilities, headless commerce could be the right choice. The decision to embrace headless should align with your objectives and the following scenarios:
- Your existing infrastructure is challenging to integrate with new tools.
- Competitors are outpacing you due to your inability to make simultaneous front- and back-end adjustments.
- Speed and performance optimization are critical for your customer experience.
- You require greater customization than your current storefront theme offers.
- Your mobile app experience is lacking on iOS or Android platforms.
- You aspire to create a distinctive storefront experience involving innovative technologies.
While evaluating headless commerce, consider both the financial and temporal aspects. Enterprise-level headless projects could range from $50,000 to $500,000, plus ongoing maintenance fees. On the other hand, utilizing a headless platform for auxiliary channels like mobile apps or audio streams might cost as little as $99 per month, using app-based customizations.
Bear in mind that the cost of a headless varies based on the intricacy of your project. Expenses encompass more than just development, including payments to external agencies and subscriptions to a headless CMS platform. In the end, the decision hinges on your strategic objectives and the resources available for implementation.
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Ready to Go Headless?
Ready to go headless? Our Shopify Guruz experts advise that while going headless has its benefits, it might not be suitable for all businesses. If your traditional setup works well and you’re achieving your goals on Shopify, the shift might not be worth it.
Let’s chat us to know if headless is right for your brand.
