Shopify headless commerce

Headless commerce is an architectural approach where the frontend and backend are separated from each other. Traditionally, the frontend and backend of a commerce solution are tightly integrated, but in a headless solution, the two communicate via API. This means that you are no longer limited by the built-in functionality of the platform. Instead, you have the freedom to choose the CMS (Content Management System), DAM (Digital Asset Management), or front-end technology etc. that best meets your needs. You can create the user experience without worrying about whether the backend supports the necessary functionality.

Benefits of headless commerce: Flexibility and freedom

This freedom opens up several considerations and potential challenges. In a headless structure, it is necessary to consider several technologies and integrations that were previously built into a traditional solution. As a result, a headless commerce solution often requires a larger development budget and a dedicated development team to handle the complexity. It is not a "one-size-fits-all" solution, which is why it is important to assess whether it matches your business needs.

Headless commerce and customer experience: Faster innovation and better performance

For many businesses, especially those with complex requirements or a strong focus on customization and scalability, headless commerce can be a highly profitable investment. It allows for faster innovation, improved performance, and a consistent customer experience across devices and channels. However, it is important to understand that headless solutions can be resource-intensive to implement and maintain.

While headless has the potential to benefit up to 90% of all commerce businesses, a traditional native implementation is still a good fit for the vast majority of companies. The choice between headless and a more traditional solution depends on which category your business falls into. If your business has complex requirements for flexibility, scalability and user experience, as well as the resources to realize such a solution, headless may be the way to go. If your needs are less demanding, a native commerce solution may be both more cost-effective and easier to manage.

Shopify has heavily invested in headless, including investing in Sanity and buying Remix. These efforts are aimed at advancing headless solutions, specifically to promote headless Shopify setups.

Remix is a great choice for a frontend framework. Remix is built on top of React, which has become the standard for JavaScript frameworks.

Shopify has extended Remix with a lot of standard functionality so you do not have to code everything from scratch. These include standard components for SEO, Add to cart forms and the shopping cart. All standard components are fully customizable.

Shopify has also developed a hosting platform, Oxygen, specifically for Remix. Oxygen uses the same infrastructure that Shopify is known for. A highly scalable infrastructure that does not crash during important peaks.

Even though Shopify has developed components for Remix and has the Oxygen platform, you are not bound to use them. For example, you could also use Next.js or Nuxt and host on Vercel, Netlify or AWS. If you choose another React framework, like Next.js, you can still use some standard components from Shopify.

Best of breed tech stack with Shopify

The primary idea behind headless commerce is the freedom to choose the best technologies and solutions tailored to your business, also known as a “best of breed” tech stack. By going headless with Shopify, you can choose your tech stack by selecting the best tools for frontend, CMS, and other necessary integrations, while still benefiting from Shopify's powerful commerce backend.

Even if you go headless and choose your own tech stack, you still retain the strong features of the Shopify backend ecosystem. Shopify remains the core of your e-commerce solution, handling critical aspects such as order management, inventory control, product creation, payment solutions, analytics, and reporting. This allows you to focus on creating a top-tier front-end and user experience, while taking advantage of Shopify's robust infrastructure that ensures stable operations and efficient business management.

By combining the best of Shopify's backend with a modern headless frontend, you can create a best of breed solution that provides both scalability and control over all aspects of your e-commerce business. This ensures that your solution not only meets today's demands but is also future-proof and can be easily adapted as your business grows and evolves.

Headless solutions are known to deliver a significantly faster experience compared to traditional monolith solutions. This is because headless architectures are often built on modern front-end frameworks such as Remix, Next.js, and Nuxt. These frameworks use advanced techniques such as static HTML caching, request caching, and streaming, making it possible to reduce TTFB (Time to First Byte) and display a usable user interface (UI) much faster. Faster load times result in better performance, which is crucial for user experience and can positively impact conversion rates.

Static caching: Delivering faster content

Static caching is particularly used for pages or elements that do not change often, such as product lists or landing pages. This makes it possible to deliver content quickly to the user without having to wait for data from the server. When updating these elements, cache invalidation can be used via webhook or you can employ Stale-While-Revalidate (SWR), which shows outdated content to the user while it updates data in the background. When a new user visits the site, it will display the new data.

Streaming techniques: Fast loading of dynamic content

Not all types of data are suitable for caching. For example, an account page for a specific user will never be cached, as it contains personal information and unique data specific to each session.

In these cases, streaming techniques come into play. Streaming allows a part of the page to be displayed immediately—often as a temporary fallback UI—while the data is being fetched and loaded from one or more sources. As the data becomes available, the UI is dynamically updated in real-time. This ensures that the user has a fast and fluid experience, even when dynamic data needs to be loaded.

With this combination of static and dynamic content delivery, headless e-commerce solutions can achieve a dramatic improvement in performance and speed, ultimately creating a more satisfying and engaging experience for the user.

Before embarking on a headless solution, it is crucial to have a thorough discussion with an agency that has experience with headless e-commerce. Headless can be complex and requires specialized knowledge to understand both the benefits and pitfalls of the technology.

Grafikr is an experienced agency and we know the edge cases and use cases that often arise and can advise you on whether a headless architecture truly will benefit your business - or if a traditional monolithic solution actually would be more suitable. The key is to make sure the technology aligns with your business model to avoid implementing a solution that does not deliver the desired return on investment.

Benefits of headless for larger companies

A good indicator of whether your business can benefit from a headless solution is typically that you have a larger development budget and resources to continuously maintain and develop the solution. Headless requires a larger investment both financially and in terms of time because the frontend and backend must be built and maintained separately.

Additionally, high content and marketing requirements are often a strong driver for choosing headless. If your business needs to create complex, dynamic content universes, personalize experiences across multiple platforms and devices, or update content quickly, headless will give you the flexibility to deliver these types of experiences without the limitations that often come with a monolithic platform.

Multi-market and multi-language: How headless can help

Businesses operating across multiple markets and languages can also benefit from a headless strategy. If your company spends a significant amount of manual effort managing campaigns, customizing content, or expanding to new markets, a headless architecture can streamline these processes. It achieves this by integrating with various tools and systems optimized for each specific market, making workflows more efficient.

The role of technology in business goals

While headless is often seen as a prestigious solution, it is important to remember that technology should never take precedence over business needs. A headless solution can offer significant advantages, but it requires a thorough assessment of whether the investment will create value for your business.

Technology should always support business objectives. A headless architecture is not a necessity for everyone, it is therefore essential to find the balance between technological possibilities and the practical requirements of your business to make the right decision.