Shopify as Headless Ecommerce

A headless Shopify Plus store separates the front-end customer experience (the "head") from the Shopify Plus back-end. We use Shopify's APIs to pull your product, collection, and customer data into a completely custom-built storefront, while still using Shopify's powerful admin to manage your core commerce operations.

You choose headless for two main reasons: unparalleled performance and total creative freedom. A headless site can be significantly faster than even the most optimized theme. It also allows for unique, app-like user experiences and complex content integrations that are simply not possible within the constraints of Shopify's theme architecture.

Yes, absolutely. The customer is seamlessly directed to Shopify's secure, high-converting, and PCI-compliant checkout to complete their purchase. You retain the full security, reliability, and payment processing power of Shopify Plus where it matters most.

Yes. Because you are still using the Shopify Plus back-end and checkout, all Plus-exclusive features like Shopify Scripts (for checkout customization) and Shopify Flow (for automation) continue to work as intended. A headless build complements these features, it doesn't replace them.

The traditional Shopify theme editor is no longer used to manage the storefront's appearance. Instead, content is managed via a headless CMS. Apps that modify the front-end theme code will not work, but any app that functions purely in the Shopify back-end or integrates via API will continue to work.

Hydrogen is Shopify's own React-based framework, specifically optimized for building headless storefronts. Oxygen is their hosting solution for Hydrogen builds. While they are a powerful combination, you are not required to use them. We can also build your storefront using other leading frameworks like Next.js.

The benefits are significant. We often see sites achieve near-instant page loads (sub-500ms). This directly improves Google's Core Web Vitals, leading to better SEO rankings, a lower bounce rate, a higher conversion rate, and a superior overall customer experience.