What Is Headless Shopify and Why Should You Use It?

What Is Shopify? 

Shopify, a multinational Canadian commerce company, was founded in 2004. Since then, the well-known brand’s popularity has grown significantly, with gross profit increasing by 87% in the third quarter of 2020.

It currently supports over a million businesses in 175 countries. These companies collectively generate more than $200 billion in revenue.

Shopify provides a single platform for users to sell products globally, both in-person with its point-of-sale (POS) feature and online through a website. Its feature set encompasses all aspects of sales, including order management, shipping, and payment. Shopify also offers tools for creating, executing, and analyzing digital marketing campaigns.

Shopify provides a decoupled headless framework in addition to its more traditional architecture. This article will provide a concise explanation of what headless Shopify is, and how to set it up, and will briefly guide you through several points of consideration that will assist you in determining whether or not it is the brand for you.

What Exactly Is Headless Shopify?

Headless Shopify is a Shopify Plus feature that allows users to transition from Shopify’s traditional “full-stack” approach to a format with a front-end design separate from back-end functionality.

Because of this decoupled framework, your Shopify storefront can be published to and from almost any platform at a much faster rate. It also provides a high level of flexibility because businesses can manage the checkout process using any device and any content management system (CMS).

The Shopify Storefront API is an essential component of the Shopify headless framework. It gives businesses creative control and the functionality to offer a variety of purchasing experiences regardless of where their customers are located. Brands can use their own client or choose from the libraries included in the Storefront API (SDKs). These SDKs allow apps, websites, and games to include commerce features. The JavaScript Buy SDK is a lightweight library based on Shopify’s API that allows websites to fetch product information from your shop, add products to your cart, checkout, and more.

Furthermore, headless commerce can be used both offline and online. Progressive web apps (PWAs) are an online feature that uses pre-caching and progressive rendering for websites, resulting in fast load times and multi-device compatibility. Another option is to create custom native mobile apps that enable online experiences. Offline features, on the other hand, include smart mirrors, live streaming, vending machines, voice shopping, and video games.

What Are The Benefits of Using Headless Shopify?

Here is a quick rundown of the most important advantages of headless Shopify:

How to Introduce a Shopify Headless eCommerce Store

This short step-by-step guide will walk you through the process of creating a headless eCommerce Shopify store.

1. Choose the right technology for your storefront.
   1. Before deciding which technology you will use to build your user interface, consider your development team’s skill-set and how each specific technology meets your storefront’s design and technical requirements.
   2. Most Shopify storefront templates use the Shopify Storefront API and are usually coded in React.js and Ember.
   3. Other options to consider are static site generators like Gatsby.js or Next.js or headless content management systems like Prismic or Contentful.
2. Familiarise yourself with the Shopify Storefront API 
   1. The Storefront API is available with GraphQl. Shopify’s GraphQL guide is a great place to start, followed by the “Getting started…” page of the Storefront API.
3. Generate an access token 
   1. To generate an access token, go to your Shopify admin. Select the section “Apps” and click “Manage private apps.” Next, click “Create new private app” and add an app name and email. Then in the Storefront API section, select the checkbox for “Allow this app to access your storefront data using the Storefront API,” select which data types you want to expose to your app and click “Save.” 
   2. After clicking “Save”, you will find a generated storefront access token at the bottom of the Storefront API page.
4. Build and customize your storefront 
   1. Familiarizing yourself with the custom storefront example applications will provide guidance when it comes to customizing your storefront. 
   2. For a React.js application, install the JavaScript Buy SDK using NPM or Yarn. Then simply import the client object into your application code. Once the client is initialized, requests can be made to the Storefront API. The JavaScript Buy SDK docs and official API documentation on Shopify’s website are useful resources for checking which data is available. 

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Headless Commerce with Shopify

There have been numerous discussions about headless commerce over the last five years.

At first, it was just a conversation, but now it’s happening. Sure, it may have taken something as devastating as COVID-19 to set the ball rolling, but the time has come.

The new shift in eCommerce has created a few roadblocks, particularly when scaling a business quickly. Businesses have noticed that traditional architecture falls short when it comes to supporting this growth, which is where headless commerce comes in. Without change, more businesses will begin to stagnate, and it is up to you whether you want to shape up or continue to be a sitting duck.

Advantages of headless commerce in Shopify 

The concept of headless commerce is a long-term viable solution. Due to the cost of a new website, the initial setup is far more expensive, but it will streamline operations and reduce costs in the long run.

Take a look at some of the benefits you’ll get from going headless:

✅ Change in URL structures  Shopify store owners who want to expand their business into international markets are frequently confronted with the URL problem. Brands must deal with subcategories in which each multi-language site is indexed separately and builds its own domain authority. Your overall score is not tied to a single URL, which has a significant impact on your international SEO strategy. Fortunately, headless architecture removes this fixed feature, allowing you to customize and add breadcrumbs to the URL structure.

✅ Improved store performance  Your marketing teams have complete control over the site’s experience and performance with a decoupled front-end. Teams can make real-time updates, respond to customer questions about features faster than ever before, and comply with third-party systems without having to restart the entire site. Marketers will also be relieved to learn that site speed will no longer have an impact on performance, as you can now implement PWAs that work on any device and experiment with campaign testing on a regular basis.

✅ Limitless UX possibilities  Teams can easily create a multichannel commerce experience when they have complete control over the look, functionality, and usability of their website. Any third-party system, such as a Product Information Management tool, can be integrated into your setup to create unique storefronts that connect with any device or channel. This way, you can go a step further and tailor product information to specific customers at different stages of the purchasing cycle.

✅ The exciting adoption of PWAs  Given that analysts predict 53.9 percent of all eCommerce sales will be made on mobile devices this year, it’s about time. PWAs enable your Shopify store to have quick mobile sites that also function as standalone apps. This addition improves personalization, navigation, and payments whenever connectivity is a problem. It will aid in lowering bounce rates and keeping users engaged in your store. * It is important to note that a PWA is not a native mobile app, nor is it a standalone website. It combines Javascript, HTML, and CSS technologies to replicate your store’s mobile web experience. Once your PWA has been designed, the storefront can be accessed by customers using any device.

Disadvantages of headless commerce in Shopify 

Now comes the bargaining. As exciting as the possibilities for headless in Shopify are, there are some features you’ll have to forego if you go that route.

❌ Say goodbye to the theme customizer  Because you will no longer be using Shopify as your front-end, you will no longer have access to the theme customizer. This means that you will not be able to preview themes within the platform, and there will be no theme-based version control. If, for example, you have a favorite theme, your designers will need to figure out how to replicate that experience on other platforms.

❌ You will lose some Shopify functionalities  Many other features, including the rich text editor and some of Shopify’s front-end applications and plugins, will be disabled as the theme customizer is disabled. Certain fonts and styling will be discontinued. If you need a Shopify app to replicate your previous storefront, developers will need to connect the front-end to relevant APIs in order to provide that functionality. Otherwise, those elements will be incompatible.

❌ Get ready to build from scratch  It can be a nightmare if you don’t have the resources to manage separate layers. You will, of course, have the advantage of customizing your storefront to suit a specific functionality, but this will take time. And knowledge. Always keep in mind that you are creating an entirely new experience from scratch using only APIs. It’s not just about the storefront; it’s also about making sure the path to purchase is secure, private, and convenient.

❌ Customer accounts will be disabled  A customer cannot proceed to checkout unless they have an account on the platform. This is a major concern because Shopify’s customer accounts will be unavailable in headless mode. You can create alternative options where customers can manually enter their details, with cookies to save customer information if requested, by using the Shopify Admin API.

Get the best of both worlds with PIM 

As you can see, there are advantages and disadvantages to this transition. Headless commerce begins with a mental and operational shift. It is a future-proofing enabler that will undoubtedly open doors to new opportunities. While this transition can be complicated and overwhelming, it is made easier with a Product Information Management (PIM) system at the heart of your company’s operations.

It is invaluable to any brand, whether you only use it as a data foundation – a single source of truth for managing all of your visual assets and product information – or as your core backend architecture. It works for the latter because the tool contains rich product information, and your front-end can be your website or a channel store.

This method of using PIM software allows for the same limitless experience for headless commerce, making it easier for businesses to streamline any admin-heavy, time-consuming operations. This allows you to reinvent your storefront, increase growth, and strengthen relationships with your customers. However, keep in mind that simply going headless in Shopify will not cause your business to grow any faster than it did before. It takes some time. Be certain that headless is the right approach for you before making a change on a whim.