Headless Commerce — Is It Right for Your Business? [2025]

As an eCommerce entrepreneur, you must know this — speed is the need.

It’s true not just for you but for your customers too. They seek a fast and seamless experience when shopping on your eCommerce store. And you must aim for agility in delivering the desired speed with a visually striking design.

While combining all these aspects isn’t as easy as it sounds, luckily, it’s now more feasible with the headless commerce approach. 

In this blog post, we’ll unleash the possibilities of headless commerce, its pros and cons — and whether it’s the right choice for your business. Plus, we’ll share a guide on how to build a headless commerce solution with Shopify.

Let’s get started with some basics first!

What is Headless Commerce?

Headless commerce is a tech architecture for building eCommerce stores in which the frontend (e.g., the website customers see and interact with) is separated from the backend (i.e., the admin that stores data and settings including conditions and logics).

The frontend and backend are then integrated with “Application Programming Interfaces” (APIs) for seamless, faster, and independent functioning of both. That’s why it’s also known as the “API-first” architecture.

This tech approach gives great flexibility and speed to eCommerce brands to flex their creative muscles and offer a customized experience to their customers.

For example, in headless commerce, if you want to implement any changes on customer-facing channels (website or mobile app), you don’t need to implement those changes in the eCommerce platform’s admin — and vice versa.

What is headless Shopify?

Technically, the concept is the same — Shopify headless commerce or headless Shopify is the tech architecture in which the frontend (e.g., online storefront) is decoupled from Shopify’s admin.

Shopify’s headless commerce infrastructure is powered by storefront API, Hydrogen, and Oxygen. You can deploy your Hydrogen app to Oxygen — a global hosting platform by Shopify. But we’ll cover more on this later.

Harley Finkelstein — Shopify President — recently shared on X about how Fashion Nova switched to headless commerce with Shopify's Hydrogen framework. Fashion Nova needs no introduction in the eCommerce world as it's one of the most popular fast fashion eCommerce brands.

Headless Commerce vs Traditional Commerce — What’s the Difference?

Key Differentiators	Headless Commerce	Traditional Commerce
Tech architecture	The frontend and backend are decoupled for their respective functionalities. APIs are used for seamless integrations and interaction between the frontend and backend.	The platform is designed with a monolithic architecture where the frontend and backend are closely connected with each other for almost all the functionalities.
Customization flexibility	Offers great flexibility as you don’t need to rely on your eCommerce platform’s backend capabilities. If you have a team of developers, you can create a customized design with complete creative control.	Of course, traditional commerce also has its own customization capabilities but it’s relatively less flexible than headless commerce.
Suitability	Suitable for large enterprises due to the required costs and resources.	Suitable for businesses of any size — small, medium, and even large.
Complexity	More complex to set up as you need to create two separate tech stacks. Requires technical expertise and has a steep learning curve.	Since it’s an all-in-one solution, it’s fairly easy to set up and manage. Non-technical users can also set up the store easily.
Development Cost	Requires a huge cost of development.	Quite an affordable solution even for small businesses.

How Does Headless Commerce Work?

So, we already discussed that the frontend and backend systems are decoupled in the headless commerce solution. So, how do they seamlessly work together?

Well, that’s where APIs come into the picture. APIs allow one software application to communicate with another. Thus, in headless commerce, they help integrate the frontend and backend for flawless communication.

For example, let’s say you’re selling products through a website and mobile app. Your website and mobile app are the frontend interfaces that will display product information to customers.

The backend infrastructure (admin) stores all the data about product inventory, customer accounts, shipping, payment, etc.

Now, when a customer interacts with your website or mobile app and places an order, an API request is sent to the backend system. Then, the further process with inventory, customer account, and payment are processed through the backend.

This way, in headless commerce, the frontend isn’t impacted by the load of the backend functions. Also, when customizing the frontend, you have endless possibilities as you don’t need to rely on a standard theme or editor.

How to Build a Headless Shopify Store

Shopify offers a full suite of tools required to develop a headless commerce solution for your business. Here are a couple of key tech components in building a headless solution with Shopify:

• Storefront API

• Hydrogen and Oxygen

What is storefront API in Shopify’s headless solution?

The Storefront API is the foundational layer of the frontend that helps access Shopify's eCommerce infrastructure to display products, collections, add-to-cart functions, and so on.

What are Hydrogen and Oxygen?

Hydrogen and Oxygen are the core of Shopify's headless commerce solution. Hydrogen is built upon a React-based framework. Oxygen is Shopify's serverless hosting platform which is developed to deploy Hydrogen storefronts.

Method 1: Do it yourself (DIY) with in-house resources

To develop a Shopify headless solution completely on your own, you’ll need to have a team of in-house developers who are skilled with the tech stack in the Shopify ecosystem. One of the advantages of going with the DIY approach is that you can manage any further developments, bug fixes, or maintenance easily with your in-house team.

Alternatively, you can also hire independent freelancers or contractors to build your headless Shopify store. This could prove to be a relatively cost-effective way to go about it. However, keep in mind that you may need their help for future developments. Thus, building a long-term relationship is advisable.

Method 2: Hire an eCommerce development agency

By hiring an agency, you can outsource the whole development process. The great thing with agencies and freelancers is that you can buy the service according to your budget.

If you’re on a tight budget, you can hire a web development agency that offers affordable service packages. On the other hand, you can even hire a specialized agency with expertise in Shopify headless solutions, but you may have to pay a premium price for the services.

Coralie Delpha, Lead Technical Architect at Shopify, shared on LinkedIn about how one of the most popular artists in the world — Lady Gaga — recently chose Shopify to build an amazing website with Shopify’s headless commerce solution.

GemPages Feature — Instant Landing Page

So, we talked about the expensive headless solutions. Now, let’s talk about a smart and cost-effective solution for small and medium-sized eCommerce brands.

The "Instant Landing Page" (ILP) is an advanced GemPages feature—powered by Shopify Hydrogen. It helps you implement headless technology to decouple the frontend (landing page) and backend (Shopify admin)  to provide a faster and smoother experience to your customers.

Why Use Instant Landing Pages for Headless Commerce?

• Increase conversions with high loading speed:

You can create dedicated landing pages without the burden of other apps installed on your store. Thus, it will help improve your page load speed and conversion rate.

• Use custom or subdomain

The Instant Landing Page is hosted on an independent server and not on Shopify's server. Thus, you can set up a custom or subdomain for specific purposes or campaigns.

• Leverage an affordable solution

One of the main drawbacks we discussed with the headless commerce solutions is that it’s quite an expensive solution. Mostly, it’s used by enterprise-level companies as they could invest huge money into development. However, GemPages makes it affordable to use the power of headless commerce without breaking the bank. The ILP is available with GemPages' Optimize plan which is only $59/month.

On top of all these, you get the suite of advanced eCommerce and conversion-focused features of GemPages. With an excellent rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars, GemPages is nearing 5,000 reviews on the Shopify App Store.

Is Headless Commerce Right for Your Business?

Well, it doesn’t have a short yes/no answer — it depends on multiple factors.

Consider the following aspects to make the decision on whether to go for headless commerce:

Current business challenges:

If your website is built with the traditional commerce infrastructure, ask yourself or your team — what exactly are the challenges impacting your business?

If nothing’s broken, why fix it?

If there are indeed challenges, can headless commerce fix it? And how? Make sure to analyze these aspects before making the final call.

Resources at hand:

Do you have the required resources to set up and manage headless commerce infrastructure?

Building and managing a headless commerce solution requires a team of skilled developers with expertise in Storefront APIs, Hydrogen and Oxygen, and the overall decoupled infrastructure of headless commerce. Plan for how you employ and manage these resources.

Budget and ROI:

What’s your budget for development? Building a headless commerce solution requires a relatively much bigger investment in the platform. On top of that, as we just mentioned, you need skilled developers which adds to the cost of building and managing the solution. 

All these cost elements could be manageable for your business depending on your current revenue; however, it also requires some estimation on what is the expected ROI for this investment. Think about how significantly it can increase your revenue and profits.

Now, let’s take a look at some pros and cons of implementing headless commerce:

Benefits of Headless Commerce

1. Optimize Your Page Load Speed

Your store’s page load speed can make or break the customer experience and that’s why speed optimization is a crucial factor in eCommerce. As we’ve seen with the Instant Landing Page feature — since the frontend is allowed to function separately, on a dedicated hosting outside Shopify, it enhances the page load speed.

2. Design Your Store with Complete Flexibility

When building an eCommerce store, the ability to customize your website is one of the crucial aspects. Headless commerce enhances your customization capabilities to a great extent.

Since the frontend is decoupled from the backend database, you have the freedom to go about the design customizations as you wish. If you’re a brand looking to deliver a consistent and cohesive omnichannel experience, a headless solution enables you to create such an experience across all your sales channels.

3. Implement Changes Faster

In the eCommerce world, you must keep up with the latest trends and events. But changing your frontend interface might prove to be a challenge, especially during business seasons like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

A headless commerce solution can resolve this concern. It not only helps customize the frontend better but also faster than traditional commerce.

4. Seamless Integration Between Various Tools

With an API-first tech approach, your tech stack can leverage great integrations with different tools and services. Even if you plan to add more tools with time, you don’t have to worry much about compatibility issues due to different programming languages.

5. Conversion Rate Optimization

All the technical enhancements result in improved site performance and shopping experience. With this enhanced customer experience, your brand can benefit from a higher conversion rate.

Drawbacks of Implementing Headless Commerce

1. Technical Complexity

If you were supposed to build an eCommerce store with the traditional eCommerce platform, you can easily do so without any coding or web design experience too. The same cannot be said for the headless commerce solution, as of now. It requires technical skills and expertise to build a robust headless solution.

2. Expensive Solution

Headless commerce is not for every business, especially if you’re just getting started with eCommerce. Headless commerce solutions may cost anywhere between $20,000 to $500,000 depending on your specific project scope, requirements, and complexity.

3. Steep Learning Curve

When building your eCommerce business with a headless solution, it’s not just about getting it set up. You must also consider training your staff to manage the solution. Considering the complexity of the tech architecture, it may take some time for the team to learn and get used to the platform.

4. Managing Separate Tech Stacks

It’s not an all-in-one solution. Managing frontend and backend separately definitely gives immense flexibility but also requires you to manage multiple tech stacks. 

Examples of Headless Shopify Stores

In this article, we’ve already seen a couple of examples of huge brands implementing headless commerce with Shopify. Now, let’s take a look at some more eCommerce brands going with the same tech approach:

1. Allbirds

Allbirds launched its eCommerce store with Shopify in 2016, and since then they've been using Shopify. Fast forward to the present, it’s one of the most popular Shopify-powered brands.

Allbirds uses Shopify’s powerful infrastructure to operate its headless commerce solution with the Hydrogen and Oxygen tech stack.

2. Kotn

Kotn — a sustainable clothing and home decor brand — uses Shopify's Storefront API to combine two stores into one. Shopify’s headless solution helps the brand eliminate unnecessary custom apps and other workarounds.

"Shopify covers 80% of our needs, and I think that’s common across all merchants. It’s that next 20% where headless comes in and where we really spend our time. What we’re trying to do is let Shopify handle the stuff they do so well, and we can focus on what makes us unique. That’s where we’ve really gone with our thinking around being headless."

Benjamin Sehl — Co-Founder — Kotn (Source: Shopify)

3. Victoria Beckham Beauty

Victoria Beckham Beauty (VBB) is a globally known brand for its beauty, makeup, and skincare products. Interestingly, the brand's tech stack was previously built with a headless architecture, and then, it was fully replicated on Shopify 2.0 in 2023.

According to Fostr — the eCommerce agency that built the VBB store — re-platforming the VBB's site on Shopify's Online Store 2.0 helped minimize the brand's operational costs for hosting and management.

4. Nour Hammour

Nour Hammour is a well-known brand for its premium outwear. The brand trusts Shopify for its headless commerce requirements. Here are a couple of amazing statistics:

According to Shopify, Nour Hammour has witnessed great results in its sales and conversions. The brand saw a whopping 63% increase in its year-over-year conversion rate and a 128% year-over-year increase in its sales figures.

Nour Hammour’s development team praises Shopify’s Hydrogen framework for helping them save a ton of time and effort:

"We could use prebuilt components like cart, pagination, and search, as well as ready-to-use code for products, collections data fetching, or automatic SEO schemas generation. Choosing Hydrogen literally saved us months of custom development.”

Tom Mittlener — Senior Developer — Nour Hammour (Source: Shopify)

Final Thoughts on Headless Commerce

The headless commerce solution is quickly shaping the future of commerce.

More and more brands are moving to headless commerce solutions for customizing their storefronts and delivering personalized experiences to their customers.

Evaluate your brand’s requirements and the budget you’d like to put into development. If you have a big budget, you should consider headless Shopify for a robust infrastructure.

However, if you’re a small or medium-scale business, you can use GemPages Instant Landing Page to leverage the power of headless commerce at quite an affordable price.

To learn more about eCommerce marketing strategies, trends, and best practices — check out more resources on the GemPages Blog. Also, join the GemPages Facebook community to network and learn from like-minded entrepreneurs and experts.

FAQs About Headless Commerce