How to start a headless Shopify Store?

Shopify offers a centralized platform that helps merchants sell products worldwide. It can be done with a website or its point of sale. Its main advantages are that shipping, managing orders, and payment are easily manageable with the Shopify store. Apart from this, Shopify also provides excellent Digital marketing tools that help with analysis and product reports.  

Merchants prefer traditional Shopify stores, but Shopify also provides an option of a headless e-commerce store. Its main benefit is that it provides flexibility and customization options that the traditional store does not. With it, you are not bound to the restrictions of the platform and, thus, the customer's journey. You can easily plug in and help them with various facilities from distinct vendors.  

What is a headless e-commerce Shopify Store?  

Headless e-commerce helps brands reach out to customers from anywhere, from kiosks, smartwatches, and IoT devices apart from mobiles and desktops. Let me introduce you to the fascinating idea of headless Shopify stores! Essentially, it means that the "body" of your online store—the component that handles all the administrative tasks—is distinct from the "head"—the portion that customers view.  

You can concentrate on designing a distinctive, personalized storefront using whatever application or content management system you like by using Shopify Plus to handle the backend tasks like payment processing and inventory management. What's best? Through Shopify's API, everything is connected without any gaps.  

Separating the front end, or what customers see, from the back end, or all the technological components that keep the shop running properly, is known as headless commerce. This gives you much more freedom to modify your storefront without affecting the crucial backend features. It's like getting your cake and eating it, too, since you can design a distinctive shop while taking advantage of Shopify Plus's robust capabilities.  

Headless commerce functions in both offline and online both kinds of settings. Progressive web apps (PWAs) are an online feature that uses pre-caching and progressive rendering for websites, resulting in quicker load times and cross-platform compatibility. Another is creating unique native mobile apps that enable internet interactions. Smart mirrors, live streaming, vending machines, voice buying, and video games are examples of offline features in contrast.   

How to build a headless Shopify Store?  

Option 1: Do it yourself.  

Initially, you can manually create a framework for a headless Shopify store. You will have control over your eCommerce operations if you build your headless architecture on Shopify Plus. It might provide you with greater flexibility. It suggests that you can take the initiative in development and coding and are not required to work under someone else's framework.  

But it necessitates specialist knowledge. In other words, choosing traditional architecture requires much more consideration, expertise, and planning. You need to thoroughly understand the Shopify API on the client and back ends.  

You'll need a team with experience with frameworks like React.js and Ember to develop a unique storefront that can be accessed using the Shopify Storefront API because Liquid cannot be used with headless. They should be familiar with frameworks like Next.js or Gatsby if they're building a static website.   

Option 2: Utilizing Shopify Hydrogen & Oxygen  

According to a Shopify announcement, developers will be able to create React frontends using their own React server components. This technique renders React Server Components on the server to improve the performance of React apps. These "commerce" elements include crucial Shopify store elements like the shopping cart and product order form.  

The Shopify servers can host Hydrogen frontends thanks to the V8 worker runtime Oxygen. It has lightning-fast load times and doesn't need any dev ops.  

Although it is superior to the first choice, it has not yet undergone extensive testing in the real world.  

Option 3: Choosing the right partner  

Do you long to build a unique headless commerce Shopify store but are unsure where to begin? Don't allow the specifics of the technicalities to stop you! A professional agency can help with that.  

If you choose the right agency, you have an effective collaborator in the Shopify agency who has years of expertise in creating headless sites that work well with Shopify's backend. They will help you navigate the process and keep you clear of potential hazards. To realize your concept, you can use our help to create a custom storefront or collaborate with a frontend-as-a-service vendor.  

Additionally, we will help and guide you throughout the design phase and give you the information you need to make your innovative ideas a reality. Your site will be successfully optimized using their recommendations for the finest Shopify backend-compatible features, navigation, and layout.  

Lucent Innovation is the only agency you need to consider if you're unsure. They are a top Shopify development company with more than nine years of experience that can assist you in building an intuitive, sales-driven, and powerful headless commerce Shopify shop. So why are you still waiting? For thorough guidance and to begin your headless commerce adventure, contact Lucent Innovation immediately!  

Use it as a front-end service provider 

Have no fear if you lack the time or resources to independently study, design, construct, test, and deploy a headless commerce Shopify website. An organization like Lucent Innovation that offers front-end-as-a-service can manage everything. We provide a complete package that is customizable to your needs and has everything you require to run your storefront.    

New solutions have been developed that simplify creating Shopify websites that follow best practices for headless commerce. For instance, PWA-builder apps have pre-built connectors to Shopify, search, reviews, merchandising tools, and other prominent eCommerce platforms and services. A lightweight CMS and a visual composer are also included.  

Working with an established platform does not preclude you from hiring a company to redevelop your website. For example, Lucent Innovation, a company that focuses on building websites, can give you expert advice on managing your store smoothly and constructing a brand-new website.   

Also, Lucent Innovation collaborates with additional partners like Yotpo, growave, and Recharge to offer you a complete technological package to advance your eCommerce business. To find out how they can assist you with developing a cutting-edge headless commerce Shopify store, contact Lucent Innovation immediately.   

Examples of Companies using Headless Shopify    

The demand for fast load times and distinctive shopping experiences has increased the adoption of headless frameworks. Here are three companies that are successfully using Shopify headless.    

Koala    

The Australian furniture manufacturer Koala uses Shopify without headphones to speed up its development processes. Koala's developers use their progressive web application (PWA) to quickly create distinctive customer experiences while putting ethics and innovation at the heart of their business. Koala's chief technical officer says, "Most companies would kill for our speed. It takes our development team three times as long to bring solutions from concept to production as it does for other companies.   

Inkbox  

Inkbox, a Canadian retailer of temporary tattoos, prioritizes giving its customers the ability to create unique and personalized products. The company's project manager explained that the custom tattoo platform is seamlessly integrated with the Buy SDK using Shopify, allowing the company to create new products in response to customer requests.   

Grass Roots 

Grass Roots Farmers' Cooperative, a cooperative of small family farms in the U.S., also uses Headless Shopify to deliver an exceptional user experience to its customers. CEO Cody Hopkins believes this approach has significantly increased the cooperative's average mobile order value, giving them more resources to invest in their business and continue to deliver high-quality products to their customers.   

Lucent Innovation helped transform a clothing brand website into a headless Shopify store with new features and functionality, increasing traction and smooth scalability for a better user experience. Due to our knowledge of Shopify web design and development and our Shopify experts, this well-known luxury brand of USA was able to stand out from the competition and achieve its business goals.  

Considering all the long-term benefits of Shopify Hydrogen, such as ultimate customizability and flexibility, Headless Shopify seems to be a web development technique many businesses will soon adopt. As your Shopify business grows, switching to Headless Commerce can greatly improve your website's performance.    

If you are a growing brand using Shopify and need more flexibility, switching to Headless does not have to be a huge development burden. Lucent Innovation is ready to help you if you want to keep up with the latest technological trends and equip your store with Headless Commerce Shopify. With our integrated drag-and-drop page builder tool, Lucent Innovation's storefront development service simplifies your storefront design process and creates professional store presences that convert well.   

Also read - Product Personalization on Shopify