Headless commerce: the trade-offs nobody mentions in the pitch

“Headless” is one of those words that gets a lot of nodding in meetings. It means separating the front of your online shop – what customers see – from the commerce engine behind it, which handles products, prices, stock and orders. The two talk to each other through an API.

We build headless shops, and we think they’re the right choice for some brands. We also talk plenty of clients out of them. Here’s the honest version of the conversation.

What you gain

• Speed. A custom front end can be extremely fast, which helps conversion and search rankings.
• Design freedom. You’re not limited to what a theme allows, so the shop can look and work exactly the way your brand needs.
• Flexibility. The same product data can power your website, an app, in-store screens and marketplaces.
• Room to grow. You can swap out parts – search, content, payments – without rebuilding the whole shop.

What it costs

• Two systems instead of one. You’ll run and pay for a commerce platform and a front end, often plus a content management system and hosting for each.
• More development, for longer. Things a traditional platform gives you out of the box, such as previews, discount banners or a basic account area, may need to be built.
• Fewer plug-and-play apps. Many marketing apps assume a traditional set-up and need extra work to connect.
• A team that can look after it. Someone has to own the code once launch day is over.

When it makes sense

In our experience, headless is worth it when at least two of these are true:

• Your brand depends on a very distinctive shopping experience.
• You sell across several channels or countries from one catalogue.
• Speed is clearly limiting your conversion rate, and a theme can’t fix it.
• You have, or are willing to pay for, ongoing development support.

If you’re a growing brand with a modest catalogue and a small team, a well-built theme on a mature platform will usually get you 80 per cent of the benefit at a fraction of the cost. You can always go headless later, when the business case is clear.

Ask these questions first

Before anyone signs off a migration, we ask clients to answer three questions in writing. What exactly is the current shop stopping us from doing? How will we measure whether the new one fixes it? And who will look after it in two years’ time?

If the answers are vague, the timing is wrong. If they’re sharp, headless might be the best investment you make this year.