eCommerce isn’t just on computers anymore. More and more, consumers find and purchase items through multiple channels like IoT and progressive web apps (PWA). 

That means in order to stay afloat, merchants need not just to grow their business but embrace these new technologies as well. Yet traditionally, the process of adapting your business’ tech is lengthy, expensive, and requires large dev and IT teams. 

This is where headless commerce comes in. It promises fast, flexible storefronts that allow you to integrate new technologies, scale easily, and expand depending on your needs without requiring much leg work. 

In this article, we’ll dig deeper into how going headless can help your business and go over the best headless eCommerce platforms to use.

• What is headless commerce?
• Why go headless?
• Is headless commerce the same as composable commerce?
• Best 11 headless commerce platforms
• Closing thoughts
• Need help with headless commerce?

What is headless commerce?

Headless commerce is becoming a popular topic in the eCommerce world, but there can be some confusion. 

Basically, it describes any eCommerce solution that builds and delivers content without a frontend layer (or “head”). In headless eCommerce platforms, the frontend is decoupled from the backend. 

Developers then use APIs to deliver content and their favorite framework, tools, etc. to build how content is presented to customers. In addition, developers can create and manage all functional components (i.e. products, banners, contact page, etc.).

Read more: What is headless Shopify?

Why go headless?

Unlike headless eCommerce, traditional eCommerce solutions like Shopify and Woocommerce couple the frontend with the backend in one monolithic package. This makes it easy for new store owners or non-technical-minded people to build online stores. 

However, it also makes it very difficult to update your store. Since the frontend and backend are one package, they impact each other. That means if you change the backend, that could change how content is presented.

You can imagine how this can cause adapting your site to be very tedious. Your developers would have to essentially re-haul your site to scale or expand. Integrating previous systems or adding new channels would slow down your time to market. 

Headless commerce fixes these issues with one major change: decoupling. It promises the flexibility to easily add new functionalities, new channels, and maintain your store over the long run. 

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s discuss some of the benefits of going headless. 

Read more: Headless CMS de-mystified

Easier personalization 

With traditional commerce, you are constrained to a predetermined box of options. The architecture and toolset have already been chosen for you. It prevents you from choosing the best tools for your business and from customizing your site for your specific customer base. 

Headless architecture provides you full creative control over your store’s look and feel. You can build a truly unique experience for your customers, letting your store stand out from the crowd. 

You’ll also have control over the administrative side of your site. You can personalize it and make it easier to use for your team. Additionally, your developers can choose their favorite tools, frameworks, etc, to build your site. That means they’ll be able to use what they know best.

Not to forget that any changes you make to your frontend don’t impact the backend. That reduces the risk of more problems down the road. 

Unlock Omnichannel marketing

In the first quarter of 2022, Statista found that mobile website usage accounted for 58.99% of website usage worldwide. Clearly, having omnichannel capabilities is vital for today’s merchants. 

But traditional eCommerce makes it hard to take advantage of this. Managing multiple channels with legacy platforms becomes complicated very quickly. You may have to continually replicate your entire content library to build omnichannel experiences.

Headless commerce platforms, on the other hand, scaffold omnichannel experiences. You can integrate any channels (mobile, IoT, wearable devices, etc.) into one place without replicating content. That means you can reach more consumers with your products faster. 

Better integrations

All headless commerce solutions must, by definition, have an API (like GraphQL). These enable interaction between devices, applications, and data, and lets them communicate with your site’s backend.

For merchants, that basically means you can unlock seamless interactions with other platforms. You can add your brand to different devices to reach more customers and opportunities quickly. This integration will not take forever to be completed either. Your developers could complete it within hours, massively improving your time to market. 

This also lets you integrate your existing systems to build digital experiences, all in your favorite programming language. You can bring over systems from ERP and PIM to IMS.

Greater scalability

Ecommerce is more popular than ever, and it’s still growing. There are new trends, products, and technologies seemingly every week. That means you need to scale quickly to remain in the competition. 

Traditional commerce, though, presents slow and tedious scaling. Its coupled approach makes it very rigid. Launching new functionalities to your store means having to rehaul your entire site. In a constantly moving market, you can’t afford to fall behind.

Headless commerce architecture differs by helping you keep up. It enables rapid deployment of updates. As the frontend isn’t tied to the backend, you can make changes to your frontend without impacting your backend at all. 

In addition, this flexibility supports fast integrations of new technologies when they arise. Developers can build new customer experiences, including new storefronts, in a matter of a few days. 

Is headless commerce the same as composable commerce?

If headless commerce is the idea, composable commerce is the theory behind it. Both focus on having a decoupled website that increases flexibility and control. However, composable commerce takes it to the next level. 

Stepping back, we discussed how headless architecture enables developers to pick and choose their favorite frameworks. Yet, it can be limited. 

For example, your business needs may change over time. Tools that used to suit your digital commerce store in the past might not keep up with you in the future. Also, you’ll have to rely on a platform partner to complete items like same-day delivery. 

Composable commerce, on the other hand, focuses on the entire system. It allows you to continuously switch out tools without impacting other parts of the systems. Your developers can pick the best-of-breed components for your business as it grows. This provides you with a completely customizable approach that helps your system continuously serve you. 

Best 11 headless commerce platforms

Now that we’ve discussed headless commerce, let’s go over the best headless eCommerce platforms to choose from. 

Commerce Layer

Commerce Layer is an API focused headless eCommerce platform. It boasts a powerful order management system that allows you to easily add shopping cart functionalities to your site or mobile app. This includes global shipping and making any page shoppable across channels, including wearable devices.

In addition, Commerce Layer offers customizations for almost every element of your site. 

Pros 

• Has APIs for global shipping

• Great omnichannel shopping cart functionalities

• Integrates well with most headless CMS

Cons

• Can be costly for new store owners 

• You have to chose the enterprise subscription to expand to over 5 markets

• Doesn’t have pre-made templates 

Pricing

• Startup: Free 

• Growth: $649 per month 

• Enterprise: Custom Amount 

Headless commerce live: Non-stop dogwear

When Non-stop dogwear’s current stack wasn’t helping them scale their business internationally, they turned to Commerce Layer’s headless commerce capabilities.

Its architecture gave them the flexibility to try new business models. Today, they offer shipping to 74 countries and saw their online sales tripled. 

Commerce.js

With Commerce.js, you’ll have a modern, API-driven headless commerce infrastructure for developers. Founded in 2016, it focuses on being able to help eCommerce businesses, from startup to enterprise-sized, create great digital commerce experiences. 

Its backend has powerful, enterprise-grade APIs that help you build anything from shopping carts and upsells to VR commerce experiences across channels. You can quickly customize items like checkout depending on a customer’s location as well.

Pros 

• Great omnichannel functionalities 

• Good for small eCommerce stores

• Has VR commerce capabilities 

Cons

• The free subscription plan has transaction fees

• Has a very simple UI

• May not be best for very large businesses 

Pricing

• Standard: Free

• Pro: $79 per month

• Rise: $349 per month

• Enterprise: Custom Amount

Headless commerce live: Leon and George

One company that started with Commerce.js is Leon & George. Since they started with headless commerce, they started with creative control over their store. This allowed them to quickly build and implement a French storefront in a matter of days. 

Elastic Path

Basically, Elastic Path is an API first, composable, and open-source headless eCommerce solution. It focuses on reducing the difficulty for enterprise companies looking to go headless by providing experiences with all the bells and whistles. 

It includes a Product Experience Manager (PXM) that enables your merchandisers to build new catalogs without depending on a dev team. Along with that, PXM will offer suggested promotions, pricing strategies, and variations.

Plus, it has a broad toolset to help you simply integrate most microservices.

Pros 

• Good for enterprise headless commerce

• Offer product management

• Has easy microservice integrations

Cons

• Steep learning curve

• Lacks user experience friendliness

• Can be time consuming

Pricing

Cost is based on your business's scale, timeline, and implementation and is available upon request.

Headless commerce live: Swisscom

Swisscom’s traditional eCommerce platform prevented innovative user experiences. As a result, they looked to Elastic Path to move to a headless eCommerce platform. Not only were their customer experiences transformed, but also their PWA and customer support system. 

Deity

As a fairly new platform, Deity is an all-in-one solution for composable and headless commerce. They emphasize providing you complete control over your data, tech, and service stacks, giving you more flexibility and freedom. 

With Deity, you’re given pre-built solutions for seamless integrations. They also offer starter templates for PWA, including mobile applications. 

In addition, their commerce composer and orchestration tools enable you to unlock composable commerce with a firm foundation. It includes letting you integrate new API-based services without hassle.

Pros 

• Very simple to use

• Great customer service

• Features awesome composable commerce capabilities 

Cons

• Can be costly to have premium support 

• It’s a new platform 

• Doesn’t have a large community 

Pricing

• Enterprise Commerce Platform: Starts at 30,000 Euros a year or $29,980 USD per year 

• Implementation service: Price available upon request 

Headless commerce live: Consortium

After finding it hard to have multiple storefronts with their commerce engine, Consortium decided to work with Deity. They provided Consortium with a pre-packaged, headless PWA that massively reduced their need for an entirely new frontend development team. Also, they helped them integrate multiple storefronts into one backend. 

Fabric

Focused on business growth, Fabric is a digital commerce platform with a composable, headless architecture. They have many APIs that provide simple integrations for orders, shipping, inventory, and more. 

Fabric highlights PWA functionalities through their APIs. That includes helping you streamline your inventory information and data to every channel. You can then connect any channel to your online store and update them from one point.

Pros 

• Extensive APIs

• Best for mid-market stores

• Great omnichannel management

Cons

• Doesn’t have a large community 

• Is a fairly new platform

• Not the best for new merchants 

Pricing

Price is available upon request, but they do offer a demo.

Headless commerce live: GNC

GNC’s old mobile e-commerce app wasn’t sustainable for the long run. They turned to Fabric to build a brand new app with headless commerce architecture. Expanding omnichannel experiences let them customize their reach to younger audiences and other opportunities 

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce, Magneto's new face is a headless eCommerce platform that boasts customization and organization. It helps you build custom, unique applications depending on your customers’ needs. Plus, since it stores omnichannel experiences on the cloud, you can combine brick-and-mortar and digital shopping in one place. 

One element it highlights is rich analytics. You’ll receive insights into average order values, retention rates, and overall lifetime value. It can all be easily sent to an inbox as well.

Along with that, they’ll provide a detailed inventory management system that tracks your stock across locations, including stores and warehouses. It’ll let you have an understanding of what’s available as it’s tracked in real-time. 

Pros 

• Allows for custom integrations

• Great for digital and brick-and-mortar commerce

• Offers advances analytics 

Cons

• Requires advanced technical knowledge to get the most from it 

• Has a high cost for ownership 

• Can be to implement

Pricing

Pricing depends on your revenue and starts at $22,000 per year. 

Headless commerce live: Shoebecca

Shoebacca desired to drive business growth and optimize a giant product catalog. They streamlined their inventory with Adobe Commerce, providing more organization to handle their catalog. In addition, adobe commerce helped them expand their omnichannel and user experiences, resulting in a 30% increase in sales. 

Nacelle

Nacelle is a headless solution that promises to improve your backend functionalities. It can also integrate with all popular headless eCommerce platforms (i.e. Shopify Plus), eliminating the need to migrate. 

With Nacelle, merchants can optimize their site’s performance with improved speeds, conversion rates, and decreased ownership cost. Not only does this help with performance, but it also helps with future-proofing your site. 

Other key features include PWA, comprehensive data orchestration tools, and a unified API. 

Pros 

• Best for medium to enterprise-sized stores

• Can integrate with your current tech stack

• Can help you with composable commerce

Cons

• Not great for small businesses 

• Is a fairly new solution

• Doesn’t have a big community 

Pricing

Price is available upon request, and they do offer a demo. 

Headless commerce live: Ballsy

Ballsy, a Shopify Plus storefront, wanted to go headless to improve frontend page loading and implement PWA features. Nacelle enabled Ballsy to keep its original store design and have an entire second decrease in mobile load time.

Medusa

Starting off as a Shopify alternative aimed at Javascript developers, Medusa is a composable, open-source headless commerce solution. It provides a seemingly endless amount of customizations for merchants. You will receive building blocks that allow you to build digital experiences immediately.

They also feature a smooth integration with many headless cms platforms, but especially Contentful CMS. Medusa can work with contentful to offer rich data, multilingual support, and more. 

Pros 

• Extremely customizable

• Features awesome composable support 

• Ingrates seamlessly with contentful cms

Cons

• Only has simple storefronts

• Lacks community plugins

• Requires integrating with Contentful CMS for many features (i.e. multilingual support) 

Pricing

• Self-Hosted: Free

• Premium Support: Custom Price

Headless commerce live: Tekla

Tekla faced difficulties scaling with their traditional commerce site. They turned to Medusa to upgrade to a headless one. Medusa's powerful third-party plugins and automated RMA flows helped Tekla scale to 50 markets and six currencies and improved their SEO. 

Saleor

As a GraphQL-first, open-source headless commerce platform, Saleor can help you build dynamic and blazingly fast storefronts. They are focused on helping your business expand and scale by scaffolding multi-channel, multi-lingual, multi-currency, and multi-warehouse capabilities. It does this by having an administrative dashboard powered by business logic that manages your team and your products. 

To add, they also have a great product configuration tool. You’ll receive dynamic product tables that lets you quickly manage your products’ attributes, and an inventory tool that configures all product types to your inventory. 

Pros 

• Meticulous admin dashboard

• Facilitates international expansion 

• Great product configuration options

Cons

• Requires advanced technical knowledge to be used

• Lacks an active community

• Doesn't have ready-to-use extensions

Pricing

Pricing for all plans are based on monthly orders. At the lowest:

• Open Source: Free 

• Startup: $695 per month 

• Pro: $1795 per month 

• Enterprise: $6795 per month

Headless commerce live: Pfeiffer & Frost

After dealing with an old PHP system that didn’t suit them, Pfeffer & Frost wanted to migrate to a headless system. With Saleor, they learned more about their system and how to use it for their business needs. They learned how to easily manage their developers, metadata, and applications. 

Crystalize

Crystalize is a blazingly fast headless commerce platform that has a focus on products. With a GraphQL-based project information modeling (PIM), you can create and deliver unique customer experiences with rich data, all in one component. They’ll also provide rich marketing content, transcoded images, and videos hosted on their own CDNs. 

To add, Crystalize is event-driven. That means you have control over how product fulfillment, physical and digital, is orchestrated.

Pros 

• Offer rich content 

• Has their own CDNs 

• Has experience with digital products

Cons

• Slow time to market

• Not the greatest for smaller projects

• Requires technical development 

Pricing

• Particle: Free

• Atom: $299 per month

• Crystal: Custom Price 

Headless commerce live: MyRevolution

MyRevolution worked with Crystalize to make better shopping and subscription services. Turning headless enabled MyRevolution more control over their customers’ experience, which let them tailor shopping experiences. Overall, this led to a conversion rate increase of 72%. 

Vue Storefront

Vue Storefront differs from the other headless digital commerce solutions in that it’s written in vue.js and can be connected to any eCommerce platform. As an open-source frontend framework, it helps you curate customer experience, including PWA and offline functionalities. 

It also lets you customize and replace any front-end component, from images to custom HTML. This reflects their composability focus, including a library of 100% customizable components built for eCommerce. 

 Pros 

• Good for mobile UX

• Offers offline elements customizations 

• Powerful customizations

Cons

• Built by an independent company

• The implementation process requires advanced technical knowledge

• Can be complicated for new store owners

Pricing

Pricing is available upon request but they do offer a free demo. 

Headless commerce live: TALLY WEiJL

TALLY WEiJL looked to Vue Storefront to move away from traditional ecommerce. They especially were focused on curating a store that brings in younger, Gen Z customers. Headless enabled them to build modern PWA functions, leading to a 131% mobile revenue increase. 

Closing thoughts

It's not just the big players that can succeed in eCommerce. If you're willing to make the necessary changes, including implementing a headless commerce strategy, your business can thrive in today's market.

We offer headless commerce implementation services that can help get you up and running quickly with all the latest features and technologies.

Learn more here or contact us today to discuss how we can help jumpstart your business’s growth in this rapidly changing digital age.