Headless E-commerce Trap

More and more people are choosing to go the headless way without understanding if they really need it. They get sold the idea that just by changing tech, your revenue will grow 2X, 3X, 4X, or other nonsense. The reality is that not only can it stay the same or get even worse after migration, but additionally, long-term costs will grow substantially and might leave you with difficult decisions to make.

Introduction

First, let's understand this magic headless e-commerce that is said to grow businesses 10x times. It is a decoupling method, where Frontend and backend e-commerce functionalities are separated. If you are using Shopify, WooCommerce, or PrestaShop platforms, then you are using monolithic architecture. This means that all your frontend and backend functionality sits under one roof. AND IN 95%+ OF CASES, IT IS TOTALLY OKAY!

In this post, we'll review the validity of this buzz around headless e-commerce and see who should take advantage of it, and when.

Monolithic vs Headless

The traditional approach is the monolithic approach. It works well for most cases. This is a system that uses Frontend and Backend e-commerce functionality together. It also provides plugins to inject specific functionality to extend your shop capabilities.

The headless way is when Frontend and Backend are separated. Here, frontend and backend, CMS, or any other third-party tools communicate through an API.

Benefits of Traditional Monolithic Approach

As mentioned before, platforms like Shopify and similar will work for most people. Even people with no tech knowledge can create their own fully functioning e-commerce website. Listing pros of this approach is no hard task.

1. You get a massive amount of performance and conversion-optimized templates made by professional UI/UX designers. You can even get one for free. Plug n' play.

2. Shopify, out-of-the-box, provides a powerful e-commerce backend. In the engineering world, it is no secret that creating a performant, scalable platform with all e-commerce features is not an easy task. Here, Shopify provides everything from cart, checkout, and customer handling to fulfillment, shipping, and taxes - all handled by Shopify e-commerce.

3. No tech knowledge? No problem! You get a visual builder to update your e-commerce store by your needs.

4. Missing some functionality in your app? There is the Shopify App Store that has thousands of apps providing functionality from increasing sales to reducing return rates.

5. Short-term low cost. We all know that software engineering services can cost a lot. Since Shopify provides a visual builder, you can do most of the changes by yourself while leaving complex functionality for developers.

6. Shopify has good documentation and an easy-to-understand admin dashboard where you control customers, orders, and products.

Cons of Traditional Monolithic Approach

As with most things in life, the monolithic e-commerce approach has its cons. Here are a few:

1. Shopify websites are often slow. Since people perform specific actions for updating their e-shops without knowledge, they can use too large images, add incorrect elements for achieving specific functionality, and more.

2. It is often hard or impossible to customize. Changes through the Shopify admin dashboard can be limited. Apps that provide specific functionalities may also be hard or impossible to customize. Knowing that e-commerce moves fast, sometimes it can be critical to lose competitive edge against competition.

3. It can be costly. Shopify attracts with cheap initial plans, but when an e-shop starts to scale, it starts to add up. Not to mention all the apps that you will need, which are most of the time subscriptions.

4. Scalability can be an issue during Black Friday or similar high-traffic events, as Shopify may limit API calls, webhooks, or other resources.

5. Personalization is king in e-commerce. It is now and will be much more in the future. These platforms are really limited when it comes to using data for personalization.

Benefits of Headless Way

Headless e-commerce is trending lately and sometimes for a good reason. It is scalable, flexible, customizable, and lightning fast. It's so good that the top 1% of e-commerce businesses are using this approach.

1. Fast loading speed. In e-commerce, fast loading speed becomes crucial as customer behavior keeps changing. In fact, it is an easy way to gain a competitive advantage over your vast competition in the niche.

2. Flexibility is a big one. This allows creating unique and rapid user experiences that your customers will love.

3. Fully customizable. Want to create something that does not exist or doesn't exist in a way you see it? No problem with a headless e-commerce approach.

4. Reacting to trends. E-commerce is changing pretty fast. The AI boom especially showed it. Another way to leave your competition behind is implementing trending tech solutions. Here, headless pays off as you can react to market changes fast.

5. Scalability. Now your web app can scale for millions of visitors without nightmares that there exist some limitations from either side.

Cons of Headless Way

Decision-makers for the headless way should take these cons into consideration. It could save lots of pain and money in the future.

1. The headless way is complex to implement. If you decide to move this way, investigate your chosen agency very carefully and think twice before choosing.

2. Higher initial cost. Initially, connecting frontend storefront to backend e-commerce via API takes more time and effort. Compared to creating an e-shop on a template with an already connected backend on a platform like Shopify, it can become expensive pretty fast. But now you own your platform and all functionality and don't depend on hundreds of subscriptions provided by Shopify apps.

3. It takes longer to develop. This one is self-explanatory, but what takes one hour or day to implement a widget through an app could take one week to integrate an in-house tech solution for the same functionality.

4. No visual builder. This means that non-tech people cannot update static content by themselves. The positive side is that you avoid bugs or even downtime. But then for every change, you need a developer that understands what they're doing. The visual builder problem can be solved through platforms like Plasmic or Builder.io.

Who Should Choose Headless?

As mentioned before, headless is not for everyone. Even though it is trendy and sounds good on paper, most probably it is not for you. For example, Nike and Adidas are using headless. They value this approach because they have huge traffic, and then every millisecond shaved off load speed brings these companies more revenue. And where headless is good, it is speed!

Other examples that use headless are ColonBroom and Moerie. They needed custom functionality for quizzes and single-page upsells with custom tracking. This could not be achieved with the above-mentioned platforms. In these cases, the only way left was headless.

So, if you feel like every millisecond in website load speed matters for your business or you want to achieve custom functionality that current platforms cannot provide - go with it, but take our considerations that we listed above into account.

Our Experience

We have worked with multiple headless e-commerce businesses, with revenue ranging from 500k to 1M and from 1M to 5M. What surprised us is that they could have built similar e-shops on WordPress, Magento, or Shopify cheaper and faster.

So how do they end up with headless? It seems that some agencies put these businesses on headless so they have money coming in all the time for maintaining these projects because every single, even small change, requires a skilled developer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while headless e-commerce offers significant benefits for certain businesses, it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. Consider your specific needs, resources, and long-term goals before making the switch. If you're unsure about what to choose or need help with your headless e-commerce shop, don't hesitate to reach out for expert advice.