● Headless Shopify
Headless, when it earns its cost.
Hydrogen or Next.js storefronts on the Storefront API, with an honest conversation first about whether you need one.
The problem
Headless gets chosen for the wrong reason and doubles the maintenance surface. Checkout still belongs to Shopify, the CMS becomes a second source of truth, and the team that wanted faster releases now ships slower.
Technical approach
We start with whether headless is the right answer for your constraint. When it is, we build on the Storefront API with a rendering strategy matched to your catalogue size, and keep the operational surface small enough for your team to own.
What we engineer
- Headless readiness assessment with a recommendation
- Hydrogen or Next.js storefront implementation
- Storefront API data layer and caching strategy
- CMS integration and content model
- Preview, deployment and rollback pipeline
- Performance budget enforced in CI
Typical scope
- Timeline
- 12 to 24 weeks
- Engagement
- Project, then retainer
- Ideal fit
- Teams with a content-heavy or highly custom front end, and the engineering capacity to own a decoupled storefront.
Capabilities
- Hydrogen
- Next.js
- React
- Storefront API
- GraphQL
- Edge caching
Related work
Atlas Supply
Content-led storefront on Shopify checkout
View case study05 / Forge process
Raw problem. Shipped system.
Five stages. The line between them is the transformation.
01
Diagnose
The commercial problem before the backlog. Which constraint is costing money, and where it lives.
- Business problem
- Technical constraints
- Existing architecture
- Customer journey
- Operational requirements
02
Architect
Solution architecture written down with its trade-offs, before implementation starts.
- Solution architecture
- Shopify capabilities
- Integrations
- Technical constraints
- Implementation plan
03
Engineer
Iterative delivery on a staging store, every change behind a performance budget.
- Storefront
- Custom functionality
- Integrations
- APIs
- Automation
04
Test
Functionality, responsiveness, performance and edge cases verified before anything reaches production.
- Functionality
- Responsive behaviour
- Performance
- Edge cases
- Integrations
- Accessibility
05
Ship
Production deployment with monitoring, handoff and an optimisation roadmap for what comes next.
- Production deployment
- Monitoring
- QA
- Handoff
- Optimisation roadmap
06 / FAQ
Questions we get before the first call.
Often not. Plus earns its cost when you need multiple stores, B2B company accounts, checkout extensibility or higher API limits. If your constraint is theme architecture or app conflicts, Plus will not fix it. We will tell you which one you have before you commit to the plan.
Projects are fixed scope with a fixed price, quoted after a paid discovery when the problem is not yet well defined. Retainers are a monthly allocation with a three-month minimum. We publish ranges during the first call rather than after a proposal cycle.
A custom storefront runs six to twelve weeks. A migration runs eight to sixteen weeks depending on catalogue complexity. A B2B implementation runs eight to sixteen. Headless is twelve to twenty-four. Discovery sharpens these before anything is committed.
Yes, and most of our work is exactly that. We start with an audit of the theme, app stack and data model, and we give you the findings whether or not you engage us for the remediation.
Modelling your real account structure as companies and locations, building catalogues and price lists per buyer, implementing contract and volume pricing, configuring payment terms, and migrating the wholesale process people currently run by email.
Not if redirects are planned rather than retrofitted. We crawl the live site to generate a complete URL inventory, produce the redirect map from it, and rehearse the cutover on a staging store before touching production. We monitor rankings daily for two weeks after launch.
Yes, when the logic belongs in an app. Frequently it belongs in a Shopify Function or a checkout extension instead, which is cheaper to run and closer to where Shopify evaluates the rule. We choose based on where the logic has to execute.
Usually not. Headless doubles the maintenance surface and checkout stays on Shopify regardless. It earns its cost for content-heavy storefronts and teams with the engineering capacity to own a decoupled front end. We assess that before recommending it.
An agreed monthly capacity with named engineers, a prioritised backlog you control, feature development and bug fixing, performance monitoring, a defined emergency response path, and a quarterly architecture review.
Yes. White-label Shopify engineering behind your brand, working in your tools and to your process. We do not appear in front of your client and we do not approach them directly. Several of our engagements are agency partnerships.
Next
Need headless shopify?
Tell us the constraint you are hitting. We will tell you what it will take.