Top 5 headless commerce myths busted!

As talk of headless commerce buzzes around the eCommerce industry, merchants are excited to consider its potential for their brand. But as with any new hot topic, it’s common to see confusion or misinformation around it. Although you can’t avoid every bump in the road to modernizing your eCommerce infrastructure. Getting common misconceptions out of the way is a great start to your headless commerce journey.

Keep on reading to set the record straight about the following myths:

• A headless commerce solution won’t be able to scale with your business’ growth

• The cost of a headless CMS is daylight robbery

• Going headless will require you to redo everything

• Site speed is the only benefit of a headless commerce structure

• All headless commerce plans are universal
  

1: A headless commerce solution won’t be able to scale with your business’ growth.

When still relying on a monolithic system, it could restrict your brand through difficulties like slow site speed, incorrect stocking data, and abandoned carts. Going headless could offer a solution to most of the difficulties your previous system has brought to the table. It also reduces the risk involved when changing tools or moving away from a monolithic structure.

The ideal headless commerce solution for your business should be adaptable, trouble-free, and stimulate your growth by making use of a microservices strategy. Microservices are a method of developing software apps that are made up of independently transferable, adjustable services. Using a microservices strategy gives merchants the ability and freedom to handpick tools that work best for their brand. An example can be integrating Algolia and AI-powered site-search. With Algolia you can turn the site search into a blazing fast experience that allows for frictionless shopping with robust typo tolerance and advanced filters. When one tool no longer makes sense due to your business scaling, you can easily eliminate or replace it.

2: Headless is more expensive to build and maintain.

Whenever headless is mentioned, often one of the first things discussed is the ‘abnormal price tag’. Now the price might be higher, but generally, we’re only talking about 10-15% more expensive than a standard Shopify Plus store. This extra cost mainly goes to developer time. When adding new features to your store, it won’t just be a simple drag and drop. You’ll need a developer to code the changes into your site. While it may seem like a burden, there’s definitely a benefit to a developer coding an app into your site, but we’ll get to that later in the article. Not to mention, it’s often misinterpreted that headless stores need greater maintenance. Your headless store would still run through Shopify, which means all the software maintenance is taken care of by Shopify, just like in a standard Shopify store.

Although there are recurring costs for a headless setup, it won’t be far off compared to any other multi-store solution. The costs are just distributed differently.

3: Going headless will require you to redo everything

Many merchants assume that going headless means throwing all of your data in the trash and starting up from scratch again. If that was the case, headless commerce would be a lot less praised as it is. So, fortunately, this too is a myth.

Headless plans can be layered on top of an existing tech stack, thus there’s no need to replace all of the current data you’ve worked so hard for. By layering your headless solution on top of your existing data, it will just need some developer’s magic for your tech stack to adjust to your new solution. This way, you’ll be able to keep all of your data and simply ‘update’ it to work even more efficiently.

4: Site speed is the only benefit of a headless commerce structure.

There’s no way around the lightning-fast page load speed that headless commerce unlocks. But don’t forget about all the other dazzling benefits a headless setup could provide for your eCommerce business. Switching from a traditional architecture to a headless architecture brings great possibilities to your online platform. A headless commerce solution provides benefits like increased site security, the ability to adopt a mobile-first approach, significant high-traffic support, and so the list goes on.

Not all headless commerce benefits shine on the front-end though. Many behind-the-scenes features are improving the workflow, almost instantly solving countless customer experience pain points, while directly boosting crucial KPIs like conversion rate and average order value. To find out more about the benefits of going headless, check out this article.

5. You can no longer use Shopify apps with a headless setup

Another false statement. You’ll be able to install Shopify’s back-end apps as usual, even when working with a headless store. All front-end apps will also stay available, but a developer is required to code them into your front-end. While this may not be ideal, there is a benefit to it. Shopify apps are built by developers of all levels, which means you could experience some drastic differences in the code’s quality when just downloading them. A developer can guarantee a fine code quality of all apps installed to your front-end, which means you’ll never have to worry about poorly coded apps hindering your site’s performance.

Conclusion

Headless commerce is delivering immense value in today’s digital world and stands to redefine what we know about eCommerce. As with any advanced developments, there are bound to be myths. So if you’re considering adopting a headless commerce strategy, don’t let the myths scare you away. By learning how to expand your headless commerce efforts, you may redefine your brand’s strategy, online presence, and future.

If you’ve got any further questions on headless commerce, or you’re looking for a new partner, send us a message. We’d love to hear from you!