Headless Shopify & Shopify Plus

An experienced agency partner may recommend a headless CMS in combination with Shopify for a headless storefront build-out.

This is because – while Shopify excels at commerce – we don't feel that it excels at content. Our team has a rich experience in content management systems (spanning over ten years), and we therefore feel fairly well-placed to make this assertion.

For this reason, for brands who place priority on rich storytelling and interactive content, we often recommend coupling Shopify with a best-in-class headless content management system when architecting a headless storefront.

This allows for greater control of content beyond Shopify's native fields (and metafields), to create a more holistic, rich editorial experience that translates into stronger storytelling on the frontend. Many of the brands we speak to who're already on Shopify are either struggling with raw HTML markup, or experiencing restrictions with theme sections in their Liquid templates. A headless CMS can be architected with the appropriate fields, rich text areas, and drag-and-drop sections in precisely the way that makes sense for your content – allowing you to create stronger pages in less time. Shopify's "content" entities work, but they aren't nearly as rich as the options available in a strong headless CMS such as Sanity, Contentful, or Strapi.

We're familiar with a range of headless content management systems, and can advise you on best-fit selection based on your marketing and editorial goals. Some headless CMSs are open source, with others strictly as-a-service.

Is a separate CMS really necessary?

No. If you don't use content & rich storytelling as part of your on-site user journey, it'll be fine to forgo a headless CMS as part of a headless Shopify build-out. In this case, we'd expect your storefront to consist primarily of products & collections, besides a few standard pages which can be templated.

Can't we just use Shopify as the CMS?

Yes, this is possible – but might not be ideal. It honestly depends on what the consumer-facing content looks to achieve, and its desired level of "richness". The amount of content will also factor into this decision, because large amounts of content spread across a growing number of pages is really going to be best served by a dedicated CMS. Shopify does provide the ability to add content as entities through Metaobjects, but these are fairly limited in contrast to what you can typically do with a feature-packed, fit-for-purpose CMS.

How will the CMS communicate with Shopify?

By and large, it doesn't need to – unless the headless architecture dictates that product data is stored principally outside of Shopify and then synced-in. Where the CMS does need to interact with Shopify, this is usually conducted via hooks or lifecycles.

Can we use drag-and-drop, or visual editing?

Depending on the chosen headless CMS, yes. Some headless CMSs don't provide a drag-and-drop functionality, which can make it slightly trickier for your marketing and editorial teams, relative to their experience and knowledge of the field structure. However, headless content management systems have come a long way as of late, and several do provide drag-and-drop and visual editing interfaces. This can be achieved easily when using Sanity or Netlify Create (which can be integrated with various CMSs).

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