Your Shopify theme is the conversion ceiling and your engineering team has been telling you for six months
Above 2-3M GMV, the storefront layer becomes the bottleneck. Mobile LCP >3s, custom UX you cannot express in Liquid, multi-language at scale, B2B logic that fights the platform every step. Headless ecommerce gives you the Shopify (or WooCommerce, or Saleor) back-end you keep, and the storefront you actually want.
BOOK A 30-MIN CALLShopify Hydrogen + headless WooCommerce + custom builds since 2018 Real B2B, parcel pricing, multi-market SEO transport without losing rankings
The four headless ecommerce paths
Shopify-headless (Hydrogen or Next.js)
Keep Shopify for cart, checkout, payments, order management — the parts your team already knows. Replace the theme layer with React (Hydrogen on Oxygen, or Next.js on Vercel). Lighthouse 90+, custom UX, the marketing-site speed you cannot get from a theme. The right answer for most Shopify brands above 2-3M GMV.
Headless WooCommerce
WordPress + WooCommerce stays as the editorial + commerce back-end; Next.js front-end fetches via WPGraphQL or REST. Right when the editorial team is committed to the WordPress workflow but the front-end is the conversion bottleneck. Adds engineering complexity over Shopify-headless because of the WP layer.
Saleor / Medusa / fully-custom
Open-source commerce engine you self-host plus Next.js storefront. Right answer when Shopify and WooCommerce both fight your specific commerce logic — true B2B with credit terms, multi-vendor marketplace, parcel-based selling (gemstones, raw materials), regulated commerce (alcohol, supplements). More engineering up front, more capability long-term.
Stripe + Next.js + Postgres
For SaaS-flavoured commerce (subscriptions, usage billing, marketplace splits) where Shopify and WooCommerce are both fundamentally the wrong abstraction. Build the commerce layer yourself on Stripe Checkout / Stripe Billing / Stripe Connect. Reserved for cases where the commerce model is the differentiator.
What I do not take
Brands under 1M USD GMV that think headless will fix their conversion (it will not — fix the offer, fix the photography, fix the pricing first). Pure migrations from Shopify to a different platform with no clear technical reason (the migration cost rarely pays back). Headless builds with under 8-week launch windows for a real catalogue (anything that fast is templated, not built).
Frequently asked questions
What does headless ecommerce development cost?
Shopify-headless build (Shopify back-end + Next.js storefront): 25,000-80,000 USD. WooCommerce headless (WordPress back-end + Next.js front-end): 30,000-90,000 USD. Saleor / Medusa / fully-custom on Stripe + Postgres: 50,000-200,000 USD. Above 200k typically means deep B2B requirements, complex integrations (ERP, PIM, NetSuite), or 50+ markets.
When is headless commerce the right call vs sticking with classic Shopify?
Headless makes sense above 2-3M USD GMV/year when one of these is true: storefront performance is killing conversion (mobile LCP >3s on Shopify), the brand needs custom UX Shopify themes cannot express (configurators, B2B portals, parcel/loose-stone catalogues), multi-language at scale (10+ markets), or marketing-site SEO is genuinely competing on 1000+ programmatic pages. Below 2M GMV with standard product, classic Shopify is almost always the right answer.
Shopify Hydrogen vs Next.js + Storefront API?
Hydrogen is Shopify-native React framework hosted on Oxygen. Tight Shopify integration, faster to build, hosted infrastructure handled. Next.js + Shopify Storefront API gives you full freedom (any host, any framework patterns, easier integration with non-Shopify services) but more engineering. For Shopify-first brands, Hydrogen. For brands with significant non-Shopify needs (custom B2B logic, multi-tenant, content-heavy with separate CMS), Next.js.
How long does a headless ecommerce build take?
Shopify-headless rebuild on existing catalogue: 8-14 weeks. WooCommerce headless: 12-18 weeks (the WordPress back-end work adds time). Saleor / Medusa / fully-custom: 16-28 weeks for serious B2B. Plus 4-8 weeks of post-launch tuning before the conversion data is reliable.
When you are ready
Bring your current platform, your monthly GMV, and the specific thing breaking. By the end of 30 minutes you will know whether headless is the right shape, which path fits, and the price range.