Headless Commerce Summit, Part 2: Five Shopify headless commerce examples and practical implementation
Hi, I'm art director Sato.
On September 3rd (early morning of September 4th), we participated in Netlify’s online event “Headless Commerce Summit 2020”, which is a very helpful event to share with you about the front lines of headless commerce that will attract attention as next-generation EC.
This second article is a report of a session on headless commerce with Shopify.
Paul Valentine's case
Paul Valentine A panel discussion between Thomas Röser, head of e-commerce at Shopify, and Alex O'Byrne, co-founder of London-based Shopify Plus agency We Make Websites shared the background and learning from moving EC sites to headless commerce.
Image source: https://youtu.be/vf0XF_1Kf4w
Background of Adopting Headless Commerce
Originally, Paul Valentine operated 12 stores in Shopify for each country to expand globally, but it seems that they had the following challenges:
- They had to have a site that was optimized for each country's markets.
- But running multiple sites, I was struggling with new product launches and sales.
So we asked We Make Websites to introduce a headless commerce solution.
enjoy the benefits of increased sales, flexibility and operational convenience
The introduction was triggered by a reduction in operating costs, but it is said that we can enjoy various benefits other than that.
- "F1 Cars" Revenue Increased at Display Speed
- Flexibility to connect Shopify checkouts with various sales channels
- Reducing the cost of operation by integrating management screens
- When multiple editors access a CMS, the scope of access can be fine-grained.
In terms of configuration, it seems that we use Shopify for carts, Contentful for CMS, Algolia for search and Reach for localization.
https://www.paul-valentine.com
Key Takeaways from Microservices Adoption
From his experience in moving to headless commerce, he learned:.
- You can use different microservices, so it's important to know what works for you
- Building from scratch broadens the possibilities but requires a sufficient time to prepare
Finally, Röser’s comment concluded that “headless commerce is worth an investment and we recommend it if you are lost.
* Archived video: https://youtu.be/vf0XF_1Kf4w
Shopify-Powered Headless Commerce Practice
Next was a hands-on session with Kelly Vaughn, CEO of Atlanta based Shopify Plus agency The Taproom.
Why You Should Use Shopify for Headless Commerce
Here are some of the reasons you should use Shopify for headless commerce:
- Checkout Safety and CV Rate
- commodity management
- You can use the Shopify app
- customer management
- order management
- If you’re already using Shopify, you can still use the admin screen.
Image source: https://youtu.be/kKZ_-9tM6dg
4 Headless Commerce Uses Shopify
Four examples were presented along with the technology stack.
Staples.ca
https://staples.ca
Shopify+Contentful
JB Hi-Fi
https://jbhifi.com.au
Shopify+Contentful
PlantRise
https://plantrise.com
Shopify+Contentful+Nacelle+Gatsby+ReCharge
Something Navy
https://somethingnavy.com
Shopify+Contentful+Nacelle
Key Takeaways from Headless Commerce with Shopify
Headless commerce is an attractive solution, but there were several points to note.
- Developers Should Have Modern Technical Stacks (Vue, React and Angular)
- CI/CD pipelines should be prepared to reflect code changes
- Designing the Data Access Layer (create your own or use backend services)
- Selecting a location to host static content (such as Netlify)
- Not All Shopify Apps Are Available
- no longer have the theme editing function on one's admin screen
- cost of external hosting
Steps in Moving from Shopify Theme to Headless Commerce
What steps should we take to move our current Shopify site into headless commerce?The point was presented.
- List all pages of the current site and map required content fields
- Because some apps will no longer be available, you can list up your current app to identify the needs and priorities.
- consider requesting an e-commerce-savvy development partner with the latest technology stack
It was a lot of learning about Shopify-powered headless commerce in practical terms, and I’d like to keep an active catch up on this area as we still don’t have much information.
On my Twitter, I’ve picked up and shared information about headless commerce and Shopify from overseas. If you like to follow me :)
@shotasato_nsw
* Archived Video 1 https://youtu.be/vf0XF_1Kf4w
* Archive Video 2 (English): https://youtu.be/kKZ_-9tM6dg