Headless Shopify storefronts, measured in milliseconds.
Shopify keeps running your checkout, stock, and payments. We rebuild the storefront on Hydrogen or Next.js, so pages render in under a second in any market.
“Will you understand what my store actually needs?”
When headless pays
We scope the store before we scope the technology, and we turn down headless projects that fail this test.
Headless pays when speed converts at your scale. Push enough traffic and a faster product page compounds into orders. Sell across regions and pages served from the edge earn their keep in every market. Outgrow what a Liquid theme can render and the design brief alone makes the case. Your traffic, your catalogue size, and the orders the storefront has to take go into the brief first. The stack follows those three answers.
A themed Shopify build fits most stores, and we say that as a team that sells both. If your catalogue is clear-cut and your team wants to edit the store without a developer, take the theme route. If you would rather own the whole stack, read our WooCommerce page. Stores that outgrow either go headless later, and products and orders carry straight over.
Tell us your traffic and your catalogue →“Will I actually like what you build?”
Hydrogen and Next.js storefronts
A storefront has one job, and every screen between the product and the payment can lose it.
We write the front end from an empty repository on Hydrogen, Shopify’s own React framework, or on Next.js where the project calls for it. Both read your catalogue through the Storefront API and render at the edge, so a shopper in Sydney gets the same sub-second page as one in Swansea. Product page, category page, and the route into the basket get built first, because those three take the money.
Then we shorten that route. A step comes out, an account wall drops, the delivery cost appears on the product page instead of at payment. Checkout stays with Shopify, so payments, discounts, and fraud checks keep working the way your team already trusts. Every change earns its place in orders. Send us your product page URL and we show you where the seconds go.
“Will I actually enjoy working with you?”
The build process
You open the storefront on a staging URL from week one, wired to your real products.
Week one covers scoping: your catalogue, your integrations, and your content model, then one fixed quote and the speed target the storefront has to hit. Design follows, measured against that target. The build runs beside your live theme, so the store keeps trading while we work. Before launch we test checkout, load times from three continents, and every redirect off the old theme.
We build Shopify themes, WooCommerce, and headless, so we have no licence to defend. Headless costs more than a theme build and adds a front end that needs a developer to change, plus hosting for the storefront on top of your Shopify plan. Every one of those lines sits in the quote before you sign. You own the repository from day one, so any React developer can pick it up.
Scope
We map the catalogue, the integrations, and the content model, then set the speed target and the orders the storefront answers to. One fixed quote, in writing.
Design
The storefront gets shaped against that target, free of theme limits. You approve the path a buyer takes before we build anything around it.
Build
We write the front end from an empty repository, connect it to the Storefront API, and keep it open on a staging URL beside your live theme.
Switch
Redirects go in, DNS moves, and the old theme retires. We watch the first fortnight and shorten the route to payment where the orders ask for it.
“Will this actually make me money?”
What a headless Shopify storefront returns
The finished storefront answers to the order target you set in week one.
We keep every URL that ranks, redirect the ones that change, and carry over the titles and product copy that earn clicks, so the move costs you no visibility. Faster pages hold on to more of the traffic you have already paid for once. Each order you take direct keeps the commission a marketplace would have taken, and that margin stays in your business.
If the sums fail to support headless, you hear it at scoping, before you spend a thing. When they hold up, the number in the brief is the one we hand back to you at launch.
Send us the store to scope →Headless Shopify questions, answered
How much does a headless Shopify build cost?
More than a theme build, because we write the storefront from an empty repository. You get one fixed figure after week-one scoping, plus the running costs of hosting and your Shopify plan, in writing before you commit. If the sums favour a standard theme build, we tell you and quote that instead.
How long does a headless Shopify build take?
Six weeks for most storefronts, from scoping to launch. Complex catalogues or several integrations can add two to three weeks, and you see that in the week-one quote. The storefront builds beside your live theme, so trading carries on.
Do we lose the Shopify admin if we go headless?
No. Products, stock, orders, discounts, and customers stay in the Shopify admin your team uses today. Checkout stays with Shopify too. The storefront your customers see is the part we replace.
Who maintains the storefront after launch?
We do, on a care plan: dependency updates, security patches, speed checks, and small changes as the store grows. You own the repository from day one, so any React developer can take over whenever you choose.
Your storefront ships with a speed budget attached.
Tell us your traffic and your targets. We scope the build, quote a fixed figure, and put the business case in writing before you commit.
And if the site has not returned what it cost inside its first year, the re-design and the rebuild are free.