No-more Shopify theme editorNo “plug-and-play" install of Shopify appsDependency on developers or development agency

Here are some of the major benefits associated with headless: Speed. Rolling out any new changes, new features, UI changes, business logic changes, promotions, cosmetic changes, is faster with headless. With a traditional architecture, small adjustments and minor tweaks to anything require testing major parts of the back-end to make sure everything is working properly. More customization and personalization. Headless grants maximum customization freedom across the board, which allows the freedom to create industry-leading, personalized brand experiences.The front-end is more accessible. Since front-end updates don’t have to be optimized for the back-end, they take less time to build and are cheaper to implement. Accessing, using, and updating the front-end no longer requires any advanced IT skills, so it’s easier to find people to do the job. You also no longer have to write JSPs to make cosmetic edits. You still can, but you can also use React and several other systems that are not usable under a traditional eCommerce model. Integration of non-web channels. Through the focused use of APIs, brands can create a coordinated, seamless, and personalized brand experience across all channels. Future platform changes are easy as well. If Google Glass takes off, or Tik Tok comes out with a shopping feature, a shopping experience can be quickly created and implemented without changing the back end. Just plug it into an API and start selling.  Saved time and money across IT. Front-end changes no longer require significant IT support, so you save developers time on cosmetic adjustments. Commerce apps can be created and implemented faster than monolithic eCommerce platforms. Quick changes to be made to the front or back-end, without disturbing your taking resources away from the other side. Room for experimentation. A headless structure allows your system to become much more open to experimentation. Marketers can test new designs without affecting the back-end. Developers can make changes and tests while customers are still making purchases. Brands can phase in innovations and prevent front-end errors in production environments.Performance. When you control the front-end, you control performance. Shopify not loading fast enough? Tough cookies. They own the front-end and the servers. Your headless React code not loading fast enough? Just write better code and boost server performance.Time to market. Businesses can swiftly introduce any and all front-end experiences with no back-end development required. Whether it’s reacting to a new trend, entering into a new device or channel, or adjusting to events like COVID-19, headless makes it as easy as possible. 

The Cons of Headless Commerce While diversity and flexibility are great, there are a few cons to consider with headless commerce as well: Complexity: With headless, you’ll be responsible for more infrastructure, so it will be more complex. This isn’t quite like it used to be in the pre-Shopify era when you needed a large team to build and maintain the website. But it is not as simple as setting things up on one platform. That means you’ll need strong partners or a larger in-house tech team. Cost: A headless site will cost more to build, manage, and maintain. You will have multiple platforms playing different roles for the store. This increases platform costs as well as the effort to build and manage it. Growing Pains: Since this is a new development in the ecommerce world, there will naturally be growing pains attached to jumping into this type of solution. Integrations: Integrations are required for platforms to play nicely together on a headless site. As more tech platforms adopt this concept, this will become less of an issue. But for now, you will be limited to the platforms that currently support headless sites.