Glossary · System design

Headless commerce

Also called headless e-commerce, composable commerce.

Definition

An e-commerce setup where the shop front (the head) is built separately from the commerce engine that handles products, carts and orders, linked by APIs.

Last updated 2026-10-25

What it is.

In a traditional platform the store's pages, themes, cart and checkout come in one package. In headless commerce the commerce engine runs behind APIs, and the team builds its own front ends: a website, a mobile app, in-store screens or a marketplace feed, all using the same products, prices and stock.

Composable commerce takes it further, with separate services for search, content, payments and more, each chosen on its own.

Why it matters

Headless gives full control over speed, design and new channels, and lets the front end change without touching the order system. It also means you build and maintain what the theme used to give you for free. It pays off when the store has needs a theme cannot meet.

In a product build

We scope the parts the theme used to cover, such as search, SEO, previews and checkout edge cases, before committing. Product pages are cached at the edge, cart and checkout stay live, and order events come back through webhooks.

Watch out

Common mistakes.

01
Going headless for a simple store where a theme would do.
02
Forgetting SEO basics such as server rendering, metadata and redirects.
03
Rebuilding checkout and losing the platform's tested payment and tax handling.

Tools

Work it out with a tool.

Guides and pages

Case studies

Browse the full glossary or read answers to common questions.

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