The allure of Shopify's unauthenticated* Storefront API and their advocation for headless implementations was all the range in 2019. It took until about mid 2020 until we started to see some really exciting examples of how next-gen Javascript frameworks like Gatsby and Next.js could take advantage of the concept and deliver exceptional, blazing fast user experiences. I could cite a few examples but needless to say those that caught my attention were made by trailblazers Gin Lane.
Headless implementations often required substantial technical expertise and resources (read between the lines -- no random cheap overseas developers), making it inaccessible to smaller businesses and budgets and time to market was inventively longer as developers figured out the roadmap on the fly and struggled with the API's idiosyncrasies and lack of meaningful error messaging.
As businesses rushed to adopt headless solutions, they found themselves in a fragmented ecosystem. What was marketed as "You can build anything with our APIs" revealed significant limitations—primarily server-side functionality, authenticated access, and incompatibility with unauthenticated static sites like Gatsby. Their "If they've got an API so you can integrate it" mantra was a deceiving misconception.
Many businesses are now reconsidering the headless approach in favor of Shopify's greatly improved Storefront 2.0 Theme ecosystem. Victoria Beckham Beauty was originally built as headless in 2022 and is now back to being a theme again in 2024.
Our mantra is always to "work with a platform's strengths, not against it's weakness". In hindsight, it seemed like the rush to go headless was for exactly this reason. Our new mantra is "Don't break Shopify" and brands are starting to get on board with this idea.
As recently as 2017, brands like Ulla Johnson we're desperate to get off the platform, disliking it's boilerplate checkout that lacked brand personalization. But with Checkout Extensibility, and the improved feature set of Shopify & Shopify Plus not to mention true internationalization with Shopify Markets, the passing of time has squashed that mind set, and the Shopify checkout is now seen as friendly, familiar and trusted, and Ulla Johnson is back on the platform!
These days, we're doubling down on the Shopify Theme eco-system. It is rapid to scale, easy to work with and has an extremely fast go-to-market time compared with headless implementations.
If you're re-considering your headless site in favor of Shopify Themes, contact sarah@shrimpton.agency to see if we can help.