Why choose a headless Shopify store for content and community-led B2C brands

4 min read

Shopify empowers B2C brands to build fast and scalable stores but does it always have the flexibility to add content-led, experiential pages that grow advocates and communities?

Shopify’s strength is that it is an internationally recognised platform; a simple and effective ecommerce with support, commerce scalability and other benefits such as hosting, low-entry costs, and low barrier to entry to simply get started.

Where some brands and businesses find that it lacks is in its content and the ability to scale content-led sections and pages to build understanding, brand awareness, and education around brand storytelling.

This is why companies often use a ‘headless setup’ which, in this instance, uses two platforms to optimise the site for their specific needs. This might look like:

Frontend / content authoring: A CMS such as WordPress or Craft
Backend / commerce: Shopify

By using different platforms, it enables brands to optimise for commerce, content and community, to create a much more engaging shopping experience for consumers who want to feel part of a brand and its movement.

A content-led commerce attracts and informs consumers, fosters more loyalty with education and information, and offers a seamless shopping experience.

Consumers are becoming increasingly picky, increasingly savvy and increasingly demanding. There is endless choice when it comes to commerce and having key differentiators, social proof, a helping hand, and simply connecting with consumers on their level is growing more and more important.

Why choose a headless Shopify set-up for content?

Shopify does have themes with content-led pages and many ecommerce brands use these for pages such as ‘our story’, ‘recipes’ or for news and guides, but what tends to happen is everyone looks the same and in a very competitive space, how do consumers choose?

Going headless with Shopify and using a CMS for content allows for more creativity, better user experience and journeys, and gives brands a point of difference. When a brand has a big story to tell, an innovative product, a real drive toward people and planet like B Corporations, more content-led, readable, dynamic pages bring these sections to life and give consumers a real sense of surprise and delight.

Too long, didn't read? Here’s the summary:

Greater flexibility with content
Better performance optimisation for content-rich pages
Custom designs and builds around your brand and content, not one-size-suits-all

What CMS should I choose for my headless set-up?

The most widely known is WordPress, and Shopify does have a plugin for WordPress so those already with a WordPress website can start selling sooner.

As a business, we stepped away from designing and developing with WordPress over ten years ago, and instead, specialised in Craft CMS.

Craft is the best CMS for our clients and their customers.

It gives them the flexibility and freedom they need for their content and provides us, as an agency, with a system we can proudly put our stamp on.

Jamie Jenkins, Technical Director, Abstrakt

From an agency perspective, Craft gives our designers and developers complete flexibility without the typical limitations of templates, themes, or the reliance on plugin functionality. It means our developers code from the ground up and optimise for site speed, weight, SEO, etc., making our websites much more agile and lean.

However, for our clients and their businesses, one of the biggest selling points of Craft — especially compared to WordPress — is its simple, intuitive and easy content authoring experience. As with the flexibility of developing the way a website looks for consumers, with Craft, we’re able to build the backend to be easily navigable with content relationships and pages that can be created and set to live in minutes.

Too long, didn't read? Here’s the summary:

WordPress is the most known but we find Craft CMS better for the author experience
Craft enables us to design and build from the ground up for better user experiences and lean, lightweight code
Businesses have a much better authoring/editorial experience and can create content-led pages in minutes

What else does a headless Shopify set-up offer?

Whilst we’re talking more about content in terms of blog areas, about sections, recipes, etc., a headless Shopify set-up offers so much more flexibility than that. For brands that want to go big and really push the envelope with what’s possible for their store, using a CMS like Craft offers complete design freedom while still injecting commerce functionality into the website.

Yes, this typically costs more — so it would be less accessible for start-ups or small commerce brands — it means a custom, entirely bespoke commerce frontend design based on audiences, products, user experiences and journeys, and look and feel alongside a brand. It gives scope for 2D / 3D motion and animation, and digital brand elevation and does give brands the flexibility to scale as they grow.

Too long, didn't read? Here’s the summary:

Headless Shopify allows for greater creative freedom long-term
It allows brands to push boundaries with design and user experience

Shopify themes and “out-of-the-box” content-led pages still work for brands, especially start-ups and those who need to drive more revenue to feed their marketing budget.

A headless Shopify setup is for those who are ready to take the next step and really begin to grow their content, community, and brand advocates.