What is headless commerce?

In a traditional store, the platform does everything, including drawing the pages, through its own themes. In a headless store, the platform becomes the engine in the background, and the "head", the part customers see and use, is built on its own and talks to it through APIs.

An example. A manufacturer runs one commerce platform with its trade prices, stock and orders. On top of it sit a consumer website, a trade portal and a mobile app for field sales, each designed for its own users, all drawing on the same products, prices and orders.

Why businesses choose it

• Freedom over the experience. The front end can be designed exactly as you want, without working around a platform's theme.
• Many front ends, one platform. Website, portal, app, kiosk or marketplace feeds, all from one source of truth.
• Speed. A purpose-built front end can be very fast.
• Change one part at a time. The front end and the platform can be updated or replaced separately.

What it takes

More to build and look after. Things the platform's theme did for you, such as previews, search engine basics and some checkout features, become part of your front end. It suits businesses with several channels or demanding front-end needs, and a partner or team to run it. For a single fast store, a modern theme such as Hyvä for Magento can deliver much of the speed without going headless.

Composable commerce takes the idea further: choosing the best service for each part, such as search, content, checkout and product data, and joining them together.