A theme can only take your store so far. We separate your storefront from Shopify's backend so you get total design freedom and sub-second load times, while Shopify keeps running products, checkout, and orders. We handle the full headless commerce build, from architecture to launch, with headless Shopify development on Hydrogen and Next.js for brands that have outgrown what a theme can do.
Shopify Plus Partner. Headless builds on Hydrogen and Next.js.
We build exclusively on Shopify. Every headless commerce build is engineered in-house by Shopify headless developers who work on the platform and modern frontend frameworks full-time.
“We had pushed our theme as far as it could go. Ecomm Wizards rebuilt the storefront as a fully custom headless build, and the speed jump was instant. We finally have the design freedom we wanted, with none of the template limits we were fighting before.”
Daniel Summerson
Managing Director, Everlast Gyms. +152% Conversion Rate
Headless Shopify means splitting the head, everything your customer sees and interacts with, from the body, the Shopify backend that runs products, checkout, and orders. The two connect through the Storefront API. In Shopify headless commerce you build a fully custom frontend on a framework like Hydrogen or Next.js, and Shopify keeps doing the commerce heavy lifting underneath.
The advantages of a headless Shopify store come down to four things: raw speed, total design freedom, the ability to integrate complex external systems, and serving multiple markets and channels from one backend. A theme caps all four. A headless ecommerce build removes the ceiling.
Here is the honest part. Headless Shopify development adds cost and complexity. It is the right call only when a theme genuinely cannot do the job. If a fast premium theme would serve you better, we will tell you that on the first call. We only build headless when there is a clear reason to.
Headless is not for every store. But if you recognize several of these, a theme is now the thing holding you back.
You have compressed images, deferred scripts, and trimmed apps, but the theme still will not get faster. Liquid rendering and the theme layer set a ceiling a headless frontend simply does not have.
Every campaign idea gets watered down to what the theme can render. Custom interactions, complex layouts, and brand moments die in the gap between what your designers want and what the theme allows.
Every storefront app injects more JavaScript into every page. The stack that solved yesterday's problem is now the thing slowing your store and failing your Core Web Vitals.
Your team wants to ship rich editorial, landing pages, and campaign content without a developer. The theme's content tools were not built for that, so everything becomes a ticket.
Thousands of SKUs, deep variant matrices, configurable products, or real-time pricing push a theme past what it was designed to render quickly and reliably.
You are selling across regions, languages, and channels, and managing it through a single theme has become a tangle of duplicated work and inconsistent experiences.
Headless commerce is powerful and expensive. It pays off for the right store and wastes money for the wrong one. Here is how to know which you are before you spend a penny.
Headless is probably overkill if:
You are early-stage with a small catalog and a simple set of needs
A fast, well-built premium theme would do the job for a fraction of the cost
You have no in-house dev capacity and a tight budget to maintain a custom build
If a theme is the right answer, we will tell you, and we will build you a fast one instead. Book a call and we will give you a straight recommendation.
Book a free architecture callOur headless Shopify development services cover the full headless commerce build: architecture, Hydrogen or Next.js development, CMS integration, migration, and ongoing support. Every service your build needs, in-house and fixed price.
Book a Free Architecture CallThe first question every brand asks after “what is headless?” is “Hydrogen or Next.js?” Here is how we choose, and the stack we build with.
Hydrogen + Oxygen
Shopify-native, commerce-first
Hydrogen is Shopify's official React framework, built on Remix and hosted free on Oxygen for Plus merchants. It is the path of least resistance for commerce-first builds, with first-class access to the Storefront API and Shopify's component library.
Best when: your build is pure commerce, you want tight Shopify integration, and you are on Shopify Plus.
Next.js + Vercel
Mature, flexible, content-ready
Next.js is the most mature React framework, with the largest developer talent pool and the flexibility content-heavy or multi-market builds need. Hosted on Vercel, with server-side rendering that keeps the store fast and fully crawlable.
Best when: your build is content-heavy, multi-market, or needs architecture beyond pure commerce.
We pick the right headless framework per project. We do not force every headless Shopify development build into one stack, and we will explain the trade-off in plain terms on the architecture call.
Hydrogen
Framework
Shopify's official React framework for commerce-first headless builds.
Next.js
Framework
Mature React framework for content-heavy and multi-market storefronts.
Remix
Framework
The web framework Hydrogen is built on, tuned for fast data loading.
Oxygen
Hosting
Shopify's global hosting for Hydrogen, free on Shopify Plus.
Vercel
Hosting
Edge hosting for Next.js with instant global delivery and previews.
Sanity
Headless CMS
Real-time, developer-friendly CMS for editorial and landing pages.
Contentful
Headless CMS
Enterprise headless CMS for structured, multi-channel content.
Storefront API
GraphQL
Shopify's GraphQL API that connects your frontend to the backend.
A theme is the right call for most stores, and we build fast ones. But once you have outgrown one, here is what a headless commerce storefront gives you that a theme cannot.
Headless ecommerce pays off most for brands with complexity a theme cannot handle. Here are the sectors we build headless Shopify stores for, and what we focus on in each.
Large catalogs, editorial lookbooks, and brand-led storefronts that themes cannot render fast enough.
Content-heavy storefronts with quizzes, routines, and rich editorial managed in a headless CMS.
Subscription-first storefronts, compliance-aware content, and fast experiences that build trust.
Launch-day traffic spikes, bundle builders, and subscription flows that need to stay fast under load.
Complex pricing, account-based catalogs, and ERP integration that go beyond what a theme handles.
Deep variant matrices, comparison tools, and configurable products rendered without template strain.
High-traffic launches, configurators, and team ordering flows engineered for speed at scale.
One headless frontend serving multiple regions, languages, and currencies from a single backend.
Not on this list? We build headless storefronts across all sectors. The backend is always Shopify.
We are a headless commerce agency that works only on Shopify, with 100+ live stores built. Here is what separates a headless build that pays off from one that becomes an expensive maintenance problem:
We build on both Shopify's official Hydrogen framework and Next.js, and we choose per project. You get dedicated Shopify headless developers who know the Storefront API, server-side rendering, and modern frontend architecture in depth, not a theme shop guessing at headless.
We only recommend headless when there is clear technical justification. If a fast theme would serve you better, we say so on the first call. We will not sell you a six-figure build you do not need.
Every line of the storefront, every component, and every integration is yours at completion, with documentation. No proprietary system, no lock-in. Your team or any other agency can pick it up and run.
DTC brands, Shopify Plus merchants, B2B distributors, and global retailers. Every build adds to a pattern library of what works in production, so the edge cases that catch other teams are ones we solved years ago.
Speed is the reason most brands go headless, so we treat it as a feature. We set performance budgets at kickoff and hold green Core Web Vitals through launch. Sub-second loads are the target, not a nice-to-have.
Hands-on experience with Checkout UI Extensions, Shopify Functions, Oxygen, and the full Plus feature set. We build headless on the parts of Shopify that make headless worth doing.
We document every headless build, test it, and hand it over in full. A headless Shopify agency that knows the platform deeply protects your speed, your SEO, and your roadmap, before they become problems. It is what makes us one of the top headless Shopify agencies for brands that have outgrown a theme, and why clients rank us among the best headless Shopify agencies they have worked with.
Not projections. Real numbers from stores where a custom, performance-first frontend produced documented, measurable improvements in speed, conversion, and revenue.
“Their immense knowledge of Shopify Plus and exceptional communication skills, accompanied by a can-do attitude, made Ecomm Wizards a fantastic partner.”
“We needed a store that could handle serious athletes, casual fitness buyers, and trade accounts in one place. Ecomm Wizards built exactly that. The conversion numbers and trade portal revenue both exceeded what we projected.”
“The new store finally communicates who we are. The Size Finder fixed the returns problem we had been struggling with for years. Revenue growth followed from getting those fundamentals right.”
