Best-in-Class Headless eCommerce Examples for Shopify

Is going headless worth it, or are you better off with your Shopify store’s legacy structure? Many eCommerce founders have heard of the exciting benefits of headless eCommerce but find it hard to ignore its downsides, like loss of Shopify themes and features and additional site complexities.

The benefits of going headless with Shopify outweigh its disadvantages. It gives you full control over your store's content, design, and performance, creating better shopping experiences for your customers. In this article, we'll highlight a few headless eCommerce examples to inspire your own Shopify store makeover.

Section titled 1. Bols went headless to support its U.S. eCommerce market expansion 1. Bols went headless to support its U.S. eCommerce market expansion

Founded by Lucas Bols in 1575, Bols is a Dutch-based distiller and distributor of alcoholic beverages like vodkas, gins, and other spirits.

Bols decided to expand to the U.S. market with a direct-to-consumer strategy. An important part of the expansion process was launching a new website with a flexible setup that allowed their team to create, ship, and manage campaigns seamlessly — hence the need to go headless with Shopify.

Bols partnered with Story of AMS — a web development agency — to integrate Storyblok’s headless CMS with their Shopify backend. Story of AMS used the Shopify storefront API to pull data from the backend to Storyblok. They also used the ‘Shopify Plus Bulk Inviter’ to migrate all Bols’ customer data and invite their existing customers to activate their accounts in the new store.

Result: Bols launched its new U.S.-focused eCommerce store and implemented its direct-to-consumer strategy. With more content flexibility, the Bols marketing team can easily create and ship content-rich storytelling on their eCommerce store. The new website is bringing in good organic traffic with high SEO rankings for different keywords and at least 200,000 to 300,000 users a month.

Section titled 2. Functional Nutrition expanded its website’s features 2. Functional Nutrition expanded its website’s features

Functional Nutrition was founded in 2007 by David Brassey, and it’s one of the UK’s largest vitamin and nutritional supplement retailers. The company has an eCommerce store called The Supplement Hub for selling high-quality nutraceuticals.

In the wake of Brexit, Functional Nutrition decided to relocate their business from the UK to the Netherlands. An important part of this process was updating their B2C website to support more features, like multiple payment options and languages. So they decided to take their Shopify store headless.

Functional Nutrition partnered with Story of AMS to create a modern eCommerce website tech stack, with Storyblok as the headless CMS. Story of AMS used an agile, iterative method to handle different phases of the eCommerce website development — from digital rebranding to testing.

Result: Functional Nutrition was able to launch a new B2C eCommerce store that supports local payments, multiple currencies, and multilingual features in less than six months.

Section titled 3. Wüsthof launched a new global direct-to-consumer website 3. Wüsthof launched a new global direct-to-consumer website

Wüsthof is based in Solingen, Germany, and it's one of the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of chef's knives.

Wüsthof wanted to improve its overall brand experience and an important part of this process was launching a modern website that supports content flexibility and swift innovation. To achieve this, the 200-year old company partnered with Vividfront — an Ohio-based web development agency — to launch a modern D2C website comprising of a Shopify backend and Storyblok as the headless CMS.

Result: Wüsthof’s launched a high-performing site that empowers the company to create excellent customer experiences. Within 60 days after the launch of its modern D2C website, the company recorded 39.24% increase in website users, 50% boost in organic website traffic, and 50% increase in revenue.

Section titled Going headless can pay off — and it's easier than you think! Going headless can pay off — and it's easier than you think!

Going headless is the right move for eCommerce companies looking for more content flexibility and the freedom to create a unique brand experience for their customers. It might seem daunting at first because you don’t want to disrupt your Shopify store, but the process can be less challenging with the right support from a trusted partner like Storyblok. See how you can go headless with Storyblok.