How do I decide if headless is the right call?

Headless is the right call when at least two of the following are true: editorial-grade layout flexibility, a serious CMS already in play, multi-storefront experiences, or a strict performance budget Liquid cannot hit.

How do I set up Hydrogen on Oxygen?

Scaffold a Hydrogen project, connect it to a Storefront API access token, configure caching and CDN behaviour, and deploy to Oxygen through the Shopify CLI. Wire up your CMS via Hydrogen's loader pattern.

How do I keep checkout on Shopify in a headless setup?

Use the Cart API to build the cart in your custom frontend, then redirect to Shopify's hosted checkout. PCI scope stays with Shopify and Checkout Extensibility continues to work as on a standard storefront.

How do I handle SEO on a headless storefront?

Server-render every public route, generate canonical URLs and structured data per page, emit a real sitemap.xml, and submit it to Search Console. Avoid client-only rendering for product, collection, and content pages.

Is headless faster than a Liquid theme?

It can be — but only if engineered correctly. A poorly built headless site is slower than a well-built Liquid theme.

Do we lose Shopify apps if we go headless?

Apps that depend on theme app blocks need to be re-architected. Apps that hook into checkout, admin, or backend events continue to work.

Can we use headless for part of the site only?

Yes. We sometimes run a hybrid setup where editorial pages are headless via a CMS, and product pages stay on Liquid. The right split depends on team workflow.

How long does a headless build take?

Typical timelines run 14–22 weeks for a full headless launch. A hybrid pilot can ship in 6–10 weeks.

Who hosts a headless storefront?

Oxygen for Hydrogen apps. For Next.js or Remix, we usually host on Vercel, Fly, or Cloudflare — driven by your engineering preferences.

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Service · Headless

Headless Commerce Development

Decouple your storefront from Shopify's frontend for full creative and performance control — built with Hydrogen, Oxygen, or a custom React frontend on the Storefront API.

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Two parallel translucent planes connected by API lines, representing headless commerce architecture

What it is

About this Shopify Plus service

Headless commerce splits the storefront (the customer-facing frontend) from the commerce backend (Shopify Plus). The frontend is built as a custom React or framework app — typically Hydrogen on Oxygen, or Next.js / Remix on your own infrastructure — and it talks to Shopify through the Storefront API and Customer Account API.

Going headless makes sense when your team needs editorial-grade layout flexibility, ultra-tight performance budgets, content from sources other than Shopify, multi-storefront experiences, or deep integration with a CMS like Sanity, Contentful, or Storyblok. It is not the default — for most brands a well-engineered Liquid theme is faster to ship and cheaper to operate.

Mejix designs and builds headless Shopify Plus storefronts where the architecture earns its keep. We start with the trade-offs in plain English: total cost of ownership, who maintains the frontend, where checkout lives, and how content workflows change. Once the case for headless is real, we ship with a tested deploy pipeline, observability, and a content model your team can actually own.

What's included

Concrete deliverables

Every engagement ships a defined scope. No vague promises — these are the artifacts and outcomes you can expect.

Hydrogen + Oxygen builds

Shopify-native headless on Hydrogen (Remix) hosted on Oxygen — first-class Storefront API, caching, and SEO support.

Custom React frontends

Next.js or Remix storefronts on your own infrastructure when Hydrogen / Oxygen isn't the right fit.

Performance budgets

Edge rendering, image and font budgets, ISR / streaming, and real-user metric monitoring from day one.

CMS integration

Sanity, Contentful, Storyblok, or Strapi wired into the storefront with preview, draft, and live workflows.

Multi-region & multi-store

Shopify Markets, localised routing, currency, and language — with a single content source where possible.

Checkout via Shopify

Checkout stays on Shopify Plus so you keep PCI scope, fraud protection, and Checkout Extensibility intact.

How it works

A predictable delivery process

The same sequence we run on every engagement, refined across enterprise Shopify Plus projects.

01

Headless fit & architecture

Decide if headless is actually the right call. If yes, choose Hydrogen vs custom, hosting, CMS, and content model.
02

Build & content modelling

Storefront components, routing, caching strategy, and CMS schemas modelled for your real editorial workflows.
03

Integration & SEO

Storefront API, Customer Account API, search, analytics, and a SEO baseline (sitemap, metadata, structured data) tuned for crawlers.
04

Launch & operations

Deploy pipeline, observability, on-call runbook, and a quarterly performance review baked into the engagement.

Why Mejix

A certified Plus Tier partner

We don't sell what we haven't shipped. Every credential below is verifiable on the Shopify Partner Directory.

Plus Tier partner

Storefront API access and Hydrogen / Oxygen credentials handled within the official partner ecosystem.

Multi-stack experience

We work across Hydrogen, Next.js, and Remix — the recommendation depends on your team and content stack.

Operational focus

We ship with deploy pipelines and observability — not just a frontend repo.

How To

How to: Headless Commerce Development

Practical answers to the most common 'how do I…' questions teams ask before starting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Go deeper

Related services & resources

Useful next stops — sibling services on this site and verified pages on mejix.com.