Shopify, headless or custom: how to choose your online store

Choosing how to build an online store is a big decision. It affects how fast you can launch, how much you pay every month, and how easy it is to grow. There are three main options. Here is what each one means, in simple words.

Option 1: A ready-made platform such as Shopify

Shopify gives you the shop, the checkout, payments and hosting in one package. You pick a theme (a ready-made design), add your products and start selling. A developer can add custom sections so it looks like your brand.

Good for: most businesses that sell products to the public, and anyone who wants to launch quickly.

Watch out for: monthly fees and app costs that grow over time, and limits when you want something the platform does not do.

Option 2: Headless e-commerce

"Headless" means the back office and the shop front are separate. Your products, stock and orders live in one system. The website your customers see is built on its own and asks that system for the data.

Good for: brands that need a very fast or very unusual shop design, or that sell in many places at once, such as a website, an app and other sales channels.

Watch out for: more cost to build and more parts to look after. You need a developer team for changes.

Option 3: A custom store

A custom store is built for your exact way of selling.

Good for: businesses that sell in ways normal platforms do not support. For example, trade customers who each have their own prices, ordering by quote, products made to order, or deep links to your stock and accounts systems.

Watch out for: a higher starting cost. It only makes sense when it saves you real money or work every month.

Five questions to help you choose

1. How do your customers buy? Simple basket and checkout, or quotes, accounts and special prices?
2. Where do you sell? Only your website, or also apps, shops and marketplaces?
3. What other systems must the store talk to? Stock, accounts, delivery and email tools?
4. Who will run it day to day? Can your team manage it alone?
5. What will it cost over three years? Add up build cost, monthly fees, apps and changes, not just the launch price.

Our honest advice

Start with the simplest option that will carry the next three years of growth. For many businesses, that is Shopify. Move to headless or custom only when the numbers say it will pay back.

Whatever you choose, build for phones first, keep pages fast and connect the store to the systems behind it, so nobody has to re-type orders. Our e-commerce team builds on Shopify, headless and custom, and will tell you plainly which one fits.