The 5 Best Headless Ecommerce Platforms of 2022

Ecommerce now becomes one of the hottest topics in the tech industry, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. With so many entrepreneurs hoping to get in on the action, new headless eCommerce platforms are being developed every day to make it easier to set up your online shop and start selling products with ease.

Headless eCommerce platforms are growing in popularity, but it can be challenging to decide which one is right for your ecommerce business. Here are the top five headless eCommerce platforms predicted to be worth using in 2022 by experts.

These five headless eCommerce platforms will be dominant in 2022. They offer innovative features that help quickly build multiple channels of sales using REST/GraphQL APIs. This help businesses grow their profits and sales revenue by a way of increased efficiency, scalability, and ease of use.

What is Headless eCommerce?

In traditional ecommerce systems, the frontend (or the UI) is tightly integrated with the server-end (the backend/ database). This makes them very inconvenient to use, particularly when you want to have more sales channels like mobile apps, Point of Sale systems, etc. They are highly coupled and are very difficult to separate.

Headless ecommerce systems, on the other hand, decouple UI and backend systems. This means that one backend system can be used to power different types of frontend/interfaces. Hence, such systems are much more flexible in nature.

However, it takes more effort to have an independent frontend and backend. But, the extra effort pays off with improved flexibility and freedom to connect multiple sales channels. This can be particularly time-consuming for large companies that have built up old code over the decades.

The popularity of headless eCommerce platforms means you can find an easy-to-integrate solution for just about any web technology stack or CMS. Many platforms also offer powerful APIs to handle catalog management and payment processing behind your storefront, so merchants can focus on what matters most: selling goods. Here are five top choices based on features and pricing.

Strapi

Strapi is one of the best headless eCommerce platforms available today, built using NodeJS and JavaScript, customized for your use-case, and created by developers for developers. Best of all, it’s open-source and free.

It acts as a CMS for ecommerce stores to ease the business with its huge functionalities. It saves time and makes it easy to distribute the online store across different devices. It makes it easy to distribute content across touchpoints. With endless possibilities of customization, you can easily create your own store on it and have multiple sales channels like mobile app, web store, PoS, etc.

It is the best option for store owners looking for an open-source headless eCommerce platform.

Features

• Your editor team can create an excellent publishing experience by allowing them to build any page anywhere they want.
• Frontend developers can choose any name from their collection and reuse it in their frontend code. It is the best option for those who are looking for some No-Code/Low-code tools to automate workflow.
• In a matter of minutes, create your REST or GraphQL-based API without coding
• Upload images, videos, and audio to the media library.

Benefits

• Free & Open Source
• Fully Customizable
• You can manage your assets and connect your media library to a storage service provider.
• Choose between RESTful or GraphQL API
• Plugin Marketplace
• Support for Internationalization
• Ability to create custom Roles & Permissions

Shopify Plus

Shopify is a famous name in the eCommerce market. According to one report, Shopify powered more than 1.7 million eCommerce shops worldwide in May 2021. For several reasons, Shopify Plus is the top-rated headless eCommerce platform for online business owners in 2022.

Shopify Plus allows eCommerce store owners to turn any device or digital screen into a sales channel using its headless eCommerce solution. The Ruby on Rails-based technology allows for flexible store creation across devices.

Shopify is used by some of the most innovative brands globally to provide seamless customer experiences and headless eCommerce solutions.

With proven scalability skills, Shopify can easily handle the surge in traffic when it comes to your ecommerce store. It also makes sure that your store performs flawlessly whether it’s on a mobile app or on a web front. You can also integrate all systems in your business, including ERP, CRM, PIM, and design frameworks.

Features

• Shopify Plus provides complete GraphQL-based APIs to manage your store headlessly.
• Shopify has a Point of Sale feature that allows companies to sell their products in real-world physical stores.
• Shopify supports multiple third-party integrations that can be used to optimize websites.
• Shopify has multiple apps that allow businesses to connect with thousands of wholesale suppliers worldwide.
• Shopify offers multiple analytics tools that allow users to evaluate their online store’s performance.

Benefits

• Better Security
• Personalization Options
• Fast Loading Speed
• Quick Customer Service
• Complete set of GraphQL APIs.

Magento Enterprise

Magento is a well-known name on the top list of best headless eCommerce platforms. Magento is well-known for its robust and flexible store creation. Magento enterprise edition allows you to create API-based headless eCommerce shops that can be deployed on multiple channels and devices. You can extend the functionality of the Magento store by using Magento extensions.

The robust APIs allows online store owners to create highly customizable and custom-built storefronts. They can also use the same experience across all touchpoints, regardless of technology. Magento offers an open-source version that has limited functionality and support.

Features

• You can upload multiple images per product, allow wish list options, and provide descriptions and reviews. The catalog provides for easy browsing, product comparisons, and filters to search.
• With a PoS, a PC, or a tablet, you can place orders anywhere. Your customers can choose from a wide range of products.
• Magento’s eCommerce platform is SEO-friendly. It helps your eCommerce website to rank high in search engines through white-hat SEO campaigns
• Magento allows you to use many marketing tools for your eCommerce store.

Benefits

• Support Multi-currency & Language
• Third-party integration
• It is an Open-Source Platform
• Easily integrated with Google services
• Secured e-commerce store
• Vast Magento community
• Advanced Search Filtration

BigCommerce

BigCommerce has been a popular SaaS eCommerce platform. Thanks to its flexibility, high-quality performance, simplicity, and ease of use. It offers many tools such as product listing and payment processing.

This platform is ideal for growing and established businesses that want to reach a wider audience and improve operations. BigCommerce separates the presentation function from the commerce engine. You can create and manage multiple frontend solutions with one account.

Headless Commerce Platform allows you to quickly deliver an API-driven experience via CMS, an app device, or a frontend. BigCommerce API allows you to provide a customized experience for your users.

Features

• One of the most valuable features of BigCommerce is that its setup and onboarding are fast and straightforward.
• Designing a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing design for your BigCommerce store is achievable. You have options from professionally developed themes to picking custom ones that you can create yourself.
• One of the greatest features of BigCommerce is that it is an affordable solution for all businesses regardless of size.
• The best thing about BigCommerce is that you can engage buyers on social media or use other avenues to reach them and sell everywhere on one platform.

Benefits

• BigCommerce is a highly customizable platform
• BigCommerce includes built-in SEO features to help businesses increase organic exposure
• Payment & Inventory Management
• Application Integrations

Commercetools

Commercetools, the best eCommerce platform, is built on the most recent MACH principles (Microservices-based, API first, Cloud-native, and Headless). Through cloud deployment, the platform offers point-of-scale functionality.

The platform is built on PHP and MySQL. It allows you to separate the storefront using required APIs. It instantly creates store experiences that are based on your target storefront.

The innovative API approach allows retailers to build brand awareness and engage customers across multiple channels. The platform manages data exchange between the frontend client and the backend ERP system. Most of the functionality is built-in APIs because it’s an API-enabled platform.

Features

• Commercetools has a flexible data model, one of its best features. The platform uses the HTTP API for the backend.
• Developers can extend the admin panel (Merchant Center). This boilerplate application is available to help you streamline the process.
• Custom Applications is one of the features that shows the general approach that commerce tools architects took when creating the platform.

Benefits

• Customization
• Freedom to experiment
• Speed and Agility
• Scaling
• Easily add new touchpoints

Conclusion

The eCommerce market is constantly changing, and so are the eCommerce stores. With the advancement of technology and touchpoints, headless eCommerce will be the future of online shopping. It is the future of IoT, and most well-known eCommerce brands have already started to shift toward it.

CitrusLeaf is a full-stack eCommerce company. Our experience has allowed us to deliver eCommerce solutions for startups and enterprises worldwide. We can help you choose the right eCommerce platform for your business and tailor it to meet your needs.

Original Blog — https://citrusleaf.in/blog/the-5-best-headless-ecommerce-platforms-of-2022/