Advantages of Building a Headless Shopify Store with Contentful
As customers get more accustomed to buying stuff online, competition is becoming fierce, and there is a constant need for change. Contentful is an API-first content management system with amazing innovations that will allow your Shopify store to be present on any digital channel with minimal effort.
Contentful moves away from traditional eCommerce and transforms it into a headless system that meets your clients where they’re at. This helps your online store gain speed, performance, and a better SEO.
Contra Collective is a web developer team with a strong focus on user experience, design, and performance. We use Contentful as a Content Management System for building large-scale Shopify websites.
What is headless CMS in the context of eCommerce?
A headless CMS is used to build and manage content that is made available via API instead of having one integrated head. The concept “headless” does not refer to the system not having a head, but it refers to it having many options.
Essentially, creators can create pages and make them available via any other system, even those that have not been created yet. Contentful is a CMS that easily connects to Shopify.
In the context of eCommerce, headless refers to the separation (decoupling) between your store’s front-end (the head) and the back-end (the engine). In this way, your Shopify store would use a CMS like Contentful for the front-end framework, and then, via API, fetch contents and components. This adds flexibility (front-end is not dependent on the back-end), not to mention that it improves performance and operations.
Why a headless Shopify?
Today, a headless framework is quite common. The first case we would make for it has to do with creating an exceptional experience for the customer. We are looking at a fast front-end experience that will meet buyer’s demand for speed.
Developers love the fact that they can get data in and out of the Contentful platform through API calls. They can craft applications without being limited by the underlying Shopify platform.
Feature of the Shopify app in Contentful
From the Contentful list of the Shopify app integration, we can highlight these features:
- Link between Contentful entries and Shopify products
- Selected products can be previewed in Contentful
- Browse your store’s products on Shopify from Contentful
You get the flexibility of a powerful headless platform combined with all the advantages of a robust eCommerce site.
The benefits of Contentful for your Shopify store
It is future-proof
Since there is no hub or a central space where all content is stored, it can be reused on any system and application you can think of. This includes those that we have not thought of yet.
Today we have smartwatches, AI assistants like Alexa and Google Home, car screens, etc. Who knows what the future will bring. It doesn’t matter because you will be ready.
Easy integration with Shopify
The intuitive and powerful Contentful software allows easy integration with Shopify. When this is done, we can select products from the Shopify account and reference them in Contentful entries.
Cost-effectiveness and scalability
Contentful is easy to use. It makes it a lot faster for the sales team to create new functionalities. Once set up correctly, it can scale with very little attention from developers. This represents scaling up as needed while reducing the up-front costs.
It makes content readily available anywhere
Since Contentful is cloud-based, it can make content easily available to any device and application. The content is so flexible that it can be used everywhere, anywhere, even on a Windows phone app if they were still around.
It is very fast
Since developers can create their work without having to handle bugs of an already existing template, it is easier to optimize for page speed. Visitors can experience lower latency thanks to faster API response times.
It is language- and framework-agnostic
Developers can pick the programming language of their choice and develop functionalities their way. There are no constraints related to proprietary development, making the development move easier and faster.
It improves workflow
Contentful decouples the content from the presentation and allows a separation between the workflows of editors and developers. One team does not depend on the other to implement changes.
A final word
Contentful is the leading headless CMS platform, and it has rendered excellent results on eCommerce websites by increasing functionality and scaling with affordable costs.
Are you interested in knowing if headless CMS is suitable for your store? Get in touch and let’s talk about it.