Digital Experience and Product Engineering
Headless Commerce
Headless commerce on platforms such as Shopify Hydrogen, commercetools and Medusa: composable storefronts, checkout, catalogue and integrations with ERP and fulfilment.
Overview
Commerce teams outgrow templated storefronts when the business needs something a template cannot express: B2B pricing, configurable products, marketplace models, multi-region catalogues or experiences that blend content and commerce. Headless architecture separates the storefront from the commerce engine so each can change on its own terms.
We engineer headless commerce on Shopify Hydrogen, commercetools, Medusa and similar platforms, building fast storefronts and integrating catalogue, pricing, inventory, payments, ERP and fulfilment. We also say when headless is not yet warranted, because its flexibility carries real operating cost.
Business applications
- 01
Content-rich storefronts
Combine editorial content from a headless CMS with product data and checkout, delivering storefronts where storytelling and buying sit together in one fast, accessible experience.
- 02
B2B commerce portals
Support account hierarchies, negotiated pricing, quotes, purchase approvals and reorder workflows for business buyers, integrated with ERP as the source of truth for pricing, credit limits and order status.
- 03
Multi-region and multi-brand commerce
Run several brands, currencies, languages and tax regimes from a shared commerce core, with localised storefronts and catalogues managed through one consistent operating process for merchandising teams.
- 04
Marketplace and composable extensions
Add capabilities such as marketplaces, subscriptions, product configurators or loyalty through composable services, integrating them cleanly with the commerce engine rather than forking or heavily customising the platform.
Engineering approach
- 01
Assess commerce requirements
We document catalogue complexity, pricing rules, channels, order volumes and integration needs, then determine whether headless is justified or a native platform theme is sufficient.
- 02
Select the commerce engine
Shopify with Hydrogen, commercetools, Medusa and alternatives are compared on data model fit, extensibility, operating model, licensing and the skills required to run them.
- 03
Design the composable architecture
We define how commerce, CMS, search, payments, tax, order management and ERP connect, which system owns each data domain, and how events keep them synchronised.
- 04
Build storefront and checkout
Storefronts are engineered for Core Web Vitals, accessibility and conversion-critical flows, with checkout relying on the platform's PCI-compliant payment components rather than custom card handling.
- 05
Launch and optimise
Cutover is rehearsed with data migration, redirects and load testing, followed by monitoring and structured experimentation once real customer behaviour is visible.
Technologies and platforms
Commerce engines
- Shopify Hydrogen
- Shopify Storefront API
- commercetools
- Medusa
- BigCommerce
Storefront
- Next.js
- React Router
- React
- TypeScript
- Vercel
Search, content and payments
- Algolia
- Sanity
- Contentful
- Stripe
- Adyen
Integration and operations
- Avalara
- Klaviyo
- GraphQL
- Webhooks
- Datadog
Technology names are trademarks of their respective owners and do not imply partnership or endorsement.
What you receive
- Commerce requirements and build-versus-configure assessment
- Composable architecture with a data ownership map
- Headless storefront with accessible product, cart and checkout flows
- Integrations with ERP, payments, tax and fulfilment systems
- Catalogue and customer data migration with validation
- Launch runbook, performance baseline and monitoring setup
Questions leaders ask
Is headless commerce right for every business?
No. Headless adds flexibility but also more systems to integrate, host and maintain. For many merchants, a well-configured native storefront is the better choice. Headless tends to pay off when content, B2B complexity, multiple channels or performance requirements exceed what themes support comfortably.
How do you handle payment security?
We avoid handling raw card data in custom code. Checkout uses the commerce platform's hosted or embedded payment components and providers such as Stripe or Adyen, which keeps most cardholder data out of your environment and can reduce PCI DSS scope. Your compliance team retains responsibility for the final assessment.
Can we migrate without disrupting current sales?
Migrations are planned to protect revenue: parallel running where possible, rehearsed data migration, preserved URLs and redirects, load testing and a rollback plan. Cutover is scheduled around trading patterns, and orders, payments and errors are monitored closely through launch.
Related solutions
Discuss your Headless Commerce initiative
Share your context and an iQsolutions engineer will respond with considered next steps — no obligation, no automated sales sequence.