A headless commerce development company that sequences the move properly
Going headless fails when it is attempted all at once. We move the storefront first, then search, then content, and only touch checkout if it earns it. Each step can go live on its own.
- Storefront first
- Traffic split by route
- One-minute rollback
Why most headless projects fail
A team decides to go headless, picks four vendors at once, and disappears for eleven months. Around month seven the budget gets reviewed, there is nothing live to point at, and the project is cancelled with all of the cost and none of the benefit.
The problem is not the technology. It is that there was no safe moment to stop. We pick an order where every step is worth doing on its own, so stopping halfway still leaves you better off.
Storefront first, always
The customer-facing front end moves first for three reasons. It is where the speed gains are, so it is where the revenue case is. It can run against your existing platform through its storefront API, so nothing behind it has to change. And it can go live one route at a time.
We ship the new front end on the least risky route first, usually category or content pages, never checkout. Then we split traffic to it gradually. If the numbers get worse, rolling back is a config change.
Then search, then content, then maybe checkout
Search goes second because it has the clearest ceiling on most platforms and it can be swapped without touching order data.
Content goes third. Moving to a headless CMS changes how your editors work, so it needs the front end to be stable first.
Checkout goes last, if at all. Plenty of businesses finish a headless project and decide their platform checkout is fine. That is a good outcome, and it is only available to teams that did not move it first.
What we build on
Shopify Hydrogen when you want to keep Shopify's checkout and payments but need a storefront nobody else has. BigCommerce Catalyst when the catalogue is deep and the pricing rules are unusual. Adobe Commerce with a Next.js front end when the B2B rules underneath are the reason you are on Adobe at all.
The front end is Next.js in almost every case. It is the thing you can hire for in India, and that matters more than any benchmark when we hand the work over.
The Indian pieces still have to work
Going headless does not make UPI, cash on delivery or GST go away. If anything it makes them your problem rather than the platform's, because you now own the checkout surface.
So the storefront has to put UPI first, the COD path needs pin code checks and order caps, and the invoice still has to get CGST, SGST and IGST right. We build for these from the first sprint, not as a phase at the end.
What we insist on before starting
Route-level traffic splitting, live in production, before any migration work begins. Performance budgets enforced in the build, so faster is a number and not a feeling. A written rollback for each step, rehearsed at least once. And an agreed measure of success per step that is not the word finished.
None of this is exciting. All of it is the difference between a headless project that ships and one that becomes a story someone tells at a conference.
What people ask us
No, and usually you should not. Headless means the front end talks to your existing platform through its API. The backend stays where it is until it earns a move, which for many businesses is never.
Not if the migration is done properly. Redirects are mapped against live crawl data, the new front end renders on the server, and traffic shifts one route at a time so any drop is visible before it spreads. Across our migrations we have not lost a ranked URL.
Usually not. If your storefront is not actually limited by your platform, headless just adds moving parts to maintain. We will tell you when the honest answer is to stay where you are and fix something else.
Shopify Hydrogen, BigCommerce Catalyst, and Adobe Commerce with a Next.js front end. The front end is Next.js in almost every case because that is what you can hire for here.
Eleven to sixteen weeks to the first traffic split for most businesses, then further steps as they earn their place. You will have something in production long before the whole thing is done.
That is most of our headless work. We pair with your team, review their code, and hand ownership across as it goes on. The aim is that you can carry it without us.
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