# Headless commerce

> Headless commerce, as Shopify describes it, separates an online shop's frontend, the storefront customers see, from its backend, with APIs handling the commerce underneath.

Original page: https://t10.de/en/glossary/headless-commerce
Publisher: total10 GmbH, https://t10.de/en/glossary

The platform vendor [Shopify](https://shopify.dev/docs/storefronts/headless) documents the model for its own platform: the merchant builds the frontend, and Shopify's APIs run the selling underneath. Because the two sides are kept apart, other business systems can be connected to either side, for example systems for content management (CMS), customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) or product information management (PIM).

The same documentation does not hide the drawbacks: a headless storefront costs more to build and run than a theme. Shopify advises merchants, before they commit, to make sure they accept the added cost and complexity and have developers to look after the storefront after launch.

In our bespoke development, headless commerce is one option once standard shop systems hit their limits. For such cases we also build merchant portals, custom dashboards and domain-specific data models, on Symfony, which we have worked with for years.

## See also

- [Shopware](https://t10.de/en/glossary/shopware): Shopware is e-commerce software from shopware AG in Schöppingen, Germany; the vendor says its current product, Shopware 6, is a complete redevelopment of Shopware 5.
- [Shopify](https://t10.de/en/glossary/shopify): Shopify is a subscription-based commerce platform: merchants either have Shopify host their online shop or build their own shop front on its Storefront API.
- [API](https://t10.de/en/glossary/api): An API (application programming interface) is a defined set of functions and rules that lets one piece of software use the features or data of another system or service.
- [ERP](https://t10.de/en/glossary/erp): ERP (enterprise resource planning) is cross-departmental business software that manages and analyses processes such as production, sales, logistics, finance and human resources.
- [Symfony](https://t10.de/en/glossary/symfony): Symfony is an open-source PHP framework, a ready-made foundation for web applications, released under the MIT licence and developed by its community to a fixed release schedule.

## Where the term appears

- [Online shops: Custom (Symfony)](https://t10.de/en/online-shops)
- [Bespoke software and business applications with Symfony](https://t10.de/en/symfony-development)

## Sources

1. [About headless commerce](https://shopify.dev/docs/storefronts/headless), Shopify (shopify.dev), accessed 2026-11-07