Shopify is a Great Backend. It's a Terrible Frontend.
We love Shopify for inventory management. But if you are doing over $1M/year, you have likely hit "The Wall."
The 3 Walls of Shopify Liquid
Wall #1: URL Structure
You want site.com/iphone. Shopify forces site.com/products/iphone or site.com/collections/phones/products/iphone.
Google hates deep URL nesting. It signals low authority. We fix this with Next.js custom routing, flattening your URLs to rank higher.
Wall #2: The "App Tax"
You want a related product slider? That's $20/mo for an app that adds 400kb of JavaScript bloat to your page.
We code this natively for $0 and 2kb of code. A single product page on standard Shopify loads 12+ apps in the background. You're paying $300/mo for features that should be free.
Wall #3: Core Web Vitals
No matter how much you optimize images, a standard Shopify theme will struggle to hit 90+ Mobile Score because of bloat.
A 60 Mobile Score = you lose 40% of mobile traffic to competitors with 90+ scores.
The Headless Solution
We separate the "Head" (Frontend) from the "Body" (Shopify Backend).
The Stack
- Frontend: Next.js 15 (your custom storefront)
- Backend: Shopify Storefront API (inventory, orders, payments)
- Content: Sanity CMS (blogs, landing pages)
- Hosting: Vercel Edge Network (global, instant)
The Result
Your site loads in 0.1s. The user clicks "Product," and it appears before their finger leaves the mouse. Conversion rates jump 8-12%.
The ROI Math
Deloitte found that improving site speed by 0.1s increased conversion rates by 8%.
If you're making $1M/year with a 2% conversion rate (20,000 customers × $50 avg):
- Current: 20,000 customers × $50 = $1,000,000
- After Headless: 21,600 customers × $50 = $1,080,000
- Annual Gain: $80,000 in pure profit
"Your migration pays for itself in month one. Then it's just free money.