Headless commerce is an e-commerce architecture where the customer-facing experience (front end) is built separately from the commerce backend — catalog, inventory, cart, checkout, and payments — and the two talk through an API.

It is the commerce cousin of a headless CMS: one “body” of business logic, many “heads” (website, app, kiosk, voice). Platforms like Shopify Hydrogen/Storefront API or custom stacks on microservices fit this model. You gain design freedom and omnichannel reach; you take on more front-end work than a theme-only store.

A real-life example of headless commerce

A brand wants a custom React site, a mobile app, and in-store tablets that share the same prices and stock. With headless commerce, merchandisers update the catalog once; each channel fetches it via API. A classic WooCommerce theme couples look and store logic more tightly — faster to start, less flexible at the edges.

Choose headless when channels and UX matter more than shipping next week. Architecture notes are in E-commerce Technical Pillars.