Fast sites, flexibility, and more conversions with Next.js and Shopify

Ecommerce systems have evolved 

Once the norm, legacy platforms now create headaches for tech leaders and developers. From low SEO performance to hindering creativity, full stack solutions cannot give your customer the experience your business wants. Pages load slower, engineering teams are bloated and overwhelmed, and developers lack flexibility. 

Your business has grown to a point where you need to augment your existing Shopify stack. 

It used to be standard to have every aspect of your stack managed in one place, and building a custom frontend was nearly impossible. Ecommerce systems have evolved. 

Today, the narrative has shifted. You can decouple your front and backend, mixing and matching the best of every technology to get the exact user experience you want. With Next.js and Vercel, it’s easy–and you’ll be setting up your team for future success and savings.

55% greater success

Companies using a headless tech stack experience 55% greater success with digital commerce, compared to 30% for non-headless

Understanding headless

Here are some key terms we’ll be using in this article:

Decoupling

The art of taking the frontend and separating it from the backend.  

Frontend

The frontend of a software stack refers to the user interface, for example a website on a desktop browser or a mobile app. 

Backend

The backend is the rest of the software stack, like customer data, content management, and business logic. This is the part of your stack that the user does not see. 

Minimum risk and optimal stability with Next.js on Vercel

Because Vercel is the creator of Next.js, you will always experience the highest level of stability and support when using Vercel with Shopify. You can rest assured that every new Next.js feature works flawlessly on Vercel, without requiring updates or changes to your infrastructure.  

When you decouple with Shopify and Vercel, you end up with an ecosystem that runs off a Shopify backend. No need to migrate your inventory, sales, or other systems’ management–everything connects seamlessly. 

Other benefits to using a Next.js frontend on Vercel, complementing a Shopify backend

Make changes quickly

Enjoy fast-loading sites and the deployment speed and flexibility of Vercel, paired with the strong ecommerce backend of Shopify.

Build a modern mobile strategy

Create a custom, high-performance mobile app. The all-in-one Shopify experience makes it difficult or cost-prohibitive to build the dynamic, customized app your business needs. 

Use separate CMS providers

Use the content provider of your choice (i.e. Contentful or DatoCMS) while still maintaining the best parts of Shopify ecommerce backend and solutions.

Scale for high traffic moments

Increase site reliability and reduce risk. With a Next.js frontend and Shopify backend, you can rest easy knowing that your site can handle high traffic and scale automatically.

Future proof

If your business needs to change ecommerce platforms, you can smoothly switch out the Shopify backend and make a clean migration. Keep your tech stack up-to-date at all times. 

Customization

Build a highly customized website for the best customer experience. Additionally, enjoy an A/B testing workflow that takes the pressure off your engineering team. Maintain control of your brand.

How to add Next.js to a Shopify backend in 15 minutes (or less)

If you’re ready to experience the benefits that come with a more modern stack, here’s how to add Next.js to your Shopify backend in 15 minutes or less:

1. Visit vercel.com/new, and select the Next.js Commerce template. Then, allow Vercel to set up a repository in your Git account.
2. Add the Shopify integration to your project. Note: Your Shopify environment variables will transfer to your shop automatically, allowing the template to reflect your products, stock, images, and other store info.
3. Sit back—Vercel will now build and deploy your project.
4. Check out your newly created git repo and design your pages to best illustrate your brand.

Use case: Parachute improves site page load times by 60% in one month

Parachute is a modern lifestyle brand that offers thoughtfully designed products using premium quality materials. They initially deployed the Parachute site to Shopify because of its quick templates and SEO benefits. But after seven and a half years of rapid growth, they realized they’d outgrown the out-of-the-box offering and needed a solution that gave them more customization and flexibility—without slowing down their site or sacrificing SEO.

Vercel enabled a number of significant improvements to Parachute’s workflow from automating highly dynamic aspects of its site to providing preview access for stakeholders across the business.

With the ability to seamlessly integrate all of its favorite tools, Parachute was able to have the best of both worlds and build its site just the way it wanted—including retaining Shopify’s headless commerce and pairing Contentful with Vercel’s Incremental Static Generation feature to keep the site fast and content fresh.

Speed with scale is possible. Parachute was able to not only migrate to Next.js and Vercel in a month, but it also improved page load times by 60%.