BigCommerce headless commerce

Discover your custom headless BigCommerce plan

Redefine Innovations builds headless front ends on BigCommerce for growing brands, with developers, ERP engineers and marketers on one team.

Get my headless plan See a BigCommerce result

Off Grid Knives: sales grew from $1M to $3.8M a year on the custom BigCommerce store we built. It was not a headless build. See the case study.

A written plan, no build commitment. Building headless on another platform? See headless ecommerce design services.

Your store / headless BigCommerce plan

Draft

Your store, layer by layer

  • 1. Your front endNext.js or Catalyst, your designNew
  • 2. BigCommerce APIsGraphQL Storefront APILink
  • 3. BigCommerce back endCatalog, cart, checkout, ordersKeep

Build first

Top pages

Product and category pages come first. Checkout stays as it is.

See the full plan

Prepared for: your store

Get a tailored plan for your BigCommerce store.

A written headless plan. No build commitment.

Get my headless plan

BigCommerce result

A custom store. Real growth.

What changed for Off Grid Knives on our BigCommerce build.

  • A front-end developer and an ecommerce director review a fast product page on a phone and a laptop in a bright studio office

    Off Grid Knives

    Grew with no paid ads.

  • Yearly sales

    $3.8M

    Up from $1M in three years.

  • Sales from email

    28%

    Of all revenue, from one email list.

  • Year 3 next to year 1

    3.8x

    From $1M to $3.8M a year.

  • Paid ad channels

Source: Off Grid Knives case study. A custom BigCommerce store, not a headless build.

Short answer

What is BigCommerce headless commerce?

Updated

BigCommerce headless commerce runs catalog, cart, checkout and orders through BigCommerce APIs, while a separate front end, like Next.js, shows the pages. Redefine Innovations plans and builds these front ends on BigCommerce for ecommerce directors and CTOs. Developers, ERP engineers and marketers work on one team.

With a theme, BigCommerce draws every page. With headless, your own front end draws the pages, and BigCommerce still runs the store behind it. You get full control of design and speed, but you also own more code.

So your plan first asks if headless fits. For many stores, a better theme is enough.

Theme or headless

Pick by what your store needs

ChoiceBest whenWhat you getWhere it stops
Stencil themeA strong theme fits your designBigCommerce draws every pageDesign stays inside the theme
Catalyst front endYou want headless on a ready baseA BigCommerce starter on Next.jsYour team runs more code
Custom headlessDesign, speed or content need moreYour own front end on the APIsHighest build and upkeep cost

What your headless plan covers

  • [1] Whether headless fits
  • [2] Your stack and CMS
  • [3] Checkout: keep or rebuild
  • [4] What to build first

See all our BigCommerce services. A theme might be enough: see BigCommerce development services.

Maximum flexibility, minimum complication with headless BigCommerce.

Your team designs every page. BigCommerce keeps running the cart, checkout and orders.

See how the parts fit

Your headless front end, mapped

One team

Four vendors become one team

A headless build often needs many vendors. With Redefine, it needs one team.

Developers, an ERP engineer and a marketer plan a headless store together in front of one wall screen
We plan the front end, BigCommerce and your ERP on one wall, as one team.
Four stacks of project folders far apart on a dark table, like four vendors working apart

The usual way four handoffs

Four vendors

A front end agency, a BigCommerce developer, an ERP partner and a marketing agency. Each owns a slice.

  • A1Pages and APIs built by two teams
  • A2ERP data and tracking added late
See BigCommerce ERP integration
Two team members draw a store front end, BigCommerce and an ERP as three linked boxes on a whiteboard

The Redefine way one owner

One team

Our developers, ERP engineers and marketers plan, build and measure your headless store together.

  • B1One plan from front end to ERP
  • B2One owner for the whole build
See BigCommerce development

How headless fits together

Three parts, one store.

BigCommerce runs the store. Your front end shows it. Your CMS holds the stories. Select a part to see what it does.

Headless map / your store

Your headless map

Your design lives here

Your front end: the pages shoppers see

Product, category and search pages run on Next.js or Catalyst, built to your design. Both links start and end here, which is why both lines light up.

Approach

Pages render on the server, so they load fast and search engines can read them. Redirects and tracking are checked before launch.

  • Next.jspages
  • Catalystoption
  • RedirectsSEO

Revenue gap calculator

Discover what headless BigCommerce can offer

Use your own numbers to see the revenue a faster, better store could win each month.

Your numbers

Monthly

35,000
1.4%
$190
1.9%

Monthly revenue

Your estimate

Current
$93K
Potential
$126K

Estimated revenue gap

$33Kper month

$399K a year from the same traffic.

Get my headless plan

The result is an estimate from your own numbers, not a promise.

Estimate: visitors x (target rate minus current rate) x average order value. Not a forecast.

Tackling ecommerce roadblocks

Headless is not the only fix. Each of these has its own page.

An engineering mindset for ecommerce growth

We run growth the way engineers run software.

Redefine Innovations is an engineering company that does marketing, so a fix reaches your store's code, not just the ad account.

A developer and a marketer check a test result on a laptop before a new page ships

Every page is a test

A new page template ships as a test with a success number.

Typical agency habit

A page ships because someone likes it. Fixes stop at the ad account. Work is done when sent.

Engineering habit

Developers fix the front end, the BigCommerce APIs, checkout, tracking and ERP data.

  • Every task has a done when line

  • Alerts fire the week a number drifts

  • Each alert has a plan and one owner

How Redefine works

TheREDEFINEMethod

How we plan and build your headless BigCommerce front end.

We would not start with a custom checkout rebuild, because the BigCommerce checkout already works. The first build is the pages that sell, like product and category pages.

Get my headless plan

You get a written headless plan for your store.

Why this approach matters

  • You spend money on the pages that sell before anything else.
  • Your team sees each choice in writing before the build starts.
  • Every release is checked against a number, not an opinion.

  1. Start here

    Step 1: Diagnose

    We look at your theme, apps, CMS, checkout and data, and check if headless fits your store.

    You receive A written gap analysis

  2. Choose what matters

    Step 2: Prioritize

    We rank the work by business impact. Product and category pages come first.

    You receive A ranked roadmap

  3. Do the work

    Step 3: Deliver

    We build your front end on the BigCommerce Storefront API and GraphQL, and connect the CMS with redirects and tracking kept.

    You receive A live headless site

  4. Check the result

    Step 4: Prove

    We measure the store against the success numbers set in Diagnose. You see what moved and what still needs work.

    You receive A results report

  5. Keep improving

    Step 5: Improve

    We keep testing after launch. Each open issue gets one owner and a clear done when line.

    You receive An improvement plan

What you receive

A gap analysis, a roadmap, a headless front end, a results report and an improvement plan.

Case study

How Peekawhoo sold more on a custom BigCommerce design

One BigCommerce store, from problem to result. It was a custom theme, not a headless build. The same team builds headless front ends.

Peekawhoo

Personalized kids gifts · BigCommerce · online plus own shop

The problem

The store needed a design that kept to 650+ brand guidelines.

  • AStock and customer data sat apart from the shop till.
  • BOnly 2.2% of visitors bought.

Your headless plan

Your custom headless BigCommerce plan

Prepared for: your store. Open an item to see what your written plan holds.

Fit, stack and CMS

If headless fits, and what to build it with.

Some stores need headless. Some only need a better theme. The plan says which, and why.

3 parts

  • Whether headless fits

    A clear yes or no for your store, with the reasons.

  • Ideal stack

    Next.js, Catalyst or another front end, and why.

  • CMS options

    CMS choices compared by how your team edits.

Checkout and order of work

What to keep, and what to build first.

Most stores keep the BigCommerce checkout. The plan puts the pages that sell first.

2 parts

  • Checkout choice

    Keep the BigCommerce checkout or build on its APIs.

  • Roadmap

    What to build first, in phases, with SEO and tracking kept.

A printed headless plan for your store lies open on a desk next to a pen and a coffee cup

Plan item 01

Status: your call

Keep the BigCommerce checkout; build product pages first

Context
Your theme limits how product and category pages look and load.
Decision
A new front end shows those pages; checkout stays in BigCommerce.
Options rejected
Rebuild checkout first. Move every page at once.
Consequences
Checkout keeps working while the new pages go live.
Every choice written downPreview of your plan
Get my headless plan

After your plan, we guide your next steps. No build commitment.

Questions

Headless BigCommerce FAQ

Clear answers before you ask for your headless plan.

What is the REDEFINE Method?

The REDEFINE Method is Redefine Innovations' business-first framework for identifying business constraints, prioritizing improvements, delivering appropriate solutions, verifying outcomes, and sustaining improvements.

It has five stages: Diagnose, Prioritize, Deliver, Prove and Improve. Read the REDEFINE Method

How much does a headless BigCommerce build cost?

It depends on the scope, the number of pages, the CMS and the systems it links to.

Your written plan lists each part. Then you get a price in writing before any build starts.

How long does a headless build take?

It depends on the scope. The written plan sets the phases before any build starts.

Product and category pages go live early, so the store keeps selling.

Will going headless hurt our SEO or checkout?

We protect SEO with server rendering, redirects and tracking checks before launch.

You can keep the BigCommerce checkout or build one on its APIs. Your plan says which fits.

Will our BigCommerce apps still work on a headless front end?

Many apps work through the APIs. Apps that add scripts to the theme may need a swap or a custom build.

We check each app in the planning phase. See BigCommerce integration services

Which CMS should we use with headless BigCommerce?

It depends on what your team edits and how often. We compare the options and connect the one that fits.

The choice is written into your plan, so your team can review it first.

Who works on the headless project?

One Redefine team works on it: developers, ERP engineers and marketers.

One owner runs the project from start to finish.

Ready to explore what headless can do for you?

Get your headless plan

Get a custom headless plan for your BigCommerce store, made by our team. It shows if headless fits, the stack and what to build first.

An ecommerce director fills in a short form on a laptop in a bright product studio
  • A written headless plan
  • No build commitment
  • 25+ years in ecommerce
  • 550+ projects delivered

Get my headless plan

Tell us what feels stuck in your store. We read every request.

  1. 1Send your request
  2. 2We review your store
  3. 3We write your headless plan
  4. 4We guide your next steps

Get on a call with us to see how we can help you

Get a Quote