Headless eCommerce Guide | Build a Modern, Scalable Stack

The topic of headless eCommerce has become one of the most important discussions in digital commerce today. As brands outgrow traditional monolithic platforms, they are turning to headless architectures to achieve flexibility, faster performance, and full control over customer experience and data.

Headless commerce separates the front end (what your customers see) from the back end (your commerce engine and business systems). This separation allows developers and marketers to move independently—experimenting with modern UI frameworks, integrating best-in-class services, and optimizing business operations without disrupting the shopping experience.

In this article, we’ll explore why headless architecture is redefining eCommerce, how it works in real-world stacks, and which technologies form a high-performing ecosystem for both enterprise and mid-market retailers.

If you’re new to headless or want to compare it with traditional platforms, check out our BigCommerce vs Traditional eCommerce overview.

What is Headless eCommerce?

In a headless setup, your storefront is decoupled from the backend commerce platform. Instead of one monolithic system handling everything—from templates to checkout—headless architecture uses APIs to communicate between specialized services.

This allows you to use the best tool for every part of your stack—a high-performance frontend framework like Next.js (Catalyst) for the customer experience, and a reliable backend like BigCommerce to power products, checkout, and orders.

The result is faster performance, infinite flexibility, and scalability without platform lock-in.

Headless Architecture Overview and Options

Because everything communicates through APIs, each service can be replaced, scaled, or upgraded independently—something impossible in traditional all-in-one systems.

1. BigCommerce: The Headless Commerce Engine

At the core of most successful headless builds is BigCommerce, a true Open SaaS platform. It delivers managed hosting, PCI compliance, and a robust REST and GraphQL API layer that integrates cleanly with any front end.

BigCommerce’s Catalyst framework (built on Next.js) provides a fast, production-ready foundation for headless storefronts. It’s optimized for SEO, localization, and real-time cart and checkout experiences—without requiring heavy customization from scratch.

BigCommerce also integrates seamlessly with backend and marketing tools through open APIs, making it a strong hub for headless orchestration.

2. Contentstack: The Content Layer

Headless commerce needs a headless CMS—and Contentstack is one of the best.
It provides structured content management through an API-first approach, letting marketing teams manage banners, blogs, and product storytelling independently of developers.

Contentstack’s modular schema design, combined with BigCommerce’s product catalog, creates a composable content model that scales beautifully across regions and languages.

3. NetSuite + Celigo: The Operational Backbone

For inventory, financials, and fulfillment, NetSuite remains the gold standard ERP for eCommerce. When paired with Celigo, a powerful integration platform, you can automate data synchronization between NetSuite, BigCommerce, and external systems.

Celigo connects order management, fulfillment, customer data, and product information—bridging gaps between platforms that would otherwise require manual intervention or costly custom scripts.
This automation backbone keeps your headless ecosystem efficient and accurate as it grows.

4. Omnisend and ShipHawk: Engagement and Fulfillment

Headless commerce isn’t just about the storefront—it’s about the entire customer lifecycle.

• Omnisend handles post-purchase engagement and marketing automation, sending personalized emails and SMS triggered directly from order or behavioral data.
• ShipHawk takes over at the logistics layer, providing automated shipping rate calculations, warehouse routing, and fulfillment tracking—all through clean API integrations.

Together, these ensure a consistent and frictionless customer experience from checkout to delivery.

5. Sellercloud: A Scalable Alternative for Growing Businesses

For smaller or mid-size operations that aren’t ready to manage a full ERP setup, Sellercloud offers a simpler, more cost-effective solution.
It centralizes product listings, order management, and multi-channel fulfillment—without the heavy overhead or setup complexity of NetSuite.

Sellercloud can integrate with BigCommerce, Amazon, and eBay, making it ideal for businesses looking to modernize their stack with fewer moving parts and lower upfront costs.

6. The Ideal Headless Stack in Practice

Here’s an example of a well-balanced headless ecosystem:

• Front End: BigCommerce Catalyst (Next.js)
• CMS: Contentstack
• Commerce Engine: BigCommerce
• ERP / Data Backbone: NetSuite (with Celigo integrations)
• Marketing Automation: Omnisend
• Shipping & Fulfillment: ShipHawk
• Alternative Stack for SMBs: Sellercloud (instead of NetSuite + Celigo)

This combination provides flexibility for developers, power for enterprise workflows, and control for business users—without compromising speed or scalability.

Bespoke eCommerce Without the Enterprise Price Tag

Many brands exploring headless or modern composable architecture assume their only options are fully bespoke, from-scratch systems—solutions that often require massive engineering budgets, ongoing DevOps support, and constant maintenance.

But BigCommerce bridges the gap between expensive custom development and restrictive all-in-one platforms.

With its Open SaaS architecture, API-first design, and headless-ready Catalyst framework, BigCommerce gives businesses the ability to build:

• Custom storefronts using modern frameworks like Next.js, Astro, or React
• Bespoke customer experiences using any headless CMS (Contentstack, Sanity, Strapi, etc.)
• Tailored checkout flows and complex B2B functionality
• Deep integrations with ERPs, PIMs, DAMs, and automation tools
• Multi-storefront architectures that feel fully custom to end users

All without the cost or operational burden of running your own commerce engine or hosting infrastructure.

This makes BigCommerce a perfect middle ground: you get the freedom and extensibility of a bespoke platform without the million-dollar engineering budget, the heavy maintenance, or the risk that comes with building everything from scratch.

For teams that want enterprise flexibility at a sustainable cost, BigCommerce offers a future-proof foundation that supports rapid customization while keeping infrastructure, security, and PCI compliance handled for you.

Conclusion

Headless commerce represents a fundamental shift in how eCommerce is built and managed. By decoupling systems and embracing open APIs, you can build a stack that adapts as your business evolves.

Whether you’re running enterprise operations on BigCommerce + NetSuite + Contentstack + Celigo, or streamlining with Sellercloud, the goal is the same: to create a fast, scalable, and integrated ecosystem that drives performance and growth.

With the right architecture, headless eCommerce isn’t just a technical upgrade—it’s a long-term competitive advantage.

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If you're interested in having a BigCommerce storefront built for you at no cost (yes FREE) reach out to us. We offer free storefront setups for qualifying businesses when you enroll through the BigCommerce partner referral program (no extra cost to you).

Interested? Learn more here!