When headless commerce beats Shopify (and when it doesn't)

Shopify is a phenomenal product and the right call more often than not. But 'headless commerce' has become a sales pitch, and not every catalog needs one.

We walk through the decision framework we use with clients: catalog size, pricing complexity, multi-vendor needs, content modeling, checkout customization, and the hidden ops cost of running your own commerce backend. We share the line where the math flips, and three engagements where each path was clearly right.