Loom & Lane
Shopify Plus replatform that lifted conversion rate by a third
Loom & Lane sells premium essentials to a loyal list, but the store ran on an aging custom platform that fought every campaign. Collection pages took ...
+31%
Conversion rate
Shopify headless development, without the religion
Hydrogen storefronts on Shopify rails for brands whose content and commerce need more than themes can reach. We will also tell you when headless is the wrong answer, because twice a month it is.
140 stores built, 8 years on the platform, senior engineers only
Codioo builds Shopify headless storefronts on Hydrogen: custom React front ends with Shopify as the commerce engine, checkout and admin. Builds start at $15,000 and run ten to sixteen weeks. We recommend headless only when content depth, traffic or interaction demands genuinely exceed what themes can do, and we say so in writing in the audit, because a fast theme beats a slow headless site every day.
What a headless build delivers
Headless is an architecture, not a feature list. These are the outcomes it unlocks when it fits.
Hydrogen storefronts
React 19 front ends on Shopify's own framework, rendered at the edge with Oxygen, talking to the Storefront API.
Content and commerce fusion
Editorial, buying guides, community and product finders sitting inside the shopping flow instead of beside it.
Performance beyond themes
Sub second first renders on content routes, streaming product data, caching tuned per page rather than per platform.
Custom experiences
Configurators, quizzes, subscriptions and bundles as first class interfaces instead of scripts injected into a theme.
Multi brand architectures
Several storefronts sharing one Shopify back end, one inventory and one admin, with brand specific front ends.
Theme to headless migration
A staged move: theme keeps trading while the Hydrogen front end takes over route by route, with rollback at every step.
When do you need headless Shopify?
The honest bar is high. One of these, genuinely, not aspirationally.
Content is the storefront
Guides, education and editorial drive your funnel, and bolting them onto product pages has stopped working.
Traffic punishes themes
At your scale, theme render costs and app overhead are measurable revenue.
Interaction heavy buying
Configurators, quizzes, AR previews: interfaces that need full application control.
Multiple brands, one operation
Distinct storefronts sharing inventory, fulfilment and admin.
Your team is a React team
You have front end engineers who will own the storefront after launch. Headless without owners decays.
Non Shopify content systems
A CMS your editors already live in, which must drive storefront content natively.
The honest headless decision, and how we de risk it
Budget honesty applies double to headless. A Hydrogen build that ships at $15,000 carries an assumption that your team can absorb routine front end work afterwards, because every marketing request that used to be a theme editor toggle becomes a component change. When that assumption holds, headless is excellent. When it does not, the annual cost of a developer retainer quietly exceeds the theme alternative. The audit prices both futures, not just the build.
Headless trading cost is real and we put it on the table in the first call. A theme marketer ships a landing page from the theme editor in an afternoon. A headless storefront turns that same request into a component build unless the front end is engineered for marketing flexibility, which costs design and build time up front. SEO is manageable: server rendering and disciplined canonicals keep headless indexable, but it is work you must do rather than defaults you inherit. And checkout stays Shopify's, which is usually a strength, until you want to change it and remember it is not yours.
So the audit answers one question first: what specifically will this store do that a fast custom theme cannot? If the list is empty or speculative, we recommend the theme and part as friends. If the list is real, content depth, traffic economics, interaction demands, then we design the migration as staged takeover: Hydrogen serves the routes that need it while the theme keeps trading on the rest. Every stage is reversible, which is how a replatform stops being a cliff edge.
When we do build, we build on Shopify's own rails rather than a bespoke stack. Hydrogen gives us React 19 server components, routing and caching conventions maintained by the platform vendor, and Oxygen renders it at the edge without a second cloud bill. The Storefront API feeds product data, and cart and checkout stay native, which keeps conversion machinery like Shop Pay intact. Content comes from your CMS of choice, Sanity for most, structured into the same design system as products so editors compose pages rather than begging developers.
The launch is not the end of the story, because headless storefronts need owners. We budget for that explicitly: your front end team gets architecture walkthroughs, the repository has documentation that explains decisions, and monitoring watches vitals per route. Care plans cover the platform surface that moves under you: Storefront API versions, Hydrogen releases, CMS upgrades. A headless build that ships without a maintenance plan is a slow motion outage, and we decline to build those.
The headless project, phase by phase
Ten to sixteen weeks, with the theme trading until late in the schedule.
Step 1
Week 1
Fit audit
The headless versus theme decision, written down with numbers. Some audits end here with a theme recommendation, which is a good outcome.
Step 2
Weeks 1 to 3
Architecture
Route plan, CMS modelling, caching strategy, analytics design, and the staged takeover sequence.
Step 3
Weeks 2 to 5
Design system
Components designed and built once, shared by editorial and commerce surfaces, documented for your team.
Step 4
Weeks 4 to 10
Build
Hydrogen app, Storefront API layer, CMS integration, edge caching, analytics. Content routes first, money paths hardest.
Step 5
Weeks 10 to 13
Staged cutover
Content routes move first, then product, then cart entry. The theme stays warm as rollback through the whole window.
Step 6
Weeks 13 to 16
Own
Team training on the stack, documentation handover, monitoring live, care plan activated.
What you receive at handover
- Repositories with readable commit history and documentation
- A written runbook for launch, rollback and known edges
- Recorded training sessions for the staff who run it daily
- Every credential and secret in your own vaults
- A baseline report so post launch numbers have a before
Frequently paired with
- Custom Shopify development$5,500 for a scoped feature build, 4 to 10 weeks depending on surface area
- Shopify Plus development$9,000 for a full replatform, 8 to 12 weeks depending on data volume
- All servicesThe full hub with the comparison table
The headless stack we build on
Shopify's own front end platform first, chosen to stay inside the vendor's supported path.
Hydrogen (React 19, server components)Oxygen edge hostingStorefront GraphQL APICustomer Account APIShopify native cart and checkoutSanity or your CMS of choiceStructured content modellingEdge caching and streaming SSRCore Web Vitals budgets per routeAnalytics: GA4 plus server side eventsPlaywright end to end coverageYour CI pipeline, our conventions
Related case studies
Numbers with baselines and measurement windows. The full library is on the case studies page.
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Pricing and timelines
Headless development pricing
Headless is the premium tier of storefront work, and the audit must justify it before we quote it.
| Project type | Price from | Timeline | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hydrogen storefront | $15,000 | 10 to 14 weeks | Front end, CMS, caching, staged cutover, training |
| Content heavy headless | $22,000 | 12 to 16 weeks | Editorial system, finders, multi locale |
| Multi brand architecture | $30,000 | 14 to 20 weeks | Shared backend, multiple front ends, per brand theming |
| Theme to headless migration | $13,000 | 10 to 12 weeks | Staged takeover with theme rollback throughout |
| Headless care plan | $1,200/mo | Ongoing | Vitals monitoring, dependency updates, capacity for changes |
What changes the price
- Route count and content model complexity
- CMS choice and migration of existing content
- Interaction depth: finders, configurators, quizzes
- Locales and localization scope
- Analytics and experimentation requirements
- Your team's ability to own the stack after launch
Updated 2026-09-21. Prices in USD, fixed per signed scope. See the full cost guide for every driver.
What clients say about this work
The replatform paid for itself inside two quarters. Codioo scoped honestly, held the timeline, and the new store converts better in month one than our old one did at peak.
The integration just works. Orders land in NetSuite in minutes, stock comes back accurate, and our peak season ran without a single oversell.
Ask about your project
Preset answers about scope, price ranges and timelines. The audit turns them into numbers for your store.
Ask about your project
Instant answers, no chat window
Still unsure? The free store audit answers these for your store specifically, with numbers.
Shopify headless development FAQ
The questions clients ask before signing, answered plainly.
How much does Shopify headless development cost?
Hydrogen builds start at $15,000 and run ten to fourteen weeks. Content heavy builds with editorial systems start at $22,000, and multi brand architectures at $30,000. Headless is the premium tier of storefront work, which is why the audit must show what a theme genuinely cannot do before we will quote it.
Do I actually need a headless Shopify store?
Only if content, traffic or interaction demands exceed what a fast custom theme can do. That is true for maybe one store in five that asks us. If your funnel is standard ecommerce, a well built theme is cheaper, faster to ship, easier to staff and just as quick. The audit answers this in writing, and we lose work to our own theme recommendations about twice a month.
Is headless Shopify good for SEO?
Yes, with engineering discipline. Hydrogen server renders content, canonicals and metadata are explicit, and Core Web Vitals usually improve. What you lose are theme defaults: everything SEO needs must be built and tested deliberately. Our staged migrations watch indexation continuously, route by route, with rollback warm.
What is Hydrogen exactly?
Hydrogen is Shopify's own front end framework for headless builds: React 19 with server components, routing and caching conventions, maintained by the platform vendor. Oxygen is its edge hosting runtime. Building on them keeps you inside Shopify's supported path instead of maintaining a bespoke stack alone.
What happens to checkout in a headless build?
Checkout stays native Shopify, which keeps Shop Pay, payment processing optimisation and PCI scope off your plate. The Storefront API hands over a cart and Shopify takes it from there. Checkout customisation beyond styling belongs to Shopify Plus checkout extensibility, not to the front end framework.
Can our marketing team still edit pages?
Yes, if we design for it, which we do. Content lives in a CMS your editors use, composed from the same design system components the storefront renders. The headless trap is a front end only developers can change; we build component libraries with editor friendly schemas specifically to avoid it.
How long does a headless migration take?
Ten to sixteen weeks typically, with a staged cutover rather than a cliff. Content routes move first, product and cart later, and the old theme stays warm as rollback through the entire window. Your store keeps trading normally while the new front end takes over route by route.
Who maintains a headless store after launch?
Either your front end team, with our documentation and training, or our care plans from $3,000 a month covering vitals monitoring, dependency updates and change capacity. What does not work is nobody: headless storefronts need owners. We build accordingly and decline projects with no maintenance plan.
Does headless improve conversion rates?
Indirectly, through speed and experience, when those were the bottleneck. Direct conversion mechanics, checkout flow, payment options, trust signals, live in Shopify regardless of front end. A slow headless site converts worse than a fast theme, which is why we benchmark per route and budget vitals in the contract.
Can headless connect to our ERP and 3PL?
Yes, and the integration architecture is identical to theme based stores: the back end is Shopify either way, so our integration practice covers NetSuite, ERPs, 3PLs and CRMs regardless of the front end choice.
Related services and next steps
Custom Shopify developmentBrands whose growth is blocked by what apps cannot do: a bespoke buying flow, a configurator, wholesale logic, a portal, or a storefront shaped around content as much as products.Shopify Plus developmentBrands doing roughly $1M+ a year who are outgrowing standard Shopify, or arriving from Magento, WooCommerce or a custom stack and need checkout control, multi market selling and automation.All Shopify development servicesThe full hub with every service
Get a fixed quote for shopify headless development
Tell us your store and goals. Within one business day you get the audit findings and a fixed price for shopify headless development, with a named team and a launch date.
- Stores built
- 140
- Reply time
- Within one business day
- Cost
- Free, no obligation