Charle is a London Shopify & Shopify Plus agency that partners with leading brands to design, develop and support performance-focused e-commerce stores.

With our wealth of headless ecommerce services experience, we support merchants to leverage a headless ecommerce approach with world-leading development practices, tools, and partners - all powered by Shopify Plus.

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Our expert ecommerce team will not only design an engaging and conversion & sales-focused on-site user experience but build with the very best headless technology.

The user experiences we craft focus on results & growth with the very best functionality. We’re a reliable headless Shopify agency and experts ready to support you with your headless project.

We are an ecommerce development agency that place a lot of focus on commerce user experiences, reliability, infrastructure, business goals and the businesses at the core to ensure our implementations push the boundaries of online experiences.

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Cambridge Satchel

Shopify Plus Design & Development

Headless Shopify Agency

Headless architecture & Shopify Plus

Headless ecommerce implementation involves separating the front end of your store from the back end unlocking the flexibility to design and build beyond the limitations of the back-end system. Our approach to headless stores involves building the front end using Shopify's opinionated framework called Hydrogen and the back end with Shopify Plus. Headless ecommerce allows merchants to have almost unlimited levels of complexity, as the front end is built in line with the specific requirements of the store and only communicates with the back end when it needs to. Headless ecommerce naturally brings other benefits such as lightning-fast site speed, custom URL structure, improved SEO scores, the ability to build very unique shopping experiences, and not being limited by what the back-end system has to offer. Headless gives the developers options over the entire tech stack which can help with scalability, fast growth strategy and complete control - a key advantage and something that some large-scale brands require.

Headless capabilities involve creating a web app for the most complex of scopes whilst offering the ultimate choice of components for everything customers may demand when presented with huge amounts of choice online. Headless projects are technically more complex to set up and require specialised expertise. You'll require tailored support channels when working with headless stores and need thorough QA across devices. A headless store independently controls the front end meaning you can no longer opt for pre-built themes and building new features is entirely on you to manage which can present some challenges. However, a headless store allows you to build an experience in line with your customer expectations.

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Candy Kittens

Shopify Retainer Suport & CRO

Headless Site Speed

Stores built for speed. Lightning fast headless Shopify Plus ecommerce stores

Headless ecommerce stores are built with modern javascript frameworks that allow a store to load in lightning-fast times. Headless stores typically not only load fast but are optimised to perform highly for Google Lighthouse reporting. Various studies support the significant impact that site speed has on conversions and is a common reason merchants choose headless with Shopify Plus. Connecting to each resource via APIs gives development teams complete control over what loads and when. Platforms that adopt a monolithic approach just cannot compete with a headless approach, this is just one of the benefits of opting for a headless store however the advantages should be professionally considered as the ongoing level of investment is considerable. Always consider the future roadmap & usability for marketing efforts to update and control the content of the store. If the CMS is more complicated or absent then the workflow of your entire business can be disrupted. Headless stores will require more maintenance than a monolithic ecommerce platform, knowledge - and you'll likely only see improvements in core KPIs if the experience beats a theme-based approach. Headless can be an incredibly powerful approach but isn't for every brand.

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Headless CMS

Leaving you in control with outstanding content management.

Headless ecommerce stores separate the front end of the site experience from Shopify Plus, meaning that standard Shopify content management (CMS) is not available for use. We’ve partnered with leading content management systems such as Contentful or Shopify's native Hydrogen CMS to offer unrivalled content management applications without sacrificing site performance. Separating each requirement for websites offers the merchants true flexibility in selling products and managing a storefront API. Headless gives brands unlimited freedom over the UX of the store and reduces the barriers of monolithic platforms whilst still leaning on the backend power of Shopify Plus.

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Headless Shopify Agency

Headless ecommerce powered by Shopify Plus

Shopify’s API and third-party APIs allow us to pass information between the frontend of your store such as items in the cart, cost of the sale, product information and more directly to Shopify Plus. Headless ecommerce allows merchants to leverage the backend power of Shopify including great features such as customer, order and product data and the secure checkout too whilst having ultimate control over the front end. Headless solutions can be incredibly powerful for the most complex needs and integrations. We leverage Shopify's opinionated framework called Hydrogen, allowing us to offer headless storefronts the Shopify way. Having segmented control, we have complete freedom over the tech stack, architecture and ultimately customer experiences with the very best technologies and security.

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Headless Shopify Agency

We are a headless Shopify Plus ecommerce agency.

As a headless Shopify ecommerce agency, we support merchants to deliver project discovery, design, develop, launch and optimise headless ecommerce stores whilst navigating the emerging world-leading technology available with growth-focused strategies. We help brands to understand if headless is right for them balancing the pros and cons, changes amongst the technology and functions, parts or requirements you'll need for a project like this. If you are thinking of going headless for your ecommerce solutions, operations and your customers, get in touch today to discuss how Charle, a headless Shopify agency, can help you.

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Headless Ecommerce Partners

Technology partnerships built for headless ecommerce

When choosing headless for your ecommerce business, the complexity of the build is ultimately much higher as some of the frontend features that natively are offered by Shopify are separated. We’ve partnered with leading headless providers and apps such as Netlify, Klevu and more to ensure your headless store build is an ultimate powerhouse upon launch. Several partners have pre-existing integrations and clear documentation to integrate with a third-party partner whilst others may not have the open API connectivity to achieve it. When choosing tech partners to integrate into your store we recommend looking for headless examples to ensure success. Alternatively, speak to agencies like us for more information on your headless transformation.

What is a headless Shopify Agency?

A headless Shopify agency is a specialised team of developers who can build ecommerce websites using headless frontend technologies that connect with the Shopify backend. In headless approaches, the frontend is a completely separate layer from the backend, giving the frontend more flexibility in how they deliver the customer experience. A headless Shopify agency will have specialised experience in using the Shopify APIs to connect the backend of the store to the headless frontend using specialised frameworks. The specific connections are unique to ecommerce stores therefore specialised Shopify knowledge is paramount whilst also considering a third-party CMS tool to eave the merchant in control.

What are the benefits of a Shopify Headless store?

A headless store can benefit from fast page speed, and flexibility over things that themed approaches do not allow. Headless commerce is not adopted by the majority due to the costs involved however retailers with complex buying journeys do tend to consider this approach. Headless stores can be regarded as web apps (PWA) due to the way they function, and leverage fast javascript frameworks such as React and Angular. Stores that are faster may improve conversion rates and rank higher in search engines, allowing brands to get one up on the competition. There are some downfalls in that you don't get to access the range of thousands of pre-built apps and themes for your store - you'll need to build and integrate most features yourself. The browser and device testing will be vital as you won't be using pre-built technology and will be taking that responsibility yourself. Mitigating issues will be something that you have to delegate to your develop team rather than third parties, from the way the navigation works to website functionality across your store - you'll be in control of it all.

“Working with Charle Agency was an absolute dream, we really felt they had the time for us and the whole project was seamless start to finish”.

Alexa - Marketing Manager | Doisy & Dam

Shopify experts

Let's talk ecommerce, Shopify & Shopify Plus solutions.

We are an accredited expert Shopify agency we partner with brands to design, develop, launch, support and grow Shopify & Shopify Plus stores. We are a Shopify agency, ready when you are. Talk to our team about your project.

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