Would you pay for an ecommerce headless CMS?
Hello everyone. I'm currently building a headless cms for ecommerce, which can basically handle the backend stuff of your typicial ecommerce store. (Product creation, listing orders, stripe + paypal integration, etc.)
The products, prices and the shipping options can be requested from the REST API, while the admin functionalities are handled through my web app.
The idea came from massive dissatisfaction from Shopify (price, functionality) and I wanted to create a frontend for my store (with modern tools such as Next.js), without any technological limitations.
My question is would you use such a service or am I just wasting my time?
I currently don't have a demo but you could check out my landing page here:
https://adminatic.com
Did you try https://snipcart.com/ ?
Hi! Thanks for your comment. I didn't try them simply because I don't like their pricing model. I would have rather pay a flat monthly fee (or based on api usage) then an additional transaction fee.
I thought shopify was also adopting headless?
Ever read The Mom Test? If not, I'd strongly recommend it to you :-)
However, headless e-commerce CMS is surely a thing nowadays. I used to work with Commercetools last year but that's for huge enterprises. Other options might be BigCommerce or Spryker. There are definitely a lot more out there.
I'm not sure if a headless CMS for SMB might work cause you still need the developers to create your front end. This case it might not be worth the investment compared to Shopify.
Hey! Thanks for your reply. I haven't read it but will surely put it on my reading list.
I think my target audience would be freelancers or medium sized businesses who could afford a developer to create their front end.
Another reason to switch from shopify would be that my site wouldn't take transaction fees, but would rather bill for either API usage or monthly fee (haven't decided yet)
You're thinking in the right direction, for sure. Headless eCommerce is a hot topic right now from enterprise all the way down to SMB. It's also a little crowded, with many new companies popping up and companies like Bigcommerce starting to offer headless packages.
If I'm in your shoes I'm thinking fanatically about what your differentiation niche is to start the product (you'll grow out from it) and how, despite being headless, do you make it as easy/accessible as possible for merchants to build on your platform.
Hi! Thanks for your comment. I'm currently thinking about targeting freelancers or small developer teams, who could build on top of my product. As for differentiation, I'm still struggling. I was thinking about implementing a different pricing model then the current competitors (instead of transaction fees I would bill a flat monthly fee or based on api usage).
Makes sense. If you can offer a better option than custom-built or Wix/Squarespace, that could be a good approach--especially if you can help the agency/freelancer understand why they'll make more project dollars and deliver a better solution.
I'd also consider if there are certain merchandise niches that you could build to suit, at least to build around initially. The challenge merchants run into with generalized solutions like Shopify is that they are great when you're in the lines, but if you have a product assortment with unique complexities, they start to get difficult. Think products that require customization, have weird sizing requirements, bundled products, serialized products, etc.
Finding some niche use cases you can address really well might also help.
Hope this is helpful! Good luck. eCommerce ain't going anywhere, so you should be able to find a good bite at the market.