Tag: shopify hydrogen

All articles
Category
Topic
Newest
Shopify Commerce Components: All You Need to Know in 2024
SHOPIFY COMMERCE COMPONENTS: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IN 2024

Today, with the growing demand for flexible and scalable eCommerce system development, large-sized businesses turn their attention to solutions like Headless, Microservices, and Composable Commerce. The Composable approach will allow you to integrate independent components to tailor and enhance the eCommerce experience. 

Knowing this insight, Shopify has unveiled the Commerce Components solution, offering you — as a large-sized business — the most straightforward approach to deploying Composable Commerce. 

Learn more: What is Composable Commerce?

What are Commerce Components?

Commerce Components is an innovative tech stack designed for large businesses. Rather than introducing new features, the company has transformed its infrastructure into modular components that can be combined to build and customize adaptable eCommerce websites. This means you can select components based on your deployment needs and seamlessly integrate them into your existing tech stack using flexible and unlimited API connections, ensuring a smooth customer experience across all devices.

“We’ve always approached innovation by anticipating what retailers need and then providing those solutions,” said Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify. “Commerce Components opens our infrastructure so enterprise retailers don’t have to waste time, engineering power and money building critical foundations it has already perfected, and instead frees them up to customize, differentiate and scale”

Shopify Commerce Components: All You Need to Know in 2024
Commerce Components

Commerce Components by Category

The solution offers six main categories including over 30 components, allowing you to build a tailored solution that aligns with your needs.

  • Storefront: Build custom storefronts using any framework, API, and hosting.
  • Cart & Checkout: Optimize the shopping cart and checkout process using APIs and additional utilities.
  • Core Commerce: Create products with various data models through APIs.
  • Data & Compliance: Provide solutions for leveraging customer insights to boost sales while managing and securing customer privacy data.
  • Shipping & Logistics: Offer OMS and IMS solutions to streamline logistics processes.
  • Omnichannel: Manage and sell across multiple channels, from POS and eCommerce platforms to social media and chat applications.
Shopify Commerce Components: All You Need to Know in 2024
Components by Category

What is the difference between Commerce Components and Shopify Plus?

Shopify Commerce Components: All You Need to Know in 2024
The difference between Shopify Plus and Components

Although both ‘Plus’ and Components are enterprise eCommerce solutions, they differ in several aspects:

  • Operations: ‘Plus’ is an all-in-one eCommerce platform, providing numerous advanced features and seamless integrations with third parties. On the other hand, the new tech stack is a collection of components for you to integrate into your existing technology stack, aiming to create and deliver a customized and seamless experience for customers.
  • License fee: While ‘Plus’ charges a platform fee starting at $2000 per month, along with transaction and credit card fees, Components charges based on the level of usage of the components, with fees decreasing as more components are utilized.
  • Features: ‘Plus’ offers many features and regularly provides updates and feature enhancements, with the latest being Shopify Edition ’23. In contrast, Components, as a new tech stack, provides unlimited API connections, increased product attribute limits, integration with new third-party technology solutions, and enhanced transaction processing capability of up to 40,000 payments per minute per store.
  • Customer support: ‘Plus’ businesses can seek guidance and support during deployment through the Merchant Success Program. Components, on the other hand, provides businesses with access to Shopify Professional Services.  

Benefits of using Commerce Components

  • Flexible Modular Architecture

If you don’t prefer to deploy pre-packaged eCommerce platforms. Composable architecture is the ideal choice. It allows you to select and purchase components based on your needs, integrate them into your existing systems, and customize them. 

With its modular architecture, the tech stack provides unlimited API connections, meaning there is no limit to the number of components and add-ons that you can use to build your tech stack.

Moreover, since components are entirely independent, you can add, remove, and modify components without affecting the entire system.

  • Cost Optimization

Commerce Components employs a pricing model structured around the level and quantity of components used. This means you only pay for the components you require. Furthermore, as you acquire and utilize more components, you’ll benefit from increasingly significant discounts.

Additionally, the annual payment structure of Components helps you facilitate precise cost predictions.

Brands using Commerce Components

Since its inception, the platform has proudly highlighted the trust and adoption of its solution by major global businesses. Notable among these are Glossier, JB Hi-Fi, Coty, Steve Madden, Spanx, and Staples.

Shopify Commerce Components: All You Need to Know in 2024
Brands using Commerce Components by Shopify

Leading U.S. toy brand Mattel is one of the first enterprises to successfully implement this technology solution. Sven Gerjets, Mattel’s CTO, said in a statement.

“We first worked with Shopify on a project called Mattel Creations, a platform for creators to reimagine the most iconic toys in the world. Creations empowered Mattel to move quickly, meet our customers where they are, and most importantly leverage its infrastructure to scale globally. It was hugely successful, and we’re excited to transform our brand offerings using Commerce Components.”

The trust placed by Mattel and other industry leaders forms a solid basis for expecting the ongoing success of this new solution, extending its impact not only within the U.S. market but also on a global scale.

Final Thoughts

In the past, large businesses often favored open-source platforms like Magento or Salesforce due to their customizable and flexible expansion capabilities. However, in today’s landscape, SaaS platforms, particularly Shopify, offer innovative solutions for developing Composable or Headless Commerce.

In 2021, the company launched the Hydrogen + Oxygen solution to enhance Headless Commerce development. Continuing this trend into early 2023, they once again surprise the industry with Commerce Components, designed for deploying Composable Commerce.

This move highlights its commitment to anticipating and responding to customer needs, earning the trust of large enterprises in the face of competitive rivals.

Reach out or call the SECOMM hotline at 028 7108 9908 for a more in-depth understanding of Commerce Components by Shopify and to explore the implementation of Headless Commerce or Composable Commerce.

2
10,079
0
1
28/12/2023
Shopify Hydrogen Your Key Gateway to Headless Success
SHOPIFY HYDROGEN: YOUR KEY GATEWAY TO HEADLESS SUCCESS

Today’s eCommerce consumers are no longer confined to a single channel or device for their shopping needs. They have a ton of options, including mobile apps and social media platforms. As a result, businesses are striving to establish a robust multi-channel presence to swiftly engage with their customers. One highly effective approach to achieving this goal is through the implementation of Headless Commerce

In recent years, investors have shown a significant interest in Headless Commerce platforms and associated solutions, recognizing their pivotal role in shaping the future of online commerce.

Forbes reports that between 2020 and 2021 alone, more than $1.65 billion in funding was directed toward Headless technologies. In response to this evolving landscape, Shopify unveiled the Hydrogen solution in June 2021, designed to facilitate the development of headless Commerce storefronts. 

The following article aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of Shopify Hydrogen, shedding light on both its pros and cons. 

Overview

Shopify offers businesses the Hydrogen framework solution, originally based on React but now being developed with Remix, in conjunction with the global hosting solution known as Oxygen.

What is Shopify Hydrogen?

In the past, Shopify website developers utilized the platform’s templating language known as Liquid, which often faced performance limitations. Consequently, to ensure top-notch website performance for headless commerce, Shopify businesses require a specialized solution.

Typically, businesses implementing headless projects on Shopify Plus opt for the React framework over Liquid due to its superior technical aspects. Moreover, headless stores on Shopify Plus offer heightened flexibility, customization, and scalability compared to standard headless stores on Shopify.

Shopify Hydrogen Your Key Gateway to Headless Success - What is Shopify Hydrogen
What is Shopify Hydrogen?

Therefore, Shopify has introduced a solution that allows both Shopify Plus and standard Shopify businesses to build and advance the most optimized headless eCommerce websites possible. This led to the creation of the Hydrogen framework solution and Oxygen hosting.

Shopify Hydrogen is a React-based framework that empowers developers to craft distinctive and entirely customized frontend Shopify experiences. This framework encompasses all the essential structures, components, and pre-built tools necessary for developers to swiftly create headless stores and deliver personalized user experiences.

Shopify Hydrogen Your Key Gateway to Headless Success - Headless Shopify Storefront Solution
Headless Shopify Storefront Solution

What is Shopify Oxygen?

Shopify Oxygen is a worldwide hosting solution designed to store custom content, like Hydrogen stores, directly within the Shopify platform. Previously, Shopify businesses seeking to develop Headless Commerce had to depend on third-party hosting providers (e.g., Netlify).

In contrast, Oxygen is supported by Shopify’s extensive global infrastructure, featuring over 100 server locations worldwide. Thanks to this, Hydrogen stores can seamlessly and directly integrate with Oxygen hosting through the Storefront API, eliminating the need for reliance on third-party providers.

Shopify Hydrogen Your Key Gateway to Headless Success - What is Shopify Oxygen
What is Shopify Oxygen?

Remix – The New Highlight of Shopify Hydrogen

In the first quarter of 2023, Shopify unveiled Hydrogen v2, highlighting the web development tool called Remix. This tool has earned recognition from developers as one of the top React frameworks, trailing only behind Next.js. Consequently, Shopify acquired Remix and designated it as the cornerstone of the Shopify Hydrogen solution.

Shopify Hydrogen Your Key Gateway to Headless Success - Remix
The New Highlight of Shopify Hydrogen

The reason for this lies in the fact that Hydrogen v1 faced performance-related criticisms after some time in operation. The acquisition of Remix is a part of Shopify’s efforts to rectify these issues, leading to the emergence of Hydrogen v2.

While developers tend to favor Next.js over Remix due to its open structure, allowing for greater customization and offering a more favorable developer experience, it doesn’t guarantee output quality and website performance.

Conversely, Remix employs a closed structure that mandates developers to adhere to the framework’s template. This approach closely aligns with Shopify’s SaaS model, providing a web development framework and enforcing developers to follow specific principles during deployment. 

This adherence ensures website performance and significantly enhances conversion rates. Therefore, Remix is the ideal solution chosen by Shopify to address the existing performance gaps in Hydrogen stores and enhance the eCommerce experience for customers.

Pros of Shopify Hydrogen

Shopify Hydrogen Your Key Gateway to Headless Success - Pros of Shopify Hydrogen
Pros of Shopify Hydrogen

Developed based on React

Hydrogen represents Shopify’s investment in the development of Headless eCommerce. Therefore, it’s fair to classify any Shopify store using the Hydrogen framework and Oxygen hosting as a Headless Shopify store.

The Headless architecture has consistently garnered praise from industry experts, who anticipate its continuous evolution. Shopify’s decision to incorporate React – the JavaScript library for frontend interface development – as the cornerstone of the Hydrogen solution underscores this platform’s forward-looking perspective on the future of eCommerce, firmly rooted in the Headless trend.

Diverse Integration

The launch of Shopify Hydrogen aims to assist businesses in building professional Headless eCommerce websites and providing customers with a seamless multi-channel experience.

Therefore, Shopify extends the capability to seamlessly integrate Hydrogen stores with various third-party applications and platforms like Klaviyo, Gorgias, and Rebuy (to enhance the customer experience), as well as Sanity, Contentful, and Builder.io (for Headless CMS implementation). 

Learn more about Headless CMS:

Shopify Hydrogen Your Key Gateway to Headless Success - Integrate to enhance your Hydrogen store
Integrate to enhance your Hydrogen store

Flexible Customization 

Numerous enterprises choose to implement Headless eCommerce because it grants them full control over the development of the frontend interface, free from the limitations of specific platforms. Shopify Hydrogen also empowers businesses to construct entirely personalized headless website interfaces and integrate essential features for expansion.

Cons of Shopify Hydrogen

Shopify Hydrogen Your Key Gateway to Headless Success - Cons of Shopify Hydrogen
Cons of Shopify Hydrogen

Technical Skill Required 

Hydrogen solution empowers businesses to leverage the potential of Headless eCommerce, but it’s predominantly a technically-driven endeavor without a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface for non-technical users to easily access and modify.

Hence, the development process necessitates the engagement of highly proficient developers with programming expertise and a specific comprehension of Hydrogen and Oxygen. In this scenario, businesses have two choices: establish an in-house team of developers or partner with an external specialized entity for swift deployment.

Limited CMS Integration.

Because it relies on the React framework, Hydrogen can assist developers in creating custom frontends, but the backend CMS functionality must be connected to enable the headless eCommerce website’s operation.

However, as of now, Hydrogen is limited to integrating with specific CMS platforms like Sanity, Contentful, and Builder.io, leaving businesses responsible for connecting with others independently.

Limited 3rd-party Integration

Much like CMS platforms, Hydrogen supports businesses in integrating with third-party provider applications, but it has rather limited options. Currently, there are only 13 available applications that businesses can incorporate into their Hydrogen store.

In the many years of implementing Headless eCommerce for numerous clients across various countries, SECOMM has noticed an increasing demand for creating Headless websites using the Shopify platform. Now, businesses have a choice: they can either leverage Shopify’s tech stack (Hydrogen and Oxygen) or build a custom stack tailored to their unique requirements.

This further solidifies Shopify as one of the most flexible eCommerce platforms today, leading the way towards the next generation of eCommerce experiences.

Contact us or call SECOMM’s hotline (02871089908) for a free consultation.

2
12,275
0
1
21/09/2023


    Sign Up for newsletter!

    Subscribe to get the latest eBook!