I'm the co-founder of a headless commerce backend framework (Vendure) and I've known of the Vue Storefront project for quite a while now.
Headless commerce (i.e. API-driven, decoupled front-end) is maximally flexible but comes with the tradeoff that you suddenly have to build an entire storefront from scratch. Compared to off-the-shelf solutions like Shopify, which give you a fully integrated storefront with nice themes, it can be a high barrier for businesses which lack significant funding or developer resources.
Previous attempts to solve the front-end part of the headless commerce problem have had mixed results I think. One the one hand is fully-built, backend-agnostic storefronts like Vercel's Next.js Commerce or prior Vue Storefront products. On the other hand is just build from scratch exactly to your needs.
The complexity that comes with maintaining a backend-agnostic, full-featured storefront is huge. I think this release is a good middle ground that reminds me of the amazing Tailwind UI project - design primitives and larger components you can basically copy-paste into your own storefront app. It's probably the right way to go, as it saves a bunch of time but still leaves you free to build the storefront exactly as you want it.
With recent developments in LLM tech I can imagine a future where open-source, self-built solutions suddenly become way more accessible to more companies, as a single developer is able to use libraries like this and have AI stitch the parts together into a full storefront.
You've done a good job. eCommerce needed something modern for a long time already. enterpise really feels dated and this new approach will make ecommerce devs experience finally similar to what others do. like it
12 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 40.5 ms ] threadHeadless commerce (i.e. API-driven, decoupled front-end) is maximally flexible but comes with the tradeoff that you suddenly have to build an entire storefront from scratch. Compared to off-the-shelf solutions like Shopify, which give you a fully integrated storefront with nice themes, it can be a high barrier for businesses which lack significant funding or developer resources.
Previous attempts to solve the front-end part of the headless commerce problem have had mixed results I think. One the one hand is fully-built, backend-agnostic storefronts like Vercel's Next.js Commerce or prior Vue Storefront products. On the other hand is just build from scratch exactly to your needs.
The complexity that comes with maintaining a backend-agnostic, full-featured storefront is huge. I think this release is a good middle ground that reminds me of the amazing Tailwind UI project - design primitives and larger components you can basically copy-paste into your own storefront app. It's probably the right way to go, as it saves a bunch of time but still leaves you free to build the storefront exactly as you want it.
With recent developments in LLM tech I can imagine a future where open-source, self-built solutions suddenly become way more accessible to more companies, as a single developer is able to use libraries like this and have AI stitch the parts together into a full storefront.