Headless Shopify solution for a second-hand online store

Abstract

The target of this thesis project was to create a headless Shopify platform for Thriftys AB, a Swedish company that primarily sells second-hand clothes online. The project aimed to build a more flexible e-commerce platform that supports not only a standard buyer experience but also simplifies seller onboarding and automates payouts. This not only reduces the amount of manual work for administrators but also allows modern platforms to check whether sellers are fulfilling clothing requests before the clothes are delivered to storage and added to the online store, as quality control in second-hand shops is more difficult. A traditional Shopify store can handle many tasks well, but it starts to fall short once you introduce more advanced, custom workflows. Hence, a headless architecture felt like the only realistic path forward. The main question became how to design such a system to fit the second-hand model while still meeting scalability and data security standards. The thesis work was conducted as a practical development project, and from the start, it presents the main ideas and challenges behind headless commerce, connected to the second-hand project processes, such as uneven product information and the need for more careful moderation. What is more, in this thesis, the development process will be described step by step, including the frontend and backend. Technically, the project relied on Next.js together with Shopify’s Storefront and Admin GraphQL APIs. The payment system used native Shopify checkout, while Stripe Connect was used for sellers' onboarding and payouts management. The final architecture was tested correctly to ensure that data moved smoothly through the system, met GDPR requirements, and performed reliably under expected load. The evaluation helped to recognize which parts of the system work as expected and which require further optimization as the platform grows. Overall, the results indicate that a headless Shopify setup can support a multi-seller second-hand platform quite effectively. Separating the frontend from Shopify’s backend gives the team more room to shape the interface and makes it easier to scale as activity increases. The system will still need regular improvements, including reducing unnecessary API calls and strengthening caching strategies. The company found the developed system functional and suitable for further growth.