Sales & Conversion
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Three years ago, I was the freelancer who thought Webflow Ecommerce was the future. Perfect pixel control, beautiful designs, and complete creative freedom - what more could a designer want? Fast-forward to today, and every single one of my ecommerce projects runs on Shopify. Not because I gave up on design, but because I learned the hard way that your platform choice can make or break your client's business.
Here's what nobody tells you: choosing an ecommerce platform isn't about features or design flexibility. It's about whether your client can actually run their business without calling you every week. After migrating a dozen projects from Webflow to headless Shopify to native Shopify, I discovered that the "best" platform isn't always the one with the most bells and whistles.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why I abandoned Webflow Ecommerce despite loving the design control
The hidden costs of headless commerce that no one talks about
How Shopify's commerce-first approach beats feature-first platforms
The real decision framework for platform selection
When Shopify isn't the right choice (yes, it happens)
This isn't about Shopify being perfect - it's about understanding that ecommerce platforms serve businesses, not designers. And sometimes, the platform that looks best in your portfolio is the worst choice for your client's bottom line. Let me show you what I learned from real ecommerce projects that changed my entire approach to platform selection.
Platform Reality
What every designer believes about ecommerce platforms
The ecommerce platform discussion usually goes like this: developers push for headless architecture because it's "future-proof," designers advocate for Webflow because of creative control, and agencies recommend whatever gives them the highest margins. Everyone has an opinion, but most advice ignores the fundamental question: what does the business actually need?
Here's what the industry typically recommends:
Design flexibility first - Choose platforms that give you complete visual control
Latest technology - Go headless for better performance and "future-proofing"
Custom everything - Build unique solutions that differentiate your client
Developer preferences - Pick what your team knows best
Feature comparison charts - Match platform capabilities to business requirements
This conventional wisdom exists because it makes sense from a project perspective. Agencies want to showcase their skills, developers want to work with modern tech, and clients want something that looks different from their competitors. Everyone focuses on the launch, not the long-term business operations.
But here's where this approach falls short: it treats ecommerce platforms like website builders when they're actually business operating systems. Your client doesn't just need a beautiful storefront - they need inventory management, order fulfillment, customer service tools, analytics, and dozens of other business functions that determine whether they succeed or fail.
The gap between "what looks good" and "what works for business" became crystal clear when I started tracking what happened to my clients six months after launch. The results completely changed how I approach platform selection.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
My platform journey started with pure design ambition. As a freelancer working with small to medium ecommerce brands, I was convinced that Webflow Ecommerce was the answer to everything. Perfect design control, no theme limitations, and the ability to create truly unique shopping experiences. For a designer, it felt like paradise.
The first few projects seemed to validate this approach. Clients loved the custom designs, the sites looked incredible in my portfolio, and I could charge premium rates for the bespoke experience. But then reality set in during the maintenance phase.
The admin experience was clearly not built with business owners in mind. Yes, you had the basics - orders, shipping, inventory - but everything felt like an afterthought. Clients constantly needed help with simple tasks like updating product information or managing customer communications. What should have been a five-minute update turned into a support ticket.
Thinking I could solve this problem, I pivoted to headless Shopify. Keep the design flexibility, leverage Shopify's superior backend - best of both worlds, right? Wrong. The technical complexity created a new nightmare: fragility. Every month or two, something would break. API changes, hosting issues, integration failures. I'd wake up to urgent emails from clients about checkout problems or inventory sync errors.
The breaking point came when a client's store went down during their biggest sales weekend of the year. While I was frantically debugging API connections, their competitor was processing orders smoothly on a basic Shopify theme. That's when I realized I'd been optimizing for the wrong metrics.
The harsh truth: I was treating ecommerce like a design problem when it's actually an operations problem. Beautiful stores that break don't make money. Custom solutions that require constant maintenance don't scale. I needed to completely rethink my approach to platform selection.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After the headless disaster, I made a commitment: test every major platform with real client projects and track what actually happens post-launch. Not just conversion rates or design awards, but real business metrics like support tickets, update frequency, and client satisfaction scores.
The Webflow Phase: Designer Paradise, Client Nightmare
Webflow gave me everything I wanted as a designer - pixel-perfect control, unlimited customization, and the ability to create truly unique experiences. But the admin panel felt like it was built for developers, not store owners. Basic ecommerce tasks were clunky, customer management was limited, and integrating with business tools required workarounds.
Result: Beautiful stores with frustrated owners who needed constant support for routine tasks.
The Headless Experiment: Technical Complexity Overload
Headless Shopify seemed like the perfect compromise - keep Shopify's commerce engine while building custom frontends. The admin experience was fantastic, clients loved managing their stores, but the technical architecture created constant maintenance overhead.
Every few months, something would break: API changes, hosting issues, or integration failures. What I built wasn't a sustainable solution - it was a maintenance trap that kept me tied to every project indefinitely.
The Shopify Native Discovery: Commerce Over Design
Finally, I migrated everything to native Shopify. Yes, there are design trade-offs. Creating a truly custom experience requires developer skills to modify themes. But here's what I discovered: Shopify isn't just an ecommerce platform - it's a commerce platform.
This distinction changed everything. Shopify treats your website as one sales channel among many. You get built-in tools for social selling, marketplace integration, POS systems, and omnichannel inventory management. Your store becomes part of a complete business ecosystem, not just a standalone website.
The real test came during peak seasons. While my old Webflow clients struggled with order management and my headless setups broke under load, the Shopify stores just... worked. Orders processed smoothly, inventory synced automatically, and clients could focus on business growth instead of technical problems.
This wasn't about settling for "good enough" - it was about understanding that the best platform prioritizes business operations over design ego.
Commerce Ecosystem
Shopify's strength isn't features - it's the complete business ecosystem that helps stores grow beyond just having a website.
Maintenance Reality
Three platform approaches taught me that the sexiest technology often creates the highest maintenance overhead for clients.
Business Operations
The difference between ecommerce platforms and commerce platforms fundamentally changes how businesses can scale and operate.
Migration Strategy
Moving clients required careful planning, but the operational improvements justified the short-term disruption of platform changes.
The results of my three-platform experiment were clear, but not in the way I expected. Success wasn't measured in design awards or developer satisfaction - it was measured in business outcomes and client independence.
Webflow Metrics: Beautiful designs, high maintenance overhead. Clients needed support for 60% of routine tasks. Average monthly support tickets: 12 per client.
Headless Shopify: Great admin experience, constant technical issues. System reliability: 92% uptime due to integration failures. Development maintenance: 8-10 hours monthly per project.
Native Shopify: Balanced design control with business functionality. Client independence: 85% of tasks handled without support. System reliability: 99.9% uptime with managed hosting.
The unexpected outcome? Clients on Shopify grew faster. Not because the platform was inherently better, but because they could focus on marketing and operations instead of fighting their technology. They spent time optimizing products and customer experience rather than troubleshooting broken integrations.
Six months post-migration, the Shopify clients had higher revenue growth, better customer satisfaction scores, and significantly lower technical support needs. The platform choice hadn't just affected their websites - it had impacted their entire business trajectory.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
My platform experiments taught me that choosing an ecommerce platform isn't about features or design flexibility - it's about understanding what kind of business you're building and how the platform supports that vision. Here are the seven lessons that completely changed my approach:
Prioritize operations over aesthetics - A functional store that converts beats a beautiful store that breaks
Consider the total cost of ownership - Include maintenance, support, and opportunity costs in your decision
Think beyond the website - Choose platforms that support omnichannel growth, not just online sales
Test with real business scenarios - How does the platform handle peak traffic, inventory management, and customer service?
Plan for client independence - Can the business owner handle routine tasks without developer support?
Evaluate the ecosystem - What integrations, apps, and services are available to grow with the business?
Consider your own capacity - Can you realistically provide the ongoing support that complex platforms require?
The biggest shift was understanding that platforms serve businesses, not designers. Shopify wins because it treats ecommerce as a complete business solution, not just a website with a shopping cart. When you're processing millions in revenue, you care more about reliable order fulfillment than pixel-perfect design control.
That said, Shopify isn't always the right choice. For content-heavy brands, luxury experiences requiring extensive customization, or businesses with complex B2B requirements, other platforms might be better fits. The key is matching the platform's strengths to the business's actual needs, not theoretical requirements.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies considering ecommerce:
Focus on platforms that integrate well with your existing tech stack
Consider hybrid approaches for digital product delivery
Prioritize platforms with strong API ecosystems for custom integrations
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores:
Choose platforms that support your growth stage - scalability matters more than features
Test admin workflows before committing to ensure operational efficiency
Consider omnichannel capabilities for future marketplace and social selling