Since our 2023 write-up, Sanity has become the content backbone for our headless Shopify builds. We keep the split clean: Shopify manages products and checkout, Sanity powers content and storytelling, Next.js brings it all together on a fast, SEO-friendly frontend.
Below is how we structure reusable sections and customise them so marketing teams move faster without turning every page change into a dev task.
Reusable sections, not one-off templates
Rather than creating bespoke templates for every page, we use a small library of reusable sections (think Hero, Product Grid, Rich Content, Image Banner, FAQ). Editors assemble pages from these building blocks, so layouts stay consistent and new pages can be created in minutes, not weeks. This approach keeps brand design in our control while giving non-technical teams clear, focused fields to work with. It’s flexible where it should be (content) and consistent where it must be (design).
Customise without chaos
We tailor sections to a brand’s story: for example, a product page might include “How it’s made”, care guides, customer quotes, or brand heritage. These sections can also be reused across landing pages and category pages. By modelling the right fields up front, editors can tell richer stories without requesting new templates or layouts.
SEO is baked in from the start with lean, purposeful fields for metadata and structured data – no plugin bloat. That gives search engines the right signals and keeps the site fast.
Product-aware content (without duplicating data)
Shopify remains the single source of truth for products (titles, prices, variants, availability). Sanity handles the editorial layer curation, campaign context, and storytelling. Editors can either hand-pick products for a grid or reference a Shopify collection, and the site fetches live data at render time.
How the stack connects
Pages are fetched from Sanity in a single query, then rendered by Next.js. When a section references products, we call Shopify’s Storefront API server-side so prices and availability stay up to date. With incremental revalidation, content and product changes go live quickly – no manual deployments.
What your team feels day-to-day
- Faster campaigns: build, preview, schedule, and publish without developer bottlenecks.
- Stronger storytelling: product pages become brand touchpoints, not just spec sheets.
- Consistency at scale: new ranges, seasons, or locales slot into the same section system.
- Performance built in: fast pages that support SEO and conversions.
Case in brief
On recent builds, marketing teams created seasonal landing pages the same day the campaign was signed off, reusing existing sections and only swapping content. Product grids pulled live inventory and pricing from Shopify, while Sanity managed the story and visuals.
The result: quicker launches, fewer handoffs, and a more cohesive customer journey.
Is headless right for you?
If you publish simple content a few times a year, a theme-based Shopify site may be enough. Headless shines when content velocity, brand storytelling, and multi-surface consistency matter and when you want to avoid a backlog of template requests.
Reusable sections give editors speed and keep engineering focused on the platform, not one-off pages. By letting Shopify own products and Sanity own content stitched together with Next.js, you get a storefront that moves at the pace of your marketing while staying fast, consistent, and scalable.
By
Yeh
