Unlimited Personalization. Real Complexity Cost.
Hydrogen and headless commerce when Shopify Liquid cannot deliver the experience. Not before. Not as hype. When it actually earns the engineering cost.
What's broken
- Your conversion funnel is maxed out on Online Store 2.0. Personalization, multi-surface experiences, or brand uniqueness require custom rendering beyond Liquid's reach.
- Stop paying for headless technology theater. Most brands don't need it - and the ones that do need to know the cost: higher infrastructure, more engineering, and ongoing maintenance complexity.
- You're torn between Online Store 2.0's simplicity and headless's flexibility. Pick the wrong path and you've wasted 6 months and six figures on Hydrogen that didn't move revenue.
How we fix it
Propeller defaults to excellent Liquid-based Shopify first. We only recommend Hydrogen / headless when personalization, performance, or multi-surface requirements genuinely exceed what Liquid can express - and when the revenue opportunity justifies the cost.
We build Hydrogen custom storefronts when it earns it: unlimited personalization for luxury brands, high-velocity merchandising, or experiences that Shopify's native checkout UI cannot hold. But we will tell you when Online Store 2.0 is the right choice.
How would you like your inbox to be flooded with orders like this?
A working Shopify system does not send slideware. It sends orders - compounding, every day. This is what that looks like before it hits the dashboard.
Diagnose. Ship. Compound.
Align
We clarify the headless goal, constraints, and what success looks like in revenue - not vanity metrics.
Diagnose
We audit the experience, stack, and growth system against what ambitious brands actually need.
Build
Senior team ships the work: storefront, flows, campaigns, or technology - without agency theater.
Prove
We measure what moved, then compound. Commerce is a system, not a launch party.
+38%
Read the caseWhat we bring
- Hydrogen & Oxygen
- Headless architecture
- CMS integrations
- Performance
FAQ
When is Shopify Hydrogen worth it?
When UX, team capability, and multi-surface needs exceed what Online Store 2.0 can express cleanly. Propeller defaults to excellent Liquid first - headless only when it earns the complexity.
Does headless automatically make Shopify faster?
No. Core Web Vitals problems are usually theme debt and third-party scripts. Hydrogen adds rendering ownership and cost; it is not a free speed upgrade.
Does Propeller build headless Shopify storefronts?
Yes - Hydrogen / Oxygen and headless architecture when the experience requires it, from our Santa Monica studio.
Ready to look inevitable?
Tell us what you need. Real humans. Clear scope. A plan — not a spray of SDRs.
Start the conversation
Two minutes. We come back with scope, approach, and next steps.
Short form. Clear next steps. No generic pitch deck.