Next JS Ecommerce Starter Unveiled: Code Less, Launch Faster

Most ecommerce owners would agree that launching an online store swiftly while keeping costs low is an elusive goal.

Yet with the Next.js open-source ecommerce starter, you can dramatically accelerate your ecommerce site launch with robust features, less coding, and deployment flexibility, as this post will demonstrate.

You'll see real-world examples of Next.js ecommerce integrations, explore the developer-friendly capabilities that simplify coding, review case studies of brands using Next.js, and learn actionable tips to fast-track your own ecommerce platform launch leveraging this streamlined starter.

Introducing the Next.js Ecommerce Starter

The next-js-ecommerce-boilerplate-quickstart-your-online-store/">Next.js ecommerce starter is an open-source solution that allows developers to quickly build production-ready ecommerce sites. With robust features out of the box, this starter kit helps you focus on customizing the store experience vs. solving complex infrastructure problems.

Some of the key highlights include:

Full-featured cart and checkout flows

The starter comes with pre-built shopping cart and checkout functionality including:

Product listings
Cart management
Shipping address collection
Payment processing with Stripe
Order management

This means you can skip building the typical ecommerce flows from scratch and instead dedicate time towards enhancing the storefront.

SEO-friendly and lightning fast

Built on Next.js, it leverages modern web capabilities for snappy page loads. Next.js static optimization and incremental static regeneration ensures consistently fast performance.

It's also SEO-ready with sensible defaults for metadata, open graph tags and JSON-LD schema to optimize for search engines.

Typescript support

With Typescript compilation out of the box, you get code auto-completion in IDEs and can catch bugs during development. This results in more robust code.

CMS agnostic

You can use any headless CMS like Sanity, Contentful or even pull data from a custom API. The starter has CMS provider hooks and examples to get up and running swiftly.

Customizable and extensible

While quite fully featured, the starter avoids overly abstracted code to help understand and modify flows. It's built to be tweaked exactly to your needs.

Furthermore, the code adheres to React and Next.js best practices for easy extensibility. Custom functionality can be added with minor effort.

In summary, if your goal is to build production ecommerce sites as fast as possible, do consider the Next.js ecommerce starter kit. With robust cart and checkout capabilities built-in, you can crank out online stores rapidly.

Is Next.js good for eCommerce?

Next.js is an excellent choice for building modern eCommerce websites. Here are some of the key benefits of using Next.js for eCommerce:

Seamless Server Side Rendering

Next.js offers built-in support for Server Side Rendering (SSR). This results in better SEO and faster initial page loads compared to traditional client-side rendered React apps. The pre-rendered HTML is especially useful for product and category pages that need to be indexed by search engines.

Ecommerce sites built with Next.js also leverage incremental static regeneration to serve fresh content on every request without needing to rebuild entire pages.

Easy Routing and API Handlers

Next.js has a flexible file-system based router that makes it simple to manage routes for different pages like product, cart, checkout etc. The API routes allow you to easily add backend logic to handle form submissions, take payments etc.

Fast Performance

Next.js focuses heavily on performance through techniques like code splitting, prefetching and caching. The end result is blazing fast website performance crucial for eCommerce stores.

Rich Ecosystem

The Next.js community has built several open source eCommerce frameworks like NextJS Commerce and Saleor using Next.js and React. You can use these as a starter kit or reference to accelerate your own eCommerce development.

So in summary, Next.js offers the capabilities like SSR, performance, routing and ecosystem that are extremely useful for building fast and scalable eCommerce projects. The growing community support also makes it an ideal choice compared to traditional React apps.

Is Vercel good for eCommerce?

Vercel is an excellent hosting provider for ecommerce stores built with Next.js. It offers automatic scaling, global CDN distribution, and optimized performance out of the box - all critical for handling sudden traffic spikes from marketing campaigns or holiday sales.

However, while Vercel provides the infrastructure, you still need a flexible, customizable ecommerce engine. This is where Medusa CMS comes in.

Medusa is an open-source headless commerce engine designed for developer control and customization. Combined with Next.js and hosted on Vercel, it enables developers to build secure, high-performance online stores with complete frontend and backend extensibility.

Here are some of the key benefits Medusa provides for ecommerce on Vercel:

Headless architecture - Decouple the frontend and backend tech stacks for ultimate flexibility.
Customizable and extensible - Plugin system to modify any part of Medusa's functionality.
Modern stack - Node.js, Express backend with GraphQL API interface.
Configurable cart and checkout - Fine-tune the user buying experience.
Built-in authentication and authorization - Leverage role-based access control.
International support - Currencies, taxes, shipping zones, and localization.
Administration UI - Optional bundled Merchant Center dashboard.

In summary, Vercel handles the hosting and infrastructure for scale and speed. When combined with Medusa's headless engine for custom ecommerce logic, it becomes a compelling tech stack for developer-driven stores. The flexibility to tailor every aspect of the buying journey is the perfect recipe for differentiation and innovation.

So if you're building an ecommerce store with Next.js, Medusa on Vercel checks all the boxes: optimized performance, scalability, and unlimited creative freedom to stand out. The only limit is your imagination!

How do I start a Next.js website?

Next.js provides a robust framework for building web applications. To start a new Next.js project, first initialize a new application using npx create-next-app or the Next.js CLI.

This will generate a starter project containing key configuration files and a basic component structure to display "Hello World". Within the project, developers can start building out pages, API routes, styles, and more.

Some key steps to launch a complete Next.js site include:

Create Pages - Add JSX files under /pages to define application routes. Use built-in APIs like getStaticProps and getServerSideProps to fetch data.
Add Styling - Import CSS files globally or locally. Tailwind CSS is a popular styling framework for Next.js.
Build Serverless Functions - Create API endpoints under /pages/api to add backend logic. Leverage middlewares for validation.
Configure Environment Variables - Set up .env files to securely store secrets, keys and other environment config.
Implement Authentication - Add sign-in/sign-up flows with NextAuth.js if needed.
Deploy - Build and deploy to Vercel, Netlify and other platforms with one click deployment.

By leveraging these steps and Next.js's extensive documentation, developers can quickly build production-ready Jamstack applications. The framework handles complex tasks like server-side rendering, static generation, routing and more out of the box.

Is Next.js open-source?

Next.js is an open-source web framework created by Vercel that enables React based web applications to have server-side rendering and static site generation capabilities.

As an open-source project, Next.js benefits from contributions from developers all over the world. Anyone can view, use, modify, and distribute the source code for free. This leads to faster innovation as more developers collaborate to add new features.

There are a few key advantages of Next.js being open-source:

Cost - Next.js is completely free to use. There are no license fees or subscription charges. This makes it very appealing for developers and companies wanting to minimize costs.
Customization - The open-source code can be tweaked and customized for specific use cases. Developers can change the code to suit their application's needs.
Transparency - The full source code for Next.js is available for anyone to inspect. This transparency enables trust in the platform.
Support - With widespread global usage of Next.js, developers can access ample documentation and community support in public forums or GitHub.
Innovation - Open-source drives faster innovation cycles from a wider contributor network. Next.js sees frequent releases that add new capabilities.

So in summary, the open-source nature of Next.js makes it freely accessible, customizable, and innovative - key reasons for its immense popularity among React developers for building production web applications.

Next.js Ecommerce Starter: A Developer's Launchpad

The Next.js ecommerce starter is quickly becoming a go-to solution for developers looking to build online stores. With its robust feature set optimized for ecommerce, this open-source starter kit allows you to focus on customizing the look and feel of your site rather than building core functionality from scratch.

Reduce Development Time

The Next.js commerce starter can shave weeks or even months off your project timeline by providing a ready-made foundation right out of the box. It comes pre-loaded with key ecommerce capabilities like:

Shopping cart and checkout workflows
Product listings and details
Customer authentication
Order management
Admin dashboard

Rather than coding these elements yourself, you can use the starter as a springboard to launch your store. Just plug in your content, tweak the design, and deploy in no time.

Here's a code snippet showing how easy it is to display a product listing with the starter:

import { getConfig } from '@framework/api'
import getAllProducts from '@framework/product/get-all-products'
import { ProductCard } from '@components/product'

export async function getStaticProps() {

  const config = getConfig()
  const products = await getAllProducts(config)

  return {
    props: {
      products
    },
    revalidate: 4 * 60 * 60, 
  }
}

export default function Home({ products }) {
  return (
    <>
      {products.map(product => (
        <ProductCard 
          key={product.id}
          product={product} 
        />
      ))}
    </>
  )
}

By handling the API integrations behind the scenes, the starter kit allows you to focus on presenting products instead of fetching data.

Customizable and Extensible

While accelerating development velocity, the Next.js ecommerce starter also offers extreme flexibility. Developers have full control to customize styling and modify functionality as needed.

You can extend the starter's base components by passing in custom CSS, JSX, dynamic data, and more. This makes the starter adaptable to practically any ecommerce use case while maintaining the benefits of pre-built, optimized features.

Whether you want to tweak the checkout flow, override styled components, or add new pages, the starter makes these changes seamless. See how simple it is to pass custom CSS to a core component:

import { Button } from '@components/ui'

export default function MyButton() {
  return (
    <Button 
      css={`
        background: purple; 
        color: white;
        border-radius: 0;
      `}
    >
      Click Me  
    </Button>
  )
}

This balance between ready-made convenience and customizability is what makes the Next.js ecommerce starter so versatile for developers.

Open-Source Backed

As an open-source project under active development, the Next.js commerce starter also benefits from an engaged community submitting improvements and additions on a regular basis.

Developers can tap into the collective knowledge around the starter kit through GitHub discussions and Discord channels. The open-source model creates transparency into planned roadmap items and features in upcoming releases.

And if there's functionality missing that you need, you can build custom extensions or even contribute back to the main codebase knowing that an open-source maintainer will review and merge valid PRs.

Between its robust feature set, extreme customizability, and open-source community, the Next.js ecommerce starter kit is revolutionizing how developers approach building online stores. By providing the best of both worlds - convenience without compromise - this starter enables you to bypass grunt work and focus creativity into standing out from the competition.

Core Benefits of Using Next.js for Ecommerce

The Next.js ecommerce starter helps developers code less and go live faster thanks to its robust feature set optimized for ecommerce sites.

Leveraging Next.js for Rapid Ecommerce Deployment

Next.js offers several advantages for quickly building ecommerce sites:

Built-in routing and page pre-rendering - Next.js handles routing and pre-renders pages by default, eliminating unnecessary configuration. This accelerates the development process.
Hybrid SSG and SSR - Get the benefits of static generation and server-side rendering. Statically generate product pages for speed while using SSR for dynamic pages.
Simplified data fetching - The getStaticProps and getServerSideProps functions streamline data access. Easily query data from a CMS or database.
Fast refresh and incremental static regeneration - View changes instantly with fast refresh. Incrementally re-build static pages as data changes for high performance.
Optimized production builds - Next.js minimizes bundle sizes and optimizes assets for fast load times. Images are lazily loaded for performance.
TypeScript support - Take advantage of TypeScript for superior developer productivity and type safety. Avoid bugs early in development.

In summary, Next.js significantly reduces the complexity of building React-based ecommerce stores. Developers can go from idea to production faster with its batteries-included framework.

SEO-Ready Architecture with Next.js

Next.js enables excellent SEO for ecommerce sites right out of the box:

Pre-rendered data - HTML pages are statically generated at build time, indexed faster by search engines.
Incremental static regeneration - Rebuild only changed pages so content stays fresh for search engines.
Automatic sitemaps - Dynamic sitemaps ensure search engines can fully crawl the site.
Canonical URLs - Deduplicated pages help search ranking. The next/link component handles this automatically.
Layout splitting - Easily define header/footer layouts for code consistency and SEO best practices.
Built-in analytics - Next.js has analytics to measure traffic for optimizing pages. Enhances ability to monitor keywords and ranking.

In summary, Next.js is architected to help ecommerce sites achieve high search engine visibility with minimal extra effort.

Seamless Checkout Flows with Next.js

Next.js offers native capabilities to streamline the development of checkout flows:

Simplified payments - Integrate Stripe easily with built-in support for its API and SSR checkout.
Taxes out of the box - Plugins available for tax rate calculation based on location. Reduces billing code.
Native multi-step forms - Formik makes complex multi-page checkout seamless.
Mobile optimization - Next.js focuses on mobile web performance so checkout works great on phones.
CDN for availability - Sites can leverage Vercel's global CDN for 99.99% uptime during checkout.

By handling many checkout complexities natively, Next.js meaningfully reduces ecommerce code compared to traditional React apps.

Fortified Security with Next.js Ecommerce Starter

Robust security is built into the Next.js ecommerce starter template:

XSS protection - The template sanitizes user input to prevent XSS attacks.
SQL injection prevention - Queries use parameterized statements to block SQL injection risks.
CAPTCHA support - Easily add CAPTCHA to stop bots on signup/login forms.
Security headers - Headers like X-Content-Type-Options protect against sniffing attacks.
Authentication - JWT or OAuth can be implemented to manage access control.

The starter kit implements many security best practices out-of-the-box, reducing the attack surface area for ecommerce sites.

Overall, Next.js delivers immense value for developers building ecommerce websites and web apps by vastly simplifying coding complexity and providing robust capabilities optimized specifically for online stores. The framework saves weeks of development time compared to alternatives, allowing businesses to get online faster.

Developer-Friendly Features of Next.js Ecommerce Starter

The Next.js ecommerce starter speeds up site builds via its well-structured codebase and developer experience optimizations.

Robust TypeScript Integration in Next.js

TypeScript typing helps catch bugs early and improve overall code quality for robust, scalable sites. Here is an example of TypeScript usage in a Next.js ecommerce starter:

interface Product {
  id: string;
  name: string;
  price: number;
  images: string[];
}

const fetchProduct = async (id: string): Promise<Product> => {
  // Call API 
  return product; 
}

const product: Product = await fetchProduct('123');

By typing the Product interface and fetchProduct function, we can catch issues early before runtime. The typed interfaces also serve as documentation for the code.

Modular and Reusable Components in Next.js

Reusable, standalone components abstract complexity into easy-to-manage building blocks. For example:

// Button.js

export default function Button({ text, onClick }) {
  return <button onClick={onClick}>{text}</button>; 
}

// Page.js 

import Button from 'components/Button';

export default function Page() {
  return <Button text="Submit" onClick={submit} />;
}

The Button component encapsulates the button logic and enables reuse across the app without repeating code.

State Management Optimized for Ecommerce

Unidirectional data flow and global state control with React Query simplifies data fetching and caching.

// Fetch product data
const { data } = useQuery('products', fetchAllProducts); 

// Display products
return (
  <div>
    {data.map(product => (
      <ProductItem product={product} key={product.id} />
    ))}
  </div>
);

React Query handles caching, refetching, loading state, and more out-of-the-box so you can focus on UI code.

Streamlined Development with Next.js HMR

Hot Module Replacement enables instant UI updates in dev without full page refreshes:

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  return (
    <div>
      <p>Count: {count}</p>
      <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment</button> 
    </div>
  );
}

export default Counter;

When editing the Counter component, changes reflect instantly without losing component state. This accelerates development velocity.

Exploring Free Next.js Ecommerce Templates

Next.js has become a go-to framework for building high-performance ecommerce websites. Its benefits like server-side rendering, optimized page loading, and easy routing make it a great fit for online stores.

However, building an ecommerce site from scratch can be time-consuming. This is where free Next.js ecommerce templates come in handy. They provide a ready-made structure and components so developers can focus on customizing the store as per their needs instead of reinventing the wheel.

In this section, we'll explore some popular open source Next.js ecommerce templates that developers can use to kickstart their projects.

Vendor - Nextjs Commerce

Nextjs Commerce is an excellent jump start template created by Vercel, the company behind Next.js. It incorporates the latest best practices for ecommerce development and is regularly updated.

Some highlights:

Headless architecture using Commerce.js for the backend
Includes cart and checkout flows
Integrates payment gateways like Stripe
Optimized search and filters
Strong SEO with support for dynamic pages
Easy customization using theming

It also contains reusable UI components for categories, products, cart, and more. You can tweak these to match your branding needs.

Overall, Nextjs Commerce is a feature-rich starter kit suitable for small to large stores selling physical or digital goods.

Here's a code snippet showing how to add a new product:

import { Product } from '@components/product'

export default function NewProduct({ product }) {

  return (
    <Product
      name={product.name} 
      price={product.price}
      image={product.image}
    />
  )
}

Vendor - Next Storefront

Next Storefront is an extensible, headless ecommerce framework for Next.js. It integrates with ecommerce backends like Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce.

Benefits:

Modular architecture
Theming engine for quick customization
SEO-friendly pages
Integrated payment solutions
Easy integration with ecommerce backends

You can build custom storefronts targeting different niches using Next Storefront as the base instead of coding an ecommerce site from scratch.

Here is how to create a product card using it:

import { ProductCard } from '@components'

export default function Product({ product }) {

  return (
    <ProductCard
      id={product.id}
      name={product.name}
      price={product.price}
      image={product.image}
    />
  )
}

Next Storefront streamlines store development by providing pre-built features merchants need.

Conclusion

Next.js ecommerce templates like Nextjs Commerce and Next Storefront enable developers to start with an existing structure instead of reinventing the wheel. They incorporate latest practices required for high performance online stores.

We covered some popular open source options you can use to kickstart your Next.js projects and avoid time-consuming boilerplate work. These templates allow you to concentrate on customizing the store experience for your target audience.

Next.js Commerce Integration Examples

Get insights on how Next.js can be integrated with popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Magento for enhanced capabilities.

Integrating Next.js Commerce with Shopify

The Next JS commerce Shopify integration combines the flexibility of Shopify with the performance and SEO optimization of Next.js. This allows developers to build blazing fast storefronts with React while leveraging Shopify's admin and backend infrastructure.

Some benefits of using Next JS with Shopify include:

Leveraging Shopify's admin dashboard - Manage products, orders and customers without needing to build a custom backend. Shopify handles carts, payments, fulfillment and more out of the box.
Prebuilt UI components for commerce - Next.js Commerce integrates components like product galleries, cart functionality, checkout flows and more to accelerate development.
Hybrid scalability - Handle traffic spikes gracefully by scaling the Next.js layer separately from Shopify. No risk of orders dropping during peak seasons.
SEO optimized by default - Next.js offers built-in SEO fundamentals like server side rendering that improve site visibility and traffic. Easy to customize and optimize further.

Here is a code example demonstrating a basic product page built with Next JS commerce Shopify:

import { ProductPage } from '@shopify/next-js-commerce/product'

export default function Product() {

  return (
    <ProductPage
      product={{ // Shopify product data }}
      webMetadata={{ // SEO metadata }}
    >
      {({ media, loading, variants, options, variants }) => {
        
        // Display product media
        // Render loading state
        // Show product options
        
        return (
          <button onClick={() => addVariantToCart(variant.id)}>
            Add to Cart  
          </button>
        )
      }}
    </ProductPage>
  )
}

This gives you an idea of how easy it is to connect Shopify's product data and UI components with Next.js Pages. From here you can further customize the shopping experience while offloading business logic to Shopify.

Leveraging Next.js with Magento for Advanced Ecommerce

Next JS Commerce Magento is another integration that combines enterprise-grade ecommerce capabilities with Next.js's web development features.

Benefits include:

Complex catalog management - Showcase unlimited products, variants and configurations powered by Magento's advanced admin.
Sophisticated promotions - Create targeted campaigns with advanced rules and conditions. Support one time codes, special pricing and more.
PCI compliance - Magento Commerce Cloud is PA-DSS and PCI DSS compliant, securing sensitive customer payment data.
Headless flexibility - Maintain frontend and backend codebases separately for greater agility. Improve frontend experience without migrating backends.

The code sample shows fetching a product with GraphQL in Next.js while leveraging Magento's catalog data:

import { useQuery } from '@apollo/client'
import GET_PRODUCT from '../queries/get-product.graphql'

export default function Product() {
  
  const { data, loading } = useQuery(GET_PRODUCT, {
    variables: { sku: 'some_sku' }  
  })
  
  if (loading) return <Loading />
  
  const { product } = data

  return (
    <ProductDetail product={product} />
  )
}

This allows you to reuse Magento's product definitions and inventory data while customizing how products appear in Next.js. From advanced visual capabilities to headless flexibility, integrating with Magento unlocks immense possibilities for ecommerce stores.

The examples demonstrate the potential unlocked by combining Next JS commerce with leading platforms like Shopify and Magento. Developers can choose the backend that meets their business needs while benefiting from Next.js performance and customization for the storefront.

The Open Source Advantage of Next.js Ecommerce

Open source Next.js ecommerce solutions offer significant advantages for developers building online stores. By utilizing open source starters and templates, you can launch feature-rich stores faster while benefiting from community contributions.

Accelerated Development

Open source Next.js commerce solutions feature robust starter kits to bootstrap development. For example, the Vercel Commerce starter includes a full-featured storefront, product management, and Order API out of the box. This eliminates the need to code core functionalities from scratch.

You simply extend the starter code to customize the store per your needs. The ability to stand on the shoulders of community work cuts weeks if not months from development timelines.

// Sample code importing and using Vercel Commerce
import { 
  Provider as OverlayProvider,
  useOverlayTriggerState,
} from '@vercel/commerce/utils'

export default function MyStore() {
  const { display } = useOverlayTriggerState()

  return (
    <OverlayProvider>
      {/* Customize the ecommerce store */}
    </OverlayProvider>
  )
}

Continuous Innovation

Open source commerce solutions benefit from collective enhancements. As developers build on top of starters like Next.js Commerce and Vercel Commerce, they contribute back fixes and features.

This creates a virtuous cycle of continuous innovation. For example, Next.js Commerce sees regular releases with upgrades driven by community pull requests. Your store improves over time without any extra effort.

Staying on the latest version also guarantees you tap into latest performance gains, SEO improvements, and modern UI patterns. Open source reduces the need for in-house R&D spending.

Transparency

The public nature of open source Next.js ecommerce repositories builds trust. You can inspect the source code to verify security practices or check for unwanted tracking.

Auditing what happens behind the scenes is impossible with closed-source software. Open solutions let you take complete ownership over your store's frontend code.

This visibility provides peace of mind when dealing with sensitive customer data. You can also freely customize any component to meet regulatory compliance needs.

Cost Savings

Leveraging open source software translates into hard dollar savings. Next.js commerce starters completely eliminate licensing fees charged by proprietary cart solutions.

You avoid expensive recurring subscriptions or revenue cuts from vendor lock-in. All modifications remain free forever, enabled by permissive open source licenses.

In summary, embracing open source Next.js ecommerce starters unlocks speed, customization potential, and cost benefits for your next store build. Standing on the shoulders of passionate communities lets you focus time on creating amazing shopping experiences.

Customizing the Next.js Commerce Starter

While feature-rich out of the box, developers can mold the starter to their unique needs thanks to its flexibility.

Theming and Custom UI with Next.js

Next.js offers powerful theming capabilities through its app directory. By utilizing CSS-in-JS libraries like Tailwind and component theming providers, you can completely customize the look and feel independent of site functionality.

For example, here is a code snippet showcasing how to theme a Button component with Theme UI:

// theme.js
export default {
  buttons: {
    primary: {
      color: 'white',
      bg: 'primary',
      '&:hover': {
        bg: 'darken'  
      }
    }
  }
}

// Button.js
import { jsx } from 'theme-ui'

export default props => (
  <button 
    {...props}
    sx={{ variant: 'buttons.primary' }}
  /> 
)

With this approach, you retain the logic of the Button component while adapting the style. Extend this theming structure across all UI elements to transform the aesthetic.

While Tailwind and Theme UI are great options, you can integrate alternatives like Styled Components or vanilla CSS depending on preferences. The starter's flexibility makes customizing the front-end appearance simple.

Adapting Next.js Ecommerce for Unique Business Models

Under the hood, Next.js Commerce relies on swappable backend services for core functionality like the CMS, database, and payment processing. This means you can replace the default providers as needed without breaking existing integrations.

For example, to go from a headless to fully customized architecture, here is an overview of the steps:

Swap the CMS by removing @vercel/commerce dependencies and installing an alternative like Directus.
Update the GraphQL endpoint to point from Vercel to your new provider.
Configure custom models, fields, and relations in the new CMS.
Modify React components to integrate the new GraphQL API and data model.

This process allows you to retain much of the site logic while adapting for a radically new backend. The same approach applies for payments, database, auth, and more.

By making integration touchpoints configurable, you customize foundational elements without forking or changing core commerce functionality. This balance makes the starter extremely versatile.

Enhancing Next.js Ecommerce Functionality

While flexible, you may find the starter missing niche functionality your business requires. Instead of modifying the core files directly, the recommended approach is to build custom features as standalone packages that integrate with the starter as plugins.

For example, here are the steps to add wishlist capability:

Create a packages/wishlist folder
Build out the wishlist feature as a separate Node/React module
Expose public methods for the starter to consume
Import and invoke wishlist methods from starter pages

This isolates additive logic into reusable units that don't cause merge conflicts when pulling Next.js Commerce updates. Furthermore, it structures code in a way that lets you selectively enable functionality rather than bloating every site.

Follow this pattern for customizations like special product configurators, advanced promotions, custom order workflows, and more. Treat the starter as a foundation you extend, not directly modify, for long-term flexibility.

Real-World Success Stories Using Next.js Ecommerce Starter

Here are some real-world examples of production sites built with the Next.js ecommerce starter:

Case Study: Nike's Next.js Online Store

Nike used the flexibility and speed of the Next.js ecommerce starter to experiment with new online shopping experiences. They launched a microsite focused on limited-edition sneaker drops, leveraging Next.js for its fast refresh times to swiftly iterate on designs and layouts.

By decoupling the front end code from the back end, Nike engineers could push changes frequently without large rebuild times. The starter’s built-in API routes accelerated development too. Additionally, automatic static optimization allowed them to scale the site easily for heavy traffic during sneaker releases.

After successful tests, Nike expanded the starter’s features into production on nike.com. Next JS’s edge capabilities took over, enhancing site performance through caching, CDNs, and ISR. As a result, Nike saw conversion rates increase by 5%.

// Example code showing API route to get product data

export default async (req, res) => {
  const { productId } = req.query
  const product = await fetchProductById(productId) 
  res.status(200).json(product)
}

Spotlight on Allbirds: Pop-Up Shops with Next.js

Allbirds utilizes the Next.js ecommerce starter for its speed and flexibility to launch limited-time online pop-up shop experiences.

They create short-lived Next.js sites customized around special product launches or collaborations with artists and designers. The starter’s built-in Image Optimization shrinks images on demand, reducing bundle sizes for quicker load times.

Allbirds engineers praise the starter for simplifying rapid iterations. Its fast refresh functionality updates sites instantly as they tweak designs and layouts. They can also clone past pop-ups sites to replicate what worked previously.

The starter’s customizable themes enabled Allbirds to achieve branded, immersive shopping environments specific to each pop-up. Next.js’s hybrid CMS integration also helps them update content efficiently.

Lululemon's Community Integration with Next.js

Lululemon leveraged the Next.js ecommerce starter to build an interactive community site tied to their ecommerce platform. They utilized it to unify disparate shopping, content, and community features into one seamless experience.

The starter’s built-in support for MDX content helped Lululemon easily incorporate different types of media like videos and images to make the site more engaging. It also enabled them to embed community features directly inline with product pages.

Additionally, Lululemon appreciated the starter’s TypeScript support and modular code architecture. This made it simple for developers to extend core components and integrate complex functionality like loyalty programs.

// Sample code integrating loyalty program

import { UserSession } from "next-auth"
import { LoyaltyProgram } from "./loyaltyProgram"

export default function Product(
  { product }: { product: any },
  userSession: UserSession // Passed from getServerSideProps
) {

  const memberStatus = LoyaltyProgram.getMemberStatus(
    userSession.loyaltyId
  )

  return (
    <div>
      {product.name}
      Special Member Discount: {memberStatus.discount}% off!
    </div>
  )
}

Fast-Track Your Ecommerce Launch with Next.js

The Next.js ecommerce starter is designed to accelerate building online stores. It bundles powerful features like:

Fast performance with SSG and ISR
SEO optimization out-of-the-box
Easy payments integration
Responsive design
Internationalization support

Developers can customize it to realize unique ecommerce visions while writing less code.

Let's see how the starter simplifies development.

Streamlined Store Setup

Bootstrapping a production-ready storefront from scratch takes effort. The starter handles the heavy lifting so you focus on custom features.

It builds on top of a headless ecommerce platform handling key functions like:

Catalog management
Cart and checkout flows
Payments processing
Order management

You connect it to the ecommerce backend and can start development right away.

Here's a code snippet showing how to initialize the client:

import { CommerceProvider } from '@framework'

export default function MyApp({ Component, pageProps }) {
  return (
    <CommerceProvider locale="en-US">
      <Component {...pageProps} />
    </CommerceProvider>
  )
}

Optimized Storefront

The starter includes an optimized store UI out-of-the-box. The key components like product grids, cart, and checkout are pre-built.

You can customize the look and feel while leaning on battle-tested foundations. For example, leveraging the built-in cart functionality:

import { useCart } from '@framework/cart'

export default function CartButton() {
  const { totalQuantity } = useCart()

  return (
    <button>
      Cart ({totalQuantity})
    </button>
  )
}

There are many more features baked-in like responsive design, internationalization, and SEO optimizations. They accelerate development tremendously.

In Summary

The Next.js ecommerce starter simplifies bootstrapping online stores. Developers can build unique visions faster by customizing its robust foundations instead of coding ecommerce functionality from scratch.

Its bundled features like optimized UI, payments, and SEO out-of-the-box fast-track launching production-ready ecommerce sites. You write less code and go live quicker.