Storefront in Framer, commerce behind it
Framer Commerce and Shopify
Framer owns the collections, the product page, the variants and the cart. Shopify owns checkout, payments, inventory and tax — or, for a small catalogue, Framer owns all of it. Which one you need is four questions, not a sales call.
What a storefront actually has to do
Six mechanics, and every one of them is where a pretty store quietly stops working. Each tile runs the real thing.
The variant matrix
Five sizes across three colours is fifteen things to buy, and a handful of them are always sold out. The page has to price the combination, know which ones exist, and refuse the ones that do not — before anyone reaches the cart.
Where the boundary sits
Framer takes the customer as far as the cart. Shopify takes them from checkout onwards. That line is the whole architecture, and checkout is the single thing on a store nobody should ever rebuild.
Inventory read, never copied
The site reads stock from the same place your team edits it. Nothing is duplicated into the design, so a size selling out shows as sold out without anyone touching a page.
Which backend the answers add up to
Subscriptions, catalogue size, other sales channels, regional tax. Any one of them true and Shopify should own the commerce. None of them true and native Framer Commerce is genuinely enough — which is the answer more often than people expect.
The cart, then the handover
Line items and subtotal live in Framer. The moment the customer commits, they cross to Shopify and stay there.
The theme apps that stop working
This is the part nobody mentions until launch week. Reviews, upsell widgets, wishlists and bundle builders inject themselves into a Liquid theme, and there is no Liquid theme any more. Every one of them gets a named replacement or an honest gap, agreed before you commit.
Who owns what
Every argument about a Framer storefront is really an argument about this line. Hover anything to see why it sits on that side.
Home and collectionsLayout, art direction and merchandising — the part that is design work, not commerce plumbing.
Which one you actually need
Four switches. Turn on the ones that are true for your shop and the answer changes underneath. If none of them are on, you do not need Shopify and I will tell you so.
Products, variants and checkout handled natively. One platform, one bill, and nothing to sync. This is the right answer more often than people expect.
What it costs
Framer Commerce
A small catalogue on native Framer commerce. One platform, one bill, nothing to sync — and no Shopify subscription underneath it.
$4,800
and up · about 3 weeks
Shopify storefront
Framer storefront with Shopify owning the catalogue, inventory, tax and checkout. Product and collection templates built against your real data.
$8,500
and up · 4 to 6 weeks
Replatform from a theme
An existing Shopify store keeps its admin, orders and apps — only the storefront changes. Priced after the catalogue and app audit.
Quoted
after the audit
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Framer has native commerce — products, variants, a cart and checkout — and for a small catalogue with straightforward shipping it is genuinely enough. One platform, one bill, and nothing to keep in sync. That is the right answer more often than people expect.
Once any of four things is true: you sell subscriptions, you have more than roughly fifty products, you sell on other channels as well, or your tax and shipping rules vary by region. Any one of those and Shopify should own the commerce while Framer owns the storefront.
On Shopify. Framer owns the home page, the collections, the product page and the cart; the customer crosses to Shopify at checkout and stays there for payment, tax and fulfilment. Checkout is the one part of a store nobody should rebuild — it is PCI compliant and tested against millions of orders.
The ones that inject into a Liquid theme do not, because there is no Liquid theme any more. Reviews, upsell widgets, wishlists and bundle builders all need a replacement, and you get that list before you commit rather than after. Apps that work server-side — shipping, accounting, fulfilment — are unaffected.
The site reads Shopify rather than keeping its own copy. Variant availability and stock counts come from the same source your team already edits, so a size selling out shows as sold out on the site without anyone touching the design.
Yes, and the products stay exactly where they are — only the storefront changes. Your admin, orders, inventory and apps continue as they were. The theme URLs get mapped and redirected so search results and paid ads keep working.
A native Framer Commerce store starts at $4,800 and takes about three weeks. A Shopify-backed storefront starts at $8,500 and takes four to six, mostly depending on how many product templates the catalogue actually needs.
Send me the catalogue and your app list
Product count, variant count and a screenshot of your installed apps is enough to scope this properly. You get the backend recommendation, the list of apps that need replacing, and a fixed number — including the case where you should stay on your current theme.