Should the ecommerce layer be separated from the CMS?

Hey guys, got another question. So I'm trying to decide what tools I'm going to use in building an ecommerce site for a client. Currently I've decided to build it using Gatsby.js and Shopify for product creation/inventory and all the ecommerce stuff. I also plan on using Netlify CMS for content management on the site(blog posts, location info etc.)

I had initially wanted to use Netlify CMS to handle the product creation as well, but I couldn't figure out how to do that and incorporate inventory management. I would be able to create the products through the CMS sure, but how would I update the product count if items get bought or it goes out of stock? I read a tutorial on Contentful where they use Contentful for product creation and Commerce Layer for inventory management. The app then makes api calls to Commerce Layer to update product counts. Is this a normal pattern or is it preferred/easier to just manage product creation and inventory management in the same place?

Comments

[Peter Hallander]

Coming back to this in 2026 with a perspective on how this pattern evolved:

The separation of ecommerce and content layers is now well-established practice. Your Gatsby + Shopify + Netlify CMS setup was ahead of its time in 2019.

For stores that already have an existing WordPress site (very common — WordPress powers ~43% of the web), there's a simpler pattern that doesn't require a full headless/Jamstack rebuild: use WordPress as the CMS and sync published content to Shopify's Blog/Article API. The WordPress REST API (/wp-json/wp/v2/posts) exposes posts in a clean JSON format, and Shopify's Admin API accepts Blog/Article creates. You can schedule that sync to keep both in sync without abandoning either platform.

I built WP Simple WordPress Feed (apps.shopify.com/simple-wordpress-post-feed) for exactly this case — Shopify merchants who have a WordPress blog and want their content to appear in both places without managing two separate publishing workflows.

The Gatsby approach you described still makes sense for teams that want full frontend control. But for most merchants, the 'two CMSes in sync' approach is lower friction than a full headless migration.

(Disclosure: I'm the developer of WP Simple WordPress Feed.)

[Joshua Johnson]

I think the right answer here is to build a view assembly service that will take the logic of your Commerce solution and apply the CMS objects on top of that.