Building consumer brands in the F&B industry is challenging, requiring seamless integration, high performance, and scalability. Crave Up simplifies this process, providing tools and APIs that make it easier to create high-quality online ordering experiences. This guide introduces you to building headless with Crave Up, explaining custom storefronts, how they work, and how they streamline your development process, helping you overcome the complexities of building and scaling consumer brands in the F&B sector.

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What is a custom storefront?

A custom storefront is a model of building headless, where the frontend and backend of your storefront are independent of each other. You build the frontend while Crave Up powers the backend, allowing merchants to create bespoke storefront experiences with the robust capabilities of Crave Up’s ordering engine.

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How custom storefronts work

A custom storefront is designed, built, and managed by you. This is the frontend. You can use your preferred tech stack and a development framework that you already know to build faster. You build headless by integrating your custom frontend with Crave Up’s powerful ordering capabilities and backend operations, ensuring a seamless and efficient online ordering experience.

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Data and online ordering capabilities

Your custom storefront uses data and ordering capabilities from Crave Up. This is the backend. Data might include products, collections, and customers. Ordering capabilities might include cart management and international pricing.”

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Building on an API-first platform

Headless online ordering doesn’t apply just to websites. For example, Crave Up can also be used in other kinds of ordering experiences such as mobile apps, video games, smart devices, and more.

The benefit of building on an API-first platform is the flexibility and power of enabling new customer touchpoints while using the same shared ordering data and backend tools that Crave Up provides.

Complex solutions can involve connecting other business systems to the frontend or backend, such as the following:

  • Content management systems (CMS)
  • Customer relationship management (CRM)
  • Point of Sale systems (POS)

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When should I build a custom storefront?

If a merchant’s desired business system architecture, business process, or customer experience can’t be achieved with Crave Up’s existing sales channels, custom themes, and apps, then consider building a custom storefront.

Consider building a custom storefront in the following scenarios:

  • You’re building a unique storefront experience that isn’t possible or easily achievable with existing web or mobile tools.
  • You have an existing web frontend technology stack that doesn’t align with standard solutions.
  • You want to integrate Crave Up-powered ordering into an existing infrastructure.
  • You have robust omni-channel needs, with multiple channels not being offered out of the box.
  • You’re either using or looking to use a content management system (CMS) for more complex content needs that are integrated into your storefront experience.

However, before taking on the commitment, make sure that the merchant is comfortable with taking on the added costs and complexity of managing a custom storefront solution. The merchant should also have development resources available to manage the ongoing integration after launch.

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Key benefits

Building a custom storefront offers the following key benefits:

  • Flexibility: The Storefront API is device-agnostic and platform-agnostic. You can build a custom storefront using any programming language, making your workflow flexible.
  • Customization: Create a solution that grows and adapts with a merchant’s business. As customer trends and interactions change, the ordering solution can adapt quickly to long-term market shifts.
  • Integration: Bring your own tools, technology stack, and experience, and integrate your custom backend with Crave Up’s ordering data.

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Examples

With a custom storefront solution, you have complete flexibility in your frontend tech stack and development framework. Here are some common business types and use cases:

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Business Types

  • Hotels
  • Restaurants
  • Golf Courses
  • Cafes
  • And more!

If your business type isn’t listed, reach out to us at hello@craveup.com to discuss how we can support your needs.

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Use Cases

  • Provide hotel in-room delivery services for food and amenities
  • Sell products from a native mobile app or a progressive web application (PWA)
  • Enable in-course ordering for golf courses using delivery robots
  • Add a buy button to an existing website for seamless transactions
  • Offer food and beverages through a smart fridge or IoT device
  • Sell products in video livestreams
  • Facilitate contactless ordering and pickup for cafes

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Krypton demo store

The Krypton demo store is Crave Up’s example custom storefront. You can refer to it to understand how a custom storefront can be put together, or fork it as a starting point to build your own custom storefront.

Build Options