At the same time, requirements, campaigns, and markets are constantly changing. This means that an online store must not only keep pace with technological advancements but also be able to adapt quickly to new ideas and requirements.

In many online stores, creative freedom ends where the actual purchase process begins. Marketing teams can usually design and modify the homepage, landing pages, themed sections, and content hubs on their own. With product detail pages, product lists, search results, shopping carts, and checkout, however, the situation is often different: Here, the layout is based on fixed templates. Making a change then quickly means opening a ticket, setting a priority, and waiting for the next sprint.

With the Frontend Studio, we aim to eliminate this separation - not by simply adding more options, but by making it possible to design the store pages themselves just as freely as the surrounding content.

There are a few requirements for this that we would have previously answered with “It’s possible - but it’ll take some time.” Today, online store owners can implement such adjustments themselves.

For example, a radically streamlined product detail page for heavily promoted products: no “customers also bought,” no recommendations, and no seven accordions with additional information. Instead, just the product image, the price, the key benefit, and the buy button. A version like this can be created and deployed specifically for products in a campaign - without having to involve developers.

Or a custom product detail page for a specific market. After all, what’s relevant to customers in Germany doesn’t necessarily work the same way in France, the Netherlands, or Italy. Perhaps prominent delivery promises are particularly important in the Netherlands, while in Italy the size guide should be positioned higher up on the page. Instead of building increasingly complex template logic with exceptions, you can simply create a separate variant for each market.

Even an “add to cart” button directly on a hero banner is no longer an exception. Normally, this is where the line between the CMS and the online store ends: the banner comes from the content management system, and the store functionality comes from the front end. In the Frontend Studio, you can connect the two - the button simply becomes another page element.

The Frontend Studio is a WYSIWYG editor for store templates. Modules can be placed using drag-and-drop, and existing templates can be duplicated and customized without altering the original. The live preview with real product data lets you see right away how the page will look in the online store.

Of course, changes don’t go live immediately. Adjustments go through an approval process, versions are saved, and can be restored if necessary. Publications can be scheduled, and permissions can be assigned specifically - for marketing, content, or e-commerce teams.

The studio is designed so that even teams without HTML, CSS, or programming skills can work with it. Those who manage content, campaigns, and product assortments on a daily basis should be able to implement changes immediately - without needing a development ticket for every adjustment.

Technically, the entire system is based on a modular front end using Next.js, Headless Components, and server-side streaming. The individual pages consist of building blocks that can be modified and recombined independently of one another. This is precisely what creates the flexibility that the Frontend Studio needs.

The Frontend Studio is already live - starting with the product detail page. That’s exactly where a high degree of flexibility is needed today.

Additional areas will be added step by step. Landing pages and product lists will follow shortly, and then the search, shopping cart, checkout, and account areas will be added as well.

The Frontend Studio is part of the Configuration Center, the new back office of our empiriecom Suite.