How to Build a Fast and Scalable E-commerce Store with Nuxt.js & Strapi

If you are reading this, you know how much revenue these e-commerce app developments bring to you.

The question has shifted from "Why should I launch an e-commerce app?" to "How can I approach it effectively?"

Nuxt.js and Strapi make the answer much easier than you would think. Simply use these tools to create a fast, flexible, user-friendly store that provides a seamless experience on any device.

With Nuxt your website loads in no time, works great on every device, and Strapi makes sure all the backend stuff for products and orders runs smoothly. Combined they’re a winning team and can help you build a store that’s an absolute joy to use and to maintain as well.

Are you looking forward to finding out how these tools can take your store-building game to the next level?

Now, let's dive in and see how this dynamic duo can join forces to help you build something wonderful!

What’s up with Strapi?

Strapi is an open-source Node.js-based headless CMS. It gives developers flexibility by letting them pick their favorite tools and frameworks. But at the same time, it also makes it easy for editors to manage, and distribute content smoothly.

Strapi is a popular headless CMS because it excels at flexibility and being super adaptable. To leverage it effectively, you can hire Strapi developers who can customize the system for your specific business objectives. Developers can work with any tools they love.

Its API-first design ensures smooth integration with Nuxt.js, offering customization for your store. The dashboard simplifies content management. You could also add payment gateways, shipping handling procedures, and all the other features that make e-commerce slick and easy from start to finish.

Key Features of Strapi

• Intuitive admin panel for managing content.
• Powerful plugin ecosystem for extending functionality.
• Auto-generated RESTful and GraphQL APIs are flexible for data handling.
• Highly customizable and scalable architecture.
• Support databases like MongoDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and MySQL.

And what about Nuxt.js?

Nuxt. JavaScript is a powerful toolkit that lets us develop faster and more smoothly thanks to Vue. It provides an easy, extendable way to create type-safe, fast, production-grade, full-stack web apps and websites with Vue.js. 

Many businesses are using Nuxt to build fast and powerful apps. If you want to do the same, hire Nuxt.js developers to help bring your project to life easily.

It also provides an organized way to work with Vue.js code that simplifies standard tasks and connects us to performance, as well as Search Engine Optimization.

Key Features of Nuxt.js

• Server-side rendering (SSR) for faster load times and better SEO.
• Static site generation (SSG) for fast, deployable sites.
• Modular architecture with easy integration of plug-ins and modules.
• Built with Vue it's reactive and super intuitive for coding great apps.
• Automatic code-splitting for optimized page loading.
• File-system-based routing for quick page creation.
• Universal mode to seamlessly switch between SSR and SPA.

Why Nuxt.js and Strapi?

Nuxt. js and Strapi are an excellent combination for building an e-commerce site due to their complementary strengths. 

Nuxt.js, a Vue.js framework, simplifies the creation of fast, SEO-friendly applications with features like server-side rendering, automatic code splitting, and pre-rendering. That means a silky smooth, delightful user experience, where loading pages is super quick and easy.

On the other side, Strapi, which is a headless CMS that offers a flexible, API-driven backend, makes it easy to manage products, categories, and orders.

Together, Nuxt.js handles the front end, delivering a slick user interface, while Strapi powers the back end, providing content and APIs for your store. This decoupled approach ensures flexibility, scalability, and easy maintenance.

Okay, enough talking. Let’s get to the nitty-gritty.

Steps on How to Build an E-commerce Store with Nuxt.js and Strapi.

Prerequisites

Node. js and npm installed on your system

Basic information about JavaScript

Basic knowledge of Vue and Nuxt.Js

Node.js  npm installed; npm comes with Node.js by default now, so you can download Node.js from the Node.js professional site if you have not already.

Step 1: Create a project environment

A proper project environment setup is the very first step because it makes development easier and nicer. You’ll need Node. js and npm installed on your machine. These enable you to manage both the front end and the back end of the store.

Install Node.js and npm

Ensure that you have the latest versions of Node up and running. js and npm. Otherwise, get them from the official Node. js website. Run the following to verify your installation

node -v
npm -v

This will print out the versions of Node. Make sure you have node. js install on your machine.

Create Project Directories

Then create two folders on your nuxt. Strapi backend and js frontend. This separation ensures modularity and better project management.

mkdir my-ecommerce-store
mkdir my-strapi-backend

Now navigate to such directories and configure your projects as mentioned in the following steps.

Step 2: Initialize Nuxt.js and Strapi Projects

Now, let’s set both the Nuxt. Frontend which is using React and Javascript and the backend with Strapi. This should help you build the structural base for your e-commerce store, and then follow this tutorial from Audacity.

Nuxt.js Initialization

To initialize a Nuxt.js project, in your my-ecommerce-store directory, run:

npx create-nuxt-app my-ecommerce-store

Nuxt will show it is ready to set up and suggest templates, languages, and additional settings. Whatever works best for your use case. Choose the default theme for an e-commerce site and also turn on server-side rendering (SSR) to improve speed and indexing.

Strapi Initialization

For the strapi backend, cd into the my-strapi-backend directory and run:

npx create-strapi-app my-strapi-backend

Follow the installation instructions to set up your Strapi project. You can create a Custom template or use an existing template. However, building from zero gives the most flexibility.

You can run both projects to ensure they were configured correctly after setting everything up.

Step 3: How To Create Content Types in Strapi

Now that the backend has been configured, it is necessary to design the structure of the store’s content. Content types in Strapi are the models of data that are going to be necessary for managing products, categories, orders, users, etc.

Access Strapi Admin

Start your Strapi backend by running: Start your Strapi backend by running:

Strapi will launch its admin panel at http://localhost:1337. Sign in using the username and password you entered while installing the application.

Define Content Types

In the Strapi dashboard, create the following key content types:

• Products: For creating all data related to products, such as product names, descriptions, product prices, and pictures.
• Categories: To categorize all kinds of products that are available.
• Users: For maintaining and functioning customer accounts.
• Orders: To record the order details of each customer, their order status, and other details.

It is now possible to specify the fields that are appropriate for the different content types.

For every content type, you need to create the fields that are going to store the data. For example, a product content type could have fields like:

The best thing about Strapi is that you can adapt these content types to your specific needs as a business.

Step 4: Strapi configures its API Routes

By default, Strapi creates RESTful and GraphQL API routes for any content type that has been created. You might need to ask for specific routes or permissions to restrict access to the API as well.

Custom API Routes

If you want to use some specific rules that run inside your business and control things, you can personalize the paths of your API by tinkering with some route settings in Strapi. This is handy if your repository needs custom workflows or data management and things like that.

Configure Permissions

Strapi enables authors to control access based on roles. That means they can control who can see or edit the content. For instance, only authorized users might be allowed to order or see certain data.

These permissions ensure that using my API is safe and secure, and they also make it super easy for the users of my API to interact with it.

Step 5: Integrate Strapi with Nuxt.js

With all the backend ready to rock, now we need to put it together with the front end. We'll use Axios to deal with API requests between Nuxt.js and Strapi.

Install Axios

First, install Axios in your Nuxt.js project:

npm install @nuxtjs/axios

Configure Axios

Next, configure Axios in your nuxt.Config.Js document by putting the base URL in your Strapi API. This URL may be used to fetch content from your Strapi backend.

//javascript
export default {
modules: ['@nuxtjs/axios'],
axios: {
baseURL: 'http://localhost:1337' // Replace with your Strapi API URL
}
}

Fetch data from Strapi

Once Axios is installed, you can fetch information from your Strapi backend. For instance, to show merchandise on the homepage, use the following code in your Nuxt.js component:

//javascript
async asyncData({ $axios }) {
const products = await $axios.$get('/products');
return { products };
}

This fetches a list of products from Strapi and passes them to the Nuxt.js component for rendering.

Step 6: Create the Frontend Using Nuxt.js

The next process that you should follow is to develop the front end of the user interface for your e-commerce store.

Create Vue.js Components

Build components for essential parts of your e-commerce store:

• Product Listings: Show the list of products along with the pagination.
• Product Details: Display the specific information about the offered products.
• Shopping Cart: Let customers make changes to the cart, such as adding and deleting items or changing their quantities.
• Checkout: In the end, handling things as crucial as a confirmation of the order as well as the payment procedure is important.

Implement Routing

Nuxt.js has the advantage that routes are automatically generated based on the component’s file structure. This system can be utilized to create your routes for product pages, the cart, and checkout.

Handle State Management

Use Vuex to manage global states like user sessions and shopping carts across pages. Vuex creates a store for state management. This helps make shopping super easy when people want to buy something or put things in their cart.

Style the UI

On the appearance of the store, it is recommended to rely on CSS or Sass, or to use more global UI libraries such as Tailwind CSS. Make sure your store is super mobile, super user-friendly, and easy to figure out where things are.

Step 7: Integrate Stripe Payments

Without Payment Processing, there isn't an e-commerce store! We’re going to be doing this with Stripe.

Create a Stripe Account

Sign up for a Stripe account and get your API keys that you will need for your challenge.

Install Stripe.js

This is generally how you start in Nuxt with Stripe-js, install the Stripe.js library:

npm install @stripe/stripe-js

Implement Payment Processing

Create a checkout element that will process the payment form submission. Securely handle bills through Stripe's API. You would need payment intent generation and order confirmation handling.

Step 8: Use Nodemailer to Send Emails

Using the confirmation emails to improve the user experience once the orders are placed. Nodemailer has this very well covered.

Install Nodemailer

So first, you wanna install Nodemailer in your Nuxt. js project:

npm install nodemailer

Configure Nodemailer

This means visiting an SMTP setup on the email provider's end and configuring Nodemailer. This can then be used to dispatch transactional emails like order confirmation emails, password reset emails, or even emails that communicate their consignment to the customer.

Step 9: Deploy Your E-commerce Store

Deploy is running the final piece; it opens your store up to the world.

Choose a Hosting Platform

For the front end with Nuxt, you could deploy to Vercel or Netlify. Heroku or DigitalOcean are both great choices for hosting the Strapi backend.

Configure Deployment

The deployment process is different for each platform, but in general, you will have to configure environment variables and push your code to the platform’s hosting servers.

Deploy the Application

Deploy the frontend (Nuxt.js) and backend (Strapi). Your E-Commerce Store Will be Live Once Deployed.

Closing thoughts,

Creating an e-commerce store with Nuxt.js and Strapi is such a powerful combo. When it comes to providing flexibility and scalability using the headless CMS architecture of Strapi along with Nuxt.js's Vue.js-powered frontend, customize your online save to your particular needs with a performance.

So why wait? Let’s get started building your dream e-shop using Strapi and Nuxt.