Server-side rendering (SSR) is the ability to fully render React components on the server, sending to the user simple HTML files, rather than having the browser itself render the components. This wasn’t entirely impossible before Next.js emerged, but it required a lot of additional tweaking. Static site generation (SSG) makes it possible to generate a HTML page for the user during build time. A pre-made HTML like this is extremely fast, but its interactivity is limited as it has to be rebuilt every time it receives input. With Next.js, devs can provide SSR and SSG easily and are able to focus on the business logic instead.

Both SSR and SSG make the app far easier to index for search engines, greatly aiding SEO efforts, which are especially important for text-heavy pages and applications.

The bigger your application is, the more apparent the pros of Next.js become. Improved performance, shorter development time, enhanced UX or more organic traffic can all make a great difference for a large-scale application. However, in order to fully benefit from these features, you need experienced Next.js developers.

It’s easy to understand why e-commerce enterprises really appreciate Next.js. All of its promises, including better performance, UX and SEO, can greatly improve conversion rates and sales. If you already use React and want to polish your e-commerce project with the objective of actually improving your bottom line, Next.js is a natural choice.