The quickest way to identify an ecommerce platform is to run the site through Wappalyzer or BuiltWith, then confirm the result in the page source and browser network requests. This 2-stage check can distinguish Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, a headless setup or a custom platform.

Ecommerce Platform Detection Methods at a Glance

Method Best for Reliability
Wappalyzer Quick identification while browsing Good first check
BuiltWith Domain-level technology reports Good first check, with confidence indicators
View source Finding platform-specific code and URLs Strong when fingerprints are visible
Browser DevTools Inspecting cart, product and checkout requests Strong technical confirmation
Checkout inspection Identifying hosted commerce infrastructure Useful supporting evidence

1. Use Wappalyzer or BuiltWith First

Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer identifies ecommerce platforms, content management systems, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools and other technologies used by a website. You can use its lookup tool or browser extension while visiting the store.

Enter the website domain and look for entries such as:

  • Shopify
  • WooCommerce
  • Magento or Adobe Commerce
  • BigCommerce
  • Wix Stores
  • Squarespace Commerce
  • Ecwid

BuiltWith

BuiltWith provides a domain report based on technology signals exposed by the website. BuiltWith says its detection system looks for signals associated with particular technologies and assigns confidence scores to detected results.

Use BuiltWith when you need information about:

  • The ecommerce platform
  • The CMS
  • The web server
  • The CDN
  • Analytics tools
  • Payment providers
  • Marketing technology
  • Hosting and infrastructure

Treat both services as starting points, not final proof. A custom or headless site may hide the system that manages its catalogue, cart or checkout.

2. Check the Website's Page Source

Right-click the page and select View Page Source, or use:

  • Windows: Ctrl + U
  • Mac: Option + Command + U

Search the source for platform names, script paths and recognisable URL patterns.

Common Ecommerce Platform Fingerprints

Platform Source-code clues
Shopify Shopify, window.Shopify, cdn.shopify.com, shopifycloud.com, /cart.js
WooCommerce woocommerce, /wp-content/plugins/woocommerce/, /wp-content/themes/, /wp-json/wc/store/
Magento or Adobe Commerce Magento_, mage/, /static/version.../frontend/, requirejs
BigCommerce stencil, BigCommerce CDN references, theme assets and JavaScript bundles
WordPress without WooCommerce wp-content, wp-includes, WordPress REST API references

These clues come from the way each platform delivers storefront assets and commerce functionality. Shopify documents the /cart.js Ajax endpoint, WooCommerce documents Store API paths such as /wp-json/wc/store/v1/cart, Adobe Commerce uses versioned frontend static asset directories, and BigCommerce Stencil themes use organised theme and JavaScript directories.

Important Limitation

One fingerprint does not prove which platform a site uses. For example, wp-content confirms that WordPress is present, but it does not confirm that WooCommerce is installed.

Look for a second signal, such as:

  • A WooCommerce plugin path
  • A WooCommerce cart request
  • Product-page classes associated with WooCommerce
  • A Store API endpoint
  • WooCommerce-specific JavaScript

3. Inspect Cart and Product Requests in Browser DevTools

Network requests can reveal the commerce platform when the visible page and source code have been heavily customised.

How to Inspect Requests

  1. Open the ecommerce website.
  2. Open browser DevTools with F12 or Ctrl + Shift + I.
  3. Select the Network tab.
  4. Filter the requests by Fetch/XHR.
  5. Reload the page.
  6. Open a product page.
  7. Add an item to the cart.
  8. Review the request URLs and response data.

Useful Request Patterns

Shopify

A Shopify-hosted theme may request:

/cart.js
/cart/add.js
/cart/update.js

Shopify's Ajax API documentation identifies /cart.js as an endpoint for retrieving the current cart and documents cart operations for Shopify-hosted themes.

WooCommerce

A WooCommerce store may expose requests such as:

/wp-json/wc/store/v1/cart
/wp-json/wc/store/v1/products
/wp-json/wc/store/v1/checkout

WooCommerce documents these Store API endpoints for customer-facing product, cart and checkout functionality.

Magento or Adobe Commerce

Look for:

/static/version.../frontend/
requirejs
Magento_
mage/

Magento and Adobe Commerce often compile storefront assets into structured static frontend directories. The exact paths vary by deployment, theme and caching configuration.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce storefronts may expose Stencil-related theme assets and JavaScript bundles. BigCommerce's Stencil documentation describes theme directories containing assets, JavaScript, templates and configuration files.

4. Inspect the Checkout Page

Checkout can reveal the commerce platform even when the homepage uses a heavily customised frontend.

Check whether:

  • The checkout uses a different subdomain.
  • The URL changes to a platform-hosted checkout.
  • The page loads platform-specific scripts.
  • Cart and order requests use a recognisable API.
  • The site sends the customer to a hosted payment or checkout service.

A platform-owned checkout domain is useful supporting evidence, but it is not conclusive. A store may use a custom checkout domain, a third-party checkout system or a headless frontend connected to a separate commerce backend.

5. Check Cookies, Scripts and Asset Domains

Open the browser's Application or Storage panel and inspect cookies after visiting the site and adding an item to the cart.

Also review:

  • JavaScript filenames
  • CSS filenames
  • Image CDN domains
  • Cookie names
  • Inline configuration objects
  • JSON-LD product data
  • HTML classes and IDs

These signals are less reliable on their own. Agencies may rename files, bundle JavaScript, use a CDN or remove platform branding. They become more useful when they support a Wappalyzer, BuiltWith or network result.

How to Identify the Main Ecommerce Platforms

Shopify

A site is probably using Shopify when several of these signals appear together:

  • window.Shopify appears in the source.
  • Assets load from cdn.shopify.com or related Shopify infrastructure.
  • The site uses /cart.js, /cart/add.js or similar Ajax endpoints.
  • Product or theme data contains Shopify-specific objects.
  • Wappalyzer or BuiltWith reports Shopify.

A custom Shopify storefront may not expose the usual theme signals. Shopify states that its Ajax API is available to Shopify-hosted themes but not custom storefronts. The absence of /cart.js therefore does not rule out Shopify.

WooCommerce

A site is probably using WooCommerce when it contains:

  • WordPress paths such as /wp-content/
  • A WooCommerce plugin directory
  • woocommerce in script, CSS or HTML class names
  • WooCommerce Store API requests
  • WordPress product URLs combined with WooCommerce cart behaviour

The strongest combination is WordPress plus a WooCommerce-specific plugin or Store API signal. WordPress alone is not enough.

Magento or Adobe Commerce

Look for:

  • Magento_ module names
  • mage/ JavaScript paths
  • RequireJS configuration
  • Versioned /static/ frontend assets
  • Magento-specific checkout modules
  • A detector result identifying Magento or Adobe Commerce

Magento stores often use customised themes that hide visible branding. DevTools may reveal more than the source code.

BigCommerce

Look for:

  • Stencil-related scripts or theme references
  • BigCommerce-hosted asset domains
  • Organised theme assets and JavaScript bundles
  • BigCommerce checkout or cart requests
  • A Wappalyzer or BuiltWith result identifying BigCommerce

BigCommerce also supports custom and headless storefronts. In those cases, the frontend may look like a conventional React, Next.js or other custom application rather than a standard BigCommerce theme.

What If the Tools Give Different Answers?

Conflicting results usually point to one of these situations:

  1. The site uses a headless setup. The visible frontend and ecommerce backend are separate systems.

  2. The site uses multiple platforms. WordPress may power the blog while Shopify, WooCommerce or another platform handles commerce.

  3. The site uses a custom theme. Platform-specific names and paths may have been removed or bundled.

  4. The detector has stale data. Lookup services may rely on a previous crawl rather than a live inspection.

  5. The site hides its checkout. The platform may only become visible after you add a product or begin checkout.

Inspect the homepage, product page, cart and checkout separately. The product page may reveal the frontend framework, while the cart or checkout identifies the commerce backend.

A Practical Confidence Scale

Use this classification when reporting your findings:

  • Confirmed: Two or more independent signals identify the same platform, such as Wappalyzer plus a platform-specific cart endpoint.
  • Likely: A detector identifies the platform and the source contains one supporting fingerprint.
  • Possible: Only generic clues are visible, such as WordPress, a CDN or a payment provider.
  • Unknown: The site is custom, headless or sufficiently obfuscated that no reliable platform signal is exposed.

The Fastest Reliable Workflow

For most websites, use this sequence:

  1. Run the domain through Wappalyzer.
  2. Check the same domain in BuiltWith.
  3. View the page source and search for platform-specific terms.
  4. Open DevTools and inspect cart or product requests.
  5. Check the checkout URL and network activity.
  6. Compare signals across the product, cart and checkout pages.
  7. Report the result as confirmed, likely, possible or unknown.

This method is more dependable than judging the platform from visual design. Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and BigCommerce stores can all use custom branding, themes and frontend frameworks that make them look similar.