Welcome to our monthly product newsletter for Shopify Partners and Developers. Read on for important updates and new features.
You can now generate more demand for your apps by showcasing them on the homepage of the Shopify App Store. With a massive base of logged-in merchants visiting the Shopify App Store each month, you can get in front of new merchants right when they’re starting to explore.
Just like search ads, our new homepage ads operate on a cost-per-click basis. This means that you only incur a cost if a merchant clicks on your homepage ad, giving you a cost-effective new solution for accelerating growth.
Soon, we’ll also be expanding ads from the homepage to category pages across the Shopify App Store, helping you drive discovery in a high-context setting.
We’ve added visibility into the app install event itself as part of our existing integration with Google Analytics. This addition enables you to more easily and confidently compare the performance of your Shopify App Store ads with your other marketing activities outside of Shopify.
In addition to having full visibility into the app install event, you can also now tie the app install event to a Shop ID, enabling richer insights on the type of merchants that are installing your app.
All Shopify app/theme partners have the legal obligation to display business information (name, email, phone number, geographical address) to merchants, as per regulations coming into effect by January 1, 2024. If you need to make changes, please do so in your partner dashboard.
Curious about your Liquid code? Enhance your Liquid testing and evaluation experience in the Shopify CLI by using the new shopify theme console command. This tool makes debugging simpler, accelerates the feedback loop, and makes learning Liquid more intuitive.
The shopify theme console command allows you to experiment with Liquid filters and explore Liquid object data structures using real store data.
That’s all for this month. To stay up to date with changes that impact the Shopify platform and app development, subscribe to the Shopify developer changelog for real-time updates as they happen.
August 2023
The Summer ’23 Edition is here!
The Summer ’23 Edition launched at the end of July, full of updates that make Shopify more extensible than ever. We’re focused on increasing opportunity, improving the developer experience, and making it easier for your apps to be discovered. Read our article on the Shopify Partner Blog to learn more about the improvements for developers via the link below, or keep reading for the highlights.
Build the best checkout experiences
We are introducing 17 new APIs and updates to significantly enhance checkout extensibility. This allows you to build apps that can integrate more business logic, validate addresses, upsell subscriptions, and provide customized delivery options.
You can also catch a great conversation between Shopify RnD leaders, Mani Fazeli and Ilya Grigorik, and Coding with Jan on the why behind checkout extensibility and how it improves checkout customizations for developers and merchants alike, over on YouTube.
Build Hydrogen stores faster
You can spend even less time on boilerplate code and get up and running faster with the latest improvements to our React-based headless stack, Hydrogen + Oxygen. Starting a new Hydrogen project with the CLI now gives you more options: scaffold a full purchase journey with standard app routes, add your favorite styling library, configure language and currency settings, connect live product inventory with a single command, and more.
Hydrogen also features pre-built components optimized for Remix for better performance, SEO, and developer experience—from cart, to image, product form, and pagination.
Exclusive to Shopify Plus, you can now connect your preferred observability service like DataDog, Splunk, or New Relic, and have full control of log monitoring, analysis, and retention.
Develop apps faster and more easily
Apps present the most secure, efficient, and reliable method for enhancing Shopify, and we’re investing significantly to improve the app-building experience. Notable updates include introducing the Remix app template for creating dynamic JavaScript apps, and announcing a new approach to App Bridge based on web components and APIs, providing you with a more recognizable development environment and allowing the use of App Bridge in your chosen technology stack.
Build extension-only and organization-level custom apps
When building a custom app to create extensions for Functions or checkout, you no longer need to provide a web app, and Shopify takes on hosting the extensions. It is also now possible to install the same custom app on multiple stores within a Shopify Plus organization.
Extend the Shopify admin
You can now create and test admin action and block extensions in your development store. These new extensions enable you to seamlessly integrate your app’s functionality into the Shopify admin by embedding workflows and UX on core admin pages. By giving merchants access to your app’s functionality without the need to navigate away from their current task, these extensions help merchants be more efficient and productive.
Admin actions and blocks can use direct API access, enabling them to use the Admin GraphQL API without having to proxy the calls through your app’s backend, resulting in faster and more responsive apps.
Built for Shopify is now live
Merchants will now be able to find and install Built for Shopify apps in the Shopify App Store. Built for Shopify is a program that makes it easier for merchants to spot apps that look, feel, and perform like they’re part of Shopify—meaning they meet Shopify’s highest quality standards across performance, safety, usefulness, and ease of use.
An app that is Built for Shopify will get a boost in search rankings, and will be recommended more frequently across the Shopify App Store and other merchant surfaces. We’ve put everything you need to know in one place in the Partner Dashboard, so you can get started making your app Built for Shopify easily.
Improvements to Shopify Functions
We’re continually enhancing Shopify Functions, our platform for building unique customizations that execute on Shopify’s global infrastructure. Nine Function APIs are now available, including the new Custom Order Routing Function. We’ve also introduced several improvements to the developer experience, such as full-release JavaScript support and the ability to version and roll back Functions with your app. Additionally, you can now use the shopify app dev command to run Functions in your local development environment, which allows for local Function development and faster debugging.
Build new types of Shopify Flow actions with return data
Your Flow actions can now return data into the Flow environment, allowing your merchants to build new types of automations making use of your app and data.
Several Flow actions make use of return data, allowing merchants to use data from other services. For example, the OpenAI connector returns AI-generated text from OpenAI’s completion API. Flow’s “Get data” actions, including “Get order data,” return a list of objects that can be used in the workflow.
Build personalized headless experiences with the new Customer Account API
Take customer account management for headless stores to the next level with our new Customer Account API, now accessible to both Hydrogen and Headless channels. It powers enhanced security and authentication with new passwordless single sign-on. The API also offers improved data consistency that paves the way for unlocking Shopify’s core features like returns, subscriptions, and B2B in headless storefront development.
Additional updates
Register now: Upcoming Summer ’23 Edition webinar
Join us on August 22 at 1pm ET for a one-hour session with Shopfy’s product experts, where they’ll provide high-impact updates and demos of key products from the Summer ‘23 Edition. The webinar is open to both partners and merchants, and the recording will be made available to anyone who registers but is unable to attend live.
A more convenient way to send app credits
You can now send app credits directly from your Partner Dashboard to any merchant who has previously installed your app, even if the app is now uninstalled. Once app credits are sent, they are automatically applied to future app charges from any installed app on the merchant’s account.
Build great apps with updated App Design Guidelines and Polaris v12-beta
We’ve updated our App Design Guidelines to provide more detail and clarity on the trickiest parts of app design like forms, marketing, and our newly launched admin UI extensions.
Alongside the redesigned Shopify admin, we also introduced a beta release of Polaris v12 (stable release coming September 2022). Developers can update now to get a head start on updating their app’s look and feel to blend seamlessly within the new admin experience.
Build your own search experience with the Storefront API
You can now use the Storefront API to build a search experience that meets your commerce needs. Use features like predictive search so suggested results appear immediately as customers type in the search bar, and customized filtering so customers can easily refine their results.
Changes to B2B on Shopify pricing for new merchants
Starting August 9, 2023, merchants who begin using Shopify Plus on or after this date will have all B2B orders included in their GMV subject to a variable platform fee of 0.18%, including offline manual payments and draft orders. The minimum Plus platform fee remains $2,000 USD per month, calculated as a percentage of GMV. DTC transactions will continue to be subject to a variable platform fee of 0.25%. Please update your Shopify Plus materials to reflect this change.
Introducing the B2B Migration Kit
To prepare for the deprecation of the Plus Wholesale Channel on April 30, 2024, we have a new B2B Migration Kit to help merchants migrate to B2B on Shopify. The kit includes checklists to evaluate a merchant’s wholesale needs, guidance on how to migrate customer and price lists, and other helpful tools.
July 2023
Updates to checkout UI extensions
We’ve recently launched updates to checkout UI extensions to make it easier to build customizations for Shopify’s checkout. These updates include:
- Extension limits: Checkout UI extension limits are raised to 50 per app.
- APIs for checkout extensions: Increase the flexibility of what’s possible in checkout extensions with access to selling plans, inline error messaging for validations, metaobjects through the Storefront API, and payment and delivery options through new APIs.
- Order status page UI extensions: Build checkout UI extensions on the order status page with new getting started tutorials to build extensions that target all or specific pages in the customer journey. Preview what merchants will see when customizing their post-checkout extensions with a new testing experience in the checkout editor. Learn more about our updated extension point locations and how to use them.
- One-page checkout in the checkout editor: Get an early preview of the new one-page checkout within the checkout editor to view how existing extensions and branding appear and test new extensions and customizations.
Watch now: Build B2B solutions using Shopify APIs
Tune into an insightful webinar where you’ll discover the power of Shopify’s B2B APIs, and gain valuable insights into best practices for building custom solutions. Stay ahead of the curve with a sneak peek into upcoming B2B API releases, and hear from the Shopify team as they answer burning B2B API questions submitted by merchants and partners.
June 2023
Introducing POS UI extensions
Introducing Shopify POS UI extensions, a new way to build point-of-sale customizations that look and feel native to Shopify with significantly faster load times. POS UI extensions will help your POS app development process with:
- Highly-integrated workflows that boost user engagement
- New and creative point-of-sale workflows
- Better app performance with faster load times
Learn more about POS UI extensions and the opportunities with building for point-of-sale in our blog post.
Theme developers can now add color schemes to themes
This update adds clarity and flexibility to the theme editing experience by allowing theme-defined and merchant-defined color schemes, adding a visual preview that enables merchants to more easily and predictably update theme colors, and allowing merchants to implement theme changes at the global, section, and block level within their theme.
A solution which will enable theme developers to specify how to migrate merchants’ theme data during the update process when introducing architecture changes (ex: changing scope of settings, modifying schema structure in other ways, and more) will be available later this summer.
Quickstart development stores for new Shopify Partner organizations
When a new Shopify Partner organization is created, Shopify automatically creates a development store called Quickstart. This store is a non-transferable development store that’s populated with generated test data. You can immediately use this store to test apps, themes, and custom storefronts.
You can access the Quickstart store from the stores list in Shopify CLI, or by logging into your partner account and finding the store on the Stores page. If you sign up for a Shopify Partner account with a verified business email address, then the Quickstart store is created automatically. Learn more in our developer documentation.
The Plus Wholesale Channel will be deprecated on April 30, 2024
With the release of over a dozen new features since launch, B2B on Shopify is the future of selling wholesale on our platform. As a result, we are deprecating the Plus Wholesale Channel effective April 30, 2024. Impacted merchants received communications on June 6 and 7, 2023, with information about our new B2B features and plans to sunset the wholesale channel, along with details about the migration process and a self-serve migration tool.
We ask that you reach out to your clients using the Plus Wholesale Channel and begin the conversation around migrating to B2B on Shopify.
Updates to Shopify Audiences
Drive better performance for your merchants’ digital ads with custom audience lists powered by Shopify’s commerce insights and machine learning. The latest algorithm is now 63% better at driving conversions at a lower cost. Learn how you can leverage Shopify Audiences to help your merchants reach the right buyers and reduce ad costs.
Watch now: Build B2B solutions using Shopify APIs
In this webinar, Shopify’s engineering team provides a deep dive into Shopify’s B2B APIs, best practices for building custom solutions, and upcoming B2B API releases, and answers questions submitted by partners and merchants.
Shape Hydrogen’s future and enter to win a gift card
We value your opinion and would like to invite you to participate in a 15 to 20 minute unmoderated usability test to help us improve our product, Hydrogen. You can take the test at your convenience without the need to interact with anyone. By participating, you’ll be contributing to creating a better experience for you and your fellow developers.
You’ll also stand a chance to win a gift card worth $100 USD or $50 USD (or the equivalent in your local currency). Your contribution can make a significant impact, even if you have limited experience with Hydrogen.
May 2023
Updates to checkout extensibility
We’ve added new DatePicker and Disclosure checkout UI components. DatePicker will help you build customizations to select specific delivery dates, while the Disclosure component will help with UX patterns that progressively disclose information, like the long list of line items in a bundle.
Additionally, checkout branding now supports custom fonts. Checkout, accounts, and UI extensions inherit these fonts making experiences consistent across surfaces.
Together these capabilities will help merchants upgrade to checkout extensibility.
Build apps powered by Shopify Functions
Checkout validation and product bundle apps powered by Functions will soon be generally available to merchants, which means now’s the time to start building these tools if you want to capitalize on the new opportunities presented by Functions.
Get started building an app that ensures purchases meet a specific criteria before completing a checkout, or an app that groups products together as a bundle. Or, learn more about Shopify Functions below.
Changes to support requests for app charge refunds
As of May 3, 2023, merchants will be required to contact partners directly if they want to request a refund for an app. Shopify Support will no longer reach out to partners on behalf of the merchant to facilitate their request.
This change will streamline the refund process, as refunds are at the partners’ discretion and partners have the ability to issue most refunds themselves. The exception is still reversals to pending charges. In these cases, we highly encourage partners to issue application credits, which Shopify Support can then apply to the invoice.
Please contact Partner Support with any questions about this change.
Deep linking for theme app blocks now available
We’re making it easier for merchants to install apps in context. App developers can now generate a deep link that takes merchants to the theme editor, where a desired app block will be added automatically for the merchant to preview and adjust prior to saving.
Deep linking simplifies your app’s installation flow, because merchants won’t need to navigate to the theme editor, find the block, and then act on it. Instead, your app does the work for them. Because merchants can preview the block, you’re providing them with control over what they include in their storefront.
Partner email verification
To keep the Shopify App Store safe and secure and to better serve our partner community, we will begin enforcing partner email verification.
Your contact information allows us to share important information and updates related to your business. It also enables us to make sure that every account is created by a real person with real contact details, which helps us keep the app store safe for all users.
Account owners, please use the banner in the partner dashboard to verify your email as soon as possible to avoid restrictions to your dashboard access.
Shopify Foundations Certification: Introduction to POS and Retail
Shopify’s Point of Sale gives merchants access to everything they need to sell in person, backed by everything they need to sell online. Level up your skills and be one of the first developers to get certified in the features, benefits, and positioning for Shopify’s POS system.
Take this course as part of Shopify’s Foundations Certification series, designed to empower partners who support merchants.
April 2023
What you missed on the Shopify Partners Blog
Built for Shopify applications are now open
Now any app, big or small, that meets our highest quality bar can apply to stand out with an easy-to-spot badge, search boost, and promotion opportunities in the Shopify admin and Shopify App Store content.
Select your app in the Partner Dashboard and click on Distribution to see if it meets the requirements to apply. If not, follow the criteria checklist and start unlocking achievements along the way.
Extending the 2022-04 API release support date
Shopify is extending support for API version 2022-04 to June 30, 2023. All public and custom apps using API resources no longer supported in API versions 2022-04 and 2022-07 will stop working as intended after this date. Existing apps must migrate to API version 2022-10 or later by June 30, 2023 to avoid any interruptions.
Below are a few important breaking changes:
- Deprecated properties on the Order resource in the REST Admin API—see details here
- Some Fulfillment API endpoints and mutations relating to managing fulfillments via an order have been deprecated
Learn more in the developer changelog.
You can now create Shopify Functions with Javascript
Good news—Shopify Functions written in JavaScript can now be deployed in production environments. Going forward, Rust and JavaScript will be our first-class languages for Shopify Functions. However, you can still write Functions in any WebAssembly-supported language that meets our requirements.
If this is your first time experimenting with Functions, welcome! Functions are a powerful set of Shopify backend extensibility APIs used to meet unique merchant business needs. Watch our intro video to learn why Shopify developers are excited about it.
Have questions? We’re hosting a text-only Discord AMA on April 13 at 11am EST. Test it out and attend to ask us any questions or point out any issues you’re facing. Accept the invite now and don’t miss a thing.
Shopify App Store credit for merchants
This month, we are running a promotion in which we give merchants credit to the Shopify App Store to show them the power of apps and how using them can help their business thrive.
You may see new traffic and installs as a result of this promotion. Ensure your app is eligible for future promotions by integrating the Shopify Billing API.
Learn about the Shopify Billing API
Update to Google Analytics 4 before July 2023
Google is sunsetting Universal Analytics in July 2023, and replacing it with Google Analytics 4 (GA4), which is Google’s next-generation measurement solution. Universal Analytics will continue to collect data until it is sunset in July 2023, and data will remain accessible for at least 6 months afterwards.
Visit our documentation for next steps to migrate your app listing tracking from Universal Analytics to the new Google Analytics 4 or to set up tracking for the first time.
Idempotent creation of AppUsageRecords
In the Admin GraphQL API version 2023-04, appUsageRecordCreate now supports an optional parameter idempotencyKey which ensures the merchant will not be charged twice for the same intent. When idempotencyKey is provided, the mutation will return the same response as any previous appUsageRecordCreate mutations with identical idempotencyKey for the intended shop and requesting app, rather than creating a new record and charging the merchant again.
Learn more about this update in the docs.
Creating app charges using the merchant’s billing currency
In the Admin GraphQL API version 2023-04, the Billing API will now allow developers to create app charges using currencies that match the merchant’s local billing currency.
Previously, app charges could only be created using USD and were converted to the merchant’s local currency using the exchange rate at the time the invoice was issued. By creating app charges in the merchant’s billing currency, app developers can provide merchants with better price predictability and set pricing that is proportional to the purchasing power of their local billing currency.
Introducing Shopify Certifications: Start learning now
Introducing Shopify Certifications: Foundations, our new self-paced course designed to help you accelerate your knowledge of Shopify solutions and expand your customer reach.
Complete all eight courses and earn the Shopify Foundations Certification. Let customers know about your expertise by displaying certification badges across your website and your marketing assets.
Explore all our available courses at the link below.
Gain expertise in checkout extensibility
From helping merchants build bespoke checkout experiences to developing public apps, there are huge opportunities for you to capitalize on checkout extensibility.
Get started with our new education series: Upgrade Shopify Checkout. In this two-part series, you’ll learn about checkout extensibility, the checkout.liquid deprecation, and how to upgrade merchants. Earn a badge when you complete both courses to show your expertise.
March 2023
What you missed on the Shopify Partner Blog
Highlights from the Shopify Winter ’23 Edition
The Winter ’23 Edition launched on February 9, and was full of products to help speed up your development process and further customize your commerce builds. Announcements included:
Get caught up on all the news by visiting the Editions website, or dig into the developer announcements with our roundup on the Partners Blog.
Introducing the Mock Shop API for prototyping storefronts
We are introducing Mock.Shop, a free prototyping tool to build a proof-of-concept storefront without having to set up a shop or run any server-side code. Use the Mock Shop API and AI-powered text-to-GraphQL generator to query live commerce data such as sample products, variants, and carts to help you quickly prototype commerce storefronts.
Mock.Shop is publicly available—no server or access tokens required.
Increasing search relevance with behavioral data
The search algorithms we use on the Shopify App Store now incorporate more data on how merchants engage with results after they search. In other words, apps that merchants find most relevant, given what they’re searching for, will rank higher overall.
We’re always optimizing our automated systems to show the most useful results possible.While term matching will still inform results, this update will reduce the impact of keyword stuffing.
All-new B2B features and partner resources
Since we launched B2B on Shopify in June 2022, we’ve released dozens of new B2B features and enhancements, including: customer-specific product publishing, quantity rules, checkout to draft, easy reordering, credit card vaulting, and new B2B APIs. Learn more with our updated B2B partner enablement resources, including the new B2B on Shopify Partner Guide, at the link below.
Google Analytics 4 is launching in March
We are excited to announce that Google Analytics 4 will be launching natively through the Google channel app on Shopify in March. This upgrade will enable merchants to seamlessly take advantage of Google Analytics 4’s enhanced real-time, multi-channel tracking and privacy controls. Universal Analytics will continue to process data until July 1, 2023 (July 1, 2024 for Analytics 360 properties) and merchants will be able to continue to access previously processed data for at least six months after that date.
Transporter app sunset notice
On April 20th, 2023, we will sunset the Transporter data migration app. All merchants with the Transporter app installed were notified on February 20th, and have been encouraged to instead use the third-party Matrixify app for their data migration needs. Matrixify has in-depth documentation and tutorials, and supports the Transporter CSV export format for common data types.
If you have any questions about the Transporter app sunset, please reach out to Shopify Support. Or, learn more about Matrixify in the Shopify App Store.
January 2023
Introducing: Commerce Components by Shopify
Shopify has spent nearly two decades building the components that form the world’s most powerful commerce platform. Now, we’re opening those components to the biggest retailers in the world with a new offering: Commerce Components by Shopify.
Commerce Components is a modern, composable stack that lets retailers choose the modular components they want, integrate them with their existing services, and create incredible customer experiences built for conversion. It’s designed for the unique requirements of enterprise retailers generating over $500 million USD in annual revenue.
This is an exciting evolution in Shopify’s journey to make commerce better for everyone.
A suite of B2B APIs is now available in stable
Build custom wholesale solutions to help Plus merchants easily scale and grow their DTC and B2B stores from one platform. It is important to ensure your current B2B apps are up to date with these new APIs.
This release includes metafields for Company and Company Location so you can create custom data fields such as order quantity requirements. It also includes Checkout UI extensions based on B2B buyer identity, allowing you to build performant and upgrade-safe apps for B2B checkout experiences—such as hiding, reordering, or offering custom shipping and payment options using the Delivery and Payment Functions. It also supports importing non-Shopify B2B orders via REST API, automatic payment reminder emails to companies, and setting ‘due on fulfillment’ as a payment term.
To learn more about building B2B apps, visit our developer docs.
Delivery and payment customizations are now available in Developer Preview
The Functions APIs for delivery customizations and payment customizations are now available in a developer preview. With these new APIs you can hide, reorder, or rename delivery and payment options to help merchants increase conversions and stand out from the competition.
To learn more about building with delivery and payment Functions, visit our developer docs.
Test webhook topics and streamline webhook failure emails
You’ll now be able to trigger a webhook test payload to a specified destination directly from the CLI. Previously, developers needed to create a dev store and manually click around with an app installed in order to test their app logic. This new feature allows you to more easily test subscriptions for each topic, so you can see what the payload will look like before your app is in production.
We’re also reducing the number of emails sent each time a webhook delivery fails. Previously, there was one email sent per attempt, which could quickly add up and become ineffective for monitoring. Now, only one email will be sent for each one-per-consecutive string of failed attempts, over a two-day period, in order to keep your inbox clean and actionable.
If you have any questions about these changes, contact Partner Support or check out the dev docs below.
Quickly format your code with our new Prettier plugin
Format your code instantly with our Liquid Prettier plugin (1.0.0) for consistent code styles so you can avoid discussing styles and focus on what matters. Available both in-admin and locally in your favorite code editor.
Shopify Community
Shopify Community is an active channel of 900,000 Shopify merchants, partners, and developers from around the world, ready to share their expertise and experiences. In this community, you can connect with your peers, get support, and engage in meaningful conversations about working with Shopify. Check it out below, and add your voice to important conversations about APIs, SDKs, Shopify Functions, Online Store 2.0, and more.
Share your thoughts about monitoring and observability when hosting your app
This is your chance to help shape the future of Shopify. We’d like to understand better what you need for monitoring and observability when it comes to hosting your application. How do you know your app is healthy? And how should we alert you to potential issues? Your feedback will help shape Oxygen so it better meets your needs. This survey should take no more than 20 minutes to complete. Thanks for your time, and we look forward to hearing your feedback.
Schedule workflows and fetch data with Shopify Flow
We have exciting news about our ecommerce automation solution, Shopify Flow. You and your merchants can now schedule workflows to run at a specific time and date, without needing a commerce event to kick things off. You can also leverage the new ‘get data’ action to fetch specific Shopify data needed for daily reports. When combined, these new features will help your merchants solve more tasks and get more done with automation. Please note that Shopify Flow is currently only available in English.
