Shopify's Summer '25 Editions
A Game-Changer and my top takeaways from Toronto!
Summarizing Shopify's rapid evolution is always a challenge, but the recent Summer '25 Editions have truly taken it to another level with over 170 new updates!
Instead of a full deep-dive into every single feature, consider this your curated guide to some of the most impactful changes and my personal insights from the recent Shopify Editions event in Toronto.
The full scoop: where to find all 170+ updates
For the comprehensive list of every single Summer '25 Edition update, Shopify has a fantastic dedicated hub. While I'll highlight some of them here, don't hesitate to bookmark this page for your full reference.
(Feel free to explore. I won't be offended if you get lost there in the amazing details!)
Sidekick: from curiosity to core tool
You might have experimented with Sidekick when it first launched and perhaps found it underwhelming. That's rapidly changing! Shopify is investing heavily in this AI assistant, making it a powerful ally for merchants.
Here’s why it’s gaining traction:
Apple Pay: a seamless checkout experience
The ability to offer Apple Pay as a dedicated payment method is a huge win for conversion rates. I personally witnessed this in beta two years ago with a major client in Central Europe, and it's fantastic to see Shopify's commitment to flexible, evolving checkout options. They've also expanded Apple Pay support for subscription businesses, simplifying recurring payments.
Shopify Flow: powering automation beyond the store
Shopify Flow continues to grow as an automation powerhouse. The most exciting update? Its new ability to communicate with external systems, not just apps installed in your store. This means:
Reduced Need for Custom Apps: Merchants can leverage low/no-code solutions for complex automations across various platforms, saving development time and cost.
Enhanced Flow Building: Features like sample data for variables and nested actions within "for each" loops make building sophisticated workflows much more intuitive.
Theme Revolution: the new Horizons experience
Customizing your Shopify storefront just became significantly easier and more powerful thanks to the new Horizons system themes. This overhaul is a game-changer for speed and flexibility:
These features will drastically reduce go-to-market timelines and development investment. We saw a fantastic 10-minute demo at the Toronto Editions.dev event, showcasing how quickly and beautifully a store could be designed with absolutely no coding. We're incredibly excited to get our clients hands-on with this!
There are many more awesome updates - I barely scratched the surface. But at this moment I’d like to share something even more relevant.
Exclusive Insights from Shopify Editions in Toronto
Last week, I had the incredible opportunity to attend Shopify’s annual Editions event for partners in Toronto. It was an invaluable experience. So much so that our team of three visitors plans to expand to five next year! The sheer volume of actionable insights we gained was phenomenal.
While I won't dive into every specific detail, here are my top, personal takeaways from the event, offering a glimpse into the future of Shopify and e-commerce:
Pagefly is making 1M USD annually on Shopify referrals. This was incredibly inspiring. It highlights a significant opportunity for agencies like ours in referral partnerships, something we're actively looking to strengthen.
Reconnected with Kimonix. Their app for collection management and automation looks promising; eager to test it with a client soon.
Poker Night with Clients. Met someone who hosts poker nights with their clients: a fun, innovative way to build relationships. We're now brainstorming how to bring this idea to life for our own clients!
Overbooked events signal huge opportunity. Many Toronto events were 300+ people waitlisted. This confirms a massive demand for quality content and activities within specific Shopify ecosystem niches. If time permits, we'd love to help organise an agency-focused event next year.
Loyalty programs during economic uncertainty. Loyalty Lion data showed that registered loyalty program customers make 4x more purchases during unstable economic periods. A crucial insight for merchant strategy.
Embracing an AI-first mindset. Fascinating to see how others are implementing AI. I particularly liked the idea of a dedicated AI budget per developer and pair programming with tools like Cursor to help skeptical colleagues.
Easy store duplication coming soon. New CLI commands for store copying, coupled with improved staging processes, will drastically save time and simplify complex launches of campaigns, themes, and products.
Tobi's take on the "Death of SaaS". During his AMA, Shopify’s CEO directly addressed my question about Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's "death of SaaS" statement. His response? He views it as a "PR" move, affirming Shopify's belief in SaaS's enduring power and relevance.
Shopify's stretching to Enterprise. Shopify isn't shifting to enterprise; it's stretching there. This means their core mission remains making commerce better for everyone, from startups to global giants. This commitment to abstraction of complex needs and broad utility is what truly powers Shopify.
Merchants value expert opinions. When offering services, merchants increasingly want direct, expert recommendations, not diplomatic answers. This reinforces the importance of being more straighforward and sharing our honest, informed opinions.
Shopify's largest deal ever: Education Vertical. A landmark deal was recently closed within the education sector: over 1100 universities in the US will soon implement Shopify POS, marking one of the most complex POS rollouts for the platform.
Partners building their own IP. Shopify is actively encouraging partners to build proprietary tech to fill platform gaps. This signifies Shopify's maturity: acknowledging they can't solve every niche commerce need, they empower partners to innovate for booking, ticketing, manufacturing, and more.
Shopify is the future of global commerce. It's time to move past comparing Shopify to other platforms. Its relentless speed of innovation means what's "okay" today will be "awesome" tomorrow. Choosing a different solution due to current limitations is short-sighted; Shopify enables you to leverage market instability for growth.
52% YoY growth in Europe. The "Shopify is for the US only" argument is officially dead. Shopify's growth in Europe and their investment into this region speaks volumes.
Innovate or be left behind. During economic uncertainty, rigid, old e-commerce solutions hold you hostage. Those who invest and innovate thrive. Abandoning sunk cost fallacy and embracing Shopify's scalability allows you to turn market headwinds into tailwinds for slingshot growth.
Shopify's 3 promises:
Be the most innovative AI commerce platform in the world.
Be the most AI-native commercial go-to-market company.
Package all innovation they create for their partners to scale.
New reseller program incoming! Shopify has hired high-caliber talent from Microsoft and they’re launching a reseller program, allowing partners to directly sell Shopify licenses as part of a partner-led go-to-market strategy.
Seeking partner feedback. Shopify is actively seeking feedback from partners and merchants on platform improvements. My goal is to create a European white paper with insights from top agencies to help Shopify efficiently unlock the addressable market here.
Agencies migrating from proprietary platforms. We met two agencies who bravely sunset their own platforms to move hundreds of merchants to Shopify. This bold move, upon closer inspection, made immense sense, driving better value for merchants and increased growth and profit for the agencies.
