Shopify Summer ’25 Edition

Shopify’s Summer 2025 Edition, codenamed “Horizons,” represents the most significant platform transformation in the company’s history, introducing over 150 new features and capabilities designed to revolutionize how merchants build, manage, and scale their online businesses. This comprehensive edition emphasizes artificial intelligence integration, design flexibility, and unified commerce experiences while maintaining the platform’s core accessibility and merchant-first philosophy.

AI-Powered Innovation: The Central Theme

Shopify Sidekick Evolution

Shopify Sidekick has undergone a dramatic transformation, evolving from a basic task assistant to a sophisticated AI partner capable of complex multi-step reasoning and advanced data analysis. The enhanced Sidekick now supports 20 languages, features voice chat capabilities, and includes screen sharing functionality, making it accessible to a global merchant base.

The AI assistant’s new capabilities include:

• Multi-step reasoning to identify root causes of sales fluctuations and inventory issues
• Real-time image generation directly within the Shopify admin interface
• Advanced analytics interpretation with automated report generation using ShopifyQL
• Mobile integration with voice commands and 3D product scanning assistance

Merchants report significant time savings, with INTERSPORT Group noting that Sidekick “proved remarkably effective at inventory management—identifying the exact restocking priorities our purchasing team would have chosen”.

AI Shopping Agents and Catalog API

Shopify’s introduction of the Shopify Catalog API marks a pivotal shift toward agentic commerce, enabling AI shopping agents to access real-time product data from hundreds of millions of Shopify products. This early-access feature allows select partners, including Perplexity, to build AI shopping experiences that can:

• Query live inventory and pricing data across all participating Shopify stores
• Provide contextual product recommendations based on customer preferences
• Enable cross-merchant shopping through a unified interface
• Support natural language product discovery and comparison

The Knowledge Base App complements this initiative by allowing merchants to control how their brand information is presented in AI conversations, ensuring accurate representation when shoppers interact with AI shopping agents.

AI-powered Shopify shopping assistant interface showcasing personalized sunscreen product suggestions and seamless checkout experience

Theme Revolution: Horizon Design System

Modular Theme Architecture

The Horizon theme foundation introduces a revolutionary modular approach to store design, moving beyond traditional section-based architecture to a flexible theme blocks system. This new system allows merchants to:

• Access 30+ pre-built content blocks that can be used anywhere in the theme
• Nest blocks up to 8 levels deep for complex layout compositions
• Generate custom blocks using AI by describing desired functionality in natural language
• Preview blocks before implementation with visual selection interfaces

AI Block Generation

The AI Block Generation feature represents a paradigm shift in theme customization, allowing non-technical users to create sophisticated custom layouts simply by describing their vision. Examples of successful AI-generated blocks include:

• Interactive product carousels with custom styling
• Seasonal discount banners with dynamic content
• Product comparison tables with filtering capabilities
• Custom hero sections with embedded media

These generated blocks include editable settings and can be customized further through code modifications, providing flexibility for both beginners and advanced users.

Ten Industry-Specific Themes

Horizon launches with 10 industry-tailored themes:

• Ritual (Beauty & Wellness)
• Atelier (Art & Creative)
• Fabric (Fashion & Apparel)
• Tinker (Tech & Gadgets)
• Savor (Food & Beverage)
• Heritage (Luxury & Crafts)
• Dwell (Home & Lifestyle)
• Pitch (Sports & Fitness)
• Vessel (Industrial & B2B)

Each theme incorporates conversion-optimized layouts, mobile-first design principles, and built-in AI capabilities.

Distribution of the 150+ new features across major categories in Shopify’s Summer 2025 Edition

Point of Sale Transformation: POS Version 10

Enhanced Retail Operations

Shopify POS Version 10 introduces several game-changing features designed to bridge online and offline commerce seamlessly. The most significant addition is the “Ship and Carryout” functionality, which allows customers to take available items immediately while having out-of-stock items shipped separately—all within a single transaction.

Branding and User Experience Improvements

The redesigned POS interface features:

• Custom branded lock screens with merchant logos and colors
• Streamlined navigation with one-tap access to key functions
• Enhanced search capabilities that find products, orders, customers, and draft orders without screen switching
• Adaptive cart interface that clearly differentiates between new orders and drafts

Mobile Integration

POS Version 10 includes native Tap to Pay functionality, transforming smartphones into payment terminals without requiring additional hardware. This feature particularly benefits small merchants and pop-up retail operations.

Shopify POS version 10 Summer 2025 interface showcasing mixed-fulfillment ‘ship and carryout in one checkout’ feature 

Global Commerce and Payment Innovations

Multi-Entity Support

The Summer 2025 Edition introduces multi-entity management, allowing merchants to operate multiple business entities from a single Shopify admin interface. This feature supports:

• Consolidated reporting across different legal structures
• Unified inventory management across regions
• Simplified tax compliance for international operations
• Streamlined supplier payment processing in multiple currencies

Expanded Payment Infrastructure

Shopify Payments has expanded to Mexico and 15 new European markets, while Shop Pay is now available in Canada. Additional payment enhancements include:

• Support for over 130 currencies with settlement in up to 8 major currencies
• Reduced foreign exchange fees through optimized currency routing
• Enhanced Apple Pay integration with subscription support
• PCI DSS v4 compliant checkout for improved security

Developer Platform Renaissance

Next-Generation Development Environment

The Summer 2025 Edition introduces a completely re-engineered developer platform focused on eliminating traditional development friction. Key improvements include:

• Local development without tunnels: Developers can build Shopify apps using localhost with instant hot reloading
• Development stores for all Shopify plans: Test apps in realistic environments that mimic Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus plans
• Declarative app data definitions: Define custom data through simple TOML files instead of complex API calls

Enhanced UI Framework

Polaris has evolved into a unified Web Components-based UI library, enabling developers to build consistent interfaces across Admin, Checkout, and Customer Account areas. These components automatically update via Shopify’s CDN, ensuring consistency and reducing maintenance overhead.

AI-Assisted Development

The platform now includes AI-powered code generation tools and integrated assistance through the Shopify.dev MCP Server, providing inline help with GraphQL queries, Shopify Functions, and Polaris components directly within developers’ IDEs.

B2B Commerce Expansion

Advanced B2B Features

The Summer 2025 Edition significantly expands B2B capabilities with:

• B2B Markets: Customized pricing and catalog management for different business customers
• VAT ID validation: Automated tax compliance for European B2B transactions
• Order minimums: Flexible minimum order requirements by customer segment
• NetSuite connector: Direct integration with enterprise resource planning systems

Self-Service Returns for B2B

B2B customers can now initiate return requests through their customer accounts, streamlining the returns process and reducing administrative overhead for merchants.

Marketing and Analytics Enhancements

Advanced Segmentation and Campaigns

New marketing tools include:

• Enhanced customer segmentation using ShopifyQL for more precise targeting
• Multi-channel campaign management with unified UTM tracking and barcode generation
• Shop Campaigns now available across all Shopify plans with risk-free, conversion-based pricing

Improved Shop App Experience

The Shop app has been redesigned to provide a more personalized discovery experience with:

• Real-time recommendation adaptation based on browsing behavior
• Collaborative collections allowing customers to build and share mood boards
• Visual product variants displayed as true-to-life swatches matching store presentations

Theme Store Modernization

New Submission Requirements

Effective May 15, 2025, all themes must meet updated Theme Store requirements including:

• Industry categorization: Each preset can be tagged with up to two of 20 industry categories
• Catalog size tagging: Mandatory tagging with one of four catalog size categories
• Enhanced listing structure: Individual listing pages for every preset
• Demo store alignment: Each demo store must match the tagged industry and catalog size

These changes support a broader Theme Store redesign launching in July 2025, aimed at improving theme discovery for merchants while providing better marketing opportunities for developers.

Performance and Infrastructure Improvements

Speed and Reliability Enhancements

The Summer 2025 Edition includes numerous behind-the-scenes improvements:

• Faster admin UI with optimized loading times across all interfaces
• Web Vitals analytics providing detailed performance insights for merchants
• AVIF image format support for improved loading speeds and bandwidth efficiency
• Enhanced fraud protection tools with machine learning-powered risk assessment

Flow Automation Expansion

Shopify Flow is now available across all Shopify plans, democratizing automation capabilities previously reserved for higher-tier merchants. New features include:

• Nested For Each loops supporting one level of nesting
• Multiple actions per loop for more complex workflow automation
• Enhanced metaobject integration with dedicated actions for working with custom data structures

Business Impact and Strategic Implications

Merchant Testimonials and Adoption

Early adopters report significant benefits from the new features. Ben Attwood, founder of Clubhouse Skin, estimates that having Horizon available at launch would have saved “£5000–7000 that could’ve been invested into the business elsewhere”. Preston Arroyo from Tecovas highlights the improved user experience, stating that “the clean layout after logging into POS also enhances usability and creates a smoother experience”.

Competitive Positioning

The Summer 2025 Edition positions Shopify as the definitive platform for merchants seeking to leverage AI and unified commerce. The integration of AI throughout the platform, combined with enhanced design flexibility and global commerce capabilities, creates significant competitive advantages for Shopify merchants in an increasingly crowded e-commerce landscape.

Future Roadmap Implications

The emphasis on AI integration, modular architecture, and developer experience improvements suggests Shopify’s commitment to maintaining platform leadership through continuous innovation. The company’s investment in agentic commerce through the Catalog API and Universal Cart functionality positions it well for the next generation of AI-powered shopping experiences.

Conclusion

Shopify’s Summer 2025 Edition represents more than an incremental update—it’s a fundamental reimagining of what an e-commerce platform can achieve. By integrating AI capabilities throughout the merchant experience, introducing revolutionary design flexibility through Horizon themes, and creating seamless omnichannel experiences through POS improvements, Shopify has established new industry benchmarks for platform functionality and user experience.

The platform’s evolution toward agentic commerce, combined with enhanced global capabilities and developer-friendly tools, creates a compelling value proposition for merchants at all scales. As these features reach full availability and adoption, they will likely reshape how businesses approach online commerce, making sophisticated functionality accessible to merchants regardless of technical expertise or company size.

The “Horizons” theme perfectly captures this edition’s scope—opening new possibilities for creative expression, operational efficiency, and business growth while maintaining Shopify’s core promise of making commerce better for everyone involved in the ecosystem.