Shopify Online Store 2.0: Key Updates for Owners and Developers

Shopify recently hosted their annual Shopify Unite event, unveiling what they describe as the "biggest and boldest update" to their storefront ever.

Whether you are a merchant looking to customize your store without code or a developer looking to build faster, more performant themes, these updates represent a massive shift in the ecosystem.

In this post, I will break down these changes into three sections: features for storefront owners, tools for developers, and my personal take on Shopify's new direction.

1. Updates for Storefront Owners

The headline feature of the event is undoubtedly Online Store 2.0. This architecture overhaul provides merchants with significantly more control over their site's structure.

"Sections Everywhere"

Previously, the drag-and-drop "sections" functionality in the Shopify Editor was exclusive to the homepage. If you wanted to customize a product page or a collection page, you were often limited to hard-coded settings or required a developer.

With Online Store 2.0, sections are now available on every page of your store. This means you can customize product templates, collection pages, and custom pages using the same intuitive interface you use for the homepage.

Native Metafields

Managing custom data—such as specific care instructions, material details, or delivery timelines—has historically been difficult in Shopify. Store owners typically had to rely on:

• Third-party apps
• Browser extensions
• Hacky URL manipulations to access the bulk editor

Shopify is now including the ability to edit metafields directly in the Admin. You can define custom fields for your products and customers natively. This makes storing and retrieving unique data much smoother for owners and simplifies the retrieval process for developers working on the frontend.

2. The Dawn Theme

Alongside the architecture update, Shopify introduced their new reference theme: Dawn.

Dawn is designed to replace the older default themes (like Debut) and serves as the standard for Online Store 2.0. Key highlights include:

• Performance: It is touted as Shopify's most performant theme ever.
• Open Source: Developers can access the code on GitHub to understand best practices for the new architecture.
• Flexibility: It fully supports the new "sections everywhere" capability and native metafields.

3. Critical Features for Developers

For the developers in the community, Shopify Unite brought several highly requested improvements to workflow and infrastructure.

GitHub Integration & Version Control

Shopify has finally made it easier to connect a version control system to your store. You can now integrate Git directly with your Shopify theme.

This is a massive quality-of-life improvement. It allows teams to:

• Roll back changes easily.
• Test new features without breaking the live site.
• Adhere to industry-standard development workflows.

Performance Upgrades

Shopify announced that the rendering engine for storefronts is getting a significant boost. They are claiming up to a 5x increase in speed. While we need to test this in practice, a backend performance boost of that magnitude would be incredible for conversion rates and SEO.

Checkout Extensions

Historically, the checkout page was a "black box" for security reasons. Unless you were on Shopify Plus, you couldn't touch the code.

Shopify is now allowing developers to inject apps into the checkout flow safely. This opens up the ability to add custom information fields or upsells during checkout without compromising security.

0% Revenue Share

Perhaps the most exciting news for the partner ecosystem is the change in the revenue model.

• Previous Model: Shopify took 20% of app and theme revenue.
• New Model: Shopify takes 0% revenue share on the first $1,000,000 you make annually.

While you still pay credit card transaction fees, Shopify is effectively removing their platform fee for the vast majority of developers. This is unprecedented in the app store world (compared to Apple's 15-30% cut) and is a huge incentive for new developers to enter the market.

Shopify Hydrogen

Looking ahead, Shopify teased a new framework coming later in 2021 called Shopify Hydrogen.

This is a React-based framework that allows for headless commerce using Node.js. If you prefer building custom storefronts using modern JavaScript frameworks rather than Liquid, this will be a powerful tool. The demos shown at Unite (featuring 3D interactive product models) were impressive and suggest a high degree of flexibility.

My Take: A Win-Win Ecosystem

As a Shopify developer, I am incredibly optimistic about these updates.

Shopify is clearly listening to feedback from both merchants and developers. Despite being the dominant e-commerce platform, they aren't resting on their laurels. They are aggressively investing in infrastructure that helps everyone.

The philosophy seems to be: "When you prosper, we prosper."

By making the platform easier for merchants to manage and more profitable for developers to build on, they ensure the longevity and success of the entire ecosystem. The 0% revenue share, in particular, proves they are serious about attracting and retaining top engineering talent.

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