Shopify Summer 2024 Editions: New Features for Developers

Our team’s eCommerce specialists attended the SUmmer 2024 Shopify’s Editions.Dev in Toronto, to get the inside scoop on the latest app development and platform enhancements. The event delivered a deep dive into emerging trends and tools, which we’re excited to share with you.

Focus on App Developers

The event kicked off with presentations showcasing various apps, demonstrating how Shopify has helped these applications thrive in its ecosystem to provide a seamless user experience.
Highlighted apps included:

• Loop Returns: The go-to app for return management.
• Gorgias: A robust live chat and ticket management system that we often recommend to our clients.

Unified Commerce at the Heart of Shopify

A significant portion of the event was dedicated to the latest features announced on Shopify Unified. Here’s a summary:

• Market: This feature replaces Markets Pro, handling tax compliance, duties, and shipping logistics to simplify international sales.
• AI Enhancements: With AI-generated and edited images, Shopify Magic suggests customized product attributes, reducing errors and improving product discoverability. Sidekick, an AI assistant, provides product, order, and customer insights.
• Analytics and Reports: Real-time data access, customizable dashboards, and detailed reports enable merchants to make more informed decisions quickly.
• POS and Checkout Updates: New features like one-touch digital receipts for Shop Pay users, automatic eligibility detection for returns, and smoother in-store transactions.
• Split Shipping: Customers can now see when their order will be divided into multiple shipments and choose different shipping methods for various items in the same order.
• Customization and Design: New styling settings allow for detailed storefront customization, with options to adjust layouts, sizes, and spacing across devices without requiring deep coding knowledge.
• Hydrogen Visual Editor: This tool simplifies the creation of headless storefronts by enabling teams to design and build in a shared visual environment, integrating smoothly into existing development workflows.
• Expansion Tools: Simplifies international sales by handling operational complexities such as tax filing, customs duties, and documentation, ensuring a smoother global expansion for merchants.

These innovations aim to streamline operations, enhance customer experience, and provide merchants with powerful tools to grow their businesses effectively. For more information, visit the dedicated Shopify page.

Shopify Build Awards

The day concluded with the inaugural Shopify Build Awards, recognizing excellence among the over 13,000 apps available on the Shopify App Store. This initiative highlights Shopify’s commitment to quality, encouraging developers to strive for higher standards. Winning or being a finalist for these awards is a strong endorsement, likely to influence user preference for these top-tier apps.

Despite the verification process, not all apps on the Shopify App Store are of high quality. The Build Awards aim to spotlight the best, motivating developers to improve their offerings.

Regarding storefront awards, there is a need to debunk the notion that Shopify is only for small businesses with limited budgets. While it’s easy to create a simple site on Shopify, the platform offers much more, capable of supporting complex, customized storefronts, especially for the B2B sector.

A Strong Partnership Between Shopify and Klaviyo

After the awards, a notable discussion took place between Tobias Lütke, CEO and co-founder of Shopify, and Andrew Bialecki, CEO and co-founder of Klaviyo. This conversation highlighted the strategic partnership between Shopify and Klaviyo, aiming to strengthen Shopify’s marketing and automation capabilities by integrating Klaviyo’s advanced tools with the platform.

Workshops and Thematic Booths Our developers participated in various workshops and hands-on sessions covering topics like checkout extensibility, automation with Shopify Flow, and the new customer accounts feature. Thematic booths allowed participants to interact directly with the Shopify team about apps, checkout processes, and storefronts.

Focus on Hydrogen and ViteJS Integration

Particular emphasis was placed on harmonizing the existing Liquid framework with the new Hydrogen framework. Shopify stressed maintaining performance continuity, having recently integrated ViteJS—a powerful build tool and development server for modern web projects. Hydrogen, based on the Remix framework, is positioned as one of the most performant headless frameworks, ensuring Shopify remains a competitive choice for modern web development.

Shopify keeps pushing into new territories. Even if Shopify Hydrogen doesn’t become the go-to headless solution, the power and flexibility of Remix will ensure its widespread adoption across various headless platforms.

The Editions.Dev event highlighted Shopify’s commitment to innovation and quality in app development. From new features to strategic partnerships and a renewed focus on headless frameworks, Shopify continues to position itself as a leader in e-commerce development.

Our developers returned with valuable insights and a positive outlook on the platform’s potential for future projects. Have a Shopify project in mind? Feel free to contact us!