Shopify Editions Winter 2025: Highlights from the “Boring” Update

If you haven’t caught up with the Shopify Editions Winter 2025 update yet – you’re in for a treat. If you’re not familiar with “Shopify Editions” – it’s basically a huge bundle of announcements released by Shopify every six months. Usually, these announcements encompass a variety of “new features” and upgrades, but December 2024’s “Editions” was different.

Shopify referred to their latest “Edition?” as the “Boring Edition.” Basically, that’s because it didn’t introduce anything “new.” Shopify wanted to focus on the “unsexy” work of nailing the basics – ensuring all parts of the Shopify platform work perfectly for merchants and developers.

Personally – though, we think any improvement to Shopify is far from boring. In fact, we discovered a number of updates we’re really excited about. Here are our highlights. 

Shopify Editions Winter 2025: Major Updates

Many of the 150 updates introduced in Shopify Editions Winter 2025 were focused on streamlining the customer experience. That’s important in a world where ecommerce is growing more competitive, and customers are becoming more discerning. But many of these updates improve experiences for developers, account managers, and marketers too. 

1. Checkout Blocks

Now, Shopify users on all plans can customize more of the Checkout experience with ease. The Checkout Blocks app allows anyone to add text, buttons, banners, apps, icons, and FAQs to Order Status and Thank You pages in seconds. That’s a huge step forward, considering previously, these pages were impossible to edit for most users (without Shopify Plus).

The content you add to your pages can be static or dynamic (based on previous purchases and customer details). Personally, we love how this feature gives merchants an opportunity to guide more stages of the customer journey, pushing them towards other products, subscription forms, and events.

2. Customer Accounts

Another thing merchants can customize more easily today is “customer accounts”. Previously, the option to enable “new customer accounts” meant that store owners lost the ability to access code for account pages. Now, you can access new customization features with:

• Account Extensions: Use apps to add blocks where customers can manage subscriptions, wish lists, reviews, loyalty points, and more.
• Custom Menu Links: No more default “Shop” and “Orders” - now you can tailor the top-of-page menu to guide customers precisely where they need to go (like direct links to digital products or review pages).
• Branded Login Pages: Keep your look on point with new options for colors and typography that match your brand. 

3. Improved Customer Navigation

Navigation on Shopify stores is about to improve in a big way. For instance, if you’ve used the Shopify Search and Discovery app before now, you’ll know that one of its features allows you to create collection page filters. Previously, filterable options were ordered automatically (alphabetically). Now, you can create custom orders that make the most sense for the user.

For instance, if you sell fashion products, you can create filters ranging from XS to XL. Beyond that, Shopify has also introduced updates to:

• Cart Expiration dates: The length of time carts can hold onto customer information has been increased. That means even if customers stray from your site for a while, they should be able to return and see the same items in their basket.
• Semantic search: Semantic search introduces an incredible move towards smarter shopping experiences for customers. Every merchant will be able to use AI in their search bars to ensure customers are directed to the right page based on intent, rather than just the words they use. This should seriously improve user experiences.
• Combined listings for search: This new feature simplifies search results, by grouping together various versions of the same product. That means customers don’t have to spend as long scrolling through duplicates. 

4. Shopify Subscriptions Improvements

If you’re not familiar with it yet, the Shopify Subscriptions app is a great tool for retailers looking to increase recurring income. For Shopify Editions Winter 2025, the company upgraded this app – taking it open-source. That means that you can reference the code when you’re building your own custom subscription app. There’s even a handy guide and reference page included.

Beyond that, if you continue to use Shopify Subscriptions (The native app), you’ll have access to more functions. You can experiment with combining “buy X get Y” discounts with subscriptions, and inventory settings are now respected. This means new orders are automatically restricted if a particular product is out of stock. 

You’ll also be able to manage subscriptions from the product editor within the admin interface, rather than having to work within the app directly. 

5. Markets Expansion

Shopify Markets is a handy tool that empowers global Shopify merchants to sell products internationally. It supports multiple languages, international pricing and currency options, and solutions for automatic tax and duty calculations. Plus, you can handle everything (all of your sales and orders) within a centralized environment.

This functionality was previously only available to specific merchants. Now, however, all Shopify users will be able to access this feature, ensuring every company can grow internationally. There’s even support for B2B solutions. 

Shopify Editions Winter 2025 Updates for Developers

All the updates mentioned above do have benefits to offer developers and merchants, as well as customers. However, there were some specific updates released in Shopify Editions Winter 2025 that we think will be particularly valuable for store builders and creators. 

1. More Discount App Options

This new feature was actually rolled out in November, but Shopify highlighted it again in Shopify Editions Winter 2025. As of now, developers can now build discount apps with Admin UI extensions. That means they don’t have to worry about separately building and hosting simple apps. 

Instead, anyone can create an extension-only app with the Shopify CLI, plus they can build Admin UI extensions in the admin discount page. These extensions act as the user interface for existing discount functions. Since Shopify Functions only accepts metafields for custom data, it makes a lot of sense to combine them with a Shopify UI extension. 

Beyond that, Shopify also boosted the number of discounts that could be supported by a discount function from 5-25, while increasing the input limit to 128kb. That means that functions can still run on carts with more than 200 products added in. 

2. Even Faster Speeds

We already consider Shopify to be one of the best ecommerce platforms for user experience, because of it’s lightning fast speeds and loading times. However, Shopify isn’t satisfied with just resting on its laurels. The company has made even more speed improvements this year. 

Initial page loading speeds for admins has been increased by 25%, and page-to-page navigation is around 12.5% faster. Plus, there are faster cart and checkout speeds (upgraded by 50%), to help streamline conversions on your store. 

Buttons for adding products to carts also now load up to 58% faster on the product page. Just remember, your theme design, and the number of apps you use will have an impact on your site’s speed performance too. 

3. Updates to the Theme Editor

You’ve probably already noticed, if you’re a Shopify developer, that the Theme Editor has a slightly more compact, and cleaner layout these days. That’s to ensure that it’s easy as possible for you to find exactly what you’re looking for. But the theme editor isn’t just cleaner. Shopify also introduced various other updates at Shopify Editions Winter 2025, such as:

• Metaobjects: With Metaobjects, it’s now much easier for merchants and developers to add custom content like size guides and look books to pages, without complicated code. This should help retailers to enhance shopping experiences with less effort.
• Theme blocks: From a front-end developer perspective, theme blocks are improving. In the past, blocks had to be defined for each section, and redefined for every section you were using them in. Now, you can define these blocks at a full theme level, and re-use them.
• Function logs: In the CLI, developers can now replay remote checkout function logs on a local basis. This will be incredibly useful for users that need to debug complex checkout features without investing extensive time and effort. 
• Session recording: Session recording with pixels will also enable developers to record various issues that customers face across a website. This should further help developers to overcome common issues with performance. 

4. REST – GraphQL Migrations and Better Data Syncing

Another major update that’s sure to appeal to developers, is that REST to GraphQL migrations are being made easier. If you’re migrating any existing apps from REST API into the GraphQL ecosystem, the new field mappings will be incredibly useful. You’ll be able to see exactly how the systems connect, for a smoother end-to-end transition. 

Another major update is that Shopify is improving the overall experience for syncing data with external services and systems. The new Custom IDs and upsert APIs mean users will be able to assign the same ID to Shopify resources used in an external platform. 

Right now, the Upsert API will only support customers and products, but custom IDs are supported for any data type with metafields enabled. 

5. The Updated Picker API

If you’re looking for a resource picker that works for more than just products, variants, and collections, the new Picker API is an excellent solution. It allows users to customize the data available in a picker component, so merchants can string searches across custom information. For instance, they can identify product reviews, or email templates. 

There are tons of customization options for the items available in the widget, including badges with dedicated status components, thumbnails, and options for adding columns with additional data points. The only downside is that you can’t actually map an existing metaobject collection to the picker yet – but this feature could come to us one day in the future.

Shopify Editions Winter 2025: Other Exciting Updates

Beyond all of the enhancements mentioned above, there are some other noteworthy releases that are sure to attract a lot of Shopify users this year, such as:

• Sidekick Capabilities: Shopify’s “Sidekick” AI – an assistant trained to use all of Shopify’s tools, has been rolling out for a while now. But as of December 2024, this feature is now available for all merchants, in English language. 
• Enhanced analytics tools: Shopify users will now be able to access more advanced analytical capabilities and reports within their accounts. This should help them to dive deeper into data about specific KPIs and metrics. 
• POS Enhancements: The Shopify POS solution now supports customer metafields (to give sellers access to crucial information in real-time). It also supports bundles, so that companies can sell bundled products easily in-store. 
• New marketing options: Business leaders can now create extremely targeted marketing campaigns with retail customer segments based on location. They can also access advanced email marketing tools within Shopify email. 
• Boosted automation: All of the marketing automations offered by Shopify are now powered by Shopify Flow, and available to access in the template library. Users can also access features like suggested replies, and enhanced marketing automations. 

You can check out the full rundown of all 150 updated and improved features within Shopify on the official Shopify Editions Winter 2025 page here. 

Ready to Make the Most of Shopify?

So there you have it – Shopify’s “Boring Edition” wasn’t quite as dull as you probably expected. If anything, it serves as a clear insight into how committed Shopify is to making their platform the best it can be – even if that just means cleaning up some ragged edges here and there. 

Want to tap into the latest features and capabilities Shopify has to offer? We’re here to help. Contact us today to be matched with a Shopify Expert who can help you turbocharge your marketing campaigns, transform your store’s design, or enhance your business management strategies. 

Start your Shopify project here. 

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