Our talented Ontario-based developer, Ashley, recently attended Shopify Summit in Toronto, and she shared with us her thoughts on the best new features. Between a brand-new theme foundation and a new app development platform, there’s a lot we’ve been digesting since Shopify Editions Summer ’25 dropped. Now that the dust has settled on the 150+ updates, how do they stack up for e-commerce business owners and their developers? Let’s find out.
A New Theme Foundation: Horizon
Shopify introduced a new theme system, dubbed Horizon, built around theme blocks for maximum design flexibility and an intuitive user experience. Is Shopify wanting Squarespace’s nachos? Maybe. But we’re here for anything that makes our and our clients’ lives a little bit easier.
There are 10 new preset themes built on Horizon that users can customize (or build their own from scratch), each following Horizon’s user-friendly, modular, building-block style. Blocks can easily be dragged, dropped, added, and repositioned with a surprising degree of flexibility.
Shopify has truly pushed generative AI to the next level with AI-generated custom theme blocks and even entire AI-generated themes. Horizon features AI built-in, making it even more accessible for non-developers to implement the features they want.
Theme Editor Updates
While Shopify’s Summer ’25 update highlights a more design-forward, user-friendly, no-code approach to web building, they added some long-needed quality of life improvements for developers (still no variant increase, however). Here’s what’s new in the theme editor:
- Hover to preview blocks before adding them to the theme.
- Edit text by simply clicking on it (finally!).
- Minimize settings to see only what you need with conditional settings.
- Copy and paste blocks and sections anywhere in the store.
- Blocks can be nested within existing sections for greater customization.
- Added categories for blocks and sections to streamline searching for blocks.
- Sidebar items can now be grouped and stacked for better organization. (Ashley said this is the best change in the entire update.)
- Improved predictive search.
- More interactive product cards for streamlined add-to-carts.
Other Wins for Shopify Developers
Outside the theme editor, Summer ’25 introduces new additions to streamline the Shopify developer experience. This includes a new troubleshooting experience for Shopify Flow, Shopify’s workflow automation platform. Ashley shared with our team, “You used to have to figure it out yourself, but now Flow gives us more info for conditions that don’t match.” We do love a good time saver.
Also new, Shopify’s next-gen app development platform, which allows developers to preview their app using the command “Shopify app dev”, where they can see changes without needing to deploy. “You previously had to have a client with a Plus account willing to give you sandbox access,” said Ashley. “But now, you can test across all plans within the new dashboard.”
A sleek, new dashboard isn’t the only new feature. Others include:
- Ability to run on localhost for faster performance.
- You can create a dev store that matches your ideal test environment type.
- Custom data definitions can be added automatically across all stores that have your app installed.
- Checkout UI extensions can now access app-owned metafields to leverage data at checkout.
- POS UI extensions now support direct API access.
- Polaris unifies an app’s UX, no matter where it’s accessed.
- AI integration for configuration, GraphQL, Shopify Functions, and more.
Finally, there are new integrations that make switching from competitor e-commerce platforms (including WooCommerce) easier. Namely, you can now import product data spreadsheets to Shopify. Great news for anyone thinking about making the platform jump!
Shopify POS App, Checkout, and Payments Updates
There were some great updates for merchants surrounding checkouts and payments. Customers and merchants alike can enjoy more freedom and customization throughout the payment and checkout process. Here’s a breakdown of the most notable changes:
- Merchants can now customize the look of the point of sale. Instead of having the Shopify bag logo everywhere, visuals can be customized to match your store.
- Merchants now have the option to issue store credit for refunds, regardless of a customer’s original payment method. Previously, sellers had to issue a gift card for the amount of a customer’s refund or use a third-party app.
- Canadian Shop Pay instalments are now available in CAD for merchants in Canada.
- Cash rounding is now supported in the US, since they’re following in Canada’s footsteps and phasing out their penny.
- Increased fraud protection measures for merchants using Shopify payments.
- Merchants can now collect duties, taxes, and tariffs across all Shopify plans. This can be enabled in your store’s tax settings.
- Discount codes can now be entered in carts.
Let’s Talk Shop
Shopify Summer ’25 Edition promises to make theme building easier than ever, with new no-code, intuitive, drag-and-drop features taking centre stage. But there’s still much to sink your teeth into dev-wise, with new updates to the theme editor and Shopify’s new app dev platform.
For those of you looking for help bringing your brand to life, get in touch with us. We’d love to hear about your project!