Shopify Unite 2021: Key Announcements for Developers & Store Owners

This is big. If you make less than $1 million USD per year via the Shopify App Store, you no longer have to pay revenue share. And every year, that number resets. Once you earn more than $1 million USD, you’ll pay a 15 percent revenue share, which is lower than the previous 20 percent revenue share.

If you’re into coding on Shopify, they have created a one-time registration fee for all developers who sign up after August 1, which will be paid when they submit their first app to be reviewed. All the more reason to sign up and start building your app today!

More information here in the Shopify Help Center App revenue share update.

If you are a Shopify store owner who has struggled with the design aspect of your store, then this announcement is for you. Today, a big upgrade comes to the theme architecture for online stores in Shopify, providing easier and more flexible customization options for merchants with no coding knowledge. Online Store 2.0 offers you the ability to add sections on every page, not just the home page, unlocking a range of new opportunities to personalize every aspect of a store. In addition, a new templates directory is available including a new DAWN theme with full GitHub repository that includes all the developer documentation required to create new designs using JSON templates.

👀 Also: Improvements to metafields …

The new theme editor will also allow Shopify Sellers to add properties and specifically metafields to pages without the use of APIs or code. Now you will be able to add exactly the content you need to the product page, like introducing a space for buyers to include a size chart or a features list. Anything that is unlikely to appear in the core store editor can now be added in via metafields. Learn more here about Shopify Online Store 2.0.

Shopify has revamped metafields in three key ways:

• More flexible: Metafields now have a much more flexible type system that will grow over time to become more tailored to commerce data.
• Standard metafields: Shopify is introducing standard metafields, which make it much simpler for custom themes to work out-of-the-box on stores across different market verticals.
• Presentation hints: You will now be able to add presentation hints to metafields, allowing Storefront API and Liquid users to render merchant data in the way the merchant intends, with far less custom code.

Other new upgrades include: Theme app extensions and app blocks for the storefront, flexible store content with theme dynamic sources, and new developer tools for building Shopify Themes.

It’s common to say that checkouts on Shopify are a closed environment that has been very difficult to alter. With the new checkout extensions, you’ll have access to:

• Extension APIs: A series of APIs that will allow users to build powerful checkout customizations into apps. Still under development, these APIs will allow you to access and modify checkout line items, discounts, customer information, metafields, buyer journey, and cart attributes. If you’re a Certified Shopify Partner like Trajectory, custom apps present a new way of deploying your solutions to multiple clients at a time.

• New extension points: New extension points allow you to build experiences for different parts of checkout.

• A component library: Your app will use this component library to create custom experiences and insert them at various extension points.

• New APIs: These APIs give you control over certain elements of checkout, such as the Branding API, which lets you change the colors, spacing, typography, and more of the checkout experience.

Soon we will also have access to new Post-purchase checkout extensions, so you can focus on building great post-purchase experiences for your users’ buyers, while Shopify delivers a fast, reliable, and world-class checkout.

And last but not least, Shopify Scripts are a feature available to Plus merchants, allowing them to build backend custom logic unique to their brands and a new payments platform is scheduled for release in late 2021.

With over 1.7 million merchants using Shopify around the world, there’s a need for technical solutions merchants can use to grow their businesses. In summary, we have a lot to read in the new updated Shopify Developer Documentation. Now everyone can start building apps, themes or storefronts for Shopify. And for the Pros, you can solve complex merchant problems with Expansive GraphQL and REST APIs that let you integrate into Shopify’s admin, online store, checkout, and more.

These app development capabilities enable Shopify customers to use Shopify’s eCommerce outstanding look and feel and overall customer shopping experience while running their business like a tight ship by integrating it with best-of-breed ERP systems to fully manage their inventory, manufacturing, purchasing, accounting and in general, the operation of their business. At Trajectory we make this a reality for many of our Shopify eCommerce and Oracle-NetSuite ERP clients.

Also, to help improve the process of developing app extensions, Shopify is introducing the Developer Console, where you can build and test extensions in a real store environment. Currently, App Bridge Admin extensions can’t be tested on real stores with real data without pushing the extension to Shopify’s CDN, which isn’t an ideal solution. The Developer Console provides a better, faster, and more realistic developer experience when building and testing App Bridge Admin extensions.

Soon it will also be easier to find apps. Enhancing app discoverability by improving the Shopify App Store.

Let’s wrap this up with Additional Payout methods. You will soon be able to receive payments in different forms, in addition to PayPal. This includes local bank transfers, wire transfers, and additional payment methods. Shopify plans to receive payouts in more than 200 regions and countries around the world.

We know it. The design also sells. So Hydrogen is coming soon to add 3D and great immersive shopping experiences to Shopify Stores. Built on JavaScript and React, Hydrogen provides a quick-start toolkit and set of components, so you can focus on building the fun parts that make your store unique, not boilerplate. It’s still at an early stage, but please see this demo below if you want to have a peek into the future of eCommerce.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Trajectory helps businesses integrate Shopify with industry-leading ERPs, visit our Shopify product page here.

You can review the entire Shopify Unite 2021 Conference here 👇🏻