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Shopify announced plenty of exciting news and features at its Shopify Unite event in Toronto, ON, on June 29.
Shopify Unite is an annual summertime conference held to show what the future holds for the ecommerce platform and the developers and merchants who use it.
According to Shopify, this year’s conference was about “the infrastructure, tooling, and technologies that make the future of commerce possible.”
“The internet is the world’s largest city, and Shopify is building its commerce infrastructure,” said Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify. “Especially over the past year, we saw independent businesses succeed by showing up creatively and uniquely in this city. The future of commerce on the internet relies on creative expression at every touchpoint.”
Read below to learn about some of the announcements that may interest digital merchants and web developers.
Zero Revenue Share For Shopify Apps
The Shopify App Store contains plenty of free and paid plugins that Shopify users can install to transform their website.
Previously, those who published apps to the online store would have to agree to a 20 percent revenue share with the company, meaning they would forfeit 20 percent of their earnings.
Now, Shopify has announced that publishers or developers whose apps make less than one million dollars will not have to share any of their revenue – and those who make more than one million dollars will only have to start sharing 15 percent.
New Online Store
Shopify is relaunching its online store, aptly calling it ‘Online Store 2.0.’
“In the past year, we’ve seen traffic double across online stores, as shoppers turned more and more to online shopping during the pandemic,” the company explained in a blog post. “In today’s world, how a merchant’s store shows up online has never been more important.”
The new launch will include an “updated theme architecture” to ensure that merchants and developers have an improved experience, including more customization.
The ‘sections’ feature will be made available to more pages on users’ sites – previously, it was only for use on home pages.
Shopify says it will be easier for merchants to be integrated into apps without having to use any code. Additionally, users will be able to add apps’ supporting assets to their theme app extensions for fasting hosting using Shopify’s CDN.
Theme Store Relaunch
Shopify’s dedicated theme store has not accepted submissions since 2018 – but the company announced that it will soon relaunch the platform for theme creators.
Shopify says creators will not have to share their revenue, similarly to how the company is structuring its app store. Instead, creators will have to a pay a one-time fee of $99 USD in order to have the ability to submit themes.
Shopify Checkout Made Easier With Apps
Shopify Checkout is an important feature for Shopify stores – it allows shoppers and merchants to have successful transactions.
Previously, Shopify Checkout only allows users to make small changes through the ‘editor’ portal – and more prominent changes can be made if users have a Shopify Plus account.
Soon, Shopify says all users will be able to make significant changes to their Checkout service.
“These new capabilities will let you build whatever it is merchants need, from simple customizations, all the way to complex user interfaces (UI) and business logic,” the company said. “This update includes checkout extensions, changes to Shopify Scripts, and a new payments platform.”
Shopify plans to elaborate on all of these announcements and more during a ‘town hall’ event on July 15.
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