Shopify is continually upgrading its platform by adding a lot of high-end functionalities to boost online sales. With customer service as its primary priority, Shopify keeps aiming to address the ever-changing expectations of businesses and consumers.
In December 2024, Shopify introduced updates designed to improve store efficiency and simplify daily business operations. Make sure you are not left behind and check the latest developments and how they can help your business against the competition. Read on to find out how Shopify’s fresh capabilities may enable your business to reach new heights, satisfy consumers’ evolving needs, and offer exceptional shopping user experiences.
Marketing automation template to drive online customers to nearby retail locations
Retailers can now pinpoint online-only customers located near their physical stores and encourage them to visit in person. This template is built to transform single-channel shoppers into multi-channel buyers, strengthening their connection with the brand.
As with all marketing automation templates, this one offers a robust starting point, but it's recommended that you customize the audience criteria and email content to better align with your specific business needs.
Enhanced branding options for Checkout and Customer Account order summary
Beginning December 4th, 2024, Shopify Plus merchants can enhance their Checkout and Customer Account experiences with new branding controls for order summary sections. These updates let you adjust product thumbnail aspect ratios and image fit, as well as customize the background colors of quantity badges to match your brand. Improved accessibility features enhance usability for screen readers, and optimized money line formatting ensures smoother handling of lengthy discount codes.
Additionally, minor UX adjustments, like improved spacing and alignment, create a more polished and cohesive design. These changes apply across the Checkout and Customer Account Order Status Page, delivering a more seamless shopping experience for all buyers.
Accurate inventory tracking for Collective retailers
Retailers can now only sell inventory reflecting suppliers' online stock levels. Previously, sellable inventory included POS stock, which occasionally caused checkout inconsistencies for customers. This update ensures more accurate inventory management across both platforms while maintaining a smooth shopping experience for buyers.
Simplified customer account terminology
As of December 9th, 2024, Shopify updated its customer account terminology across all platforms:
- "New customer accounts" will now be referred to simply as "customer accounts."
- "Classic customer accounts" will be renamed to "legacy customer accounts."
This change underscores Shopify’s focus on modernized customer account experiences, with a future phase-out of classic accounts to be announced.
Customizable supplier policies for Collective retailers
Within the Collective app's settings, retailers can now create tailored policies for returns and products, offering greater flexibility in managing supplier relationships. Retailers can modify default settings or develop unique policies for specific supplier groups.
Automate product updates with supplier-specific policies
Retailers can now automate import and updates of product information from suppliers. These policies enable retailers to manage publishing preferences, sync product details, and exclude unsellable inventory, simplifying inventory control and supplier coordination.
Streamline returns processing with Shopify Collective policies
By setting returns policies, retailers can designate suppliers for returns handling, automate label creation, and sync return statuses, creating a consistent and efficient process. This feature integrates with compatible apps like AfterShip, Loop, Narvar, and Redo to enhance returns management.
Price-locking feature for draft orders
Merchants can now lock item prices in draft orders, ensuring quoted prices remain static regardless of catalog price changes. If prices aren’t locked, they’ll automatically update to reflect the latest product pricing. This feature is especially valuable for providing accurate quotes, particularly in B2B transactions.
To activate this, go to the draft orders section in the admin panel, access the new product actions menu, and select "lock pricing."
Self-serve returns now support B2B orders
The self-serve returns feature has been extended to B2B orders, complementing the existing functionality for DTC orders, allowing customers to easily start a return right from their account. This unification streamlines the returns process across both order types, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Draft order customizations with Shopify Functions
Customizations made with Shopify Functions now work with draft orders, including delivery options, payment methods, and checkout rules. Customers receiving draft invoices will experience consistent validations, ensuring a smoother and more reliable checkout process.
Metaobjects integrated into the online store editor
Metaobjects are now universally accessible in the online store editor, making custom data models readily available in the dynamic source picker. Merchants can leverage metaobject fields across all sections and blocks without needing to write custom code.
Product bundle inventory updates for Managed Markets
Merchants using Managed Markets can now accurately display the stock status of product bundles based on fulfillable inventory in buyers’ locations. This ensures accurate PDP inventory visibility, enabling informed purchasing decisions and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Buy X, Get Y now supports subscription products
The Buy X, Get Y discount feature now applies to subscriptions, allowing merchants to:
- Offer free products (Y) when customers subscribe to a product (X).
- Provide discounted items (Y) with a subscription to a product (X).
This feature enables compelling promotional campaigns, improved cross-selling, and better product discovery.
Integrate custom identity providers for customer logins
Plus merchants can now use their own identity providers with OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect to replace default login pages. This enables single sign-on across websites, apps, storefronts, checkouts, and customer accounts, offering a cohesive and branded login experience for customers.
Enhanced customization for customer account menus
Merchants now have full control over customer account menus, enabling them to add, edit, or remove links. You can incorporate Customer Account Extensions, connecting users to loyalty programs, memberships, and rewards systems. This update integrates the account menu more seamlessly into your online store, allowing you to guide logged-in customers directly to specific product or collection pages.
The familiar "Go to Store" button has transitioned to a customizable "Shop" link, providing merchants flexibility in naming, navigation, or removing it. The store logo will still link to the main online store as usual.
Streamlined Shopify App search experience
Shopify has unified the search functionality across desktop and the Shopify app, delivering consistent and accurate results.
App search now includes:
- All desktop filters
- Filtered result counts
- Searchability for uninstalled apps, companies, segments, and admin pages
- Products, Orders, and Customers overview use new search
- Links to the Shopify App Store, Help Center, and Order, Customers, or Products pages
Improved shipping profile assignments for new locations
Shopify no longer auto-assigns new locations to shipping profiles when fulfilling online orders. Merchants can now manually manage delivery methods like in-store pickup or shipping, ensuring clarity and control.
Automate collections with metafields
Shopify merchants can now create automated collections based on metafield types directly in the Shopify app. This allows for precise product grouping by attributes like size, color, or status, enabling tailored inventory management and an optimized shopping experience.
Shopify Subscriptions app now aligns with inventory settings
The Shopify Subscriptions app now aligns with inventory settings, alerting merchants of billing failures due to stock shortages at fulfillment locations. Notifications specify affected products and provide actionable solutions, reducing subscription disruptions and improving customer experience.
Introducing stacked holds for fulfillments
Now, you can apply multiple holds to a single fulfillment, giving you more flexibility and control over what gets fulfilled and when. If a fulfillment is already on hold, you can easily add another hold as new issues arise.
Each hold tracks its own reason, so when you're ready to release one, the others remain securely in place. This ensures you can manage and resolve fulfillment issues with confidence and clarity.
Role-based access controls (RBAC) for Shopify
Shopify's new role-based access control (RBAC) model is available to streamline user management and enhance security as your business grows.
Key updates:
- Simplified Role Assignments: Create roles with specific permissions and assign them to multiple users at once.
- Flexible Permissions: Assign multiple roles to a single user for better adaptability.
- Efficient Onboarding (Shopify Plus only): Use Groups to assign roles and store access to large teams easily.
Existing users will retain their access, marked as "Legacy Access." Previous roles are now converted into user groups under the same names. To remove the badge and transition smoothly, create and assign new roles to users or groups. Administrators should update user permissions by May 1, 2025. After this, legacy access will be auto-migrated to one role per store, potentially generating multiple roles.
Stacked fulfillment holds now accessible on the Shopify App
Shopify has introduced the ability to apply layered fulfillment holds directly within its mobile app. This feature allows merchants to