Shopify releases a major edition twice a year. Spring '26, branded “Everywhere,” is built around one central idea: wherever consumers end up shopping—whether it is AI chat interfaces, social platforms, in-store, or your own website—your products should be there. The 150+ updates span ten categories. This is a plain summary of what changed.
Numbers to watch:
- 150+ Total updates
- 2× Conversion rate in AI chats: Catalog-syndicated data vs scraped
- 250M+ Shop Pay shoppers now accessible to non-Shopify brands
Agentic Commerce
The biggest structural update in the edition: infrastructure for selling across AI platforms.
Shopify Catalog
Automatically standardises and enriches your product data, then syndicates it to AI channels including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and the Shop app, no extra apps or manual feeds needed for eligible merchants. According to Shopify, Catalog-syndicated data drives 2× more conversions in AI chats than scraped product data.
Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)
An open standard for agentic commerce from discovery to checkout, co-developed with Google. Shopify merchants are UCP-enabled by default, meaning checkout rules, discounts, and customisations carry through into any UCP-powered transaction. First live surface: customers can now purchase directly inside Microsoft Copilot and pay with Shop Pay. Meta ads integration is coming soon.
Agentic Storefronts Dashboard
A dedicated view in the Shopify Admin to manage and monitor AI channel activity. Shows which channels are active, lets you toggle product discovery and direct checkout per channel, and reports orders and revenue from ChatGPT, Copilot, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Shop in one place. Also surfaces top AI search queries in your category and which ones your products rank for.
Catalog API: Image Search
Agents can now pass images to the Catalog API to return visually similar products — enabling new search experiences built around photos rather than text queries.
Catalog API: Product Lookup
Retrieve real-time pricing and availability for up to 50 products in a single API request.
Catalog API: Sign in with Shop
Experiences built on the Catalog API can now support Shop sign-in, enabling personalised search results for signed-in shoppers.
Richer Product Data in Agentic Experiences
Agents can now surface fuller product details from the Catalog API: media, variants, availability, and offers from multiple sellers.
Agentic Plan
A new option for businesses not currently on Shopify: sync products to Shopify Catalog and sell across AI channels and in the Shop app, without migrating your store.
Sponsored Products via Catalog API (Coming Soon)
A developer preview enabling partners and developers to earn revenue when their Catalog-powered agentic experiences drive sales.
Sidekick
Sidekick gets third-party app integrations, proactive surfacing, and expanded device support.
Sidekick App Extensions
Third-party apps can now connect directly to Sidekick. At launch, integrations are live for Judge.me, Klaviyo, Loop, Smile, and 15+ other partners. Merchants can ask Sidekick questions about and take action inside these apps from within the Shopify Admin, including querying Klaviyo campaign performance and flow revenue.
Sidekick Pulse
A proactive guidance card on a redesigned Admin home. Turns your store’s sales, traffic, and inventory data into suggested next actions, surfaced automatically, without requiring a prompt.
Sidekick on Apple Watch
Query business insights from an Apple Watch.
Multi-Task Support
Sidekick continues working in the background when you start a new task, run multiple chats, or close the window.
Follow-Up Questions
When Sidekick needs clarification to complete a task, it now presents multiple-choice options rather than open-ended prompts.
Sidekick Everywhere in the Shopify App
Available on every screen in the Shopify mobile app via typing or voice, without requiring a full-screen takeover.
Automation Testing with Sidekick
Generate test events for Shopify Flow automations with Sidekick to verify logic before deploying.
Sidekick Creates Customers
Describe a customer in plain language and Sidekick fills out the customer creation form automatically.
Online Store
Improvements to search, editing, testing, and store analysis.
AI Sales Associate via Shopify Inbox
An AI assistant lives on your storefront through Shopify Inbox. It answers buyer questions, suggests products, and handles order enquiries using data already in your admin: catalogue, inventory, and policies. For customers signed in with Shop, it personalises recommendations based on purchase history. Merchants control the tone and can route to a human at any point.
A/B Testing via Rollouts
Publish a new theme, checkout configuration, or customer accounts setup as a scheduled rollout or as an A/B test, natively, without a third-party app.
SimGym: AI-Powered Store Analysis
Analyses your store using AI-simulated shoppers and surfaces improvement ideas. Now available on any theme.
Storefront Search
Returns relevant results even when shoppers use typos or unusual phrasing.
Variant-Level Publishing
Control which specific product variants are published per sales channel and per market, without workarounds.
Better Online Store Editing on Mobile
The Shopify app’s theme editor now has controls designed for mobile, an on-screen preview that stays visible as you edit, and Sidekick built in.
Visualised Markets Graph
A clearer admin view of your Shopify Markets setup, including discounts, products, and other settings for each market, displayed in one graph.
Marketing
New automation tools and expanded reach channels.
Campaign Autopilot (Early Access)
Runs AI-powered marketing campaigns automatically across Facebook, Instagram, Shop, and email. Optimises over time within guardrails the merchant sets, such as target ROAS, region, and budget. Additional channels on the roadmap: Microsoft Advertising, ChatGPT Ads, and Snapchat.
Shop Campaigns Expansion
Shop Campaigns, a pay-on-conversion channel distributing products across Shop, other Shopify merchants' stores, and external platforms, now includes ChatGPT, Pinterest, and the open web via Microsoft Monetise. Merchants pay only when a customer converts.
Retail
In-person commerce gets tighter integration with Shopify's online infrastructure.
In-Store Returns and Pickup
Native support for processing returns in-store and routing click-and-collect orders to the correct physical location — bridging Shopify DTC with physical retail without requiring third-party middleware.
Payments
Shop Pay on Any Platform
Brands not on Shopify can now offer Shop Pay at checkout, giving access to 250M+ Shop account holders and one-click purchasing. Previously available only to Shopify merchants.
Shop Pay in AI Channels
Customers can now complete a Shop Pay purchase directly inside Microsoft Copilot. Additional AI surfaces are expected to follow.
All figures cited, 2× AI chat conversion rate and 250M+ Shop Pay shoppers, are Shopify’s own published statistics from the Spring ‘26 Edition release and merchant newsroom (17 June 2026). Merchant case studies (Omnilux and Cozy Earth) are from the same source.
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