Shopify Editions | Winter '23 - An agency developers guide

It wasn't too long ago when Shopify made a announced Shopify Editions Summer '22, which highlighted the concerted effort of all teams in showcasing the updates and new releases for merchants and developers on the platform. This week, Shopify shared some significant announcements with Shopify Winter Editions '23, and it has been met with equal excitement from merchants and developers alike.

I have taken the time to review all the announcements made as part of Shopify's latest Editions release, and I've compiled a list of key features and announcements that I believe developers should keep an eye on as they plan for the year ahead.

Checkout

Shopify checkout since I can remember was always this beautiful simple aspect of the platform that remained consistent. It was limited, sure - but it was consistent. It seems that Shopify is hearing the growth pains merchants are having with the existing bottleneck that is Shopify checkout and they're finally delivering a degree of customisation to loosen the restriction on checkouts - and they're doing this by empowering developers. Below are some highlights of what we can look forward to, and action today with Shopify checkout.

One-page checkout - Fewer fields, fewer pages, more sales.

Checkout drag and drop editor for Shopify Plus merchants - move checkout ui extensions, update your store branding (including B2B) all through a new checkout editor experience.

Checkout to draft - Customers can place draft orders through checkout, allowing merchants to review and approve (which also enables request a quote functionality)

Checkout Ui Extensions - customize Shopify's backend to alter the look, feel, and behavior of your checkout experience. Build the product bundles, order routing logic, checkout and cart validation rules, or delivery and payment options you need. If you want to see a live example, head to https://ghanda.com/ which has 3x extensions that we built at Convert Digital for Ghanda, an Australian surf based fashion company.

Checkout B2B - merchants can add company, location ,contact into payment and delivery functions exclusively for B2B customers.

Ghanda clothings new checkout with two of three checkout ui exensions visable.

Metaobjects

Probably the most impactful for every Shopify developer from this release of announcements is Metaobjects. Metaobjects are the latest addition to the Shopify platform, offering a new level of customization for your online store. This feature allows you to create reusable content like shoppable galleries, product highlights, cart upsells, and more. With the added benefit of being able to draft, edit, translate, and reference your Metaobjects directly within the online store editor, or by using the Storefront API to seamlessly integrate the content into your custom storefront.

Think of Metaobjects as custom data structures that can be defined and created by you to store additional information that is not directly attributed to the existing out of the box Objects that Shopify ships with. Similar to metafields, they can be associated with a Shopify resource, such as a product or collection. However, they can also exist independently. Metaobjects provide an innovative way to create resources that Shopify doesn't offer out of the box, making it easier than ever to tailor your online store to your unique needs.

Image originally from the Shopify Winter Editions '23 announcemnt.

You can find out more about Metaobjects, here.

Hydrogen 2: built on Remix

I recall having a conversation with Dion after my presentation at the Shopify Unite 2022 Melbourne event. I mentioned how Shopify, as a company, is placing increasing emphasis on the crucial role of software developers and how there's a trinity between Shopify, merchants, and developers. Dion hinted at a major announcement that would further solidify this idea, which was to be made the following week. True to his word, on the following Monday, Shopify made a significant announcement with the acquisition of Remix.

So what's new with Remix x Hydrogen?

Storefront API client - Hydrogen features a new Storefront API client to make querying simple, starter templates and an upgraded CLI to get building faster, and Remix-optimized components.

Remix - rebuilt from the ground up on Remix, a react based development framework.

Dev tooling - Catch errors with improved TypeScript and IntelliSense support, ESLint support, and improved resilience across the framework.

Oxygen for all - Deploy Hydrogen-based storefronts globally for no extra cost on Shopify's built-in hosting platform. Available to all plans except Starter.

Framework Agnostic - Bring some of the best parts of Hydrogen to more React frameworks like Next.js and Gatsby. The Hydrogen React library includes components like cart and Shop Pay and, for the first time to custom storefronts, Shopify Analytics.

B2B APIs

The Shopify B2B product is only 6 months old and it has and will continue getting a lot of love. IF you go to the Shopify B2B website you can see the amount of new features Shopify is pushing out for merchants in this space and the below APIs are only going to empower developers more to deliver great outcomes for their merchants.

Company API - sell to companies with payment terms and extend the Company object with metafields.

Catalogs API - Offer unique wholesale product offerings and loyalty functionality with curated products for B2B customers

PriceLists API - Offer exclusive prices for specific buyers

Publications API - Specify which products are available to B2B customers via a Catalog

Order and DraftOrder APIs - Create orders, or send invoices to B2B customers to accept and pay later.

Payment Terms API - Decide how long your B2B customers have to pay for their order.

Bonus: Shopify is extending the personalisation of B2B customers shopping experience such as adding B2B invitation emails.

General improvements

There were 100+ announcements made for Shopify Editions Winter 2023, and I only have so much time to write so here are some quick additional highlights that I thought would be worth mentioning.

Increased API limits - Shopify has increased the standard Admin API rate limits by 10x for Shopify Plus.

Shopify CLI improvements - Shopify CLI 3 can now integrate into your CI/CD pipeline When writing Liquid code, the updated CLI suggests context-aware autocompletion and in-line documentation.

Shopify Cart - Built on the same infrastructure as storefronts, Shopify Cart is deployed globally to the edge for faster response times.

Search and recommendations - Improvements to misspellings, content results and more.

AI-generated storefront content - Beat writer's block and automatically create product descriptions.

Sanity integration - Connect your store content directly with your Sanity content management system to improve your online store's performance. I would be very surprised if Shopify does not acquire Sanity for its new Shopify Content Platform.

Translate & Adapt app - Use a side-by-side editor to add, edit, and review translated content, and automatically translate up to two languages completely free.

Shopify Flow OpenAI connector - you can use Shopify Flow to send text prompts and configuration parameters to GPT, and get back AI-generated text

Customize Shopify Email templates - Add a custom Liquid section to any Shopify Email template to create custom fonts, images, buttons, and more.

Express checkout buttons in Shopify Email - You can now include a Shop Pay checkout button in any email campaign.

Markets Pro - A complete solution that offers end-to-end liability management, cost-effective cross-border shipping and fulfillment, and localization tools. From pricing & inventory to content.

Check out the full list of what's included in the Shopify Editions Winter 2023.