Shopify Winter '25 Edition Updates Worth Setting Up
Shopify's Winter '25 Edition, released December 11, has more than 150 updates and calls itself the Boring Edition. That's a fair description, and it's good news. Most of the changes fix things merchants deal with every day.
Image: Shopify
Published Dec 12, 2024. Author: Ecomm Guys. 4 min read.
Key Points
- Shopify says cart loading is up to 50% faster, and accelerated checkout buttons load up to 58% faster.
- Checkout Blocks is now available on all plans for the thank you and order status pages.
- Customer account extensions let apps add features such as returns, surveys, and B2B tools to customer accounts.
- Shopify POS adds offline payments, bundles, metafields, and a split screen view.
- Shopify Functions can now power up to 25 automatic discounts, up from 5.
Why a Boring Edition Is Good News
Shopify Editions usually lead with new features. This one is about smoothing rough edges, improving performance, and making existing tools work better together. Shopify says the list is based on what merchants told it they needed.
For established stores, that kind of release is often more useful than a big launch. You don't need to rebuild anything to benefit, and several changes apply automatically. These are the updates we think merchants will notice most.
Faster Carts and a Better Checkout
Shopify says it has optimized its cart infrastructure so carts load up to 50% faster, with lower query latency on storefronts around the world. The developer notes add that accelerated checkout buttons, such as Shop Pay, now load up to 58% faster from product and cart pages.
The bigger change for many stores is Checkout Blocks. The free app now works on all plans for simple customizations on the thank you and order status pages, with no code. Stores can add things like delivery information, a support link, or a post-purchase message.
Draft orders also improve. Checkout rules and payment and delivery customizations built with Shopify Functions now run in draft orders, so a phone or invoice order follows the same rules as an online one. Checkout UI extensions in draft order checkouts are a Plus feature.
Customer Account Extensions
Customer account extensions are app blocks that sit inside customer account pages, such as the order list and order status page. Shopify gives examples like managing orders and returns in one place with a passwordless login, collecting feedback through survey apps, and building self-serve B2B tools for quotes, invoices, and bulk ordering.
If your store still uses the older customer accounts, this is a good reason to look at the newer version. That's where the useful features are being built.
POS, Flow, and Discounts
Shopify says POS sales grew 31% year over year globally over the most recent Black Friday. Winter '25 adds offline payments, so stores can keep taking card payments when the connection drops, along with wider availability of Tap to Pay on Shopify POS in supported countries, including Canada. Merchants can also sell bundles in POS, see search results beside the cart in a split screen view, and use metafields to store customer details collected in store.
Shopify Flow gains new triggers and actions for returns and exchanges, ready-made marketing templates for abandoned cart and welcome emails, and triggers for when a customer joins or leaves a segment.
On the developer side, Shopify Functions can now power 25 automatic discounts, up from 5, and execution limits scale for carts with more than 200 lines. Stores running several stacked promotions will feel that change.
Also Worth Knowing
Sidekick, Shopify's AI assistant, is rolling out to all merchants in English. Shop Campaigns, where merchants pay only when a new customer converts, is now open to all plans in the US and Canada for eligible stores. Shopify also says GraphQL is now its primary API, which matters to anyone maintaining custom apps that still rely on REST.
Where We'd Start
Most of these updates need only a little setup. Over the next few weeks, we'd work through this list.
- Install Checkout Blocks and add useful content to your thank you and order status pages.
- Review your customer accounts setting and plan a move to the newer accounts if you haven't made it.
- If you run retail, test offline payments on your POS devices before you need them.
- Check your automatic discounts now that more Functions-based discounts can run at once.
- If you have custom apps, ask your developer whether they use REST endpoints that should move to GraphQL.
Talk to Us
Not sure which Winter '25 updates are worth setting up on your store? Book a call with our team.
Sources
- The Boring Edition: Everything improved Shopify, December 2024
- It's our most boring Edition ever. And that's good for devs. Shopify, December 2024
- Shopify Winter '25 Edition Shopify Blog, December 2024