Shopify’s Winter ‘26 Edition showcase is up, and the platform has once again outdone itself in terms of big feature launches and smaller, but highly impactful quality-of-life updates. Titled The Renaissance Edition, this update focuses on leading the way once again in AI-powered tools and functionality. 

As a Shopify Plus Partner agency, we’ve combed through all the updates and handpicked the new features we think our clients will love most in this stacked launch. Here are the standout features our team at Blue Badger is the most excited about from this Winter’s biannual showcase. 

AI Steals The Show (Yet Again)

Shopify is no stranger to pushing the limits of what AI can do for ecommerce merchants, and this update is no different. Here are the biggest AI assistant updates coming to Shopify this Winter. 

Shopify Pulse

AI has come a long way in the few years we’ve had access to the technology, but we’re only now starting to see what can really be done with it. Shopify has been steadily rolling out all kinds of AI-powered tools and features purpose-made to help merchants of all sizes run their stores like enterprise-sized operations. 

First on the list is Shopify Pulse, an AI-generated digest that uses your store data and the latest Shopify insights to provide actionable advice on how to improve your store. It will give you tasks (like creating specific collections it thinks will sell well), in addition to to-do lists and the steps to take to get started, which it can also do for you whenever you like with Sidekick.

This way, you can automate the entire process while still having a complete view of every step Sidekick takes to complete the task. Everything, from starting with a simple idea, all the way through to creating collections, discount codes, and even the email campaign to market it, and the audience segmentation can be done directly within Sidekick. As always, you can regenerate and change the output at any point. 

With Pulse and Sidekick, you can start with a half-baked idea and end with:

• A merchandised collection

• Discount logic

• Audience segmentation

• An email campaign

General Sidekick Improvements of Note

Sidekick can now code entire apps and app extensions for you, allowing you to type out exactly what you need built in natural language without ever coding anything yourself. On top of this, it now searches your apps to provide you with even more data and insights. Sidekick can build workflows with the Shopify Flow app in the same way – simply describe what you need your automation to do, and it will build it for you. 

Sidekick can also do more in terms of store design and images as well. It can now change image backgrounds, add or remove elements, change canvas size, edit your store theme, and adjust the look and feel of your emails. 

To speed up your conversations with Sidekick, you can create Skills, which are reusable prompt shortcuts for tasks you use regularly, such as checking inventory numbers, building email campaigns, or setting up promotions. 

Finally, Sidekick can also recommend apps to Shopify admins based on the needs they describe in their prompts. Now, you don’t need to search the App store and read hundreds of descriptions and reviews anymore, just let Sidekick tell you what will work best for you. 

Coming Soon: Agentic Storefronts

This one’s big: Shopify is preparing merchants for a world where shopping starts in AI chats, not search bars. Agentic storefronts will allow brands to control how they appear within tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity. 

Headless stores are also now discoverable in AI chats by automatically being part of the Shopify Catalog. Shopify recently partnered with OpenAI to create the “Buy it in ChatGPT capability, so this is the natural next step. 

We’re calling it now: “Agentic” will be the big buzzword of 2026, and Shopify is poised to become the leader in the space when it comes to ecommerce.

Don’t Be Afraid to Tinker

Tinker, another new app from Shopify launching with this update, lets users explore AI in all kinds of exciting ways. It comes built-in with all the capabilities you would expect from an AI, like generating text and images. 

It also includes a bunch of other tools for merchants to explore, such as an animated icon creator, a product name generator, and a video creator, enabling users to experiment with concepts, names, and ideas. This way, users can explore a range of tools in a safe environment and see where each one takes them. 

Go Live With More Confidence

Shopify’s new Rollouts feature will allow merchants to build and implement an entire update timeline right in their admin. Now, users can schedule theme changes and A/B tests to roll out automatically at whichever interval they choose.

Next, Shopify’s new SimGym app leverages AI agents to simulate shopper behaviour and purchase data to get recommendations on how to improve your store experience. Now you can run simulations to test how real users may interact with your store, see how they respond, and identify bottlenecks before going live with any changes. 

Shopify POS Keeps Getting Smarter

First on the docket in terms of POS updates is some new hardware: Available for pre-order and expected to ship in March 2026, the Shopify POS Hub connects multiple devices to your iPad at once to eliminate unnecessary Bluetooth connections, enable built-in monitoring, and push automatic updates to your POS hardware. 

Next, customers can now sign up for subscriptions in person, directly through your store’s POS. 

If you’re on the POS Pro plan, you can now scan and update inventory directly in the POS to keep stock accurate across all your channels. 

Shopify has also made further improvements to the POS's customization capabilities: now, all your customizations to the customer display, smart grid, receipts, and lock screen can be made in a single editor. 

To make the POS even more helpful for brands with stores across multiple locations, Shopify Markets' capabilities have been expanded to the POS. Now, merchants can create catalogues to set unique prices and publish products per retail location and online. 

If you operate in both hemispheres, you can use catalogues to publish summer products in the Northern Hemisphere in May, while simultaneously switching your Fall items out for Winter products in the Southern Hemisphere, for example. 

Finally, the Cart Transform API is now available on Shopify POS to dynamically expand, merge, or update cart lines for bundles, custom pricing, and rich cart customization.

Marketing Gets More Networked

Leveraging the Shopify Product Network app (where stores can list other brands’ products on key pages of their stores and earn commissions on sales) has just become more lucrative for merchants with the addition of Shop Campaigns to online stores.

Now, if you run ads on Shopify’s Product Network, those ads can display on another Shopify store’s collections pages, search results, or Thank You/Order Status pages as long as that Shopify store also publishes ads on their store via the Product Network app. 

Shopify has also improved its segmentation template search, making it easier for you to find the templates you need. You can also create customer segments based on product categories that customers have viewed or purchased.

More Options At Checkout

Shopify has once again improved its checkout experience, enabling more customization options and capabilities. With this update, the “Buy with Shop” button displays the last four digits of the customer’s saved card, and the entire checkout experience can be customized by market. 

Apple Pay has also been added as a Shop Pay payment option, and now works with Global-e for international payments. 

Finally, Shop Pay automatically notifies subscribers when their payment method is about to expire.

Operations Just Got Simpler

In an unexpected twist, the Shopify app now has an Apple Watch counterpart that lets users monitor key store metrics right on their wrist. Merchants can monitor sessions, total sales, orders, and conversion rate over time, and add a variety of complications to their watch faces, such as total sales, sessions, unfulfilled orders, and combined metrics.

Anyone with the Shopify app can now make a “quick sale” on their phone with cash, a secure checkout link, or with Tap to Pay. Now, you don’t even need to have access to the already accessible Shopify POS app or any hardware to sell on the spot. 

Finally, heatmaps are now available in Analytics for two variables (such as hour and day of the week), and merchants have visibility into their full inventory adjustment history with the removal of the old 180-day cap. 

Honourable Mentions

Here are some more exciting updates coming to Shopify with this update: 

• Shopify has upgraded the number of product variants you can have from 100 to 2,048. 

• The Horizons theme collection announced at the Summer 2025 Editions showcase now includes over 250 improvements, such as new animations, interactive sections, and overall performance enhancements. 

• Customers can now sign in to your store with Google or Facebook, and recognized Shop users can log in to any Shopify store with a single click. 

• Products can now be given the “unlisted” status, which hides them from search results, collections, and more, while keeping them accessible with a direct URL. 

• New dynamic storefronts in the Shop App automatically personalize merchants' storefronts for each shopper. In contrast, the new Deals feed displays discounts, price drops, and Shop Campaigns to app users. 

• Shopify B2B: The new Shopify Collective retailer directory enables B2B sellers to find and connect with suppliers and be discovered themselves. All Horizon themes now work with B2B as they now support built-in volume pricing, quantity rules, and quick order lists. 

• Merchants can now set a default package for each variant to get more accurate shipping rates at checkout and buy labels faster for single‑item orders.

• Scripts are (finally) going away. Shopify has officially confirmed the final sunset date for Shopify Scripts as June 30, 2026. At this time, Functions will fully replace Scripts. 

• Shopify Functions can now be used to reject discount codes and display a custom message to shoppers at checkout. 

Want to see all the updates from this Winter’s Shopify Edition? Check out the full Winter 2026 showcase here. 

Conclusion

Shopify Winter ’26 Editions makes one thing very clear: Shopify is not backing down on AI and its plans to enable its users to take over the world with international and omnichannel functionality. That said, more power also means more decisions. Features like Pulse, Agentic storefronts, Functions, and advanced POS logic are only valuable if they’re implemented with intent. 

As a Shopify Plus Partner agency, our team has the experience and knowledge your ecommerce business needs to make the most out of this launch and Shopify’s platform as a whole. Get in touch with us today to learn more.