Everything You Need to Know About Shopify Editions Winter 2026
Shopify has just unveiled its Winter Editions 2026, and it’s shaping up to be one of the most exciting updates the platform has released in years. Packed with powerful new AI-driven tools and over 150 platform improvements, this edition focuses on helping merchants work smarter, move faster, and grow with confidence.
At the heart of the release are Sidekick, Shopify’s upgraded AI assistant, and Agentic Commerce, which enables shopping directly within AI conversations. Alongside this come major improvements across retail, marketing, checkout, and operations.
From AI-generated apps and instant theme edits to Rollouts for A/B testing, new payment options, and powerful developer tools, Winter 2026 is packed with practical upgrades.
Below, we break down what these changes could mean for merchants heading into 2026.
Smart Suggestions
With Sidekick Pulse, merchants now receive personalised recommendations and suggested next steps based on broader market trends and their own store data — making it easier to spot opportunities and act on them quickly.
Shopify Rollouts
Shopify has introduced Rollouts, a smart new way for merchants to schedule theme changes and run proper A/B tests — all built directly into the Shopify admin. It means you can now test design updates, new features, and layout changes with real data before fully committing, helping you make more confident decisions and reduce risk when updating your store.
Shopify SimGym app
Another exciting addition is the new Shopify SimGym app, which lets merchants simulate real shopper behaviour using AI agents trained on data from billions of purchases. Before you even go live, you can see how customers are likely to interact with your store and receive clear, actionable recommendations to improve performance. It’s a powerful new way to stress-test your ideas before putting them in front of real customers.
Manage store details in the theme editor
Shopify has made it easier to keep everything moving in one place. Merchants can now update products, collections, markets, metafields and more directly inside the theme editor, without having to jump back and forth between different areas of the admin. It’s a small change on paper, but a real time-saver in day-to-day work.
POS customisation in one editor
Retail teams are getting a much smoother setup too. Shopify now allows merchants to customise the customer display, smart grid, receipts and lock screen all from a single POS editor – making it quicker and more consistent to roll out changes across in-store systems.
Personalised Shop Pay button
Shop Pay is getting a subtle but useful upgrade. The last four digits of a customer’s saved card will now appear directly on their Shop Pay button, helping customers recognise their preferred payment method more quickly at checkout.
AI-enhanced chargeback management
Dealing with disputes should now be far less of a headache. Shopify can auto-generate chargeback summaries, pulling together key details such as delivery tracking and store policies to help merchants respond faster and with more confidence.
More order filtering capabilities
Order management is getting a welcome upgrade too. Merchants can now filter orders by custom metafields, total value and weight, making fulfilment workflows smarter and easier to manage at scale.
Studio-quality photos
Image editing is getting a serious boost thanks to Sidekick. Merchants can now prompt the AI to change backgrounds, add or remove elements, and even expand the canvas size, making it quicker to produce polished, on-brand product imagery without leaving Shopify.
Shortcuts for prompts
Sidekick is also becoming more powerful day to day. Merchants can now turn their favourite prompts into reusable Skills, share them with the wider community, and discover new ones to speed up common tasks.
Winter Editions 2026 shows just how serious Shopify is about the future of AI-powered commerce. With a strong mix of smart automation, practical upgrades, and tools that genuinely improve how merchants work day to day, this release is packed with real opportunity. Whether you’re optimising an existing store or planning your next phase of growth, there’s plenty here to be excited about heading into 2026.
If you want to chat or get advice about any of these changes, or anything Shopify-related, get in touch with us via our website today. We'd be happy to help!
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