Shopify Releases The Boring Edition: Winter 2025
Shopify’s 2025 Edition, humorously titled The Boring Edition, takes a no-nonsense approach to improving its platform.
Instead of introducing flashy new features, Shopify is doubling down on making its existing tools faster, more customizable, and more efficient.
Whether you’re a merchant or a developer, this release promises significant upgrades to help you save time, reduce friction, and grow your business.
What’s New for Merchants?
Faster, Smarter Checkouts
The Shopify Checkout experience is now up to 50% faster, ensuring customers can complete their purchases quickly.
Cart loading times have been dramatically reduced, and checkout buttons are up to 58% faster. These speed boosts are vital in reducing cart abandonment and improving the overall shopping experience.
Shopify has also added more customization options:
- Checkout Blocks are now available on all plans, allowing merchants to personalize their thank-you pages or add promotional offers post-checkout.
- Chat Integration enables customers to get live support directly during checkout, smoothing out any last-minute hesitations.
- Draft Orders Expansion: Merchants can now bundle products, apply special pricing, and use Shopify Functions seamlessly in draft orders. This is particularly valuable for B2B merchants managing complex transactions.
Customer Account Upgrades
Shopify’s new Customer Account Extensions make it easier for customers to log in, track their orders, and handle returns—all from one streamlined interface.
For merchants, these accounts offer new ways to collect feedback directly from customers, helping you fine-tune your offerings.
For B2B businesses, customer accounts now include features like self-service for invoices and quotes, making it easier for wholesale buyers to manage their accounts.
Enhanced In-Store Selling Tools
Shopify POS (Point of Sale) has received several key updates:
- Product Bundling: Merchants can now sell product bundles directly through POS, simplifying promotions and package deals.
- Split-Screen Checkout: Staff can search for products while keeping the cart visible, speeding up in-person transactions.
- Metafields Integration: Merchants can collect and use specific customer data at the point of sale, enabling more personalized service.
Time-Saving Automations with Shopify Flow
Shopify Flow now automates even more tasks, making it easier to manage your store:
- Handle returns and exchanges without manual input.
- Set up marketing campaigns like abandoned cart emails using pre-built templates.
- Automate targeting with segment-based triggers, allowing you to engage specific customer groups effortlessly.
What’s New for Developers?
Streamlined Checkout Development
Shopify has made checkout development faster and more flexible:
- Checkout buttons and carts now load significantly faster.
- Developers can embed chat apps directly into checkout and thank-you pages using new Chat UI components.
- Draft orders now support Shopify Functions and checkout extensions, providing a consistent, customizable experience across all sales channels.
More Powerful Storefront Tools
Developers building storefronts will benefit from several major upgrades:
- Liquid DX Enhancements: A new developer experience with features like autocomplete and better debugging tools, available through an improved VS Code extension.
- Unified GraphQL API: Manage multiple elements of your storefront with fewer API calls, saving time and reducing complexity.
- Faster Shopify CLI: The CLI has been rebuilt for instant server startup and no longer depends on Ruby, making it easier to set up and maintain.
Other Notable Features in the 2025 Edition
- Chat Apps in Checkout: Provide real-time customer support to increase checkout conversions.
- Returns Management: Automate the returns process with new triggers in Shopify Flow.
- POS Hardware Integration: Enhanced support for Shopify’s POS hardware, ensuring smooth operations for brick-and-mortar stores.
- Marketing Simplified: Pre-designed templates for marketing automation allow you to set up campaigns quickly and effectively.
- Improved Personalization: Use customer data to deliver tailored offers and experiences, whether online or in-store.
Why Call It “The Boring Edition”?
Shopify leaned into the humor with this name, but it reflects the practical focus of the update. Instead of flashy features, Shopify concentrated on improving the tools you use every day. It’s about making things work better, faster, and with less friction.
Whether you’re a merchant looking for smoother workflows or a developer building better storefronts, Shopify’s 2025 Edition is all about efficiency and reliability. Sometimes, boring is exactly what you need to get things done.
