The Shopify Winter '25 Edition focuses on refining the platform rather than introducing major new features. This update emphasizes essential improvements to the system’s functionality, performance, and feature integrations. The goal is to enhance the overall reliability of Shopify, ensuring it operates smoothly and efficiently for merchants. Let’s dive into the latest updates that’ll help merchants maximize efficiency and performance in 2024.

1. Vaulted Credit Card Support in Draft Orders

Shopify now allows merchants to charge vaulted credit cards for draft orders and keep track of the cards selected by buyers throughout the order process.

Benefits:

• Streamlines the payment process for draft orders.
• Reduces the need for customers to re-enter payment information.
• Ensures smooth and efficient transaction management for bulk or custom orders.
• Perfect for wholesale merchants who rely on draft orders for large purchases.

2. Deposit Support in Draft Orders

Merchants can now set up required deposits on draft orders with payment terms and collect those deposits through draft order invoices.

Benefits:

• Reduces financial risk by securing partial payment before processing an order.
• Helps businesses manage large or custom orders more efficiently.
• Ensures greater cash flow control and upfront payments from customers.

3. Shopify Functions in Draft Orders

Shopify Functions, which enable advanced checkout customizations, now apply to draft orders, ensuring a consistent experience across both draft orders and checkout.

Benefits:

• Maintains a seamless and customized experience across the entire purchasing journey.
• Helps Shopify Plus merchants apply custom checkout features to draft orders.
• Enables flexibility with advanced functionalities such as personalized shipping options or discounts.

4. Chat Apps in Checkout

Merchants can now add a chat app to the “Thank You” page or any checkout page, available to Shopify Plus and enterprise brands.

Benefits:

• Increases customer engagement by providing real-time support during checkout.
• Reduces cart abandonment and increases conversions.
• Offers personalized assistance to customers even after they’ve made a purchase, improving satisfaction and trust.

5. More Checkout Block Customization

Brands of all plans can now customize the “Thank You” and “Order Status” pages using the free Checkout Blocks app, with no coding required.

Benefits:

• Allows merchants to personalize the post-purchase experience.
• Enhances branding by customizing the look and feel of the “Thank You” page.
• Enables businesses to offer additional products or services, such as order tracking or upselling, without any coding.

6. Shop Pay Installments on the Shop Pay Component

Shopify merchants can now offer customers the option to pay in installments for their purchases through Shop Pay Installments, powered by Affirm.

Benefits:

• Boosts conversions by offering flexible payment options, especially for high-ticket items.
• Increases average order value (AOV) by allowing customers to split their payments.
• Enhances the customer experience by providing an easy, trusted way to pay in installments.
• Available in the USA, expanding payment flexibility for a larger audience.

7. Location Metafields for Order Routing

Location metafields now help inform order routing rules, helping merchants rank fulfillment locations more effectively when new orders are placed.

Benefits:

• Enables more efficient order fulfillment by directing orders to the most appropriate location.
• Reduces shipping times and costs, optimizing fulfillment operations.
• Helps businesses with multiple fulfillment centers manage order routing more dynamically and accurately.

8. Customer Account Extensions for Wholesale

Shopify now allows merchants to enhance customer accounts with apps that add features like downloadable invoices, quoting workflows, and more, specifically useful for wholesale and B2B businesses.

Benefits:

• Provides customers with self-service options to manage their accounts, invoices, and quotes.
• Streamlines the buying process for wholesale and B2B customers by providing essential information at their fingertips.
• Improves customer satisfaction by offering easy access to important documents and quotes, promoting a more professional experience.

9. Segmentation for Google Ads

Merchants can now create Google Ads audiences based on customer segments they set up in Shopify.

Benefits:

• Allows businesses to target highly specific customer groups, increasing ad relevance and effectiveness.
• Ensures marketing dollars are spent efficiently by targeting the right customers at the right time.
• Helps merchants run more tailored and effective ad campaigns, improving overall ROI.

10. Session Recordings and Heatmaps in Pixels

Merchants can now use pixels to create session recordings and heatmaps, helping to pinpoint friction points in the buyer journey.

Benefits:

• Provides visual insights into customer behavior on the site, helping identify areas for improvement.
• Enables merchants to fine-tune their store’s design and user experience based on real customer interactions.
• Improves conversion rates by pinpointing friction points and optimizing the buyer journey.

11. Discount Admin UI Extensions

Developers can now create discount apps with Shopify-hosted UI using admin extensions.

Benefits:

• Simplifies the process of creating and managing custom discount apps within Shopify.
• Reduces the complexity for merchants and provides a more seamless experience.
• Offers more flexibility for developers to create bespoke discount solutions that suit unique business needs.

12. New Analytics: Faster and More Intuitive

Shopify’s analytics have been upgraded to be faster, more flexible, and easier to use, allowing merchants to see real-time performance and optimize their store more effectively.

Benefits:

• Speeds up decision-making by providing real-time insights into store performance.
• Customizable data explorations enable deeper analysis of customer behavior and sales trends.
• Helps merchants optimize their store and marketing strategies for improved growth and performance.

13. Shop Campaigns Expansion

Shop Campaigns is now available to non-Plus brands, offering a pay-per-sale acquisition program with new features like Google Shopping integration and lapsed customer win-back campaigns.

Benefits:

• Offers a cost-effective way to acquire new customers and re-engage lapsed customers through targeted, performance-based ads.
• Expands the reach of campaigns to Google Shopping, improving brand visibility and driving more traffic to the store.
• Helps brands run sales-driven ad campaigns with no upfront cost, improving ROI for all types of merchants.

14. GraphQL Becomes Shopify’s Primary Admin API

Shopify will make GraphQL the primary API for the platform, phasing out the REST Admin API by April 1, 2025.

Benefits:

• Improves data querying efficiency, allowing for faster, more flexible integration with third-party apps.
• Reduces data usage by ensuring only relevant information is returned, improving store performance.
• Helps developers streamline their apps with access to more powerful and efficient API capabilities.

15. Theme Blocks for Greater Customization

A new Liquid feature allows theme developers to define blocks once and reuse them across different sections of a store, with support for nesting up to 8 levels deep.

Benefits:

• Offers greater flexibility in creating and managing reusable content blocks across a store.
• Reduces development time by allowing content blocks to be reused across multiple pages.
• Improves site scalability and ease of design updates for merchants.

16. Sidekick AI Assistant

Sidekick, Shopify’s personal AI assistant, is now available to more brands to help with administrative tasks and provide intelligent insights.

Benefits:

• Reduces manual work by automating routine tasks like inventory management and order tracking.
• Offers real-time recommendations and insights to optimize store performance.
• Assists merchants in making smarter, data-driven decisions without the need for deep technical expertise.

Ready to make the most of Shopify's Winter '25 updates?

Makro Agency specializes in leveraging these features to grow your business. These updates help merchants streamline operations, boost customer satisfaction, and simplify daily workflows. With enhanced performance and powerful new tools, Shopify ensures your business stays ahead in the dynamic eCommerce landscape. Explore the latest updates and start optimizing your store today!