Shopify promised a lot of new updates in the newest edition of Shopify, and they kept their promise. These are the most notable features that were showcased and how they impact all Shopify merchants:

1. Expanded Product Variants

Shopify increased its limit of product variants from 100 to 2000. Why would there be 2000 variations of 1 product? Who knows. Actually, there has to be at least one store out there that is utilizing this to the fullest. If there is, let me know. 

2. Semantic Search

Ah yes, something with AI had to be here, right? Customers now have greater search capability with the search bar understanding the customer’s intent through the power of AI. Shopify probably killed at least a dozen apps with this one, but now customers on a storefront do not even really need to know what they are looking for. They can shop based on vibes (as I assume most customers do). 

3. B2B Sales Permissions

Here is one for the Shopify Plus folks. Now, you have the power to fine-tune access levels, ensuring your sales representatives can exclusively manage orders and access customer data within their assigned accounts. Define distinct roles for sales managers and reps, all within the staff permissions framework. I am honestly surprised this was not already a Plus feature. I am sure those stores were clamoring for this one. 

4. Subscriptions

It would not be a Shopify Edition without at least one app being released by Shopify that competes with at least a dozen existing apps. Time will tell if the new native Shopify subscription app is the preferred one merchants use. 

5. Inventory and Checkout Enhancements

As always, every edition brings new inventory and checkout enhancements for the merchants and their customers. Their new one-page mobile checkout apparently reduces the time it takes by 4 seconds. 

In my opinion, Shopify already had by far the best checkout experience out there, and their constant tweaking has probably made it this way. Now that they are opening up this space for developers with their checkout extensibility feature, I am sure it will be even better.