Exponential: Shopify's Fall '26 Edition

“Every merchant that joins Shopify benefits from every other merchant that has ever been on Shopify,” says Vanessa Lee, Shopify’s VP of Product. “And they make it better for whoever comes next.” Shopify’s Fall ‘26 Edition shows how that network effect makes every business on Shopify exponentially more capable.

To explore the complete rollout, visit the Fall '26 Edition. Read a list of highlights below:

Getting more from the Shopify network

Shopify's network now works harder for you at checkout, at the register, and in helping new buyers discover your store.

Shopify Protect

What it is: A collection of risk and disputes tools in the admin that help stop fraud at checkout and help fight chargebacks automatically. Through the Shopify Protect Rule Builder, merchants can write and test their own fraud rules.

Why it matters: Signals from millions of businesses inform Shopify's defenses, so a card flagged on one store is already known at the next. Shopify Payments prevents more than 12,000 high-risk payments every minute, at no extra cost to businesses using it.  

New local payment methods

What it is: Seven new local payment methods in Shopify Payments: Alipay, WeChat Pay, MB WAY, OXXO, Satispay, Scalapay, and GrabPay. All work in online checkout, and most also work with Shop Pay, the Shop app, and in person with Shopify POS.

Why it matters: Buyers in many markets prefer local payment methods to cards, and now merchants can reach them with a method they already trust inside a fast Shop Pay checkout.

Expanded in-store customer recognition with POS

What it is: Shopify POS now recognizes even more in-store customers through Shopify's network of hundreds of millions of people who've checked out at any store powered by Shopify Payments. When those shoppers select a digital receipt and choose to share their details, POS can save their information to a customer profile connected to the purchase.

Why it matters: Merchants can identify more of their in-store customers without slowing down checkout, and a known in-store customer has over 60% higher lifetime value than an unknown one.

Shop Promise

What it is: A free Shopify program for eligible US stores that shows badges on qualifying products in places like product pages, checkout, and the Shop app, highlighting trusted delivery and returns.  Merchant eligibility has grown 20x.

Why it matters: Before they buy, shoppers can see what to expect on delivery and returns, which can give them confidence when a store is new to them. Badged products can also rank higher in Shop app search and in the Shopify Catalog data shopping agents use, so more shoppers find them.

Meeting shoppers wherever they buy

The shoppers who already use Shop and Shop Pay can now buy from merchants in AI agents, in carts that span multiple stores, and on the web.

Shop.md: a shopping skill for any AI agent

What it is: A skill that turns any AI agent into a personal shopper. Buyers point ChatGPT, Claude, or another agent to shop.md, and it can search more than a billion products, check out with Shop Pay, and track orders. Anyone can customize the skill to fit their style.

Why it matters: Because the agent knows a buyer's preferences, sizes, and order history from Shop, it can find the right products from Shopify merchants and check out with Shop Pay.  More shoppers using shop.md means more places merchants can make a sale. 

Shop Pay in personal AI agents

What it is: Shop Pay checkout inside personal AI agents, starting with Muse from Meta, Claude Duet, and Instinct. Claude Duet, Grok Bot, and Instinct also offer Shop Pay for brands not on Shopify.

Why it matters: More than 400 million people already trust Shop Pay, and its security model carries over: the buyer remains in control of their purchases, and their card is never shared with the agent. Shop Pay stays secure with tokens from Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and coming soon, American Express, for agent purchases from merchants off Shopify.

Universal Checkout on Shop

What it is: One checkout in the Shop app for carts built from multiple merchants.

Why it matters: Shoppers' needs often span more than one store. By making it possible for them to buy from several merchants in one session, more merchants win the sale, and checkout still respects every merchant's extensions and validations.

Shop.com

What it is: Shop's new home on the web, with shoppable posts, editorial curations, and more sections personalized to each shopper.

Why it matters: More shoppers are coming to Shop than ever before, and traffic is growing even faster on the web than the Shop app. That’s why we’re introducing Shop.com with a more immersive shopping experience and new package tracking. 

Building and growing your business with AI

Start in the AI chat you already use, design your store with Sidekick in a redesigned admin, and make sure the agents shoppers turn to can find what you sell.

Shopify connectors for AI agents

What it is: Merchants can connect Shopify to the AI agents they already use to manage products, inventory, orders, and performance without leaving the conversation. Shopify connectors now work with nine agents: ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Duet, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Grok, Grok Bot, Muse, and Perplexity. Aspiring entrepreneurs can start there too, turning an idea into a storefront preview in the same chat. Learn more.  

Why it matters: Business ideas often start as a question in an AI chat, and now the next step can happen in the same place, while Shopify remains the commerce foundation behind every product, order, and store operation.

Canvas

What it is: See your entire store on one canvas and edit it with Sidekick, from small tweaks to full redesigns, all built on your theme's design system. Canvas is now in early access.  

Why it matters: Every merchant cares about how their store looks and feels, and now entrepreneurs can build the store they imagine, beyond the limits of theme settings and without technical skills. 

Sidekick takes on technical work

What it is: A rebuilt Sidekick in the Shopify admin that can run calculations, write code, search the internet, and remember what a merchant teaches it.

Why it matters: Technical work like writing code or researching a market takes time away from running the business. Sidekick now handles that work while ensuring that the merchant approves its changes.

Catalog eligibility and knowledge base

What it is: A view in the Shopify admin that shows whether a store is eligible for Shopify Catalog and links to fixes for anything in the way. Knowledge base, a new page at Sales channels > Agentic, lets merchants review and publish the facts agents get about their store, like return windows, shipping destinations, and gift services. Shopify drafts the facts from the storefront and suggests updates for the merchant to review. 

Why it matters: ChatGPT, Copilot, Meta, Instinct, and other AI agents get product information from Shopify Catalog, and now merchants can see from the admin whether their store qualifies. With knowledge base, agents that ask Shopify about a store only get facts the merchant has published, so nothing Shopify drafts reaches an agent without the merchant's sign-off.

A new look for the Shopify admin

What it is: A restyling of the Shopify admin with new color, type, spacing, and icons on every page, a collapsible side navigation that holds search, notifications, and the store picker, and Sidekick as a floating
chat at the bottom of every page.

Why it matters: Merchants spend most of their working day in the admin. The new layout gives their work more room while keeping everything one click away, and puts Sidekick within reach wherever they are.