Shopify Will Soon Launch Online Store 2.0: Leverage the New Shopify Storefront
The Announcements: Shopify’s Revolutionary New Commerce-Ready Infrastructure
Shopify is committed to working with developers and vendors to build the infrastructure that will support the future of ecommerce. This includes the advancements below,
Get Ready for Online Store Version 2.0
The headline announcement of the Shopify Unite event was the introduction of the Online Store Version 2.0. This is the most substantial upgrade that Shopify has ever made to its Liquid platform. Store owners will be interested to hear that it provides much greater flexibility and is significantly more customisable. This will enable merchants to have greater control over the online experiences they offer. It will also allow vendors to enhance their brand image while integrating a greater selection of plugins. Crucially, this will all be possible with no coding requirements.
The Online Store Version 2.0 update also includes a brand-new set of features specifically designed to support developers. This includes elements on all pages that allow for the customisation of any amendable store components. In addition to this, there is a new editor experience, new shopping cart functionality, new theme app extensions, and a new default theme called Dawn, which passes both the eye and speed test.
Custom Shopify Storefronts
Another exciting revelation was the introduction of Shopify Hydrogen, a framework for building custom storefronts, and Shopify Oxygen, the platform that will host custom storefronts.
Shopify Hydrogen is a React framework, which empowers developers by simplifying the process of designing and producing custom storefronts. Commerce-specific elements, such as the shopping cart and content galleries, are included to help streamline the process. With Shopify Hydrogen, developers will have more freedom to focus on what really matters — producing unique online experiences that highlight brand identities.
Shopify Oxygen is a similarly powerful tool that will be the foundation of many cutting-edge online stores in the future. Oxygen is the platform that has been introduced to host custom Shopify storefronts. It has been specifically designed to be exceptionally fast throughout the world, and has been optimised for ecommerce.
Shopify also announced that they are undertaking significant infrastructure investments. Ultimately, Shopify stores and their GraphQL Storefront API will be within 50 milliseconds of every single consumer on the planet. As part of these efforts, Shopify has extended hosting regions to every continent. They are also operating Shopify commerce logic in over 100 server locations. The result of all these developments is that Shopify custom storefronts will have considerably faster response times moving forward.
Content
Ecommerce merchants will also benefit from a new Shopify Content Management platform. It enables them to use any format of content on their store. The additional flexibility afforded by this development will enable merchants to store all of their data on one platform. In turn, this will make data retrieval much easier on Online Store 2.0 as well as on Shopify custom storefronts.
Furthermore, Shopify is enabling developers and site owners to use additional Metafields. With this functionality in place, merchants can add custom attributes to products and product variants on their stores. Soon this feature will be enhanced, allowing attributes to be added to elements such as orders and customers.
Easy & Fast Checkout
In Shopify 2.0 checkouts will be even faster. All stores will potentially have the capacity to handle tens of thousands of sales every minute.
There has also been additional functionality built into the Shopify checkout. One such feature, titled ‘Checkout Extensions’, allows merchants to securely develop and integrate apps into their checkout. These customisations will also be compatible with Shop Pay.
Another new checkout feature is the Shopify Payments Platform. Shopify has created it to enable their payment providers to build new integrations into the platform. This enables them to develop payment gateways as Shopify apps, and also integrate third-party payment services into Shopify checkouts.
Finally, Shopify Scripts have been rebuilt to allow Shopify developers to write bespoke logic that is exclusive to their brand. Ultimately this will make it easier for merchants to create truly unique checkout experiences.
0% Revenue Share
There was more good news for developers at the Unite 2021 event too. Shopify App Store developers will now pay 0% revenue share on the first million dollars made annually. That’s a dramatic reduction from the 20% that Shopify used to charge. Additionally, Shopify will only take 15% of everything a developer’s earnings over $1 million every year.
Stay Tuned for Further Shopify Updates!
Shopify is an industry-leading ecommerce platform that provides trusted and effective tools to start, grow, and market your business.
Hiring an experienced Shopify agency like Vsourz can help you manage and achieve all of your goals with ease. Get in touch with our Shopify experts to find out more about our services.
