Shopify released its Spring ’26 Edition, dubbed The Everywhere Edition, which is a great name for it given that the edition features “150+ updates that put your products everywhere people are buying.” A recurring theme that I’ve written about extensively in 2026 is how Shopify is turning the entire Internet into a marketplace for its merchants, and that theme is demonstrated throughout this edition.
If you’re unfamiliar with Editions, twice a year, Shopify releases a mega showcase of its latest features called Shopify Editions. I’ve covered all of their Editions including Winter ’26, Summer ’25, Winter ’25, Summer ’24, Winter ’24, Summer ’23, Winter ’23, and Summer ’22 (the first one).
Here’s what’s new in Spring ’26 Edition. Some of these updates you’ve seen me talk about in recent editions and others were announced for the first time:
- Universal Commerce Protocol opens to all developers – The centerpiece of the edition is that UCP, the open agentic-commerce standard Shopify co-developed with Google, is now self-serve for any developer. Shopify merchants are UCP-enabled by default, so any surface built on it inherits their checkout rules, discounts, and customizations. All developers have to do is register an agent profile and call a public MCP endpoint to build a full flow from product search to checkout. This is what I meant by Shopify making the entire Internet their marketplace.
- Shopify Catalog as the discovery layer – Catalog is Shopify’s structured product dataset, spanning billions of products, that AI agents can search and understand. Eligible merchants are in by default, with product details auto-syndicated to ChatGPT, Copilot, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and the Shop app with no third-party apps or manual feeds required. Shopify claims AI searches powered by Catalog convert at 2x the rate of those using scraped data. New this edition: image search, product lookup by URL, richer attributes like size and color, and Shop sign-in for personalized results.
- Agentic Storefronts dashboard in the admin – Merchants can now manage all their AI channels from one place in the admin and see orders, sales, and conversions from ChatGPT, Copilot, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Shop in a single view. The dashboard also shows which AI queries in your category you don’t rank for and offers Sidekick fixes when products surface in AI conversations but don’t convert.
- Catalog API will pay developers – Developers and partners will soon be able to earn revenue when their Catalog-powered experiences drive sales, with sponsored product placements as the mechanism. This is still in developer-preview mode for now, but it’ll eventually create a new way for developers to earn revenue from Shopify, outside of app and theme development, which are crowded spaces.
- Sidekick App Extensions – Shopify’s AI assistant now connects to third-party apps directly, so merchants can ask Sidekick about their tools and take action without leaving the admin. Integrations are live for 15+ partners at launch, including Klaviyo, Loop, Smile, and Judge.me, allowing merchants to get answers from Sidekick in one conversation / dashboard, instead of having to bounce between admins.
- Sidekick everywhere – Sidekick is now on every screen in the Shopify app via typing or voice with no full-screen takeover, can run from a phone, and can even pull business insights from an Apple Watch. Sidekick Pulse surfaces proactive next-best-actions on a redesigned admin home built around the assistant.
- Campaign Autopilot – A new AI marketing agent that plans, runs, and optimizes paid and organic campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, Shop, and email automatically, within budget and guardrails the merchant sets. This is one of the most standout updates in my opinion, as it puts agencies on notice. More channels coming soon including Microsoft Advertising, ChatGPT Ads, and Snapchat.
- Shop Campaigns expands to ChatGPT, Pinterest, and the open web – Shopify’s pay-on-conversion performance marketing product, which targets customers at a set price across Shop and other channels like Meta, Google, X, Bing, and Snap, now adds ChatGPT, Pinterest, and open-web advertising via Microsoft Monetize. Merchants only pay when the customer converts.
- AI sales associate in Shopify Inbox – A new AI assistant lives on the storefront and answers buyer questions, suggests products, and handles order inquiries using the merchant’s own catalog, inventory, and policies. For buyers signed in with Shop, it personalizes recommendations in chat, with merchants able to control its tone and when a human gets looped in.
- Shop Pay opens to any brand on any platform – Brands not on Shopify can now offer Shop Pay at checkout, gaining access to Shopify’s 250M+ shopper base and one-click purchasing. I better check my PayPal stock price…
- Online-to-in-store via the Shop app – Retail locations now surface in the Shop app, product pages show local inventory for in-store pickup, and returns started in Shop finish at the counter with a QR code. This is a great update for omnichannel retailers.
- POS v11, Shopify’s fastest-ever point of sale – Shopify says its rebuilt core selling flow makes complex carts up to 73 seconds faster, keeps the cart on screen through the entire transaction, and opens discounts, edits, and customer lookups in a side panel. The update is paired with new Verifone Victa mobile hardware that doubles as a countertop terminal.
- AI Mode arrives in Shop Search – Buyers can now search Shop conversationally with prompts like, “I need a waterproof jacket for a weekend hiking trip,” and get results tailored to their history, with recommendations sharpening over time. Everyone’s using the name “AI Mode” apparently (see Story #6).
There’s an ongoing joke (or fear?) in the Shopify world about how “Editions” are “D-Day” for some app developers, as Shopify brings certain features in-house that were previously only available via a third-party app. Now it seems that marketing agencies, advertising SaaS tools, and customer service and AI sales solutions aren’t safe either! It’s always an exciting, yet scary time when a new Edition comes out…
You can check out the rest of the updates in the full Spring ’26 Edition.
