Every six months, Shopify drops a new Editions release, and the eCommerce world loses its collective mind for about 72 hours. Hot takes fly. LinkedIn lights up. Agency owners rush to publish their "everything you need to know" posts before anyone else.
Then the dust settles. And we're left wondering: what actually matters here?
The Winter '26 Editions landed in early December with a bold theme: the RenAIssance. Over 150 updates, heavy AI focus, and a clear signal that Shopify is betting big on an AI-native future.
But here's the thing. We're not going to rehash the press release. Instead, we spent the past few weeks gathering reactions from the people who actually build on Shopify every day. Agency founders. Platform experts. Developers who've been in the trenches for over a decade.
What emerged was more nuanced than the hype cycle suggested. Some features genuinely excited people. Others got a healthy dose of scepticism. And a few sparked proper debate about where Shopify is heading.
Let's dig in.
Search and Discovery: The Agentic Commerce Shift
The headline feature generating the most strategic conversation is Agentic Storefronts, and it's worth understanding why this matters beyond the buzzwords.
Here's what's actually happening. AI chat tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot are quietly becoming shopping channels. People aren't just asking these tools for information anymore. They're asking them to help find and buy products. Shopify's response is to let you syndicate your product catalogue directly into these AI conversations, so customers can discover and purchase without ever leaving the chat.
Sam Wright, Managing Director at Blink SEO, has been tracking this shift closely. His team published a detailed breakdown (including a video worth watching) on what this means for SEO and product discovery.
Sam's take cuts through the noise: "For the last six months, many of us have been hunting for custom solutions to bridge Shopify data with AI conversation shopping. Now we know. By toggling on Agentic Storefronts, you aren't just optimising for a search bar anymore. You are defining a schema that groups products by standard attributes and rich metafields, making sure agents like ChatGPT can accurately present your products in conversation."
Sam's team built Macaroni by Blink specifically to help Shopify merchants optimise their product data for these kinds of discovery challenges—both for traditional SEO and emerging AI-powered shopping experiences.
What does that mean in plain English? Your product data needs to work for AI, not just humans. And that's a bigger shift than it sounds.
Think about how traditional SEO worked. You optimised for keywords. Someone searched "cotton bedsheets 400 thread count," and Google matched them to your product page. Simple enough.
AI commerce works differently. A customer isn't filtering by thread count anymore. They're having a conversation: "I'm a hot sleeper, and I keep waking up sweaty. What's the best bedding to keep me cool?" The AI needs to understand that your sheets are breathable, temperature-regulating, and suitable for hot sleepers. That information has to live somewhere in your product data.
James Gurd, an Independent eCommerce Consultant and host of the Inside Commerce Podcast, sees this as Shopify "going all-in on agentic commerce and AI tooling." His view is that "AI-enabled capabilities in ecommerce platforms are now table stakes, but it's impressive to see how quickly Shopify is delivering useful tools for ecommerce teams."
Cameron Bing, a Chief Product Officer with deep eCommerce experience, puts it more directly: "The move towards agentic storefronts, where merchants can sell directly inside AI chats, is a pretty loud signal of where online retail is heading. This is AI done properly. If you are on any other eCommerce platform other than Shopify, what are you doing?"
Strong words. But Sam offers the most practical advice for brands trying to figure out what to do next: "The winners of the Winter '26 era won't necessarily be the ones who toggle the features on first. They will be the brands that spend this time ruthlessly auditing their data structures."
In other words, the real work isn't clicking buttons in your Shopify admin. It's getting your product data house in order.
Sidekick: The Feature That's Dividing the Community
If Agentic Storefronts represent where Shopify is going, Sidekick represents what they're betting on right now. It sits at the absolute centre of this release, and it's generating more debate than anything else.
Gavin McKew, Director at Shero and an Agentic Commerce Strategist, is genuinely excited: "For someone who lives and breathes Shopify, the standout is Shopify Sidekick. Suddenly, AI-powered tools are not 'nice to have' but core infrastructure."
Gavin highlights what you can now do: generate custom apps for unique business needs, automate workflows, create reports, and even build and tweak themes just by describing what you want. That's a significant expansion from where Sidekick started.
James uses it in his daily work and has seen the evolution firsthand: "I personally use Sidekick every week to speed up information retrieval and basic store tasks, like creating a discount. It's starting to become turbocharged."
He breaks down the key new capabilities. Sidekick Pulse delivers personalised recommendations based on your store data. App generation lets you build custom apps using plain English prompts. Flow automations mean you can explain what workflow you want, and Sidekick builds it. And custom reports allow you to ask for exactly the data view you need.
Chris Longfellow, who runs a Shopify agency, adds some practical examples that show where this gets useful: "Merchants can now build custom apps quickly within Sidekick for specific use cases, like managing conversion rates excluding free samples, or importing those weird and wonderful CSVs from suppliers that never seem to match your format."
So far, so exciting. But not everyone's convinced.
Mark William Lewis founded Netalico Commerce and has been running his agency for over a decade. He's seen plenty of Shopify releases come and go, and his perspective is worth hearing.
"Take Sidekick," Mark writes. "It's the centerpiece of this release. Marketing says it's a 'co-founder' who builds custom apps and transforms your business. Reality? It answers how-to questions, generates product descriptions, and does basic theme tweaks. Can't talk to customers, can't connect to Klaviyo or any third-party app, can't edit images, can't work on mobile."
His warning is pointed: "The features they're hyping? Either in preview, coming in 2026, or for 'select partners.' The gap between keynote and reality is where merchants get burned."
Sam's team at Blink had a similar experience when they actually tested Sidekick for real work. "Our senior developer, Andy, recently tried to use Sidekick to build a simple scheduled automation flow. It not only failed to execute but also provided incorrect instructions and referenced documentation that didn't apply."
Sam's conclusion is fair: "While the demos look slick, the 'last mile' of execution often requires human intervention."
James strikes a balance that feels right: "What you can achieve with Flow has impressed me this year. Tighter integration with Sidekick to enable non-tech users to build and test flows in a no-code way is an excellent addition." But he adds a caveat that experienced Shopify users will recognise: "That doesn't mean you don't need experienced devs. Complex Flows will need proper oversight to ensure they don't have unintended consequences."
Adam Pearce, who leads a top European CRO agency, keeps his advice simple: "Use Sidekick—been playing around with ChatGPT? Feel overwhelmed with Shopify Analytics reports? Just ask Sidekick."
The takeaway? Sidekick is genuinely useful for specific tasks today. But temper your expectations about the advanced features until they're actually live and battle-tested.
The Product Network: Turning Every Store Into a Marketplace
Here's a feature that flew under the radar for some people but could end up being quietly revolutionary.
The Shopify Product Network lets merchants display other brands' products on their store and earn commission on sales. Think about what that means. Every Shopify store can now become a curated marketplace, recommending complementary products from other brands and earning money when customers buy.
Kurt Elster has been a Shopify Expert since 2012 and hosts The Unofficial Shopify Podcast. He's already seen results: "Product Network: one client made $1,400 in commission in 30 days doing nothing."
Kurt's also bullish on the Shop App, which keeps gaining momentum: "Shop App hit #1 in the iOS App Store over Black Friday. Shop Campaigns delivering 1.9-2x ROAS while Meta keeps getting more expensive. 200+ million users. Times Square ads. It's broken containment into the normie brain world."
His assessment of where this is heading: "The Shop App is quietly becoming Amazon's biggest competitor."
That might sound like hyperbole, but the numbers are hard to ignore.
Mark, despite his scepticism about other features, gives credit where it's due: "What they got right: the Agentic Commerce stack. Catalog API, Checkout MCP, syndication to ChatGPT and Perplexity. AI traffic up 760% during BFCM. Platform primitives for AI-first discovery. That's the main quest. That's what only Shopify can build."
Sidekick App Extensions: Are Agencies Dead? (Spoiler: No)
Every time Shopify releases native features, the same question surfaces. Has Shopify finally killed agencies and app developers?
Mark Slocock, CEO at GPMD Ltd, addresses it head-on: "Did Shopify just kill agencies?" His answer: "These updates will allow merchants and agencies to build commerce experiences faster and better. How far they go remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure: it's only going to get better."
The new Sidekick App Extensions let app builders bring data and functionality from third-party apps directly into Sidekick conversations. "Built for Shopify" apps will get higher priority and clear badges when merchants search through Sidekick.
Chris sees opportunity rather than threat: "We can now develop extensions specifically for Sidekick, lending new functionality and custom experiences."
Austin Goldman, who co-founded Shoplift.ai, frames this as category validation rather than competition. His perspective is worth understanding if you work in the Shopify ecosystem.
"When Shopify validates a category, the entire ecosystem grows. The pattern is proven. Klaviyo built a $10.7B business on advanced orchestration, and that led to Shopify Email. Recharge pioneered subscription products, and that led to Native subscriptions. Once baseline products are established, Shopify helps educate merchants, and that allows partners to generate even more value."
Adam offers some reassurance for worried agency owners: "Don't panic if you're an agency. Remember when Shopify released email? And Klaviyo was dead? Were email agencies dead? Erm, yeah. The same will apply with the new features, especially around A/B testing."
Speaking of A/B testing, Kurt highlights the practical savings from native experimentation tools: "Native A/B testing. Finally, no more $300/month split testing apps."
Gavin sees the bigger picture emerging: "This Edition is Shopify quietly saying the stack is no longer just commerce tooling. It is becoming an operating system for modern retail."
The Sceptic's View: Is Shopify Trying to Do Too Much?
We've heard the excitement. But Mark's critical perspective deserves a proper hearing because he's asking questions that matter for anyone building on Shopify long-term.
"Pre-COVID, I thought Shopify was moving too slowly. I wanted them to speed up. They sped up. Now they're shipping 150+ features per release, and I'm not sure that's better. They went from too slow to fast in a million directions at once."
He points to evidence that's hard to dismiss: "Check their app store. Shopify has 39 first-party apps. Shopify Bill Pay: 2.1 stars. Store Migration: 2.1 stars. Retail Barcode Labels: 2.3 stars. Digital Downloads: 2.7 stars. Shopify Bundles: 2.9 stars. Nearly a third below 4 stars."
His advice to Shopify leadership is direct: "Ship 50 things instead of 150. Let them be great. Build primitives. Let partners build apps. Guarantee uptime on the days that matter most. Stop counting features. Start counting merchant outcomes."
But Mark isn't bearish overall. He ends on a note that captures where a lot of long-time Shopify watchers probably land: "I'm still bullish after 13 years. But my dream is that the theme of the next editions is: Focus."
Mark Slocock flags one gap that B2B merchants will feel: "The only area to disappoint is B2B. There wasn't much of note here, in my opinion. Would like to see a lot more here."
What Should Brands Actually Do?
After talking to all these experts, here's what actually matters for brands trying to make sense of this release.
First, don't panic and don't try to do everything. Adam puts it perfectly: "Don't panic if you're a brand. You don't need it all. Take the time to test the new features out if you can and need to. Equally, ignore the stuff that's not for you right now. If your traffic is in the basement, don't start messing about with testing."
Second, prioritise your product data. Agentic Storefronts will only work if your product data is rich, accurate, and answers the kinds of questions real humans ask. This should be your first focus, and it's work that pays off regardless of what Shopify does next.
Third, use Sidekick for what it's actually good at today. Information retrieval, basic store tasks, and analytics queries. Don't expect it to replace your agency or dev team yet. But do get familiar with it, because it's only going to get more capable.
Fourth, watch the experimentation tools. Native A/B testing and Rollouts could save you real money on third-party apps while giving you more control over how you roll out changes.
Finally, keep perspective. The work hasn't disappeared. It's evolving. Agencies and developers who adapt to working alongside these AI tools will do well. The ones who ignore the shift won't.
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