The Shopify Winter ’26 updates you need to pay attention to

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Shopify is making it simpler to grow your store without adding more tools or complexity. 

You can launch changes safely, automate core workflows, and sell directly inside AI chats where customers already search.

In total, Shopify announced 150+ product updates across 12 major categories. 

In this post, we break down three of the most important categories in depth. 

Before that, here’s a quick overview of the updates you need to know.

Sidekick is now a persistent, in-admin AI assistant that works across Shopify.

It analyzes store data to surface proactive recommendations, helps merchants decide what to focus on next, and stays with them as they move between admin pages.

Merchants can use Sidekick to generate custom apps, build Shopify Flow automations from plain language, make theme and design edits, create reports, and find or install apps directly.

It also supports reusable prompts, remembers past conversations, and adapts responses based on context, making it more of an ongoing operating assistant than a one-off chat tool.

Your products can be discovered and purchased directly inside AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity.

Shopify handles product accuracy, pricing, and checkout, while you manage everything from your Shopify admin.

This lets customers shop in the same place they are already asking questions and comparing options.

Shopify is making it safer and easier to change your storefront.
With Rollouts and built in testing, which lets you schedule theme changes and run A/B tests directly from the admin, and roll back instantly if something underperforms.

This reduces risk and lets you improve your site without fear of breaking conversions.

Simgym

Simgym is a simulation environment that lets teams test storefront, checkout, and system behavior under real-world conditions before pushing changes live

Tinker

Tinker is a sandbox environment for developers and teams to safely experiment with themes, extensions, and custom logic without affecting a live store.

Shopify is introducing a more powerful POS hub to centralize in person retail operations.
It brings inventory, staff access, orders, and customer activity into one view, making it easier to manage multiple locations without jumping between tools.

The Product Network lets you surface other Shopify brands’ products to fill gaps in your catalogue and earn commissions.

Shopify Messaging now supports SMS, giving newer brands an easier way to launch campaigns without committing to advanced platforms too early.

Checkout updates focus on performance, extensibility, and payments.
Customers can see more personalized checkout experiences, along with expanded payment options, while merchants customize checkout safely without changing the core flow.

Includes flexible inventory modeling and trend-spotting analytics inside the admin to surface emerging patterns across sales, customers, and products.

Customize your checkout and customer account pages for different countries and B2B buyers directly in the editor.

Shop updates focus on how customers interact with brands after purchase.
The Shop app continues to support order tracking, faster checkout, and brand discovery in one place.

For merchants, it remains a channel for repeat purchases and post-purchase engagement rather than a traditional marketplace.

Supports running DTC and B2B in one store with company accounts, catalogs, and B2B purchasing flows.

Discover and connect with new retail partners using the Shopify Collective retailer directory.

Covers payments, payouts, and financial activity visibility inside the Shopify admin rather than pushing merchants to external systems.

Shopify is improving rate selection, fulfillment options, and logistics visibility to help merchants ship faster and more efficiently.

This reduces fulfillment complexity as order volume grows.

The updates introduce agentic commerce tooling for selling inside AI conversations, with access to the Shopify Catalog API, Checkout MCP, and Checkout Kit across web and mobile.

Sidekick becomes a new surface for app discovery and interaction, while Built for Shopify apps gain better visibility and clearer review paths.

Now, let’s dive into the top 3 categories:

The AI-powered Shopify expert who's just as obsessed with your business as you are.

You can find the sidekick option on your Shopify home page.

Once you start a conversation with Sidekick, it will come with you to all other Shopify backend pages that you visit, just in case you need help with something.

However, you can close the chat anytime and access all your previous conversations from the Sidekick on the left side Shopify Menu, near the settings.

Sell directly in AI chats with built-in tools that syndicate your products to every AI platform.

Note: the invite seems to be rolling out to brands in phases, so please click on the “+” icon to be notified.

Want to see how this works? Here’s a short video by Shopify.

Note: the invite seems to be rolling out to brands in phases, so please click on the “+” icon to be notified.

Grow your sales with a first-of-its-kind product network.

This should be a BIG impact change for brands of smaller sizes, especially the ones that have a single product or very low SKUs, so you can easily have an upside to make more revenue without having to actually launch new products.

Go through all the updates here 👉 Shopify’s Winter Edition, 26

-Ibrahim

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