Shopify Announces Shopify Online Store 2.0

Shopify is presently conducting its Unite conference, and the business has confirmed the launching of version 2.0 of its online store. With this release, Shopify has opened up new avenues for developers to create Platform experiences and themes. In addition, the firm has supplied instructions for upgrading themes to 2.0 requirements.

The eCommerce platform exhibited various updates and modifications, including what it termed "Online Store 2.0," during a live event on June 29, 2021, called Shopify Unite, intended for businesses and the Shopify developer community.

The business believes that the improved theme architecture enables customization considerably more versatile, which is the first significant news for developers as part of this release. In addition, themes will now support sections on all pages. Initially, this functionality was restricted to the top page and necessitated extensive editing to enable alternatives. Shopify has posted a getting launched video that explains the changes.

Shopify has introduced theme app extension features to this new theme architecture, which are meant to simplify integrating applications with themes. Previously, this was a time-consuming manual operation that necessitated retooling for every theme.

These are just a few examples from the entire product launch, which developers should read for more information. Also, keep in mind the migration guide for themes that need to be upgraded to the 2.0 standards.

Shopify Launches Major Online Store Upgrade - What Businesses Need to Know

Shopify recently announced a major upgrade to its Online Store platform called Online Store 2.0. This upgrade focuses on three key areas - themes and online editor, store content, and developer tools. For most business owners, the updates to the online editor and upcoming content management system will have the biggest impact.

New Easy-to-Use Online Editor

The new editor makes it simple for merchants to create custom storefronts, install theme extensions, and manage apps within themes. It brings all available features and functionalities together in one intuitive interface. This could potentially replace some popular Shopify page builder apps like Shogun. With the new editor, even small businesses can build custom page templates and populate them with content without coding.

Robust Content Management System

Shopify is launching a content management system that will allow merchants to have more flexibility over their store content. Merchants can now add sections to any new page instead of just the home page. A JSON template file lists all the sections of each page like collections, blogs etc. This makes it easy to customize the content across the entire store.

New Opportunities for Developers

The updates also aim to increase Shopify's appeal to developers and tech companies. For example, Shopify gave early access to Netflix. With Online Store 2.0, anyone can now build, customize, scale and monetize on Shopify.

Key Technical Upgrades

Some other notable upgrades include:

• Theme app extensions and app blocks for adding features
• Improved app modularity for managing UI components
• File picker for easily uploading media to product pages
• Liquid input setting for adding custom Liquid code
• Enhanced developer tools for building and testing themes and apps

With these major upgrades to the Online Store, Shopify continues to empower entrepreneurs to build customized online stores to grow their business. The new editor, content flexibility and developer capabilities open up many new possibilities for merchants and app developers alike.

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