Shopify has a new store activity log that shows who changed what in your store, from products and discounts to themes, apps, staff and settings. It's in Settings > General > Store activity log and keeps up to 18 months of history, up from the last 250 events.
The Christmas 2026 last posting dates are out. For UK delivery before Christmas, Royal Mail's last dates are Friday 18 December for 2nd Class, Saturday 19 December for Tracked 48, Monday 21 December for 1st Class and Tracked 24, and Wednesday 23 December for Special Delivery Guaranteed. Evri, DPD and Parcelforce cut-offs fall between 18 and 23 December.
When customers sign in to their account on your store, their store credit balance now shows at the top of every account page. Signed-in customers who haven't ordered yet also see product recommendations from your catalogue, chosen by Shopify based on what it knows about their preferences.
If an agency or freelancer built a custom app for your store, it now needs an IP allowlist: a list of the only networks allowed to use it to reach your store's data. New installs need one from 20 November 2026, and existing apps from 1 January 2027.
Shopify Tax is free until your store passes 100,000 in sales (£100,000 for UK stores). Until now that allowance reset every calendar year. From 1 January 2027 it's based on your store's lifetime sales instead, so once you've passed it, it doesn't come back.
Shopify's self-serve returns and cancellations, where customers request them from their account, used to be one setting for the whole store. You can now switch them on or off separately for each market you sell in. Your current settings have carried over, so nothing changes until you edit them.
WooCommerce is changing how it handles security. Serious fixes now come out in their own quick updates instead of waiting for the next big release. From WooCommerce 11.2, extension makers can mark a security update as required. Connected stores with an active subscription then install it within about a day, even if automatic updates are turned off.
WooCommerce has released a security update for WooPayments, fixing an issue in the subscriptions features built into the plugin. Every recent version has a matching fix, such as 11.2.0 to 11.2.1. Anything older than 9.0.0 should go to 11.2.1.
Since 1 November 2026, the EU charges a €2 handling fee on each line of an order sent from outside the EU to an EU shopper. It comes on top of the €3 customs duty per line on parcels worth up to €150, which has applied since 1 July 2026, plus VAT. Royal Mail now also needs product identifier data for parcels to the EU.
On 27 October 2026, the US cybersecurity agency (CISA) added a Magento flaw nicknamed "PolyShell" to its list of issues known to be used in real attacks. It affects Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source stores that haven't installed recent security updates. Adobe released the fix in its July 2026 security update.
Shopify has added protection against links that send customers from your store to other websites. After an update on 23 October, your store blocks links to sites Shopify has identified as malicious, asks customers to confirm before going to suspicious sites, and sends them straight through to all other sites with no message.
Klaviyo's AI assistant, Composer, is now out of preview. Klaviyo says it can answer harder questions across your data, run analyses and audits on a schedule, and turn workflows that work into reusable skills. You can open it from a bar that appears throughout Klaviyo.
You can now add your own annotations to time-series reports in Shopify Analytics. Each note can have a title, description, date or date range and a type, so you can mark things like a campaign launch, an influencer post, a supplier change or a promotion right on the chart.
Trustpilot's September release adds product review pages, a way to group product variants under one rating, printable QR codes for collecting reviews, and AI Search Market Insights, which shows how often AI tools cite your Trustpilot profile compared with competitors.
New UK rules for subscriptions start on 1 January 2027, brought forward from spring 2027. They cover auto-renewing subscriptions sold to UK consumers, including product subscriptions like refills and boxes. Businesses will need to give clearer information before sign-up, send reminders before renewals, and let customers cancel easily.
Shopify is retiring the POS Go as a handheld till. From 26 May 2027 it will only work as a customer-facing card reader on the counter, paired with a tablet, so staff won't be able to carry it around the shop floor. Shopify recommends the Verifone Victa Mobile or Tap to Pay on a phone instead.
Meta has switched on a new pixel setting called "Measure conversions on customer devices". It moves some conversion tracking from Meta's servers onto the shopper's own device. It's on by default and starts measuring on 12 November 2026, just before Black Friday. It doesn't apply to UK and EU traffic, so it mainly affects brands selling abroad.
WooCommerce has fixed security issues in its Stripe Gateway plugin. Version 10.9.0 could store new customers' account passwords in plain text in some cases. Update to 11.2.0, or 11.1.2 if you need to stay on 11.1.x.
Google started rolling out its November 2026 core update on 10 November. A core update is a broad change to how Google ranks pages in search results. Google says it can take up to two weeks to finish, which would be around 24 November, just before Black Friday.
Until now, only stores using Shopify Payments could appear on Shop, Shopify's shopping app and Shop.com. Stores using other payment providers can now appear too, as long as they meet Shop's eligibility requirements. Shopify has also updated those requirements for every store.
Microsoft Clarity's Brand Agents can now help eligible Shopify and WooCommerce stores get their products discovered in Microsoft Copilot, Bing and MSN. Shoppers find the product there and then buy it on your website. Microsoft announced it on 4 November 2026.
Under the UK's drip pricing rules, if delivery is a fee every customer has to pay, it must be included in the price you show. In an open letter on 2 November 2026, the CMA reminded online shops that this applies everywhere a price appears, from ads and product pages to the basket and checkout.
Apps inside your Shopify admin can now open Sidekick, Shopify's built-in AI assistant, with a question already filled in. For example, an app could add an "Ask Sidekick" button next to a report, so you get help understanding it without leaving the app.
In its latest results, Meta reported that the average price per ad was up 14% on last year, and it showed 10% more ads overall.
Adobe has set deadlines for Adobe Commerce on Cloud stores running old software. PHP 8.1 or older, Redis 5 or older and some other outdated services must be upgraded by 31 May 2027. Stores on Commerce 2.4.4 or 2.4.5 must upgrade or move to Adobe's SaaS version by 1 June 2027. Miss them and Adobe may switch your storefront off.
Klaviyo has launched Klaviyo Starter, a simpler version that runs inside your Shopify admin. It bundles signup forms, ready-made email flows and campaigns in one place, so newer brands can get going without learning the full Klaviyo platform.
Canvas is a new way to design your Shopify store. You see every page of your store laid out together, click to edit anything, or ask Sidekick, Shopify's AI assistant, to make changes for you. You'll find it under Online Store > Themes, where you can start a new theme or duplicate an existing one into Canvas.
From 21 September 2026, Shopify Analytics counts sessions differently. It now focuses on human visitors and classifies bot traffic more consistently, and it keeps genuine shopper journeys that don't include a normal pageview. Session-based numbers like conversion rate will look different, but orders, sales and customer counts aren't affected.
Shopify is moving where you set up shipping. Instead of shipping profiles, shipping options will live inside Markets, so you manage where you sell and how you ship in one place. Stores could opt in from 1 October 2026, existing stores are being moved over as their apps become compatible, and it applies to every store from 1 July 2027.
Gorgias now lets Shopify stores set a maximum refund amount and a list of refund reasons. Once it's set up, agents can only refund up to your limit and must pick a reason before the refund goes through.
On 11 November 2026, the European Commission proposed the Digital Fairness Act, new EU rules for online shopping. It would ban fake urgency such as false "almost sold out" claims, make subscriptions easier to cancel and require clearer pricing. It's a proposal, not law yet, and no start date has been set.
When a customer asks you to delete their data, Shopify now processes it 5 days after the request instead of 10. This started on 10 November 2026. The only exception is when a gift card is due to be sent to someone: then it waits until the gift card has been delivered.
OpenAI has launched Businesses in ChatGPT in beta. Through a new Business Hub you can claim your brand's profile, correct the details ChatGPT shows about you, add a product feed with prices and stock, and see how people engage with you in ChatGPT. Claiming a profile is open to eligible businesses wherever ChatGPT is available.
WooCommerce 11.3 was released on 11 November. The sale badge can now show the discount as an amount or a percentage, such as "Save 25%". The Orders report can filter by payment method. You can also choose a refund and returns policy page, which Google can read. Product galleries swipe more smoothly on mobile.
WooCommerce 11.2.2 is a security update that tightens several areas, including the Store API, REST API key checks and two admin pages that now need an administrator to be logged in. It also stops checkout going to payment if an order fails to save. WooCommerce says to update as soon as possible.
Royal Mail's peak surcharge for business account customers applies from 2 November 2026 to 10 January 2027. It adds 15p to each Royal Mail Tracked 48 parcel and 22p to each Tracked 24 parcel, with other rates from 10p to 30p and £5 on Express48 Large. Royal Mail's fuel and energy surcharge is 16%.
Stripe's October update lets you allow customers to pause their own subscriptions from the Stripe customer portal. Customers can also get back into an expired portal session by verifying their email address.
The PHP project released fixes for two critical security issues on 21 October 2026. WooCommerce is telling store owners to update PHP on their servers straight away. No WooCommerce or WordPress update is needed.
Adobe released a security update for Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source on 13 October 2026, covering versions 2.4.4 to 2.4.9. A separate hotfix for another issue isn't included in the October patch and has to be applied on its own.
You can now add discounts to Rollouts, Shopify's built-in tool for scheduling and testing store changes. That means you can show a new offer to part of your online store traffic, compare it against your current offer using conversion results, or launch a discount alongside theme and checkout changes in one go.
The WooCommerce PHP version requirement is going up: WooCommerce 11.6, planned for February 2027, will need PHP 8.1 or newer. Stores on PHP 7.4 or 8.0 can keep updating up to version 11.5, and WooCommerce 11.3 now shows a warning in your admin if your store is affected.
From 31 January 2027, Google wants every product image in Merchant Center to be at least 500 x 500 pixels. Until then the old minimums still work: 100 x 100, or 250 x 250 for clothing. Google has been showing warnings on smaller images since July 2026.