The latest Shopify updates in plain English. We track the Shopify changelog and developer updates and explain what each change means for your store, who it affects and whether you need to do anything.
In November 2026, Ecom Wire has covered 9 Shopify updates, 2 needing action. Over the last 90 days that’s 15 updates, 2 needing action. The next Shopify deadline is 1 January 2027.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
AI agents can look up a store's policies and FAQs (delivery, returns and so on) through a Shopify tool called search_shop_policies_and_faqs. It's being replaced by a new tool called ask_business, which replies with a written answer. Shopify will maintain the old tool until 15 January 2027.
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.
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.
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.