What’s new in Shopify Store 2.0
Shopify has finally decided to launch a new store design experience that includes massive opportunities for the eCommerce business. The company initially proposed this idea back in 2019, but with the increased number of eCommerce businesses in the Pandemic, Shopify has finally decided to upscale the development process and reveal the much-awaited update ahead of the schedule.
Here’s everything you need to know about Shopify Unite 2.0 and its upcoming features.
Updated Theme Architecture
The first and foremost feature the company has introduced is the complete redesign of the online store, providing easier customization options for the merchants. For developers, instead of writing liquid code directly into templates, you can convert them into sections. And these sections, in particular, will be written as JSON objects.
Changing these files allows the merchant to build pages in the theme editor similar to what they see on the homepage.
In case you’re using a theme editor plugin you can make multiple assessments of the same app directly on the product page. However, not all the features will be compatible with this new design approach. Shopify has introduced theme app extensions to support developers on these changes, allowing them to extend their app features into usable blocks.
Improved Store Content
The first major change in terms of store content improvement is the meta fields. Now, you can change these directly through the admin, meaning there’s no need for any external app.
This will obviously raise some concerns as there are 100+ apps available on the Shopify App store related to how you can customize Metafields, but now Shopify is including this in the theme editor option. On the development side, meta fields are revamped in three key ways:
- Flexible: More flexible system type tailored for commercial data.
- Standard: Suitable for custom themes to work on different market verticals.
- Presentation: Add merchant data via Liquid user or Storefront API.
Along with this change, comes a new theme editor. If you’re using Shopify for a long time, you might not feel much difference, except for the “tree view” of sections on the left side of the screen. This new look makes the blocks more prominent allowing you to rearrange settings on the frontend.
Other features of the new theme design include App Blocks. With this, you can add app widgets to your themes and data in regards to meta fields.
Changes in Developer Tool
The last major category of the update is for developers’ tooling. Shopify will now integrate directly with GitHub, meaning that developers can now integrate their code in the system without having to create separate Liquid files. This collaboration works with the combination of Git subtrees sync to the production-ready files.
Final Words
Developers can now try out the new updates in a beta version of the upgrade. Dawn isn’t yet standard for new stores, but it’s available for download from the repo if you wish to try it out.
Keep in mind that if you’re using a custom theme from a third-party source, such as Out of the Sandbox, you’ll need to manually update your theme files using the Theme Updater App after you receive the notification that it’s available. (Most theme providers are in the process of updating their themes to be OS 2.0 compatible, and they should be available by the end of the year.) Keep an eye out for an email from your theme seller with the necessary information and instructions in your inbox.)
If you’re a merchant using OS 1.0, you’ll need to migrate over to OS 2.0. Specific details on this process are a little vague since it’s still, for the most part, in beta — but in general, the process will look like this:
- Perform a backup of your current store environment
- Migrate your theme from Store 1.0 to Store 2.0
- Connect your theme with a GitHub repository
- Refactor data linking into the theme editor
- Set up the new development environment
Need help migrating to the new system? Want to build a Shopify store from the ground up? We got you.
