Shopify has announced a major expansion of its agentic commerce infrastructure, allowing developers and consumers to connect compatible artificial intelligence shopping agents to its catalog of more than one billion products. The initiative, announced on October 13, 2026, removes the need for individual commercial partnerships to access Shopify's shopping infrastructure, opening the door for a wider range of AI assistants to discover products, build shopping carts and facilitate purchases.

The development represents another step toward a retail environment in which AI agents act as intermediaries between consumers and merchants. Rather than navigating multiple websites, shoppers can increasingly use conversational assistants to compare products, evaluate availability and complete transactions through integrated payment systems. Shopify's latest initiative extends these capabilities beyond established technology partners, potentially accelerating competition in the emerging agentic commerce market.

Shopify introduces Shop MCP for AI-powered shopping

At the center of the announcement is Shop MCP, a new connection based on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which enables compatible AI agents to interact with Shopify's shopping infrastructure. Available through Shopify's Shop ecosystem, the service provides access to product discovery, customer authentication, cart management, checkout and order tracking.

Shop MCP offers 17 tools covering the principal stages of the purchasing journey. AI agents can search Shopify Catalog, retrieve product information, identify available merchandise and create shopping carts. Once a consumer has selected a product, the agent can initiate checkout and assist with completing the transaction.

Importantly, catalog searches do not require an API key, reducing the technical barriers for developers experimenting with AI shopping applications. Shopify also provides a command-line interface and documentation designed to simplify integration with compatible agents.

The launch changes the accessibility of Shopify's commerce infrastructure. Previously, more advanced agentic shopping experiences were largely associated with specific integrations and partnerships. Developers can now connect compatible assistants through a common interface without negotiating a separate commercial agreement with Shopify.

More than one billion products become accessible to AI agents

Shopify Catalog contains more than one billion product listings, providing a substantial inventory for AI-powered product discovery. The catalog includes merchandise from eligible Shopify merchants and participating retailers operating outside Shopify's traditional storefront ecosystem.

Its significance extends beyond the number of available products. Shopify structures product information so AI systems can interpret attributes such as pricing, availability, descriptions, specifications and product variations. This allows shopping assistants to evaluate merchandise against consumer preferences rather than relying exclusively on conventional keyword searches.

For example, a shopper could ask an AI assistant to identify a particular type of product within a defined budget, compare available alternatives and prioritize items offering faster delivery. The assistant could use structured catalog information to narrow the options before presenting a recommendation.

This approach could gradually change how consumers discover products online. Instead of beginning their purchasing journey on a search engine or marketplace homepage, shoppers may increasingly start with a conversational request describing what they need.

However, inclusion in Shopify Catalog does not guarantee that a product will be recommended. AI assistants may evaluate multiple factors, including relevance, availability, price, delivery conditions and the quality of product information.

Shop Pay brings checkout into AI conversations

One of the most important aspects of Shopify's announcement is the integration of purchasing capabilities through Shop Pay.

Consumers who connect their Shop accounts to compatible AI assistants can use saved payment and delivery information to streamline transactions. The agent can prepare a shopping cart and initiate checkout, while the consumer confirms the relevant payment details and purchase.

For Shopify-powered stores, orders are processed through the merchant's existing commerce infrastructure and appear in the Shopify administration system. This allows merchants to manage fulfillment and order processing through familiar operational workflows.

The system also supports purchases from participating non-Shopify stores. In these cases, the consumer authorizes the transaction through Shop, after which the agent can receive single-use payment credentials to complete the purchase through the retailer's checkout.

This distinction is particularly important because it demonstrates Shopify's ambition to support commerce beyond its own storefront technology. By connecting product discovery and payment infrastructure across different retail environments, the company is positioning Shop as a broader transaction platform for AI-assisted purchasing.

Consumer authorization remains central to the purchasing process. Shopify's documented checkout flow requires confirmation of the total and payment method before an agent completes a transaction, rather than allowing unrestricted purchases without user involvement.

Shopify moves beyond exclusive AI partnerships

The announcement follows several developments in Shopify's agentic commerce strategy, including integrations with major AI platforms and the expansion of checkout capabilities for browser-based agents.

In September, Shopify announced support for AI shopping experiences involving Meta's Muse, while a subsequent update extended checkout functionality to compatible agents operating directly within web browsers. The October launch broadens this approach by making a standardized shopping connection available to developers building their own assistants.

The change could accelerate the development of specialized AI shopping services. Instead of competing exclusively through general-purpose assistants, developers could create agents focused on particular industries, consumer needs or purchasing preferences.

Examples could include assistants specializing in fashion recommendations, consumer electronics comparisons, home improvement products or recurring household purchases. Such applications could combine personalized recommendations with access to a substantial product catalog and integrated checkout capabilities.

The broader implications are significant. As AI agents become more capable of conducting commercial transactions, retailers may need to consider how their products are represented and recommended within automated shopping environments.

What agentic commerce means for online retailers

For merchants, the expansion of AI shopping introduces both opportunities and challenges.

The principal opportunity is access to additional product discovery channels. Smaller retailers could potentially reach consumers through AI assistants without depending entirely on traditional search engine rankings, paid advertising or marketplace visibility.

However, this does not eliminate competition for consumer attention. Instead, it may change the factors determining which products receive exposure.

Structured product information could become increasingly important as AI assistants compare merchandise according to specific customer requirements. Accurate descriptions, detailed specifications, product variations, availability and delivery information may influence whether a product is considered relevant to a particular purchasing request.

Shopify already provides tools for merchants to manage product information distributed through its catalog. Eligible products can be made available to supported AI channels, while merchants retain certain controls over their participation.

Nevertheless, merchants cannot directly determine how independent AI assistants rank or recommend products. The algorithms and decision-making processes used by individual agents may therefore become an important consideration for digital commerce strategies.

This development could also affect customer acquisition. If consumers increasingly purchase products through AI assistants, retailers may have fewer opportunities to influence the shopping experience through their own website design, promotional messaging and merchandising.

Maintaining brand visibility and customer relationships within AI-mediated transactions could become an important strategic challenge.

Implications for cross-border e-commerce and fulfillment

The expansion of AI-powered shopping could also influence international e-commerce, particularly as consumers become more comfortable purchasing from retailers outside their domestic markets.

AI assistants capable of comparing products across multiple merchants could make international offers easier to discover. However, product visibility alone does not eliminate the operational complexity associated with cross-border transactions.

International shipping costs, customs requirements, import duties, delivery times and return policies remain important considerations. An AI assistant recommending products from overseas merchants must account for these factors if it is to provide consumers with accurate purchasing information.

For fulfillment providers and logistics companies, agentic commerce may increase the importance of reliable inventory data, transparent delivery estimates and standardized shipping information.

A consumer requesting the cheapest available product may receive a different recommendation from someone prioritizing next-day delivery or straightforward returns. Consequently, fulfillment capabilities could increasingly influence product selection before the customer reaches checkout.

Retailers offering dependable delivery services, accurate stock information and clear international shipping conditions may be better positioned to compete in this environment.

Nevertheless, the extent to which agentic commerce will increase cross-border transaction volumes remains uncertain. Shopify has not disclosed sufficient adoption or sales data to establish the commercial impact of its latest expansion.

AI agents could reshape the future of online shopping

Shopify's decision to open its billion-product catalog and purchasing infrastructure to compatible AI agents reflects a broader transformation in digital commerce.

Technology companies are increasingly developing systems that allow AI assistants to move beyond answering product-related questions and participate directly in transactions. The objective is to reduce friction between product discovery, comparison and purchase, potentially creating a more conversational shopping experience.

For Shopify, the strategy also creates an opportunity to expand the relevance of its commerce infrastructure beyond conventional online storefronts. By providing the technical connections through which AI assistants discover products and facilitate payments, the company could strengthen its position within an increasingly fragmented digital retail ecosystem.

However, several questions remain unresolved. Consumer adoption, transaction volumes, merchant economics and the influence of AI recommendations on purchasing decisions will determine whether these capabilities become a mainstream shopping channel.

What is clear is that Shopify's October 13 announcement lowers an important technical barrier to agentic commerce. With access to more than one billion product listings and integrated purchasing capabilities, a broader range of AI developers can now build shopping experiences connected to existing retail infrastructure.

For online merchants, marketplaces and fulfillment providers, the development reinforces a growing strategic consideration: future e-commerce competition may depend not only on attracting human visitors to digital storefronts, but also on ensuring that products, payment systems and logistics information are accessible to the AI agents increasingly participating in purchasing decisions.

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A major strategic divide is emerging over the future of agentic commerce. Shopify is opening its merchant ecosystem to Meta’s new AI shopping agent, Muse, while Amazon has taken the opposite approach and blocked the same agent from shopping on Amazon.com. The contrast reveals two very different visions of how AI should interact with online retail. Shopify appears willing to let third-party agents become a new commerce channel, while Amazon is defending tighter control over its marketplace, customer experience and commercial infrastructure.

On one side, Shopify is working with Meta so Muse can help users discover products and complete purchases across Shopify-powered stores using Shop Pay. On the other, Amazon says Meta did not obtain permission for Muse to access its marketplace and has blocked the agent from shopping on behalf of customers. The dispute raises a wider question for the entire e-commerce industry: should AI agents be welcomed as a new layer of distribution and checkout, or treated as external intermediaries that could weaken retailer control over customers, data and monetization?

Shopify embraces Meta’s Muse as an AI commerce channel

Shopify has chosen the more open approach. The company is partnering with Meta to integrate Shop Pay agentic checkout into Muse, allowing the AI assistant to facilitate purchases from merchants operating on Shopify. Shopify had already started preparing for this shift earlier in September by adding Meta as an AI channel inside Shopify Admin. Merchants can manage whether product catalogs are shared with Meta, control direct checkout access and monitor performance from within Shopify’s agentic-commerce settings.

This is significant because Shopify is not merely allowing Muse to browse merchant websites. It is connecting Meta to structured commerce infrastructure, giving the AI cleaner access to product data, availability and checkout functionality. That reduces the need for the agent to interpret conventional websites designed for humans. Instead, Shopify can act as the commerce layer beneath the AI interface, providing the product and transaction infrastructure while Meta controls the consumer-facing experience.

Shop Pay becomes the transaction layer

The partnership also highlights the strategic value of Shop Pay. Muse users will be able to complete purchases through Shopify’s accelerated checkout infrastructure across participating stores. That means the customer may begin and remain inside Meta’s AI environment while the transaction itself still flows through Shopify’s commerce stack. For Shopify, the loss of the traditional storefront as the primary interface does not necessarily mean losing the economic value of the transaction.

This is a critical distinction in the emerging agentic-commerce model. Shopify does not primarily depend on consumers visiting Shopify.com, because its business is built around providing infrastructure to merchants wherever commerce happens. If discovery increasingly moves into AI assistants, Shopify can still capture value through product feeds, checkout, payments and merchant operations. Its strategy therefore appears less focused on protecting the storefront and more focused on becoming indispensable infrastructure underneath AI-driven commerce.

Amazon takes the opposite approach

Amazon has chosen a far more restrictive position. The company blocked Muse from shopping on Amazon.com after Meta reportedly declined Amazon’s request to exclude its marketplace from the agent’s shopping capabilities. Users attempting to shop on Amazon through Muse began seeing a message stating that continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violated Amazon’s Conditions of Use. Amazon says the issue centers on authorization, transparency and how third-party agents interact with its platform.

According to Amazon, Meta did not provide advance notice that Muse would shop on Amazon.com, the agent does not adequately identify itself while browsing, and the company has concerns around customer credentials and account access. Amazon argues that third-party applications making purchases on behalf of users should operate transparently and respect whether a service provider wants to participate. The company’s position is that consumer permission alone is not enough; the merchant platform should also be able to decide whether an external agent can access and transact through its systems.

Meta disputes the credential-risk concern

Meta has said Muse does not directly see users’ passwords or payment credentials. According to the company, credentials are stored securely and can be used by the AI without being exposed to the model itself. Muse operates inside a virtual machine and can use a browser to interact with services when a public API is not available. Meta also says the agent seeks confirmation before taking sensitive actions such as sending messages or completing purchases.

This difference in interpretation is central to the dispute. Meta views the consumer as authorizing the agent to act on their behalf, while Amazon argues that the platform being accessed also needs to consent. That tension could become one of the most important legal and commercial questions in agentic commerce. It effectively asks whether an AI agent should be treated like a user-controlled browser, an automated bot, a commercial intermediary, or something entirely new.

Amazon wants AI agents to identify themselves

Amazon’s position is also closely linked to transparency and identity. The company argues that an external AI agent entering customer accounts, browsing product pages and initiating transactions should clearly identify itself to the retailer. This reflects a broader issue emerging across e-commerce and payments: merchants increasingly want to know which agent is acting, who authorized it, what permissions it has, whether it is operating within those limits and who is responsible if something goes wrong.

These are no longer theoretical questions. Payment networks including Mastercard and Visa are already developing identification and authorization layers specifically for AI agents. Amazon is effectively applying the same logic at the marketplace level. If agentic commerce is to scale, retailers may demand a standardized way to recognize trusted agents, verify user intent and establish accountability before allowing automated systems to interact deeply with their commerce infrastructure.

Shopify sees AI agents as another distribution channel

Shopify’s strategy appears fundamentally different. Rather than requiring consumers to begin every transaction within a Shopify-controlled environment, the company is treating AI assistants as another sales and distribution channel. This resembles the way Shopify already connects merchants with Google, social networks, marketplaces, mobile commerce and point-of-sale systems. Agentic platforms now become another route through which merchants can reach potential customers.

That approach fits Shopify’s architecture particularly well. Its value lies in powering merchants across multiple channels rather than owning a single consumer destination. If an AI platform becomes the place where shoppers discover and compare products, Shopify can still remain the system handling structured catalog data, merchant operations, payments and checkout. In that model, losing control of the interface does not necessarily mean losing control of the transaction infrastructure.

Amazon has more to lose from external agents

Amazon’s incentives are very different because its marketplace is not simply a transaction engine. The company controls product discovery, search, advertising, reviews, recommendations, checkout, fulfillment and customer service inside one highly integrated environment. External AI agents could bypass several of those layers by searching, comparing and selecting products on behalf of users without presenting Amazon’s traditional marketplace interface.

This matters because Amazon has built a huge advertising business around product discovery. Sponsored placements, search positioning and marketplace visibility are all tied to shoppers navigating Amazon directly. If an AI agent evaluates products based mainly on price, reviews, availability and delivery terms, some of the commercial value of those interfaces could be reduced. Amazon therefore has more strategic incentive than Shopify to preserve control over how shoppers discover and select products.

The fight is about who controls product discovery

This is why the Shopify-Amazon split matters beyond Muse itself. Agentic commerce is changing where product discovery happens. Today, shoppers typically search, browse, compare products, open listings, add items to a cart and complete checkout. An AI agent could compress that process into a single instruction such as: “Find me the best stroller under €500, with strong reviews and delivery before Friday.”

The agent could then search across multiple merchants, evaluate the available options and complete the transaction according to the user’s preferences. If that behavior becomes common, the center of gravity in e-commerce may move away from individual marketplace interfaces and toward AI platforms. The strategic question then becomes less about who owns the product listing and more about who owns the interface between shopper and merchant.

Shopify is betting on infrastructure, Amazon on ecosystem control

The two companies are effectively making different bets on the next phase of e-commerce. Shopify is betting that infrastructure remains valuable even if another company controls the consumer interface. Its role can still include catalog data, merchant operations, payments, checkout and order management. Amazon appears more determined to preserve control over both the infrastructure and the customer-facing environment, including search, advertising, recommendations and transaction flow.

Neither position is necessarily permanent. Amazon could eventually negotiate access agreements with selected AI platforms, while Shopify could impose stricter controls if agentic commerce creates problems for merchants. But the current split exposes two competing models. One is open and infrastructure-led, while the other is more closed and ecosystem-driven. Those models could shape how retailers interact with AI agents over the next several years.

Amazon is already challenging other AI shopping agents

Muse is not the first AI shopping agent Amazon has opposed. The company has also attempted to restrict access by agents from Perplexity, Google and OpenAI. Its dispute with Perplexity has already moved into the courts, where Amazon initially secured a preliminary injunction before a US appeals court later rejected part of its argument under federal anti-hacking law. Contractual claims based on terms of service remain a separate issue.

That legal background helps explain the language Amazon is now using with Muse. The company is framing the dispute around authorization and contractual access rather than purely around cybersecurity. This suggests Amazon is trying to establish a broader principle: AI agents should not assume unrestricted access to its commercial environment simply because an individual user authorizes them to act.

Amazon itself uses agentic shopping technology

Amazon is not opposed to AI shopping agents in principle. The company has developed its own agentic-commerce capabilities, including Buy for Me, which can help customers purchase products from external merchant sites, and Alexa for Shopping, which can research products and provide recommendations. Amazon argues that the difference lies in transparency and merchant consent.

According to Amazon, Buy for Me identifies itself when interacting with external merchants and allows businesses to opt out. That distinction reinforces the company’s central argument: the problem is not autonomous shopping itself, but how external agents enter and use another company’s commerce environment. In other words, Amazon supports agentic commerce when the rules of access are negotiated and visible to all participants.

Muse is gaining traction quickly

The dispute matters partly because Muse is already attracting significant attention. Meta launched the personal AI agent on September 8, positioning it as a system capable of handling multi-step tasks including shopping, appointment booking, email management and other everyday activities. Shortly after launch, Muse climbed rapidly through Apple’s US App Store rankings, indicating strong early consumer interest.

Growing adoption increases the urgency for retailers and commerce platforms to decide how they want to interact with these agents. For Shopify merchants, Meta represents a potential new source of product discovery and checkout. For Amazon, Muse currently represents an unauthorized intermediary operating inside a commercial environment Amazon has spent decades building and monetizing.

Agentic commerce could disrupt e-commerce advertising

Advertising may become one of the areas most affected by this shift. Traditional marketplaces monetize shopper attention by selling visibility within search results and product pages. Retailers pay to move products higher in rankings or increase exposure across marketplace interfaces. AI agents may operate differently, especially if they prioritize objective criteria such as price, delivery speed, return policies and product specifications.

If consumers increasingly delegate purchasing decisions to agents, traditional sponsored placement could become less influential. An AI may not respond to the same visual hierarchy and advertising formats as a human shopper. That creates a potential challenge not only for Amazon but also for Google and other platforms whose commercial models depend heavily on monetizing search and product discovery.

Merchants face their own strategic decision

Retailers will also need to decide how open they want to be to AI agents. Participation could bring significant benefits by creating new channels for product discovery, customer acquisition, conversion and cross-border sales. At the same time, merchants may lose some control over brand presentation, customer relationships, upselling and the overall shopping journey.

A consumer who shops entirely through Muse may never see the merchant’s homepage, marketing funnel or carefully designed product pages. Competition could therefore shift toward machine-readable factors such as price, stock availability, delivery speed, product attributes and returns. That would change how retailers think about optimization and could make structured product data increasingly important.

Structured commerce data becomes more valuable

Shopify’s role demonstrates this shift clearly. When Shopify shares catalog data directly with Meta, Muse does not need to scrape and interpret every merchant website independently. Instead, the agent can access standardized commerce information such as product descriptions, variants, prices, stock levels and checkout capabilities.

That gives Shopify an important strategic position in the agentic ecosystem. The company already sits between merchants and numerous external sales channels, and AI assistants can become another distribution layer connected to that infrastructure. As more shopping moves through agents, the platforms controlling high-quality structured commerce data may become increasingly valuable.

The future could split into open and closed commerce ecosystems

The Shopify-Amazon divide may point toward a broader fragmentation of agentic commerce. Some platforms may operate as open commerce infrastructure, allowing multiple AI agents to access catalogs and transactions through standardized integrations. Others may remain more closed, allowing only approved agents or proprietary AI experiences to participate.

The result could resemble earlier battles over mobile operating systems, app stores and platform APIs. Retailers and marketplaces may have to choose between reach and control, while AI companies may need to negotiate access to the largest commerce ecosystems rather than assuming they can browse and transact freely.

A defining battle over the next e-commerce interface

The dispute between Shopify, Amazon and Meta ultimately comes down to control. Meta wants Muse to become an interface through which consumers can complete everyday tasks, including shopping. Shopify sees an opportunity to make its merchant ecosystem accessible through that interface. Amazon sees an external agent entering a shopping environment it has spent decades building, optimizing and monetizing.

All three positions are commercially rational, but they point toward very different futures for e-commerce. Shopify’s model says the consumer can shop anywhere while Shopify provides the infrastructure underneath. Amazon’s model says the shopping environment itself remains strategically important and should not be accessed by third-party agents without permission. As AI shopping agents become more capable, the next major battle in e-commerce may not be over assortment or delivery speed, but over which AI is allowed to stand between the shopper and the store.

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YouTube is looking to strengthen its position in the market by extending its partnership agreement with Shopify, using the YouTube Shopping affiliate program. This initiative will give content creators access to new brands to tag in their videos, offering them more opportunities to generate revenue and connect with their followers through sponsored content.

In 2023, YouTube reached an impressive milestone: more than 30 billion hours of shopping-related videos were played. This figure reflects the platform's enormous potential to facilitate deeper, easier, and more satisfying connections between content creators and their fans.

YouTube partnered with Shopify in 2022, providing merchants and creators an innovative way to connect with consumers, expand their businesses, and share their stories. With this new expansion of its partnership, the platform is looking to continue leading the way in integrating shopping into the digital environment.

YouTube Shopping: What is it and how does it work? 

This partnership will allow eligible Shopify Plus and Advanced merchants in the U.S. to sign up for the YouTube Shopping affiliate program through the Google & YouTube app on Shopify, a free app that allows Shopify merchants to 

sync products from their online store with Google Merchant Center.

Creators who meet the conditions to be part of the program can proceed to activate it and:

Set a default commission rate: this rate applies to all products shared with Google Merchant Center and all YouTube Shopping affiliate program creators.

Set commission eligibility: this is where you can set your pending period and attribution period.

Add billing profile: A valid billing profile is required to participate in the YouTube Shopping affiliate program. We currently accept credit cards as a valid billing method and are working to add more options in the future. Learn more about billing settings.

Agree to terms and conditions in the onboarding flow.

Shopify merchants can now take advantage of thousands of creators showcasing their products on a large scale in their videos, thus reaching a larger number of consumers. In addition, sellers can easily manage the program and view analytics, content, and products directly from Google Merchant Center.

Content creators can use a new Chrome extension for U.S. creators in the YouTube Shopping affiliate program to save products while browsing a brand's site. 

They will soon have access to thousands of new brands to tag in their YouTube Shopping content, including brands like BK Beauty, Popflex, HexClad, and GoPure.

The expansion of the affiliate program comes at a key time. YouTube has stepped up its e-commerce efforts in recent years to diversify its revenue streams, especially in the face of a slowdown in digital advertising. This move could be paying off, as the company went from $7.665 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2024 to $8.663 billion.

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Shopify announced its first round of upgrades for 2024, the so-called 'Shopify Editions Winter 2024', and it is filled with over 100 improvements and new functionalities. 

The company has unveiled more than 100 updates to help merchants be more productive and creative. Among the new functionalities are features based on generative AI, new and better conversion tools, new sales channels tools, new operations tools, and a development Shopify Flow tool. 

All to facilitate domestic and international sales, both on the store's own website and across other channels. In honor of the Shopify brand name, which comes from the word "simplify," the company has emphasized that it "works to make things easier," highlighting the power of AI, which is now incorporated throughout its platform.

Among the new features is Semantic Search, a new AI-powered feature that goes beyond searching for matches to terms or keywords and better understands shopper intent, returning richer, more relevant search results that can help drive conversion.

Similarly, with Magic Media Editor, Shopify wants to help sellers edit their product image backgrounds using AI. With this tool, they will also have the ability to match the background style of an image to an existing image to maintain the visual consistency of their respective brands and even remove unwanted backgrounds.

Shopify goes for ‘AI-driven’  

Perhaps one of the clearest trends in the Shopify Editions Winter 2024 is the use and integration of powerful AI tools to help businesses sell more, better, and more efficiently. 

In this sense, Shopify has pushed forward AI implementation with their now famous AI assistant Sidekick and now, just revealed in this Winter Editions, its new AI-enabled image editing features. 

This functionality, called Magic, will allow businesses to Instantly generate, match, or remove the background of their existing images using just a few clicks or keywords. No design skills are needed. Available in early 2024.

Magic also provides AI-generated text to complete new pages in your store more quickly with or you could also ask Shopify Magic to write an About Us or FAQ page for your business to help customers build trust in your brand.

Shopify goes for the head with Headless Storefront 

The Headless B2B Storefronts feature helps stores create highly personalized shopping experiences, including using Shopify APIs and developer tools to enable B2B checkouts and access personalized products and pricing within headless stores. It also includes the 'Sales rep permissions' update that allows merchants to "assign sales reps to B2B customers, allowing them to place orders and view information only for assigned customers." This way, specific access levels can be defined for sales reps through roles.

Among other novelties, the new Editions Winter 2024 brings the following features: 

Shopify Combined Listings

Products that come in multiple colors or styles can all be merchandised from a single parent listing, each variation with its own description, media gallery, and URL with the Combined Listings app. Exclusive to Shopify Plus.

Rich attributes for each product category

Our updated taxonomy maps each standard product category to a rich set of associated attributes, making it easier to create, classify, and organize products, and automatically generate variants.

APIs supporting up to 2,000 variants per product

We’ve released new product APIs to unlock up to 2,000 variants per product to better support more complex catalogs. Available in developer preview, and to select businesses in 2024.

POS UPGRADES 

• POS Go is now available in the UK and Ireland

• Remote logout for POS Go

• Manage language settings for POS devices from the admin

Manage UI extensions across locations in the admin

Retailers with multiple locations and hardware devices can more easily install and activate new UI extensions from the POS channel in the admin.

New smart grid editor in the admin

Reduce setup time using the new smart grid editor in admin, where you can configure and assign smart grid layouts on a per-location basis.

Customized receipts that match your brand

The new Liquid code editor for printed receipts is an easy-to-use editor that customizes the presentation of printed receipts so that they can reflect your brand.

MARKETING UPGRADES

Sync customer data from 3P marketing channels

Understand your marketing ROI with more insights across channels. Pull customer events from Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Seguno, and Pinterest. Plus, you'll soon be able to surface ad cost and impression data from Google, Pinterest, Snapchat, and TikTok.

Know and predict the value of your customer cohorts

Use historical and predictive spend metrics found in the Cohort Analysis report to gain Shopify-powered insights into the long-term value of your customers, and optimize customer retention over time.

Import and export customer metafields

You can now import the exact customer information you need on Shopify and export metafield information for analysis.

You can find out much more about Shopify new features by visiting the Shopify Editions Winter 2024 dedicated website here

The post Shopify Editions Winter 2024 is here and comes packed with AI power! appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Shopify has announced the sale of its logistics business, Shopify Logistics, including the company it acquired for $2.1 billion less than a year ago, Deliverr, to Flexport for a 13% equity stake. 

In a letter on the platform's blog, CEO Tobias Lütke noted that "Flexport, led by CEO Dave Clark and founder Ryan Petersen, is the best builder and operator in the logistics world. Contributing our work to Flexport, under the leadership of Harish Abbott, allows everything about Shopify Logistics to be more ambitious and global," reiterating that "making global supply chains efficient and software addressable is Flexport's core pursuit, so this is the perfect home for this part of Shopify."

Shopify also sold 6 River Systems, another retail fulfillment automation startup for which it paid $450 million in 2019, to Ocado. Expanding into logistics services as part of Shopify's ambition to support merchants selling on its platform with a one-stop shop.

However, as the Covid-driven e-commerce boom slows and Shopify's revenue growth slows, it's spending on the fulfillment network has come under closer scrutiny by investors, who fear the capital-intensive project could weigh on earnings. Indeed, in an interview with the Reuters news agency, Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, noted that "the change in strategy was a result of prioritizing product acceleration." "We can give our merchants great value. Flexport gets tons of new customers to use their amazing product, and we can refocus on what we do best," Finkelstein stressed.

Massive layoffs 

Shopify Inc. also said past Thursday it would cut 20 percent of its workforce, the second major round of layoffs at the e-commerce company in under a year. The layoffs came immediately after the public announcement and impacted multiple roles in the European and APAC regions. 

The official communication was done by CEO Tobi Lutke, who said, "This means some of you will leave Shopify today," told staff in a memo. "I recognize the crushing impact this decision has on some of you and did not make this decision lightly."

Affected employees have already been advised, via email, if they still have a job. Everyone will receive a minimum of 16 weeks severance plus a week for every year they worked at the company.

Shopify slashes at managerial roles

The company appears to be targeting managerial roles for the cuts, as opposed to people who work on the company's software, with Lutke saying in his note to staff that the company had too many of the former.

"The balance of crafter to manager numbers is a tricky one to strike. Too few and you risk misalignment on the most important things; too many add heavy layers of process, approvals, meetings, and… side quests. Our numbers were unhealthy, just like it is in much of the tech industry," he said.

It's the second major round of layoffs at the company in under a year. The company announced last summer that after expanding aggressively during the pandemic, it would lay off 10 percent of its staff, as sales growth on its e-commerce platform was slowing.

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Online video platform giant, YouTube, and renowned e-commerce software, Shopify, announce the launch of YouTube Shopping. It is a platform that offers new live shopping options to allow users to access products directly from YouTube's website, without having to leave the site. 

Starting with this launch, YouTube Shopping users will be able to purchase products from merchants that are present on Shopify while watching a video or live stream. In addition, an interesting new feature that this platform introduces is the ability to checkout via YouTube as well. This new feature is now available worldwide and merchants will need to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers to be able to use it. 

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Shopify's global growth 

Over the past few years, and especially during the pandemic, Shopify has gained many users worldwide. While live shopping is currently very popular in Asian countries, it is not yet widespread in Europe. According to a survey conducted in the Netherlands, only 13% of consumers participated in live shopping in 2021. However, this trend is expected to continue to grow. 

At the same time, Shopify has recently entered the influencer market. In 2022, the company acquired Dovetale, the well-known influencer marketing startup, launching its own influencer engagement tool. 

The retirement of Tik Tok

Despite its age, YouTube today has more than 2 billion monthly users. Its main competitor today is Tik Tok, which is estimated to be surpassing the classic platform in popularity. Tik Tok launched its own live shopping tool in Europe towards the end of last year. However, in July 2022, it decided to withdraw it in the West after disappointing results. 

Towards multi-channel commerce 

According to Shopify spokespersons, commerce today is characterized by multi-channel commerce. In this respect, YouTube represents one of the most influential channels worldwide. As such, it is hoped that the new integration between the two platforms, Shopify and YouTube, will be able to change the commerce opportunities for independent brands in an increasingly creator-driven economy. 

From this launch, merchants will be able to tag products in a live stream or display a list of products on the back of videos. In addition, they will be able to manage, via the "shopping" tag, which products are shown to users. There is also the possibility to add a "shop" tab to the merchant's YouTube channel. 

As far as the product information is concerned, the products are automatically synchronized with the Shopify catalog, so that the products disappear from YouTube when they are displayed in the Shopify catalog.

YouTube maintains that:

“We’re continuing to expand shopping across Live, Shorts and long-form video to help more creators connect with their viewers and fans in a fun, creative ways and we can’t wait to see how our creators bring shopping to life on YouTube”. 

All in all, this new integration might become a valuable way to further monetize the powerful video platform, for brands and businesses. 

The post YouTube and Shopify announce YouTube Shopping appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

The new categories that are supported on Amazon.com are Health and Household, Beauty and Personal Care, Home and Kitchen, Patio and Garden, Sewing, Arts and Crafts, Sports and Outdoors and Toys and Games. The category Clothing and Accessories were already available.

If you are Brand Registered on Amazon.com, you can submit your Brand Registered listings from Shopify by adding your Amazon registered brands in Shopify. This way, you can easily create new listings and manage existing ones. Brand Registry on Amazon protects makers and brand owners, setting yourself up as a brand owner makes listing on Amazon even easier as well. You get full control of your listings and won't need UPC/EAN codes for example. The new feature in Shopify makes it possible to list Brand Registered products without leaving the Shopify environment.

The post Shopify makes selling on Amazon easier appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.