# Checkout, payments and fraud: what Shopify Fall '26 changes

> Shopify Protect is live, Rollouts can run your Black Friday sale, and checkout custom fields arrive after Cyber Monday. What to switch on, and in what order.

Shopify's Fall '26 Edition changes your checkout and payments in three ways. Shopify Protect is live now, Rollouts are the safest way to run your Black Friday sale, and the checkout refresh arrives after Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM). The order of work follows from that: check your payments set-up now, build your sale as a rollout well before it starts, and plan the checkout clean-up for January.

This post is part of our Fall '26 series. For the full picture, start with [what UK brands should act on in Shopify Editions Fall '26](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-editions-exponential).

## Live now: Shopify Protect

Shopify estimates that a $100 chargeback really costs a business about $238 once shipped stock, network fees and staff time are counted. Its data also shows that stores with fraud disputes at around 0.5% of sales have a median bank approval rate 7.4 points lower than stores with almost none. Fraud costs you good customers months later, not just the disputed order.

Shopify Protect is Shopify's answer, and it is on for every business using Shopify Payments:

- **Pre-authorisation blocking:** near-certain fraud is declined before the payment reaches the bank, so there's no order to cancel and no refund to issue.
- **Risk explained:** each order shows, in plain language, the factors that raised its risk level before you fulfil it.
- **Disputes answered for you:** Shopify gathers card, receipt and authentication data, pulls carrier proof of delivery, and drafts an AI response matched to the bank and reason code. Shopify says merchants win 60% more "product not received" disputes.
- **Shop Pay cover:** fraud chargebacks on eligible Shop Pay orders are reimbursed at no fee, and Shopify says coverage beyond Shop Pay is next.
- **Rule Builder:** a new app to block orders, request 3D Secure or hold orders based on signals you choose, previewed first against your last 90 days of orders. It's on a waitlist for now.

If you take payments through another gateway, you miss most of this. Fall '26 lets you run Shop Pay and local payment methods through Shopify Payments alongside your existing provider in the same store. That's a lower-risk way to test it.

## For Black Friday: run your sale as a rollout

Rollouts, under Markets > Rollouts, bundle up to four kinds of change into one scheduled release:

- theme edits or a replacement theme
- a replacement checkout configuration
- catalogues set to active or draft
- discounts switched on or off

A Launch applies permanently, an Event rolls back when it ends, and an Experiment splits traffic for an A/B test (Grow plan or higher). Our guide to [A/B testing with Shopify Rollouts](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-rollouts-ab-testing) covers Experiments in more depth.

### Build your sale as an Event

1. Create any sale catalogues per market before you start the rollout.
2. Make your sale theme edits inside the rollout, not on the live theme.
3. Add your discounts. Each discount can sit in only one unended rollout at a time.
4. Set start and end times in your store's timezone, then check the conflict warnings before saving.

### Three limits to plan around

- You can't target a rollout to customer segments, tags or devices.
- B2B catalogues can't be included.
- Publishing a new theme while rollouts are scheduled can wipe their customisations, so freeze theme publishing until the sale ends.

## After Black Friday: the checkout refresh

### Custom fields

Custom fields are the headline. Every plan gets delivery instructions and gift message fields. Plus adds text, text area, choice list, date and checkbox fields. Values save to order metafields, fields can appear only when the cart holds certain collections, and settings can vary by market. Shopify has said they won't ship before or during BFCM, and there's no early access.

Two details matter. Built-in fields also work in AI channel checkouts such as Google AI Mode, where app-based fields may not display. And a required field can cost you conversions, so make fields optional unless you genuinely can't fulfil the order without the answer.

### Also rolling out over the coming months

- Tiled payment methods replace radio buttons, alongside a tighter stacked form layout.
- An animated thank-you page transition after payment.
- Apple Pay by QR code for shoppers on Chrome, Edge and Firefox, who scan with their iPhone.
- Per-market fees on products and collections, collected at checkout and reported (early access).
- More local payment methods: Satispay and Scalapay for Italy, MB WAY for Portugal, plus Alipay, WeChat Pay and GrabPay.
- Sidekick in the checkout editor, building and tuning checkout customisations and Checkout Blocks. Read how to [use Sidekick and Canvas without losing control](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-sidekick-canvas).

## The order of work

1. **Now:** confirm Shopify Payments is live, or plan it alongside your gateway. Join the Rule Builder waitlist if you run fraud rules today.
2. **Before your sale starts:** build and test the Black Friday rollout, then freeze theme publishing.
3. **During BFCM:** screenshot your checkout and note your conversion rates, so you have a baseline before the redesign lands.
4. **January:** list every checkout app you pay for just to collect notes or gift messages, and replace them with built-in fields.

## Get a checkout and fraud review

[Book a checkout and fraud review before your next sale](https://thinkcommerce.com/contact). We'll check your Payments set-up, build your sale as a rollout and plan the January checkout clean-up. If you'd rather start with a fixed-price review of how your store converts, see our [CRO audit and other fixed-price projects](https://thinkcommerce.com/offers/fixed-price-projects).

## More in our Fall '26 series

- [Shopify Editions Fall '26: what UK brands should act on](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-editions-exponential)
- [Agentic commerce on Shopify: getting your products sold inside AI chats](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-agentic-commerce)
- [Sidekick and Canvas: putting Shopify's AI to work without losing control](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-sidekick-canvas)

## Sources

- [Introducing Shopify Protect](https://www.shopify.com/blog/introducing-shopify-protect)
- [Adding custom fields to your checkout](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/checkout-settings/customize-checkout-configurations/custom-fields)
- [Creating a rollout](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/markets/rollouts/create-a-rollout)

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Source: https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-checkout-payments-fraud · Published: 30 October 2026 · Last updated: 5 November 2026 · Author: Paal Soberg · Contact: hello@thinkcommerce.com