# Shopify Spring 2026 Editions: what merchants need to know

> Shopify's Spring 2026 Editions, feature by feature: agentic commerce, Campaign Autopilot, POS V11, Markets and discounts, and the five things to act on first.

Shopify's Spring 2026 Editions turn AI chats into a sales channel you can measure, add AI-run marketing with Campaign Autopilot, speed up in-store checkout with POS V11 and give Markets finer control over discounts and variants. This guide goes through the release feature by feature. The five things we'd act on first are listed at the end.

Shopify has since released its Fall '26 Edition. For the latest changes, read [what UK brands should act on in Shopify Editions Fall '26](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-editions-exponential).

## What are Shopify Editions?

Shopify releases a major platform update twice a year and calls each one an Edition. Each release bundles new features, improvements and tools across the platform, from storefront and checkout to analytics, marketing and developer APIs. Think of it as Shopify's version of an Apple keynote, but for merchants. If you're new to the platform, start with [what Shopify is and why brands choose it](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/what-is-shopify).

Spring '26 builds on the AI and agentic commerce groundwork laid in [Winter '26, the RenAIssance Edition](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-editions-renaissance). Here's what's new and what to act on first.

## The biggest theme: agentic commerce goes mainstream

Winter '26 introduced agentic storefronts. Spring '26 turns them into a proper sales channel. Your products are now automatically discoverable in AI chats, and Shopify gives you the data to show whether it's working. For how this works in practice, read our guide to [Agentic Storefronts and your products inside AI shopping experiences](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/agentic-storefronts).

### Agentic discovery

- **Agentic Storefronts insights:** see how your products perform in AI channels, track sales and get guidance on what's missing to drive conversion.
- **Shopify Catalog structured data:** Shopify automatically standardises and enriches your product data. Shopify says data it syndicates drives twice as much conversion in AI chats.
- **Universal Commerce Protocol for Copilot, Meta and Shop Pay:** customers can now buy directly inside Microsoft Copilot and pay with Shop Pay in the chat. Shopify said a Meta ads integration would follow.
- **Agentic plan:** businesses not yet on Shopify can sync products to Shopify Catalog and sell across AI channels and the Shop app.

If you want help getting your catalogue ready for AI channels, that's what our [agentic commerce service](https://thinkcommerce.com/services/agentic-commerce) covers.

## Online store and merchandising

### AI-powered store tools

- **AI sales associate in Shopify Inbox:** an AI assistant on your online store that helps drive sales. For customers signed in with Shop, it recommends products based on their purchase history.
- **Store analysis with SimGym:** analyse your theme with AI-simulated shoppers and get specific ideas for improvement.
- **A/B tests on online store and checkout:** publish a new theme, checkout configuration or customer accounts set-up at a scheduled time, or as an A/B test, using Rollouts. Our guide to [A/B testing with Shopify Rollouts](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-rollouts-ab-testing) shows how.
- **Shopify Smart Pricing:** product-level pricing tips based on your store's sales, inventory, costs and seasonality.

### Storefront and catalogue

- **Better storefront search:** shoppers get relevant results even with typos or unusual phrasing.
- **Variant-level publishing:** control which variants are published on each channel and in each market, without workarounds.
- **Stacked product discounts:** apply more than one discount to the same product in one order, such as a percentage off plus a fixed amount off.
- **Discounts by market:** run targeted promotions for customers in specific regions, retail locations and B2B set-ups.
- **Sales channel control in Markets:** set product availability, pricing and currency for each sales channel connection.
- **Mandatory product warnings:** add required warnings to products and show them on your store, in AI channels and in the Shop app.
- **Markets graph:** see your Shopify Markets set-up, including discounts, products and settings, in one graph.

### Customer accounts

- **Refreshed customer accounts:** simpler navigation, branded sign-in and recommendations for first-time shoppers.
- **365-day sessions:** customers stay signed in for a full year, so they can pick up where they left off.
- **Customer data from identity providers:** sync profile fields and custom tags from Auth0, Ping Identity and Azure ID.
- **Marketing consent on sign-in:** capture email marketing opt-ins on the customer sign-in page.

### Theme editor

- **Better editing on laptops:** the theme and checkout editors now show sections and settings side by side.
- **Better editing in the Shopify app:** mobile-friendly controls, a live preview as you edit and Sidekick built in.
- **Scheduling and testing for localised themes:** translate your theme for each market, then schedule it or A/B test it with Rollouts.

## Marketing

Spring '26 is a big release for marketing. Most of these tools run on customer data, so our [ecommerce personalisation statistics](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/ecommerce-personalisation-statistics) are useful background.

- **Campaign Autopilot:** AI-run marketing across channels that learns and optimises as it goes. You set guardrails to stay in control and track results over time.
- **Shop Campaigns on more channels:** one campaign now runs across ChatGPT, programmatic ads via Microsoft Monetize, and Pinterest.
- **Simpler set-up and bidding in Shop Campaigns:** set custom bids for segments such as new or lapsed customers, and run across channels from one set-up.
- **WhatsApp marketing:** create and manage WhatsApp campaigns in Shopify Messaging.
- **SMS automations:** marketing automations in Shopify Messaging now include SMS.
- **Smart email delivery:** Shopify Messaging decides which messages to send and which to hold back, optimising for conversion.
- **Marketing data in analytics:** see spend, ROAS, impressions and sessions next to sales in one report.
- **Fixed bundles on Google Shopping and Meta:** publish pre-configured bundles across Google search and ads, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.
- **Discount links attributed to campaigns:** track traffic and conversion from discount links tied to specific campaigns.
- **WhatsApp consent management:** manage each customer's WhatsApp marketing consent in their profile, alongside email and SMS consent.

## Retail and POS

- **Shopify POS V11:** Shopify says it saves over a minute when creating customers, adding products and checking out. The cart stays on screen, so the queue keeps moving.
- **Returns and exchanges in one cart:** process refunds, exchanges and new sales in a single cart with smart grid actions.
- **Scannable discounts:** generate QR codes in the admin, share them with customers and scan them at checkout to apply discounts in store.
- **In-store only discounts:** create discounts that apply only in person, keeping in-store promotions separate from online.
- **Faster search in Shopify POS:** inline suggestions and less waiting on every search page.
- **Keyboard shortcuts in Shopify POS:** build carts and move between products, orders and customers faster.
- **Gift card cash-out:** cash out low-balance gift cards to meet local redemption laws.
- **Pickup orders at any retail location:** create orders for pickup at any location, notify customers and mark them as fulfilled. (POS Pro)
- **Cash visibility and control:** set cash rules, track all drawer activity, require mid-session cash counts and reconcile with audit trails. (POS Pro)
- **Manual offline checkout:** staff with the right permissions can switch on offline checkout and keep selling when the connection drops.
- **Permissions for customer data:** control which staff can see sensitive customer details such as names, emails and addresses.
- **Packing slips for outgoing transfers:** print an itemised manifest with origin, destination and transfer details.
- **Multi-entity selling across retail locations:** run retail locations that belong to different legal entities from one Shopify store. (Plus only)
- **Verifone Victa Mobile for Shopify POS:** a new handheld that scans barcodes, takes payments and runs Shopify POS, and doubles as a terminal when docked. Pre-orders were limited to the US and Canada at launch.

## What Winter '26 delivered, still worth acting on

If you haven't set up the Winter '26 features yet, these still deserve a place alongside the Spring '26 updates. Our [Winter '26 round-up](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-editions-renaissance) covers the full release.

- **2,048 variants per product:** rethink your catalogue structure if you have complex option combinations.
- **Unlisted product status:** useful for wholesale links, influencer exclusives and pre-launch pages.
- **Automatic discounts for specific customers:** target VIPs and loyalty tiers without discount codes.
- **Heatmaps and bot filtering in analytics:** without bot filtering, bot visits can distort your conversion data.
- **Flow automation preview:** test workflows before they go live.
- **Horizon theme updates:** more than 250 improvements shipped. Check you're on the latest version.

## Five things to do first

1. **Check your Agentic Storefronts insights.** See how your products perform in AI channels and what's blocking conversion.
2. **Set up Campaign Autopilot.** If you run paid marketing, this is the most useful new tool in Spring '26.
3. **Turn on WhatsApp marketing.** It's a new channel, now built into Shopify Messaging.
4. **Update to POS V11.** If you have a retail location, the faster checkout alone makes it worth it.
5. **Review your discount strategy.** Stacked product discounts and discounts by market open up new kinds of promotion.

Not sure which of these apply to your store? [Talk to us about your Shopify roadmap](https://thinkcommerce.com/contact).

## Further reading

- [What UK brands should act on in Shopify Editions Fall '26](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-editions-exponential)
- [Agentic Storefronts: your products inside AI shopping experiences](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/agentic-storefronts)
- [A/B testing with Shopify Rollouts](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-rollouts-ab-testing)
- [Ecommerce personalisation statistics](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/ecommerce-personalisation-statistics)
- [Shopify Winter '26: the RenAIssance Edition has arrived](https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-editions-renaissance)

## Sources

The Spring '26 features in this article come from Shopify's official Spring 2026 Editions release. The Winter '26 features come from the Winter '26 Edition.

- [Shopify Editions Spring '26](https://www.shopify.com/editions/spring2026)
- [Shopify Editions Winter '26](https://www.shopify.com/editions/winter2026)

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Source: https://thinkcommerce.com/insights/shopify-spring-editions-what-merchants-need-to-know · Published: 15 June 2026 · Last updated: 5 November 2026 · Author: Paal Soberg · Contact: hello@thinkcommerce.com