Key takeaways
- Shopify Editions Winter ‘26 launched on December 10 with 150+ updates, centered on AI.
- Sidekick can now handle SMS marketing alongside email, and gets proactive with the new Pulse dashboard feature.
- Analytics added cohort/freeform switching and two new inter-location inventory transfer reports.
- The disputes evidence form was redesigned with AI-powered defense suggestions to help merchants win more chargebacks.
December 2025 was defined by one event: Shopify Editions Winter ‘26, released on December 10 with 150+ updates.
Editions Winter ‘26 Launches
On December 10, Shopify released Editions Winter ‘26 - branded the “RenAIssance Edition” - with over 150 updates across the entire platform. The throughline is AI at every layer: merchant tools, storefront discovery, checkout, and developer infrastructure.
A few things worth highlighting from the launch:
Sidekick Pulse. Sidekick now surfaces a curated feed of high-impact suggestions directly on your home dashboard - product bundle opportunities based on cart data, flagged policy gaps, low-stock warnings. It acts before you ask.
Agentic storefronts. Shopify merchants are now discoverable by AI shopping assistants including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. One setup in your admin, no complex integrations. When someone asks an AI agent for a product recommendation, participating Shopify stores can show up - and the purchase can happen without the customer ever visiting your site.
Sell on WordPress. Shopify’s checkout and payments can now be embedded into WordPress sites. Merchants with existing WordPress presences can add Shopify’s checkout without migrating.
POS Hub. New hardware that connects card readers, printers, and scanners to POS tablets via a wired connection - designed for countertop retail setups that need reliable, fault-tolerant connectivity.
AI & Sidekick
Sidekick adds SMS marketing.
Sidekick can now create and send SMS marketing campaigns alongside email. Merchants can describe what they want to promote, and Sidekick drafts the message, selects the audience, and schedules the send.
Build admin apps from natural language.
Sidekick can generate custom admin apps from a plain-language description. Merchants can build internal tools - custom dashboards, bulk editing workflows, reporting views - without writing code.
For more on what Sidekick can do day to day, see our guide to using Shopify Sidekick.
Analytics
Switch between Freeform and Cohorts without leaving your report.
Shopify Analytics now lets you toggle between freeform exploration and cohort analysis on the same report. Previously switching required starting a new report. This makes it faster to cut the same data in different ways.
Two new inter-location transfer reports.
Two new reports track inventory movements between locations - showing what was ordered, shipped, received, accepted, and rejected across transfers. Useful for multi-location merchants managing stock distribution between warehouses and retail stores.
Payments & Disputes
Redesigned dispute evidence form.
The chargeback dispute form in Shopify admin has been rebuilt. It now walks merchants through evidence submission step by step, with AI suggestions for which evidence is most likely to win the dispute type you’re facing. The old form was a single dense page - the new one is structured and guided.
Automated transfer rules for Shopify Balance (US).
US merchants using Shopify Balance can now set automated rules for payouts - for example, automatically transferring funds above a threshold to an external account. This makes cash management more hands-off for high-volume merchants.
Shopify Capital expands to Spain.
Shopify Capital - the merchant cash advance program - is now available to eligible merchants in Spain.
Developer Updates
Storefront MCP for Hydrogen.
Hydrogen stores on Oxygen now support Storefront MCP, letting developers build custom AI agents into storefronts. The agents can access real-time product and customer data to power personalized recommendations and checkout guidance.
Dev MCP for AI-assisted development.
Coding tools including Cursor and Claude can now access Shopify’s Dev MCP server, which provides comprehensive Hydrogen documentation, Storefront API references, and the Hydrogen Cookbook. This significantly speeds up Shopify development with AI tools.
API 2026-04: Functions access discount details.
In API version 2026-04 (due April 2026), Shopify Functions will be able to access discount details at the cart, line item, and delivery levels - but only when executing after discounts are applied. Useful for building discount-aware custom logic.
FAQ
When was Shopify Editions Winter '26 released?
Shopify released Editions Winter '26, branded the RenAIssance Edition, on December 10, 2025, with more than 150 updates. AI is the throughline, across merchant tools, storefront discovery, checkout and developer infrastructure.
What is Sidekick Pulse?
Sidekick Pulse is a feed of high-impact suggestions on your Shopify home dashboard, such as product bundle opportunities based on cart data, flagged policy gaps and low-stock warnings. It surfaces them before you ask.
Can Sidekick send SMS marketing campaigns?
Yes. Since December 2025, Sidekick can create and send SMS marketing campaigns alongside email. You describe what you want to promote, and Sidekick drafts the message, selects the audience and schedules the send.
Which AI assistants can find Shopify stores through agentic storefronts?
At the Winter '26 launch, Shopify said agentic storefronts make merchants discoverable by AI shopping assistants including ChatGPT, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Merchants set it up once in the Shopify admin, with no separate integrations.
