#Japan #Shopify #Shibuya #Horizon #AI Store Design

Shopify Unveils Horizon: The Future of E-Commerce Platform

Shopify, a leader in global commerce, has made waves with its recent announcement regarding a comprehensive platform update called the "Summer '25 Edition - Horizons." Set to launch in the summer of 2025, this latest update is centered around Horizon, a new AI-integrated store design framework that promises to revolutionize the way online stores are created and experienced.

Horizon brings over 150 new features and enhancements, focusing on an intuitive and efficient commerce experience. With a focus on beautiful designs combined with powerful AI capabilities, it allows merchants to establish aesthetically pleasing and high-converting stores without the need for coding expertise. According to Sean Broughton, Shopify's APAC Managing Director, this update represents a significant step forward, enabling business owners to reduce time spent on technicalities and concentrate on building their brands. The philosophy behind this enhancement, termed "Declarative Commerce," aims to empower merchants to declare their goals and let the system uncover optimal solutions automatically, thereby facilitating a sustained focus on innovation and strategic growth.

New Era of Store Design with Horizon

The introduction of Horizon establishes a new standard for online store design, making it more flexible and user-friendly. By incorporating AI capabilities, it offers a top-notch user experience combined with fully customizable layouts, allowing users to create engaging stores that drive high conversions without needing to understand coding intricacies.

High-Conversion Presets

Horizon comes equipped with ten stunning design presets for brands to kickstart their online presence immediately. Each preset is designed to enhance user engagement with clear sections and a focus on conversion-oriented structures. Features like intuitive product searches, full-screen hero banners, and optimized cart layouts guide customers smoothly towards making purchases.

Enhanced Theme Blocks

For further customization, Horizon introduces new features that allow users to freely move elements on their pages and copy-paste blocks into different sections. With over 30 preset blocks available, users can preview their choices before implementing them, significantly streamlining the customization process.

AI Block Generation

Another remarkable feature of Horizon is its AI block generation capability, which allows users to effortlessly create new content blocks and layouts using AI. This innovative tool quickly presents optimized layout suggestions, enabling users to build high-performance pages in record time.

AI Store Builder Accelerates Store Creation

Whether for first-time online merchants or seasoned business operators, the AI Store Builder simplifies the store creation process. By entering a few keywords, users can generate three unique store designs immediately, allowing for quick customization to fit their needs.

Enhancements to the Shop App

Alongside the Horizon update, Shopify has also revamped its Shop app, resulting in a more personalized and dynamic home feed that effectively connects merchants with eager consumers. The updated feed adapts in real-time based on user interactions within the app, ensuring a more tailored shopping experience.

Strengthened Home Feed Recommendations

Utilizing customer behavior data, the enhanced home feed presents products in a highly relevant manner, which is expected to improve engagement and customer retention. By updating content based on real-time behavior, merchants can expect increased product exposure on Shop's high-traffic pages.

Collection Creation and Sharing

Customers now have the ability to organize saved items into collections based on themes or purposes, allowing for collaborative sharing. This feature evolves the traditional "favorites" list into a more interactive experience where users can co-create and potentially purchase together.

Native and Custom Swatches

In a significant upgrade, the Shop app now supports swatches that replicate online store color and variant displays. This improvement allows consumers to visually confirm colors and variations without needing dropdowns, enhancing the overall purchasing experience and providing consistency across all shopping platforms.

Brand Building in the AI Era

Shopify also announced an innovative app called Knowledge Base, designed to facilitate AI-oriented SEO for brands. As AI becomes an integral purchasing channel, ensuring that brand information is conveyed correctly to AI systems is crucial. This app generates and customizes store-related information and FAQs so that consumers can discover brand offerings more easily.

Automatically Generated Store Information

The Knowledge Base app automatically creates optimized store information and FAQs for shopping AI agents like ChatGPT or Claude. Users can tailor the generated content to reflect their brand's image and values, enhancing their ability to communicate with consumers during AI-assisted searches and purchasing processes.

Smart Sidekick for Decision-Making

With escalating complexities in commerce due to shifting sales patterns and workflow challenges, Shopify's AI assistant, Sidekick, stands out. This tool not only answers queries but detects problems and suggests solutions, assisting users in executing actions proactively. The enhanced Sidekick can partner with multiple data sources, offering deep insights and actionable strategies in a single interaction without the need to navigate across multi-step dashboards.

Shopify Catalog for Broader Reach

The newly introduced Shopify Catalog empowers developers to create apps and AI agents at every consumer touchpoint. This tool connects merchants and customers seamlessly, ensuring that product discovery leads to sales.

Real-Time Data Access

Developers can access real-time product data from millions of businesses on Shopify, providing consumers with the most relevant items available. This comprehensive catalog enables merchants to expand their outreach across various industries and regions.

Taz Patel, Head of Advertising and Shopping at Perplexity, commented, "Shopify Catalog presents consumers with seamless access to millions of Shopify products, enhancing their shopping experience through accurate and real-time information."

Empowering Shopping with Storefront MCP

Through Storefront MCP, developers can build specialized AI shopping agents tailored to specific brands, creating captivating shopping experiences that drive tangible business outcomes. Adopting Anthropic's Model Context Protocol allows external partners to access Shopify Catalog and individual shop information, enabling AI-driven product searches and smoother purchasing experiences.

Conclusion

Founded in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Shopify is a world-class commerce platform providing essential services for businesses of all sizes. From startups to large enterprises, Shopify helps retailers launch, market, and expand their operations on a single platform, ensuring a superior shopping experience for consumers across several channels. For more information, visit Shopify.