Shopify's Biggest AI Update Yet (Editions 2026)

0:00Hey everyone, Jan here, coding with

0:01Jan.com. So, Shopify Editions just

0:04dropped with tons of new updates for

0:06developers, and to understand what they

0:08all mean, we'll break them down with no

0:11one less than the VP of product for

0:13developer platform, admin experience,

0:15analytics, and flow. I'm excited for

0:18this one. Let's have a look. All right,

0:20Ethan, super excited for our talk today.

0:22We have lots of good topics to cover,

0:24and before we dive right in, the last

0:26time [snorts] we spoke, your role at

0:27Shopify was slightly different. You were

0:29director of the developer platform, and

0:31now I also saw keywords like analytics,

0:33Shopify flow, admin experience. So,

0:36yeah, before we dive right in, what does

0:37your day-to-day look like now?

0:39>> Uh yeah, so I basically work on a team

0:41called Shopify Foundations. We work on

0:43the end-to-end developer experience,

0:45think like shopify.dev, dev docs, dev

0:47community,

0:48the the CLI for building apps,

0:52dev dashboard, and then all of the

0:54distribution that developers might do to

0:56things like the app store, also our

0:57partner directory.

0:59I work on a lot of the primitives that

1:00developers use to build their apps, like

1:02things like metafields, meta objects for

1:03storage,

1:05Shopify functions, which is a key

1:06primitive for for doing business logic

1:08at checkout,

1:09our Polaris UI toolkit, all all of those

1:11capabilities for for developers.

1:14Yeah, and then I also work on flow and

1:15analytics, which are kind of like two

1:17merchant power tools, but also are

1:20critical parts of developer capabilities

1:22as well. We have flow triggers and

1:24actions that they can use

1:26to plug into that surface, and now we

1:27have increasing number of like APIs and

1:29capabilities for analytics as well.

1:31>> Okay, that's awesome, because yeah,

1:32today we have a lot of technical topics

1:34as well, and you are a good sparring

1:36partner for that, because you do have

1:37the technical knowledge. Why don't we

1:39dive right in? Apps are a super hot

1:41topic right now.

1:42>> Yeah.

1:42>> Lots of people are shipping apps,

1:43especially in the agentic era, and one

1:46of the things I saw on Shopify Editions

1:48is that webhooks are completely rebuilt

1:51from scratch.

1:52>> Yeah.

1:52>> And I think we should catch the audience

1:54up here a little bit, because not

1:55everyone might be aware what webhooks

1:57even are. So, when you build an app and

2:00you need to request data, you can do

2:01that through Shopify's API. Let's say

2:03you need some product data,

2:05but there are also instances where you

2:06need to be notified about certain

2:08events, like an incoming order, right?

2:09Then it would be inefficient to like

2:11query the API every 5 seconds, is there

2:12a new order? Is there a new order? So,

2:14then you subscribe to these webhooks,

2:16which is kind of like Shopify's event

2:17system.

2:18>> That's right.

2:19>> What is changing?

2:20>> What's changing? Yeah, great question.

2:22So, today, uh let's compare before and

2:24after. Um as you described, webhooks, um

2:28current webhooks are a way to be

2:29notified when something happens. So,

2:31let's say, for example, um I want to be

2:33notified um when a price changes. Like,

2:35hey, I do something that involves like

2:37warranties and the price of a product

2:39matters a lot for my use case. Um with

2:42webhooks today, you would subscribe to a

2:43product update webhook, and what we

2:46would do is we would send you this

2:47ginormous payload of

2:49the entire product and everything uh

2:52about that product in its new state.

2:55Um the biggest challenge with today's

2:57webhooks is that the developer is left

3:00figuring out what actually changed. And

3:02so, you get this massive payload of a

3:04product, which could have 60, [snorts]

3:0580, 100 fields on it. Um and what you

3:09really care about is did the price

3:11change?

3:12And so, that puts a lot of work on the

3:13developer to basically store probably

3:16locally some sort of version of like the

3:18before and then look at this webhook and

3:20be like, wait a second, what actually

3:22changed? Oh, wait, the price didn't

3:23change. I don't care. Throw in the

3:25trash, right? Um and so, you're getting

3:28a massive volume of webhooks, um only

3:31which a portion of it you might care

3:32because again, most developers have a

3:34specific use case in mind. They don't

3:35necessarily care about an entire product

3:37being updated.

3:38>> True.

3:38>> So, um enter uh next-gen events, uh

3:42Shopify events. Um and the big There's a

3:45number of a number of things that we've

3:46improved, but I'd say the biggest one is

3:48that um in your subscription, you can

3:51include what is called a trigger. Um

3:53[snorts] and the trigger allows you to

3:55specify the exact field um

3:59uh that you that when that thing

4:01changes, you want to be notified. Um so

4:04you can do a subscription and say,

4:05"Okay, I want to trigger on

4:07variance.price

4:09and I want to trigger on

4:10variance.compare_at_price."

4:12And then when the that event fires, we

4:15will actually tell you specifically what

4:18actually changed. Um and we'll tell you

4:20like, "Hey, okay, you wanted to be

4:22notified if either of these two change.

4:23I'm telling you right now that price

4:25changed or compare_at_price changed."

4:27Um so that's really nice because it just

4:29dramatically for that developer who's

4:31like, "I just want to be notified about

4:33price changes." Now it's like, "Okay, I

4:35can be confident that I'm only going to

4:37get either price changes or

4:38compare_at_price changes."

4:40Um

4:41>> Yes. Yeah, so far so good. I mean, that

4:43sounds awesome. Yeah, you explained it

4:44super thoroughly. I don't even have many

4:46follow-up questions. Yeah.

4:47>> It kind of sounds you can build your own

4:49webhooks now and not not own webhooks,

4:50but you you have a lot more fine-grained

4:52control of when you want to receive

4:53them, also what to receive because if

4:56you subscribe to certain events, then

4:57obviously the payload changes. Is that

4:59correct?

4:59>> Yeah, so so basically you can think of

5:01it as almost like by default, it's kind

5:03of like payloadless. And what you do is

5:06you give us a query, a GraphQL query

5:08that you want to run when it triggers,

5:11and then we'll go pull the data that you

5:13want. And so you basically form up your

5:15own payload. So you'll get a custom

5:17payload. So like maybe, "Hey, when price

5:18changes" I'm making it up "I want to get

5:20the ID uh of the product, the title, and

5:24the status." I don't know. Whatever it

5:26is. Yeah.

5:27>> So it's kind of like the shift that we

5:28saw on the API from when we went from

5:31REST to GraphQL, it's kind of the same

5:33thing for webhooks now, right?

5:34>> Exactly. [clears throat]

5:35Yep. Yeah. It's It's custom GraphQL

5:37queries that basically define your

5:38payload.

5:39>> Yes. Okay, that that's really cool. Um

5:42that's all I want to know about

5:43webhooks. I have two other topics. What

5:45would you What would you like more?

5:46Staying on the app side and my great or

5:49transitioning to sidekick or UCP product

5:51catalog? What's your favorite topic?

5:54>> Or maybe we just do one more thing on

5:55events. So just to kind of close off

5:57that topic, it's available today for the

6:00products resource and for the customers

6:02resource.

6:03Um and our intention is to bring it to

6:05all resources and make it a complete

6:08replacement of the old webhook system.

6:10>> Okay, yeah, that's good to know. I I

6:12have to imagine you rolled this out

6:13gradually. I it only makes sense. Yeah.

6:15>> Yeah.

6:16>> Okay. And then your favorite topic?

6:17Sidekick first or UCP product catalogs?

6:20>> Uh let's do sidekick.

6:22>> Okay. So, have you used sidekick in in

6:25recent days or weeks? Are you using it a

6:27lot in your day-to-day? Are you do you

6:28have touch points with it?

6:30>> Uh I do. So I mean I I I use it a fair

6:32amount. Like I'm I'm not a merchant

6:34myself, but I I definitely try and use

6:35our products all the time a whole bunch.

6:37Um and so yeah, I I I use sidekick quite

6:39a bit um just to get a feel for like

6:41what it can do. Um I have my own

6:43internal staff shop which I which I use

6:45it again just again to to to run queries

6:47and play around with it.

6:48>> Okay, what do you what do you like most

6:50for? Can you speak on that even? I mean

6:52>> Yeah.

6:53>> You're working on it, but it's you

6:54probably have an opinion, right?

6:56>> Yeah, I do. Um ooh, I like it for a lot

6:58of I mean so

7:00All right. Cheesy but true answer. I I

7:03think one of the things that is getting

7:05really nice about sidekick is that

7:08um its capabilities are just increased

7:09dramatically.

7:11Right. So it used to start off where it

7:12could kind of answer basic questions

7:13about your shop. Um but now you can

7:17um for example say, "Hey, I want to

7:19build an automation that will uh tag all

7:22customers who spend $5,000 or more as

7:24VIP." And that will [snorts] immediately

7:26start to kick off uh the ability to to

7:28to to to to do a workflow to create a

7:30workflow. Um you can ask it analytical

7:32questions. "Hey, um tell me like how

7:35many orders I had in the last 30 days

7:36and how many of them were over again

7:38$5,000."

7:39Um

7:40and so just the capabilities have

7:42increased dramatically. Um

7:45Yeah, I mean I I think like one of my

7:47favorite is probably a lot of the

7:48analytics use cases are really cool

7:51because you know it takes something that

7:53either like you'd have to go write

7:54custom Shopify QL for

7:56or you'd have to go into an editor and

7:59like you know do all these kind of fine

8:01grain selections and now you can just

8:02talk like you normally would to ask

8:04these questions and and just in plain

8:06simple English or whatever your language

8:07is

8:08and

8:09yeah and and Sidekick will just give you

8:10answers and so I don't like I don't like

8:11I find that one just really cool.

8:13>> Yes, I agree. I actually interesting you

8:15mentioned that because I tell this all

8:16the time like the talk to your analytics

8:19aspect of it is really cool because

8:20analytics are kind of not necessarily

8:23frustrating but they can be confusing if

8:25you have like a lot of data points and

8:26now you can just ask hey what's my best

8:28performing marketing channel and then it

8:29gives you like the full breakdown which

8:30is awesome.

8:32Personally I also like it for as you

8:34said documentation and if you have a

8:36question regarding a specific setting or

8:38where to find something in the admin

8:39dashboard.

8:41Theme set theme sections I don't use it

8:43as much to be honest because I'm more of

8:45a fan of having my local development

8:46environment and maybe my own AI of

8:48choice and then some more fine grain

8:50control also with Git commits I think

8:51that's like fair point.

8:53>> Yeah.

8:53>> Um building apps is super interesting

8:55with Sidekick. You mentioned

8:56automations.

8:58I think a shop like Sidekick is now also

9:00capable of building apps but I haven't

9:02tested it too much yet. This is only

9:05admin extensions or like extension only

9:08apps because there's no real hosting

9:10right? You couldn't set up a server and

9:11then do third party queries or like

9:13what's the deal with that?

9:14>> Yeah there so there's no back there's no

9:15back end to it is the best way to think

9:17of it right? There's no back end hosting

9:18to it so it it is you know think of it

9:21as like front end only apps for from

9:23Sidekick app generation.

9:25You're like hey I want to build a form

9:27of some kind it can go and do that but

9:29right at the moment it does not have any

9:30back end capabilities.

9:32>> Okay that makes sense. But the admin UI

9:34extension check out UI extensions is

9:36that the is that a Because they're

9:37partially hosted on Shopify and then

9:39>> Um not not from Sidekick. Uh

9:42so,

9:43checkout UI extensions are not possible

9:46to do from Sidekick app trend currently.

9:47>> Okay, got it. Okay. But but possibly in

9:49the future.

9:50>> Yep.

9:51>> Okay. And yeah, now with additions, I

9:54also saw there are Sidekick app

9:56extensions coming. So, similar to how

9:59you could integrate your app into, let's

10:00say, a product page or like admin UI

10:02extensions. Um

10:05you can now integrate the Sidekick

10:07conversation. Like, how do I have to

10:08imagine this?

10:09>> Yeah. Yeah, so um we announced this in

10:12dev preview at the last edition. Um

10:14we're now GA with it. It's available to

10:17all developers and on all shops. Um

10:20yeah, so I think one of the biggest

10:21things about Sidekick is that like, hey,

10:23let's say I'm a merchant and I utilize a

10:25bunch of apps to run my business.

10:28Um like, I might use Klaviyo for email.

10:31I might use some other app for

10:32subscriptions,

10:33um etc. Um

10:35currently, that data is not really is

10:38not available to Sidekick. It does not

10:40know about that app really doesn't know

10:42Well, previously, today it does. It did

10:44Previously did not know about that app.

10:45It didn't know about that data. So, with

10:47Sidekick app extensions, we solved that

10:48problem. Right? What we enable app

10:50developers to do

10:51um is to implement um you know, one or

10:54two of two extensions. One is a data

10:55extension and the other is an action

10:57extension. Um let's start with a data

10:59extension first. The data extension is

11:00basically a way to answer questions that

11:03a merchant might have about your app

11:05that involve giving back data. So, if we

11:06if we go with example about like, "Hey,

11:08I use some

11:10third-party app for email like Klaviyo

11:12or Seguno or some other." Um I could ask

11:14a question like, "Hey, Sidekick, tell me

11:16how my last campaign called Spring Promo

11:21um went." And

11:23it would then basically figure out,

11:24"Okay, like you probably want to invoke

11:26your app that does um campaigns." Um it

11:29would tell you like, "Hey, we're

11:31searching this app uh as the merchant.

11:34That app would then be passed that

11:36context and it would respond back with

11:38that information and tell you like hey,

11:39the campaign was sent to a million

11:41people. There were 200,000 opens, you

11:44know, whatever, 100,000 clicks

11:47and and these number of purchased. And

11:49so now all that information of the app

11:51becomes available

11:53to the merchant in a really seamless

11:54manner.

11:55>> Okay, yeah, that sounds interesting. So

11:57basically as the app developer, I would

11:58have to create my own API endpoints for

12:01Sidekick to request the data in real

12:03time.

12:04>> Yeah, so basically you create an

12:06extension like you would any other

12:07extension if you're building a checkout

12:09like, you know, it's it's our kind of

12:10same extension

12:11mechanism.

12:13You define a set of routes

12:15that and then for each of the routes

12:17basically what you you tell us in like

12:20in English the description of what is

12:22what that route will solve.

12:25And so you might have a search campaigns

12:27endpoint, you know, routes. You might

12:28have a get campaigns detail endpoint,

12:30things of that nature. So you define all

12:32these basically routes. You tell us what

12:35they do and then we're the ones doing

12:36the orchestration to figure out what to

12:38invoke. Yeah.

12:40>> Yeah, that's that's actually amazing.

12:41Especially the natural language part

12:43because then you don't have to follow

12:43like a super rigid protocol. You can

12:45just describe what it is in plain

12:47language. That's awesome. And hopefully

12:48it also speaks all languages but I think

12:50English might still be the best.

12:51>> Yeah.

12:52>> No, this this is really cool. And also

12:54if you already have an app and you have

12:55something like an analytics page or

12:57similar, most of the queries will

12:59already be implemented on your server

13:00side and then you can just build on this

13:01new API. That's amazing

13:03>> That's exactly right. Yeah,

13:05exactly right. But from a developer

13:06standpoint, the thing I've heard

13:07speaking we've had many developers

13:09who've already implemented it kind of

13:10prior to going GA and they said it was

13:12super simple because like hey, I just

13:14write the extensions. I I, you know,

13:16have the routes and then I'm just

13:17pointing at at existing things that my

13:19app already has.

13:20>> And this is this is only limited to text

13:22data because I mean on my app I could

13:24also maybe display a product or a

13:26similar, right? Is this Is this also

13:28possible in like do we have maybe like

13:30React-based components that are

13:31available in this chat or similar?

13:33>> Yeah, so so we talked about data

13:35extensions, which is again data.

13:38And then we also have action extensions,

13:39so I can action extensions. And what

13:41Sidekick action extensions enable

13:43developers to do is to basically load up

13:47a part of their app.

13:50You know, with it potentially pre-filled

13:52and ready to go for the merchant to

13:53execute some action. So, if we if we

13:56stick with our email example, let's say

13:58a merchant comes into Sidekick and says,

14:00"Hey, I'd like to go and create

14:03a new campaign or a new transactional

14:05mail

14:06using my my email provider or like

14:09Seguno, let's say."

14:11Again, Sidekick interprets that, figures

14:13out, "Okay, hang on. This developer has

14:16registered an action extension. Oh,

14:17okay, it's the create campaign one."

14:20>> [snorts]

14:20>> We would pre-fill it as best we could

14:23based on the data we have from the

14:24developer. And then we don't we don't

14:27actually execute the action on behalf of

14:28the merchant. It's actually very

14:29important that we really insist that for

14:32anything that is not read but is

14:34potentially doing mutations or creating

14:36things, that the merchant is in the

14:38loop. And so we stage everything, but

14:40the merchant will then go and like say,

14:42"Okay, like send." Or whatever it is. Or

14:44create.

14:45>> Yes, okay, that makes sense. Not no YOLO

14:47mode yet for Sidekick.

14:48>> No YOLO mode for Sidekick, yeah.

14:50>> Okay, got it.

14:51>> [snorts]

14:51>> Okay, then yeah, okay, this is Sidekick.

14:53Um

14:55Now off to the theme of this year's

14:59Shopify edition. Some people would have

15:00led with that topic, not on this

15:02channel.

15:03Um so, it is everywhere because on the

15:06website it states the way that merchants

15:08are shopping and where they find

15:09products is multiplying.

15:11And I have to imagine this is part of an

15:12evolution we've seen for like many years

15:14now. It started with single channel

15:16where you had your online store in the

15:17past. And then you had multi-channel

15:18online store, maybe Facebook

15:19Marketplace. Then you had omni-channel,

15:21maybe like five market places, POS, B2B

15:24online store.

15:25And now we have a bunch of new channels

15:26with AI. Is that where it's like coming

15:28from?

15:29>> Exactly right. Yeah, it's exactly right.

15:30So like, you know, one of the obviously

15:33the big new set of channels is

15:36agentic channels. Think ChatGPT, Claude,

15:38and others.

15:40But we also see this like

15:42going back to our paradigm, like this

15:43renaissance of new channels and new

15:46consumer experiences that we think are

15:48going to come to light because of these

15:50new capabilities.

15:51And so we we we've got a whole bunch of

15:53things that are tailored to that, one of

15:54which is our catalog API, which which

15:56has gotten a lot better over the recent

15:58weeks and months. Um to help enable

16:00these new these new use cases.

16:02>> Okay, yeah, awesome that you're making

16:04this transition already because these

16:05would have been my next two topics,

16:06catalog API and UCP.

16:08>> Yep.

16:09>> Um I think they kind of go hand in hand,

16:10but here we also have to catch up the

16:11audience a bit. So catalog API, from my

16:14understanding, is basically a huge API

16:17listing all the Shopify products across

16:19millions of stores, make it searchable.

16:21Is that roughly correct?

16:23>> Yep. It's exactly correct. So um it is

16:25it is millions of Shopify merchants,

16:27billions of products

16:29um that are searchable through a single

16:30search endpoint. Um it is search that uh

16:34I I like we think is quite good in terms

16:35of being able to just ask it questions

16:37of like, "Hey, you know, find me all

16:40like where I'm into like pizza making a

16:41lot. Uh find me all pizza ovens that

16:44will fit two pizzas." And it will come

16:45back with answers for you.

16:47Um we also do a lot of things of like

16:49helping to cluster results. So be like,

16:51"Hey, this is a a product a unique

16:55product that is being sold

16:57uh like a UPI

16:58um universal product indicator, and then

17:00here all the like offers behind that

17:03that canonical product." Um

17:06>> Okay, so it so it could almost be like a

17:07price comparison even that case, right?

17:09If it's like a like a branded product,

17:11and then people see the different

17:12offers. Interesting.

17:13>> Yeah. Yeah.

17:14>> Okay, I haven't Yeah, I haven't thought

17:15about it way yet. Um okay, but can you

17:17also like as a developer, can you filter

17:19this these results? For example, if you

17:21only want pizza ovens in Germany, for

17:22example, right? Because US shipping

17:23might be difficult for me. Uh, are there

17:26other capabilities?

17:27>> Yeah, you can do exactly like yeah, so

17:28filter like that you can definitely do

17:29like, "Hey, I only want to see products

17:31that ship to Germany or I only want to

17:32see products that ship to like the US."

17:34You can do that. Um, you can also filter

17:37on price like min price, max price. Um,

17:39you can filter you you can filter things

17:41like color.

17:42Um, so so yeah, there's a whole bunch of

17:45filters and the the rationale like one

17:49of the key things that we think is

17:50interesting like why we think this is

17:52interesting is because we envision a

17:54world where people can create like very

17:56unique bespoke experiences, right? So if

17:58we continue on our our pizza example,

18:01it's [snorts] like, "Hey, like let's

18:02imagine I want to create a site for

18:03pizza making enthusiast and I want to

18:05cover like have a set of books and ovens

18:07and pizza peels and all these sort of

18:09things." I could create a catalog,

18:12define a catalog in the dev dashboard

18:14that that basically

18:16narrows down to a set of shops and a set

18:18of search terms for that, even price

18:21range perhaps, even perhaps like

18:22shipping constraints and then build a

18:25consumer experience on that. Um,

18:27and and that's that we think that's

18:28quite unique. Um,

18:29yeah.

18:31>> Yeah, it sounds awesome. Especially like

18:32in the era of AI, you can now spin up

18:34quick websites, quick apps. So I think

18:35it's going to be used a lot.

18:37And [snorts]

18:38yeah, this also gets me to the second

18:39half of it, UCP, because okay, catalog

18:42is one thing, you have all the products

18:43sortable, listed all the data. But UCP

18:46from my understanding is an open

18:47protocol co-built by [snorts] yeah,

18:49Shopify and Google which basically

18:51allows the agents to also build carts,

18:54lead them to check out.

18:56Correct until here? Do you can you fill

18:58in the blanks a little bit?

18:59>> Yeah, yeah, that's right. You you've got

19:01a lot of it. So yeah, UCP, uh, Universal

19:03Commerce Protocol,

19:04um,

19:05which was developed by Google, Shopify,

19:07Wayfair and many others and it has

19:09participation from many others. Um, is

19:12designed to be like the lingua franca,

19:14if you will, of commerce. Um, and so

19:16every storefront that,

19:19um, that implements UCP, today all of

19:21all Shopify stores de facto support UCP,

19:24um, will have that ability to, um, to,

19:29you know, to basically be introspected

19:30and to create a card on it from it and

19:32then do a handoff to a a checkout on on

19:35that, um,

19:36on that merchant site. And so what this

19:38enables uh, folks to do is now I can

19:42agentically, right? Well, I can go query

19:44the Shopify catalog, we offer that

19:46uniquely, but then I can go, um, and

19:49introspect and for anybody that merchant

19:52that supports, um, UCP, um, I can go and

19:55build a card from it, um,

19:57add all the line items, um,

20:00you know, give it give it context, and

20:01that will basically return a card to me

20:04as the agent, um, and then also a a URL

20:08where I can go and continue with that

20:10checkout. Um, and so if you kind of

20:12continue on that example now, I could

20:13actually have products from other

20:15merchants beyond your Shopify ones, and

20:17as long as they speak UCP, as long as

20:19merchants speak UCP, you can then

20:20assemble cards that could get handed off

20:23to those merchants and do that all

20:24within one experience.

20:26>> Okay, I see. Yeah, that's that's really

20:27the beauty of an open protocol, I I

20:29assume.

20:30>> Yeah.

20:30>> Uh, it's the whole point, I guess. And

20:32um, yeah, okay, I mean there are

20:32probably still some challenges around

20:34this, like what if you have mixed cards

20:35from different stores, and then there's

20:37going to be shipping and everything,

20:38right? So

20:40that's something I would need to take

20:41care of in my application, pretty much,

20:42right?

20:43>> Correct, yeah. Yeah, so so I I I think

20:44like, you know, like this is kind of the

20:46the the the early version of it that

20:47enable this like sort of agentic

20:49shopping across many merchants. Uh,

20:51there are still

20:53additional parts that have to be sorted

20:54out.

20:55>> Yeah, sure, but I mean you're you're

20:56basically facilitating the

20:57infrastructure, and then what I build

20:58with it is is kind of upon me, right?

21:00>> Exactly.

21:02>> Okay, that makes sense. Um, then also in

21:04terms of building tools, I saw Shopify

21:06has sort of this UCP CLI. I mean CLI is

21:09always like developer tooling, but what

21:11is that or what does that allow me to

21:12do?

21:13>> Yeah, so UCP CLI just makes it really

21:16easy to do these sort of things, right?

21:18So, again, like

21:20all Shopify shops support UCP.

21:24Uh many other many other folks that are

21:25participating in the protocol, their

21:27shops will also be supporting UCP. Um

21:29and so it's a CLI that enables you to do

21:31a a bunch of things. So, first is you

21:32can search our catalog completely

21:33unauthenticated. You can just you say,

21:35"Hey, again, going back to our search,

21:37you from the command line you can go and

21:39search for like uh pizza ovens that fit

21:41two pizzas.

21:42Um

21:43you can give it all the context

21:45filtering that you want, and then it'll

21:46return a set of results.

21:48Um

21:49you can the um

21:52the CLI will enable you to create carts.

21:54You're like, "Hey, I want to create a

21:55cart for this chosen merchant that I

21:57have." You can go and add line items to

21:59it.

22:00Again, it's that context, and when you

22:02create that cart from the CLI, it will

22:04give you back a URL. So, it makes it

22:06really easy as a developer to get

22:08started with UCP, right? Because it's

22:10like, "Okay, I don't need to build all

22:13of the tooling to go and introspect

22:15these things." Think of it almost like,

22:17you know, you think about HTTP, you have

22:18a browser, right? And the browser is

22:20actually implementing HTTP to go and

22:22talk to other servers. The CLI is doing

22:25all that plumbing to help you as an

22:27agent talk to these sites that that

22:29speak UCP.

22:30>> Okay, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I

22:31also need to play around a lot more with

22:33these things because it's actually quite

22:34interesting, and the use cases are

22:36pretty broad.

22:37Um so, I have to imagine like a lot of

22:38app developers with uh chat apps,

22:40support apps, search engine-based things

22:43are going to use this a lot, I have to

22:44imagine.

22:44>> Yeah. Yeah, like you say, "Hey, I want

22:46to go build again in our example, I want

22:47to go build an agentic experience to

22:49help you search for like pizza-related

22:50things." You can go and you can go and

22:52implement this.

22:53>> Yes. Agentic commerce, I keep hearing

22:55this more and more. I mean, it's kind of

22:56like a new emerging topic. It's super

22:58interesting for merchants as well. Do we

23:00already have data on whether buyers are

23:04using like do we see Shopify sales

23:05coming through such

23:07through chat GPT through other agents

23:09too? Is that something we can measure?

23:11>> Uh yes, 100%. So we like something that

23:13we talked about in our last earnings

23:14call publicly. We didn't

23:16it is how much of an increase we've seen

23:18year-over-year in terms of sales that

23:21are happening from a generative channel.

23:22So absolutely it's happening and I think

23:24that like you know

23:26like commerce is I think uniquely suited

23:28in a lot of ways to to a generative

23:30channels, right? Because you have this

23:32ability now to discover products in a

23:34way that would probably hard before,

23:36right? Cuz like now you can be like you

23:38can get into a chat session on say chat

23:41GPT or on Gemini and have a conversation

23:44of like hey, I'm looking for this thing

23:45that will help me cook, you know, pizzas

23:48like from multiple pizzas at a time and

23:51and that sort of thing might have been

23:52hard before like oh, you know, do you

23:53want a gas-powered? Do you want a

23:54wood-fired? You know, a whole bunch of

23:57questions that it might have and now you

23:59can really hone in and then once you

24:01have found it, you just get deep linked

24:02directly to the product and you're ready

24:04to buy.

24:05>> Okay, yeah, because also when I think

24:07about agentic commerce sometimes I think

24:08about fully autonomous shopping which I

24:11wouldn't probably trust for the pizza

24:12oven, but maybe for a USB cable, right?

24:14It's commodity product. You just buy

24:15one, right? It's

24:17the financial risk

24:18>> Yeah.

24:18>> relatively low. Okay, but interesting.

24:20But I mean the the other side of it is

24:22of course building the cards UCP having

24:24my own app for that. No, that's really

24:25cool.

24:26Okay, I think we already covered quite a

24:28few topics, interesting topics

24:30>> Um

24:30>> that I was also personally super

24:31interested in because I didn't have so

24:32much time to research everything yet. So

24:34we covered the UCP product catalog, we

24:36covered sidekick app extensions, we

24:37covered the new webhooks. And I actually

24:40have so many other questions for you to

24:42ask but

24:43or to ask to you. But we also wanted to

24:45limit this to Shopify editions. So are

24:46there any other updates developers

24:48should be aware of? Anything I've been

24:49missing? Were these the highlights? What

24:51do you think?

24:52>> Yeah, I mean I think we we covered a lot

24:54for sure. Other directions we can we can

24:56talk about are static apps

24:59which we enable with like no where you

25:01can basically host apps fully on Shopify

25:04or or Shopify pressing. So so whatever

25:05direction you want to go in with it on.

25:07>> Uh yes, static apps is great. Good that

25:09you bring that up. Um this has been in

25:11the talks for a while I think. What do

25:13you think? Is it going to Is it going to

25:15cost us? How much is the hosting? How

25:17does it work?

25:18>> Yeah.

25:19Um yeah, so uh it is currently free of

25:21charge. Um so um

25:25let's talk about the use case and like

25:26why why we did this. So we've had admin

25:29extensions. We have um a number of

25:32extensions around the admin that enable

25:34you to kind of configure things.

25:36Um but one of the use cases that we

25:38There are many use cases where you're

25:40like, "Hey, I'm building some kind of

25:42function, right?" Or I'm building some

25:43sort of customization where I need to

25:46give them, you know, a merchant the

25:48ability to go and customize it, right?

25:49So let's let's actually take functions

25:51where it's like, "Hey, uh you know,

25:53maybe it's a discounting scenario where

25:55it's like, 'Hey,

25:56I'm an agency building a custom

25:58discounting for a merchant and there's a

26:00few toggles and configuration that would

26:02be available um in that instance,

26:04right?' So maybe it's like, you know, a

26:06volume-based thing or something or

26:07something of that nature." So in today's

26:09world,

26:11you know, in this use case, an agency or

26:13or sorry, prior, an agency would have to

26:15basically build this app and then likely

26:19host an

26:20host a server that will run an iframe as

26:23the main embedded app to go and do this

26:24configuration. Um static apps eliminates

26:27all that because now with a static app,

26:29um

26:30we give you the ability to have an app

26:32home um that is powered by Shopify's um

26:35UI extensions. And it basically supports

26:37all the components that a menu UI

26:38extension supports. It supports direct

26:39API access. Um and so it just And now

26:43you can take this app HTML, CSS,

26:46JavaScript, even images, we allow you to

26:48to host like static assets.

26:50Um and you can ship it to Shopify and

26:51we'll we fully host and run that app.

26:54Um, and we think it's going to be

26:55uniquely good for the scenarios that I

26:57just spoke about, like with agencies,

26:58where it's like, "Hey, you know, I want

27:00to go build this thing for the merchant,

27:01but I don't want to have to like,

27:02you know, maintain a server like

27:04basically forever,

27:06um, for this like what is a fairly

27:08simple configuration." So, that's

27:10basically, um, static apps in a nutshell

27:11and why why we built it.

27:13>> Okay, so it's so it's more like whole

27:15being able to host

27:17app configuration pages.

27:19>> Yeah. [snorts]

27:20Yeah, I mean, think about like, I mean,

27:21I think you like like that is a use

27:23case. I think there are other use cases,

27:24like configuration pages could be one.

27:26>> [snorts]

27:26>> Uh, like, you know, there could be other

27:28use cases where, you know, maybe I have

27:31a simple editor that I want to give to

27:33merchants to add metadata to products,

27:35right? And I but I want to happen

27:37through a bespoke editor, and then it's

27:38it's hitting a meta field that I'm going

27:39to save on the product, but I I just

27:40prefer to do it through a bespoke editor

27:41because that's what I have. Okay, great.

27:44Hey, that sort of, again, maybe you can

27:46call it configuration, but that sort of

27:47app, um, can now just live fully on

27:50Shopify, merchant gets to use it, and

27:53the agency doesn't have to worry about

27:54like maintaining something and running

27:56something forever.

27:57>> Okay, no, this is really cool. Also,

27:58when I was summarizing it, I I I didn't

27:59want to play it down. I mean, this is

28:01huge because common problem. I was just

28:03like trying to see if I get it right.

28:05>> Yeah.

28:06>> Uh, no, this is really cool. Um, any

28:08other updates from Editions that are

28:09that are coming to mind?

28:11>> Um, Shopify app pricing, um, is is is

28:14another big update.

28:16>> Okay, what is it?

28:17>> What is it? Um, so,

28:20um,

28:22prior to this, we had, um, the billing

28:24API. Um, the billing API was like fairly

28:28simplistic, um, because it was basically

28:30like a credit and debit mechanism.

28:32Um, and as a result of it, it despite

28:35its like it had good power, uh, but it

28:37would very often create, um, opaque

28:39pricing situations for merchants.

28:41Because, let's say you have an app, and

28:43your app has a monthly recurring in of

28:45whatever, 19 bucks a month, And then you

28:47also have some usage-based fees Uh, um,

28:50that

28:51that that that that that your app is

28:52charging. Like maybe you're again you're

28:53doing email scenarios, and so you're

28:55charging per thousand emails sent or per

28:57thousand SMS sent, which is done on a

28:59usage basis.

29:01With the old billing API,

29:04um that all the usage-based stuff in

29:06particular was quite opaque to merchants

29:09because they wouldn't have an

29:10understanding of what um

29:13of all of of of of of all of all of all

29:14the charges happening.

29:15Which our flat pricing, we basically

29:17took the managed pricing that we already

29:19had, which is which does monthly

29:20recurring charges, and we added a

29:22usage-based

29:24component to it. So now what happens is

29:26a

29:27developer partner will set up their

29:29meters in the partner dashboard and say,

29:31"Hey, I have a meter for emails sent. I

29:34have a meter for SMS sent. And here is

29:36how I charge for those meters." Right?

29:39So again, per thousand emails, I'm

29:41charging 10 cents. Per thousand SMS, I'm

29:43charging 20 cents.

29:45All that information is then displayed

29:47properly on the app store page.

29:50Um and so we we we take all the

29:52information, and then it also cascades

29:54down into the install experience um and

29:56and and beyond.

29:57>> [snorts]

29:58>> Then at runtime, the developer is

30:01incrementing those meters using our app

30:03like using our app event API, not to be

30:06confused with events, but our app event

30:07API allows [snorts] them to increment

30:10those meters for the shop and say,

30:11"Okay, this shop just consumed this

30:14number of emails sent."

30:16We then aggregate all that information

30:19um

30:20and produce

30:21a a monthly bill for the merchant where

30:23we can then show them, "Okay, here's

30:25exactly how it breaks down for emails

30:27you sent, SMSs you you sent, and your

30:30monthly recurring charge." So um

30:33it makes it way simpler for developers

30:35to build the pricing they want, and then

30:37it makes it way better for merchants who

30:40have the transparency

30:41>> [snorts]

30:42>> um into how they're

30:44into how they're getting charged.

30:45>> Okay, I feel this this is really cool.

30:48So I imagine this sort of like the usage

30:50page on my AI tool of choice. I'm not

30:52sure if we can cross-reference other

30:53brands.

30:54>> Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

30:55>> But it shows me like tokens used per

30:57month, right? Tokens per week. And I

30:59kind of imagine like this SMS sent this

31:01month, email sent this month, whatever

31:03it might be.

31:04And then you get like the full breakdown

31:05and price transparency if you want.

31:07>> Exactly.

31:09>> Awesome. I don't have anything in chat,

31:10but

31:11>> Nice. All right, cool.

31:12>> Cool.

31:13>> [clears throat]

31:13>> Yeah, looking at the clock here, we've

31:14been talking for about half an hour,

31:16which was also the the aim time.

31:18Um so if you don't have any other like

31:20super urgent topics, I think we covered

31:22a lot for one podcast, and I would like

31:24let people digest it and then ask

31:26questions if they have some.

31:27Um but otherwise, I would like thank you

31:29so much for your time. Thank you for

31:31elaborating everything. I think you're

31:32like one of the best partners to

31:34interview about these technical topics.

31:36Um so yeah, really appreciate you taking

31:37the time.

31:38>> Thank you, Jan. This was awesome. Always

31:40wonderful to chat with you. And and so

31:41thank you so much for the opportunity.

31:43>> Thanks so much.