Updated September 2026
Shopify publishes its product updates twice a year as an Edition. Winter '25, released in December 2024, called itself the Boring Edition: more than 150 updates with the tagline "Nothing new, everything improved." Instead of big launches, it made existing things faster and more capable.
That also makes it one of the more useful editions to look back on, because most of what it shipped is now simply part of how Shopify works. Here are the updates that matter most for a typical store, and what to do with each today.
1. Faster cart and checkout
Shopify said cart loading got up to 50% faster, and accelerated checkout buttons such as Shop Pay, Apple Pay and PayPal load up to 58.8% faster on product pages, with support for bundles and Shopify Functions.
What to do: nothing to switch on, but it's a good reason to make sure accelerated checkout buttons are showing on your product pages. Our guide to Apple Pay on Shopify covers where they appear and how to turn them on.
2. Subscriptions managed from the product page
- Edit subscriptions inline: add, edit or remove subscriptions from the product page in the admin, not only in the Shopify Subscriptions app.
- Oversell protection: Shopify Subscriptions respects your inventory settings on renewals, so it won't create orders for products that are out of stock.
- Buy X Get Y for subscriptions: for example, a free gift when someone subscribes.
3. Smarter search and collections
- With Shopify Search & Discovery, choose whether parent or child products from combined listings appear in search and recommendations.
- Build smart collections from Shopify's product taxonomy attributes, such as color or material.
- Add your own metafields to specific product categories, extending the standard attributes.
What to do: if you haven't set product categories and their attributes, start there. They power collections, filters and, increasingly, how AI assistants understand your products. See what to know before you set smart collection conditions.
4. More app-based automatic discounts
The limit on app-based automatic discounts (those built with Shopify Functions) went from 5 to 25, so stores using discount apps can run more promotions at once.
5. A tidier theme editor
The theme editor got a more compact settings sidebar, making it quicker to find a setting. Metaobjects, such as featured reviews, also became available anywhere in your theme through the dynamic source picker.
6. Markets, Sidekick, new analytics
Three bigger pieces started rolling out with this edition: Markets for every merchant (custom experiences for retail, B2B and international buyers), Sidekick, Shopify's AI assistant in the admin, in English, and the new analytics with customizable metrics and dimensions.
7. Customer account extensions
Apps can now add features to customer accounts without code, the same way they extend checkout: order management, returns, subscriptions and more.
8. Checkout Blocks on more pages
Every plan can make simple customizations to the thank you and order status pages with Shopify's free Checkout Blocks app, no coding needed. For more on what you can change, see how to customize the checkout page.
9. Shopify POS
- Offline payments: take in-person card payments even when your network is down; they're processed when the POS is back online.
- Bundles on POS: Shopify Bundles can be sold in store.
- Tap to Pay: now on Android as well as iPhone, in more countries.
What this means for you
The Boring Edition's lesson is a good one: most store improvements aren't new features, they're the existing ones working better. Faster checkout, cleaner product data and subscriptions that don't oversell help every sale without anyone noticing.
For what came next, read our take on Shopify Summer Edition '25. Shopify's full Winter '25 Edition lists every update. If you'd like help putting any of this to work on your store, talk to us.