Shopify Updates: What’s new in Feb 2024

The February 2024 Shopify update has brought a plethora of significant changes and new features designed to empower developers and merchants alike. From the latest POS UI Extensions 1.6 update to the critical introduction of the Risk Assessments API, this guide dives deep into what these updates mean for your Shopify experience. 

Stay tuned as we unravel the potential of these enhancements to transform how you interact with the Shopify platform.

Shopify Update Overview

Shopify stands as a premier e-commerce platform, offering a comprehensive set of tools for businesses to launch, manage, and grow their online stores with ease. Known for its user-friendly interface, scalability, and rich ecosystem, Shopify supports merchants across the globe, from small startups to large enterprises, enabling sales across various channels.

Continually evolving, Shopify periodically introduces updates to further enrich its platform. These enhancements focus on expanding functionality, bolstering security, and improving the overall user experience, providing merchants and developers with the latest tools and features needed to thrive in the competitive e-commerce space. Each update reflects Shopify’s dedication to maintaining a secure, efficient, and adaptable platform for the digital commerce community.

Enhancements to POS UI Extensions

In February 2024, Shopify introduced significant updates to its Shopify POS UI Extensions, enhancing functionality and integration capabilities for developers and merchants. The 1.6 update includes two major features:

• BannerProps in CameraScanner: This addition allows UI extensions to display banners within the CameraScanner component, offering a new way to communicate alerts, promotions, or information directly within the scanning interface. It’s a strategic enhancement for creating more interactive and informative POS experiences.
• FetchPaginatedProductVariantsWithProductId: A new method in the ProductSearch API, enabling the fetching of product variants in paginated form. This is particularly useful for stores with a large number of variants, improving load times and the overall efficiency of product searches within the POS app.

Both updates are available with POS UI extensions version 1.6.0 and POS app version 9.2.0, marking a step forward in making the POS system more flexible and user-friendly.

Product Duplication and Metafields

The February 2024 Shopify update introduced a notable enhancement in product management: the ability to duplicate product variant metafields. This change streamlines the product duplication process, ensuring that all associated data, including variant-specific metafields, are replicated alongside the product.

This improvement significantly aids merchants and developers in managing extensive product catalogs, making the process of expanding product lines or creating similar products more efficient and error-free. By automating the duplication of detailed product information, Shopify continues to enhance the platform’s usability and functionality, allowing users to focus more on business growth and less on repetitive administrative tasks.

Shifting from Order Risk APIs to Risk Assessments API

In a strategic move to enhance the security and operational efficiency of Shopify stores, the platform announced a significant update in February 2024, focusing on the evolution of risk management tools available to merchants:

• Order Risk APIs Update: Starting April 2024, Shopify will discontinue the Order Risk APIs to make way for enhanced security measures. These APIs have helped merchants identify order risks but will no longer be available.
• New Risk Assessments API: Shopify introduces the Risk Assessments API, offering a more detailed and comprehensive analysis of order risks. This upgrade aims to improve how merchants manage and understand potential risks, ensuring better protection for their stores.

Key Features of the Risk Assessments API

• Enhanced Risk Analysis: The new API includes a mutation, orderRiskAssessmentCreate, which enables merchants to conduct in-depth risk analyses. This feature is geared towards providing a more detailed assessment, helping merchants make informed decisions.
• Real-time Updates: With the introduction of a new webhook topic, ORDERSRISKASSESSMENT_CHANGED, merchants can now receive immediate notifications about changes in the risk assessment of orders. This ensures that merchants are always informed in real-time, enhancing their ability to promptly address potential issues.

This update signifies Shopify’s ongoing dedication to enhancing platform security and merchant capabilities. By transitioning to the Risk Assessments API, merchants are equipped with a more powerful toolset to identify, assess, and mitigate risks effectively.

Updates on Customer Data Protection

Shopify latest update focuses on strengthening customer data protection. A key change is the new requirement for apps to meet Level 2 Protected Customer Data Requirements to access the `order.statusPageUrl` field in Shopify’s Admin GraphQL and REST APIs. This measure aims to enhance the security of sensitive customer information.

Key Points:

• Strict Data Protection: Access to certain customer data now requires compliance with enhanced security standards.
• Temporary but Critical: While Shopify views this as a temporary adjustment, it’s a crucial step toward better data security.
• Merchant Action Required: Merchants must ensure their apps adhere to these new requirements, with Shopify offering guidance on compliance.
• Reaffirming Security Commitment: This update underscores Shopify’s dedication to data security, building trust with consumers.

Merchants are encouraged to review their data handling practices promptly to align with these new security protocols, ensuring continued access to vital API features and maintaining a secure shopping experience for their customers.

Introduction of New APIs and Functionalities

This Shopify update brings a suite of new APIs and functionalities, marking a significant leap forward in the platform’s capabilities. These innovations are designed to provide merchants with more tools for customization, efficiency, and enhanced customer service. Here’s a snapshot of the latest additions:

• Store Credit API: Enables merchants to manage store credits more efficiently, directly linking credits to customers for improved service and loyalty.
• OAuth2 Token Exchange and Managed Installation: Simplifies app integration, reducing load times and eliminating full-page redirects for a smoother setup process.
• Cart and Checkout Validation: Allows merchants to set validation rules for carts and checkouts, optimizing the checkout process and minimizing cart abandonment.
• Enhanced Checkout Branding: Offers expanded customization options for checkout, including container styles, to align with brand aesthetics.
• Customer Behavior Analytics: Introduces the ability to track customer interactions through DOM events, providing insights for targeted marketing and website improvements.
• AI-Powered Guided Search: Enhances app discovery in the Shopify App Store with an AI tool that supports natural language queries, helping merchants find suitable apps more effectively.
• Theme Check 2.0: Upgrades theme development tools for consistency across platforms, improving development efficiency and code quality.

Developer Tools and Resources

Shopify’s February update introduces several key enhancements to its developer tools and resources, streamlining the development process and providing advanced capabilities:

• Theme Check 2.0: Offers improved consistency across Shopify’s development environments with new features like hover documentation, code completion, and enhanced auto-closing pairs for a smoother theme development experience.
• Hydrogen and Oxygen Updates: Enhancements include new debugging tools, CLI deploy commands, end-to-end testing support, and runtime mirroring, making it easier to build and optimize custom storefronts.
• GraphQL API Support for 2000 Variants: Allows for more complex product catalogs by supporting up to 2000 variants, enabling detailed product management.
• Checkout Sheet Kit for Mobile Apps: Now generally available for Android, React Native, and Swift, this kit integrates Shopify’s checkout into mobile apps, enhancing the mobile shopping experience.
• Improved App Configuration Deployment: Via the Shopify CLI, developers can now deploy app configurations and extensions more efficiently, with added versioning and rollback capabilities.

This Shopify update empowers developers with the tools and resources needed to create more efficient, engaging, and high-performing applications and themes, enhancing the overall Shopify ecosystem.

Security and Compliance Updates

This include crucial security and compliance enhancements to ensure a safer and more reliable platform for merchants and customers:

• Customer Privacy API on Hydrogen & Oxygen: Integration with Hydrogen allows for better compliance with data protection laws, ensuring customer consent is managed effectively across Shopify services.
• Compliance Topic Subscriptions: Merchants can now subscribe to compliance topics using their app’s TOML configuration file, enhancing the ability to stay updated with compliance requirements through PubSub or Eventbridge URIs.

These updates demonstrate Shopify’s ongoing commitment to security and compliance, offering merchants advanced tools to protect customer data and adhere to legal standards, thereby fostering a secure and trustworthy shopping environment.

Anticipated Changes and Required Actions

Shopify’s February 2024 updates signal important anticipated changes that require merchants and developers to take specific actions to stay aligned with new platform standards and capabilities:

• IPv6 Adoption for Storefront Domains: Merchants and partners are encouraged to prepare for IPv6 compatibility by updating their third-party tools and firewall rules to allow traffic for the specified IPv6 ranges. This preparation is crucial for ensuring seamless connectivity and security as Shopify transitions to support IPv6 on storefront domains.
• Scheduled Changes to Inventory API: The introduction of Scheduled Changes for inventory quantities necessitates merchants to familiarize themselves with the new inventorySetScheduledChanges mutation. This feature allows for better planning and management of inventory transitions, offering a strategic advantage in stock handling and forecasting.

Taking proactive steps towards these changes will ensure that Shopify stores remain operational, secure, and competitive, leveraging the latest platform enhancements for improved performance and customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Shopify’s February 2024 updates represent a significant leap forward for the platform, offering a wide array of enhancements designed to bolster security, improve functionality, and streamline the development process. From the introduction of new APIs and functionalities that promise to enrich the merchant and customer experience, to crucial security and compliance upgrades ensuring a safer e-commerce environment, Shopify continues to demonstrate its commitment to supporting its diverse user base.

By staying informed and taking the necessary actions in response to these updates, merchants and developers can leverage the full potential of Shopify’s evolving ecosystem. As we move forward, it’s clear that Shopify’s dedication to innovation and user-centric improvements will continue to shape the future of e-commerce, making it an exciting time for anyone involved in the digital commerce space.