Upgrade Your Shopify Theme to The New Shopify Online Store 2.0
In 2020, during the pandemic a lot of businesses had to convert into online ventures and therefore Shopify alone was selected by more than 450 million. The company earned around $120 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume. Considering the amount of users, Shopify Unite introduced Shopify 2.0 which has a lot more advanced features and is easier to use as well. The company has revamped the online store completely and there are many interesting tools for the developers to make the shopping experience of customers a breeze as well.
Shopify 2.0: In Depth
In the recent years Shopify has played a huge role in the e-commerce world opening up possibilities for both big and small business owners. The company has constantly introduced features useful for the merchants and customers but now they have introduced a completely new look and experience. This update is more for the theme and app developers. It is one of its kind upgrade. In the Online Store 2.0, Merchants can easily build their stores from scratch; customize themes and integrate apps on the store.
The latest default theme, Dawn is also claimed to be 35% faster than the previous one. Moreover, the company announced to invest more in its infrastructure and developer tools. It will benefit the merchants as they would not have to go through the hassle of changing the entire platform in order to customize their storefront. Shopify’s aim with this latest revamp is to attract more developers and tech giants. Netflix was one of the first few to get access to Shopify 2.0 which resulted in the Netflix.shop.
Basically the new upgrade is empowering everyone. Following are some of the advantages that you will have from the upgrade.
Freedom to Customize Any Page
Up till now merchants could only customize the top/home page and not the rest of the pages. To add sections on other pages, a professional developer was required. So it was not very convenient from the financial point of view. However, now merchants can customize the entire website and add sections on any page they want. For shopping websites, sections are an integral part as the entire website layout depends on them. With fixed structures, like previously, website owners could not add, remove, or rearrange on any other page than the homepage. Now it can be done easily without the need of a professional shopify developer.
Theme App Extensions
The theme app extension for developers is an excellent upgrade which will allow addition of numerous features and extensions to the storefront. Previously the apps did not integrate with themes and developers had to build integration logic for every separate theme. It was inconvenient and almost impossible to introduce features compatible with every theme all across the world. However, Shopify 2.0 Theme App Extensions allow merchants to extend apps using app blocks.
App Modularity
App Modularity is another update in Shopify 2.0. In simpler words it means that the app developers would not need to access the theme’s code to add/remove UI components. Now the theme editor can be used for this purpose. It makes it easier to manage assets supported by the apps. Now the merchants can host the assets supported by the app easily on the platform.
Meta Fields Upgrading
Along with other major changes, the theme editor also allows merchants to add meta fields and properties. The process is now simpler and does not require coding or APIs. It gives freedom to the merchants to add anything they feel like on the product display page. It could be a size chart or a how to use guide. The update introduced space for additional information for the visitors. You can use meta fields to add anything which can otherwise be not added through store editor. Following are the three main changes to the meta fields.
- Higher flexibility of meta fields which allows safe import of commerce data.
- Standard meta fields highly compatible with customized themes allowing them to work uniquely across market vertical on stores.
- Presentation hints can be added to meta fields which allow data rendering.
File Picker
File picker has to be the most convenient update of them all. It allows all types of media whether in pdf file format or image format. You can simply select the media and upload it on the product page. Unlike before when proper shopify store development was required just to add pictures. You can access the media/files through the settings options and they can be used right away. The file picker makes it easier to select a file in the required UX without professional coding.
New Tools for Developers
The new Shopify Online Store 2.0 is a world of opportunities for the developers. They can easily build new themes and apps on it. The latest tools for developers help with and allow testing, developing, and building new themes. It is easier to use the Shopify CLI tool due to the integration of Shopify GitHub. These two tools enable the option of testing themes in sandbox eventually streamlining development.
Checkout Apps
Previously only Shopify plus merchants had the accessibility to change checkout options. However, in the recent upgrade shopify announced to introduce non-commercial checkout applications. It allows the nonto retailers to add additional checkout options to their store. However, only retailers have the access to completely customize it now as well.
Theme Check
Theme Check is said to be another important update for Liquid and JSON. It allows the scanning of themes for any sort of errors. After the scan, the tool identifies the most suitable practices according to the Shopify platform and the Liquid language. It also works with Visual Studio like editors and highlights if there is any issue with the code.
The developer gets an error message which links to the exact issue that arose. It helps in rightfully identifying the problems arising. Theme Check tool comes automatically with Shopify CLI and therefore the developers don’t have to install it separately.
