Shopify on Wednesday announced a slew of updates as part of its Summer ’25 edition. The upgrade includes new AI-powered tools, a faster development workflow, and a partnership with Perplexity. The update positions Shopify as a more open, assistive platform for building both apps and conversational storefronts.
At the core of the launch is a next-gen development platform that simplifies everything from writing backend logic to previewing apps instantly. Developers can now code locally, define data using simple TOML files, and deploy across all Shopify plans—including Plus—without extra setup.
One can also choose to preview the app without needing to deploy it. As the company mentions, all of this was facilitated by .dev Assistant.
“We want building on Shopify to be the most modern, simple, LLM-pilled experience possible for the next generation of developers,” Eytan Seidman, director of product at Shopify, said. “Every week, it seems like coding is changing in new ways, and so we’re making Shopify the most productive platform that embraces building new things in new ways with cutting-edge tools.”
The update also introduces Shopify Catalogue, a structured index of merchant product data built for AI use. It allows apps and agents to search millions of listings and surface relevant products on any interface. Perplexity is among the first partners to plug into this pipeline.
“Assistive experiences are the future of commerce,” said Taz Patel, head of advertising and shopping at Perplexity, pointing to the value of structured, real-time data in conversational search.
The company mentions that Shopify’s Storefront MCP enables the creation of AI shopping agents tailored for specific brands. These agents can conduct product searches, answer inquiries, manage shopping carts, and process checkouts instantly with secure access to the catalogue and store data.
On the front end, Shopify is making commerce composable with Web Components that drop into any website with just a few lines of HTML and no full-stack experience required.
The company is also rolling out Horizon, a new AI-integrated theme foundation, alongside tools like .dev Assistant and a CLI that cuts down deployment to a single command and enables personalisation.OpenAI was also reportedly looking to Integrate Shopify with ChatGPT for shopping. This signals a rise in AI-powered shopping experience.
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