Shopify debuts Online Store 2.0, a major rebuild of its Liquid template language

Shopify on Tuesday announced a bevy of updates and new features that aim to make its commerce platform more customizable across the board. Key updates include the launch of Shopify Online Store 2.0, improvements to Shopify's headless commerce APIs, and new functionality for Shopify Checkout.

Shopify also announced that it's lowering its share of developer revenue across the Shopify App Store, as well as in the new Shopify Theme Store.

Shopify said Online Store 2.0 is Shopify's most significant rebuild of its Liquid template language since its inception. The completely revamped Online Store is designed to make it easier for developers to build customized features for merchant storefronts, Shopify said.

Netflix was an early access customer for Online Store 2.0 and used the platform to create Netflix.Shop, the first ever e-commerce store for Netflix.

Specific new features for Online Store 2.0 include a new editor experience that aims to make it more efficient for merchants to build their storefronts, and theme app extensions that aim to make it easier to extend and manage apps within themes. 

Shopify also introduced Dawn, its new standard for storefront theme development that the company said is 35% faster than its current default theme. Additionally, Shopify said its new Theme Store will be open for developer submissions on July 15.

Meanwhile, Shopify also unveiled significant infrastructure investments in its APIs and developer tooling that the company said are meant to ensure that a merchant never has to replatform to build headless, or customized, storefronts. Beginning July 1, Shopify's storefront API will include new cart functionality, selling plans, and localized buyer experiences and international pricing. 

Shopify also previewed Hydrogen, a framework for building customized storefronts, and Oxygen, a way to host Hydrogen storefronts directly on Shopify.

As for Shopify Checkout, the company said its payment service is now twice as fast and capable of handling seven times the volume compared to the previous version. Shopify also introduced Checkout Extensions, which let developers build apps into Shopify Checkout.

In terms of its new approach to developer revenue sharing, Shopify said it will lower its commission on app development revenue to 0% for the first $1 million an app developer makes on its platform annually, and 15% thereafter. The $1 million benchmark resets annually, meaning developers will have more earning potential each year. The company's new Theme Store will open to developers with the same 0% revenue share model.

"Shopify already powers commerce on the internet; in 2020, more than 450 million people checked out on Shopify, and we processed nearly $120 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV)," the company said in a blog post. "We're not just betting on a world full of merchants, but on a world full of developers and technical entrepreneurs. Our infrastructure updates—from Storefronts and Checkout to the Theme Store and our Partner Ecosystem—give developers and merchants even more power to create, customize, scale, and monetize on Shopify."

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