Welcome Back to The Ecom Edge!
Ep 12: Shopify Just Leveled Up + Webinar + Dad Jokes

👋 Hey Friend,

Whether you're beach-side or cart-side, welcome to Ecom Edge, Episode 12.

This week Shopify dropped its Summer ’25 Edition (codename “Horizons”) with over 150 new features and updates – basically an entire toolbox of goodies for us.

If you felt a slight tremor in the ecom world, that was every Shopify merchant and agency screaming with joy.

In today’s newsletter, we’re doing a fun, friendly (and slightly cheeky 😜) deep dive into the biggest announcements, the underrated gems, and how these changes can make your life easier.

By the end, you’ll know exactly how to leverage Shopify’s new superpowers to wow first-time visitors and keep loyal customers coming back for more.

Let’s dive in 🤘🏻

🎨 Design Freedom with Horizon Theme & AI Magic

Meet Horizon, Shopify’s brand-new theme foundation that’s equal parts beautiful and flexible. Horizon isn’t just one theme – it’s a collection of 10 free theme presets designed to convert across different industries.

Think of these as gorgeous starting points (fashion, electronics, beauty, etc.), all sharing a modern, high-converting DNA. You can effortlessly mix and match sections with reusable Theme Blocks, and even copy-paste sections between pages to reuse designs without starting from scratch.

In short, you “don’t have to be a dev” to build a stunning storefront that fits your brand – code if you want to, but you certainly don’t need to.

What really takes Horizon into the stratosphere is the built-in Shopify Magic (AI). Instead of fiddling with code or hiring a pricey designer, just describe what you want and let Shopify build it for you.

Need a chic “holiday sale banner” or a “summer vibes landing page”?

Just say so. 

Horizon’s AI Block Generator will whip it up on the spot.

For new store owners or anyone doing a seasonal refresh, the AI Store Builder can even generate entire custom themes and layouts from a few keywords about your brand. It’s like having a creative director on demand, 24/7.

Why it matters: 

Shopify is closing the gap between design flexibility and ease of use. You get total creative control without the usual bottlenecks, meaning you can experiment with your site’s look and feel whenever inspiration strikes. Want to test a new homepage for first-time visitors? Go for it. Horizon lets you do it in minutes, not weeks. And because these themes are optimized for speed and conversions out of the box, you won’t sacrifice performance for style.

🤖 AI Sidekicks & Shopping Chats

Remember Shopify Sidekick, your friendly AI assistant living in the admin? Well, it just had a major glow-up. Sidekick leveled up its IQ and now tackles more complex questions and multi-step problems without breaking a sweat.

It connects deeper into your store data to find root causes behind trends.

Got a weird sales spike overnight? Ask Sidekick why and it will dig through products, campaigns, and even customer behavior to give you insights, not just data.

It’s like having a data analyst on call – one who also speaks 20 languages now!

One of the coolest new Sidekick tricks: visual and voice interaction. You can literally talk to Sidekick (yes, with your voice) and even screenshare with it to point out an issue.

And get this – it can now generate slick images on the fly inside your admin. Need a quick promotional image or a mockup? Sidekick’s got you. Busy merchants can ask on mobile, use voice notes, whatever – Sidekick meets you where you are.

Meanwhile, Shopify is looking ahead to the age of AI shopping assistants. They introduced a new Knowledge Base app that lets you feed information about your products and brand to AI chatbots. Why? So that when a shopper asks an AI (think of services like ChatGPT or shopping assistants in search engines or the Shop app) “What’s the best running shoe for long distance?”, the AI can answer with your product and actually get the facts right. You basically train the AI on your store’s info, ensuring your brand story and product details are accurately represented. This is huge for first-time visitors who might be asking questions via chat – you want the robots giving them spot-on answers about your offerings!

Why it matters: 

AI is moving from a novelty to a necessity in ecommerce. Sidekick’s improvements mean it’s becoming a daily-use tool for busy merchants, handling everything from analytics to creative tasks. That frees up your time to focus on big-picture strategy (or, you know, finally taking a day off 😅). And with the Knowledge Base, you retain control of your brand voice even in AI-driven chats – super important as more shoppers rely on voice assistants and chatbots to shop. Your brand, your rules, even when an algorithm is doing the talking.

🎯 Marketing & Personalization: Converting Newbies and Rewarding Regulars

This Edition brought some marketing magic that every merchant and ecom manager will love.

The headline here: One discount code to rule them all.

Finally, you can run a single discount code that applies to products, shipping, and order-level promotions simultaneously.

🎉 No more “Use SAVE10 for 10% off and FREESHIP for free shipping” confusion – one code can do it all.

This is especially handy for welcoming new customers (e.g. “WELCOME10” giving 10% off and free first-time shipping in one go) and for loyalty perks to VIPs. Simplified promos = higher redemption and happier customers.

Shopify also launched a new Campaigns tool to track marketing performance across channels.

If you’re spreading your efforts on Facebook, email, Google, etc., this tool will help aggregate results so you can double down on what’s working. And for those working with influencers or content creators, there’s a revamped Shopify Collabs mobile app with better ways to recruit creators and even target them via the Shopify App Store (they want to connect brands with the right influencers easily).

Oh, and let’s not forget our friend Shop App – Shopify’s consumer shopping app.

It’s becoming a powerhouse for discovery and loyalty. Now, the Shop app feed is dynamic and personalized in real-time (it’s like TikTok’s For You page, but for shopping). As buyers browse, they’ll see ever-more relevant product recommendations that feel magically on-point.

Customers can build and share wish lists/collections with friends, which is basically free word-of-mouth when a returning customer raves about your products. And for consistency, product pages in Shop app now mirror your online store’s style (with variant swatches, etc.).

Bonus: Store credit now works in the Shop app too, meaning if you issue a refund or loyalty credit, shoppers can apply it during mobile checkout seamlessly.

The Shop app is quietly turning into a key sales and retention channel – something loyal customers will use to follow your brand (so keep your Shop profile updated!).

Why it matters: 

Shopify is arming us with enterprise-grade marketing tools without the enterprise budget. Unified discount codes reduce friction for new customer conversion and repeat purchases (no more “can I stack coupons?” issues). Pre-built segments and automations let you act on customer data quickly – so first-time buyers get nurtured, and repeat ones feel the love, without you crunching CSV files for hours.

It’s all about connecting data and personalization in a simple way, giving lean teams the capabilities that big CRM systems have. And by improving Shop app and mobile experience, Shopify is nudging merchants to think about lifetime value: engage customers through an app they already use for easy re-orders, updates, and tracking. A first-time visitor might find you via Shop app discovery, and a returning customer might buy again because they saw your new collection in that same app – either way, Shopify’s making sure no potential sale slips through the cracks.

💎 Hidden Gems: 5 Underrated Features You Shouldn’t Miss

With 150+ updates, some great features didn’t make the front-page news. Here are five sleeper hits from Summer ’25 Editions that deserve your attention:

• Store Credit Everywhere: Shopify now supports store credit as a native payment/refund method across online store, POS, and even the Shop app. This means you can issue customers store credit (for returns, loyalty rewards, referrals) and they can seamlessly spend it anywhere. No more juggling dozens of one-time coupon codes – store credit keeps it simple and encourages repeat business.
  
  

• Subscription & Pre-order Editing: Merchants with subscriptions, rejoice! You can now edit line items on subscription or pre-order orders (change quantities, add/remove items, apply discounts) before they’re fulfilled. This was a huge pain point – previously, any post-purchase change meant canceling and recreating an order or other hacks. Now you can accommodate customer requests or fix mistakes easily, which keeps subscribers happy and reduces churn.
  
  
  

• One-Click Section Copy/Paste: This might sound minor, but being able
  to copy and paste sections and blocks in the theme editor is a massive time-saver. If you design a great product showcase section on your homepage, you can reuse it on your about page or landing page with one click. It’s underrated how much time this saves when building out a store or making seasonal updates. Consistency for first-time visitors (who get a cohesive experience across pages) has never been easier.
  
  
  

• Shopify Flow Grows Up: Shopify Flow (automation tool for Plus users) got an upgrade where its “Send HTTP request” action can now securely connect to external services and use the response data in workflows. In non-geek speak: Flow can now act like a mini-Zapier inside Shopify, pulling in data from other apps or services and then taking action. This opens up endless possibilities – like automatically offering a loyalty discount when a customer’s subscription in another system hits 1 year, etc. Advanced users and agencies can build some really creative automated flows that will benefit customer experience without manual work.
  
  
  

• Functions for POS: Shopify Functions (which let you customize backend logic) now include a retailLocation field to know if a checkout is happening in-store. Why care? Because now you can do store-specific or channel-specific promos easily. For example, run an “In-Store Only” discount that triggers automatically at POS, or prevent an online-only discount from applying in-store. It’s a nerdy one, but it means you can ensure your pricing/promos strategy is perfectly tailored for the context – something both new visitors and loyal customers will appreciate (no more “Why can’t I use this code in store?” confusion).

Each of these might not make flashy headlines, but they can smooth out operations and customer experience in significant ways. Keep an eye on them and think about how they can solve everyday annoyances in your business.

 👨‍💻 DTC & eCom Dad Jokes to Keep You Converting (or Cringing)

Father’s Day is just around the corner — and as a dad gearing up for his third official celebration (yes, I’m expecting snacks and socks), I thought it was only right to bring a few laughs (or eye rolls) to your inbox this week.

Let’s be real though…
I’ve been a fan of dad jokes way before my daughter was born. Becoming a dad just gave me permission to use them publicly.

So, whether you’re a parent, have one, or just love a good groan-worthy pun — enjoy these DTC-flavored dad jokes that might just boost conversions... or at least boost morale.

• Why did the marketer get kicked off the trampoline?
  Because they had too many bounce rates.

  
  

• What do you call a Shopify dev who likes dad jokes?
  A liquid asset. 💧
  
  

• Why don’t email marketers ever fight?
  Because they prefer to segment their differences.
  
  

• Why did the product page go to therapy?
  Too many abandonment issues.
  
  

• What’s a marketer’s favorite bedtime story?
  Goldilocks and the Three Personas: “This one’s too cold... this one’s too hot... this one converted!”
  
  

• What did the abandoned cart say to the checkout page?
  “It’s not you. It’s shipping.”

🎥 Up Next: Live Webinar You Don’t Wanna Miss

No Code, Big Gains: Ethique’s Formula for Higher CVR in Beauty

🗓 June 5, 2025 | 🕐 1pm EST / 10am PST | 📍 Live on Zoom

Trying to squeeze more conversion from your Shopify site without drowning in dev work or burning budget? Same. That’s why I’m sitting down with Liz Fedorak, Director of Digital at Ethique, to break down the exact no-code playbook her team used to boost conversion by 26% — all with Because + Klaviyo.

🚀 What’s Inside:

• How they used quiz + email data to personalize onsite messaging

• The actual campaigns they launched (urgency vs education, badges, top bars)

• Why they saw 30% more add-to-carts using “Perfect Match” product recs

• What to try even if you don’t have a quiz yet

💡 Whether you're selling skincare, wellness, or just trying to convert more cold traffic into loyal customers — you’ll walk away with real takeaways you can implement the same day.

🎟️ Save your spot now — it's free and going to be a good one.

👉 Reserve Your Spot Here

 💬 Closing Thought

Shopify’s Summer ’25 Edition truly feels like a new horizon for merchants of all sizes. It’s almost overwhelming – like unwrapping 150+ presents at once – but remember, you don’t have to use everything all at once! Start with the features that solve your biggest pain points. Struggling with your site design? Dive into Horizon and the AI builder. Spending hours managing discounts or segments? Hello, one-click discounts and pre-made segments.

On a personal note, I’m excited for what these changes mean for our e-commerce community. Shopify basically gave us superpowers – now it’s up to us to use them creatively.

Whether you’re an agency pro tuning multiple client stores or a passionate entrepreneur running a one-person shop, there’s something in this Edition that will make your life easier and your customers happier. So pick a few features and run with them. Experiment, have fun (the Horizon Drive game Easter egg is proof Shopify wants us to enjoy the ride), and don’t be afraid to push the boundaries of your site now that the platform is more flexible than ever.

Remember, the goal isn’t to adopt tech for tech’s sake – it’s to create better shopping experiences. First-time visitors should feel welcome and wowed, and returning customers should feel valued and engaged. Shopify’s given us the tools; now it’s on us to craft the experience.

Keep innovating, stay curious, and as always, we’ve got your back here at The Ecom Edge. 🚀

~ Marc