Shopify Editions Summer ’25, also known as “Horizon,” brings a wave of features tailored for ecommerce managers who oversee fashion brands with B2B or international needs. With enhancements spanning from storefront customization to checkout optimization and global selling infrastructure, this release empowers you to move faster and scale smarter—especially when working with a development agency.
Here are the top five updates that deserve your full attention.
1. Horizon: Shopify’s New Modular Theme System
What It Is:
Horizon introduces Shopify’s latest theme architecture, enabling:
- 10 new conversion-optimized themes
- AI-generated custom themes based on your brand description
- Theme blocks for modular design and reusable components
- A revamped editor with hover previews, block categorization, and conditional settings
Why It Matters for Fashion Brands:
Fashion stores thrive on visual storytelling, seasonal drops, and curated product presentation. Horizon’s modular flexibility and AI scaffolding empower you and your agency to ship fresh layouts faster—whether it’s for a new collection, influencer collab, or promotion.
What to Ask Your Agency:
- How can we migrate our store to a Horizon-compatible theme?
- Can we set up reusable campaign blocks for our seasonal launches?
- Where can AI accelerate layout creation without compromising branding?
2. Global Commerce Tools: Simplified Cross-Border Expansion
What It Is:
Shopify has expanded global selling capabilities with:
- Shopify Payments in 16 new countries
- Multi-currency payouts (reduce FX fees)
- Duties and taxes embedded in product pricing
- DHL Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) shipping labels
- Klarna and local payment expansion across EU
- Submarkets within regional markets for granular control
Why It Matters for Fashion B2B:
Cross-border success requires localized experiences and seamless logistics. Now you can create market-specific pricing, branding, and payment experiences—all from a single admin. Great news if you’re selling to boutiques in Europe or opening fulfillment in Canada.
What to Ask Your Agency:
- Can we configure submarkets (e.g., UK vs. France) for our catalog?
- How do we set up DDP shipping and embed duties?
- Can our payout workflows reduce foreign exchange losses?
3. Checkout Improvements: Faster, Smarter, Compliant
What It Is:
Shopify has introduced a slew of checkout enhancements:
- Discount code entry in cart (no third-party apps)
- Unified ship-and-carryout checkout
- Flat-rate shipping for multi-location orders
- Apple Pay support in more contexts
- Faster loading speeds (nearly 2 seconds quicker)
- PCI DSS V4 compliance for all checkout features
Why It Matters for Fashion Retailers:
Customers expect sleek, frictionless checkout flows. These updates let your dev team improve conversion and speed, ensure compliance, and enable hybrid fulfillment workflows—all while maintaining branding and UX continuity.
What to Ask Your Agency:
- Can we redesign our cart to include discount input and custom upsells?
- How can we optimize checkout UX for speed and conversion?
- Are our customizations ready for PCI DSS V4 by April 2025?
4. Developer Tools: More Power, Less Complexity
What It Is:
Shopify has overhauled its dev platform with:
- Next-gen local development without tunnels
- Developer stores for every Shopify plan
- Polaris web component library updates
- Declarative metafield definitions
- Improved Flow integration with metaobjects and HTTP request support
Why It Matters for Ecommerce Managers:
This makes your agency more efficient. With streamlined testing environments and reusable component libraries, they can ship features faster and with fewer bugs.
What to Ask Your Agency:
- Can we standardize development across stores with different plan levels?
- How do we use Polaris components to unify admin, checkout, and customer account UX?
- Can we define metafields declaratively to reduce maintenance overhead?
5. Operational Tools: More Control, Better Data
What It Is:
Shopify now offers:
- Refunds issued as store credit from any payment method
- Enhanced Shopify Flow with better logs, sample data, and nested logic
- Pre-fulfillment editing for subscriptions and pre-orders
- Page-level web performance reporting (Core Web Vitals)
- Tap to Pay and streamlined mobile admin
Why It Matters for Fashion Ecommerce:
Returns, loyalty, and automation are core to high-volume fashion operations. These tools empower you to create smarter workflows and improve UX with fewer apps and less manual effort.
What to Ask Your Agency:
- Can we set up a store credit refund system for loyalty and returns?
- How can Flow help us automate tasks like tagging VIP customers or alerting teams?
- What performance issues are slowing down our PDPs and how do we fix them?
The Summer ’25 release positions Shopify as a mature platform ready for serious growth. Whether you’re running a fashion brand, managing wholesale buyers, or scaling cross-border, these updates give you the tools—and your development agency the firepower—to move faster and smarter.
Need help mapping these features into your Q3 roadmap? Let’s Connect!
