On Wednesday, Shopify announced some pretty major changes at its twice-yearly Edition launch day. To match rival Amazon, they rolled out a slew of innovations aimed at improving the e-commerce experience. One standout is Sidekick, an AI-powered tool that answers questions using speech through a voice chat interface. This ground-breaking feature is designed to make it easier for merchants to find their way around the platform. Since launching to all merchants in December 2024, Sidekick’s monthly user count more than doubled during 2025. This spike is a clear indicator that e-commerce companies are more than ever leveraging AI-powered solutions.
Sidekick takes your brand’s specific prompts via chat, handsoff using the integrated functionality in the Shopify mobile app. This new interactive Tactics feature enables merchants to take store management to the next level. It takes them to an easy-to-understand guide to the entire tariff. This guide provides U.S. rates for different types of products and can be accessed at https://tariffguide.ai/. The rollout of this tool is another move in Chantel’s plan to boost operations efficiency and effectiveness while providing valuable support to Shopify’s users.
Alongside Sidekick, Shopify launched a completely new public theme in its Theme Store for the first time in several years — called Horizon. Horizon is the first theme to bring “Theme Blocks” to the table. This feature gives merchants the ability to easily create customized online store designs in minutes without any coding knowledge required. This new innovation enables more people to creatively express themselves. Most importantly, it unlocks the flexibility for them to build truly distinct storefronts that align with their brand’s identity.
The Theme Store serves as a bustling marketplace for downloading free or paid-for, pre-designed templates. This provides merchants with a wide variety of different ways to brand their business. The launch of Horizon comes as no surprise, as it reinforces Shopify’s focus on using innovative technology and beautiful design to make e-commerce easier.
At the launch event, Shopify’s dynamic CEO, Tobi Lütke, mapped out a major trajectory toward artificial intelligence. He’s confident these innovations can go a long way toward keeping a smaller workforce while improving quality and efficiency of the service. By integrating tools like Sidekick and innovative themes like Horizon, Shopify aims to equip merchants with powerful resources to thrive in a competitive market.