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7️⃣ apps for better eCommerce

Shopify’s Summer ‘25 drop is out.

They called it “Horizons.” 150+ updates, tons of cool stuff, but also a lot you’ll never use unless you’re running a dev team or selling B2B in five countries.

So I did what I always do:

📌 Sorted through the fluff
📌 Flagged what matters for real operators
📌 And picked the ones we’re testing at SnapPad this summer

if you’re launching or scaling under $500K/year, these are worth playing with 👇

What’s new (and great) with Shopify

🤖 1. Sidekick AI: Finally, a Shopify Chatbot That’s Useful

You can now ask Sidekick to:

• Summarize why sales dipped last week

• Auto-generate a 20% discount code for first-time buyers

• Build a customer segment based on order count or geography
  

🧠 Why this matters:
Turns a bunch of “I’ll do it later” things into “done” things. 

💡 Example:
At SnapPad, we’ll be testing Sidekick to flag SKUs with high return rates or stagnant inventory — something that’s historically taken too long to surface in a standard report.

📦 Pro tip for new stores:
Use it weekly to stay ahead of weird AOV drops, sales slowdowns, or discount fatigue,  especially when you don’t yet have systems to catch those things manually.

🧱 2. AI Store Blocks: Describe It, and It Appears

You can now write: “Add a banner for 20% off all weekend”, and Shopify builds the section right into your theme. No code. No plug-ins. No back-and-forth with a designer.

🧠 Why this matters: do I have to say it?

💡 Use this to:

• Build PDP inserts for urgency (e.g. “Only 5 left!”)

• Add creator quotes or testimonials as proof

• Drop in quick landing page variations for paid traffic
  

📦 SnapPad POV:
We’re testing this on campaign-specific landing pages where speed of deployment matters more than polish. Especially handy for seasonal promos, collabs, or timed bundles.

🏗️ 3. AI Store Builder: A Brand Vibe in Seconds

Instead of tweaking themes endlessly, Shopify now lets you describe your brand (“We sell nutrient-rich dog peanut butter that feels like JIF meets Four Sigmatic”)...and it auto-generates a site design, layout, and structure.

🧠 Why this matters:
If you’re pre-launch, building a first site can feel overwhelming. This lets you bypass analysis paralysis and ship something functional that reflects your vibe.

💡 Use this when:

• You’re testing MVPs or niche product ideas

• You want to get to your first sale before your first photoshoot

• You’re building a microsite or product drop page without hiring dev help
  

📦 Pro tip:
Pair this with real customer copy (testimonials, survey quotes, reviews) to make the AI-generated layout feel uniquely “you.” Good layout + bad copy = low conversion.

🌄 4. Horizon Themes: Drag-and-Drop That Doesn’t Suck

The new Horizon theme foundation is Shopify’s best yet:

• Mobile-first design

• Built to load fast

• Works natively with AI tools and blocks

• 10 starter presets for common verticals
  

🧠 Why this matters:
Themes are usually a tradeoff between flexibility, speed, and ease-of-use. Horizon balances all three — giving scrappy teams pro-level design tools without hiring out.

💡 Use cases:

• If you're still running Dawn, this is a real upgrade

• Use drag-and-drop to test different homepages or PDP layouts

• Add, remove, and reorder sections with minimal friction
  

📦 SnapPad POV:
Even with a custom theme, we still use templated pages for launches and seeding campaigns. Horizon will help us prototype faster while reducing dev handoff time.

📦 5. Bulk Print 250 Labels (Finally)

You can now batch print up to 250 shipping labels at once. It sounds minor, but for founders still shipping from home or a local warehouse, this is a massive time win.

🧠 Why this matters:
Every minute spent in ShipStation or Canada Post is a minute not spent building your business.

💡 Ideal for:

• Weekend drops

• Holiday surges

• Flash sale follow-ups
  

📦 Pro tip:
If you’re still fulfilling yourself, combine this with Pirate Ship, Shippo (for cheaper USPS labels), or Shopify Shipping for instant discounts.

💳 6. Refund to Store Credit, Instantly

Instead of issuing refunds through Stripe or PayPal and tracking down gift cards later, you can now offer instant store credit from inside the Shopify admin.

🧠 Why this matters:
Store credit increases the chance of repeat purchases and lets you retain revenue, especially helpful when margins are tight or inventory isn’t moving.

💡 Use this to:

• Turn minor complaints into loyalty moments

• Give partial credit for slow shipping without eating the whole refund

• Incentivize repurchase without discounting first

🚚 7. Flat Rate for Multi-Location Shipping

Previously, Shopify would charge customers separate shipping rates if an order shipped from multiple locations, often leading to cart abandonment.

Now, you can set a single flat rate across locations.

🧠 Why this matters:
You don’t want to penalize customers just because your ops aren’t unified yet.

💡 Great for:

• Brands with some SKUs in-house and others dropshipped

• International stores testing US fulfillment via 3PLs

• Partner brands collaborating on bundles
  

📦 Tip for early founders:
Use this to unlock test inventory at a second location without hurting conversion.

📱 8. Better Mobile Analytics (For When You’re Not at Your Desk)

Shopify’s mobile app now includes customizable reporting dashboards, giving you better on-the-go visibility into store performance.

🧠 Why this matters:
Early founders don’t live in dashboards. They live in DMs, email, and order fulfillment. Getting quick, daily insights without logging into 3 different tools = ✨chef’s kiss✨.

💡 Use this to:

• Track real-time sales during drops

• Monitor abandoned checkouts when you’re offline

• Keep tabs on bestsellers and low inventory
  

📦 SnapPad POV:
Our ops team uses this during peak season to monitor activity between fulfillment runs. It’s a sanity-saver when you’re moving fast and unplugged from a laptop.

🛑 What to Ignore (For Now)

Shopify added a lot of B2B, wholesale, and international features. Cool stuff. Just not useful if:

• You’re pre-traction or < $250K/year

• You’re focused on DTC

• You want fewer moving parts, not more
  

Channel expansion is tempting when new opportunities arise, but at SnapPad we probably expanded to B2B too early. This caused us to fragment our focus and caused an explosion in complexity and a drag on our operational efficiency. 

Master your core marketing and sales channels first before adding to them.

🧠 Final Thought

Early-stage founders don’t need more bells and whistles. You need tools that:

• Save time

• Simplify decisions

• Let you sell more, faster

Shopify’s Summer ‘25 drop gives you just enough of that, if you know where to look.

We’ll report back on how our tests go.

—Kent

PS - Check out Shopify’s driving game