After attending another Shopify Editions in Toronto, it's clear that 2025 marks a pivotal moment in ecommerce. As a leading Shopify agency that's grown alongside the platform since 2011, watching the evolution from our early days with Doses streetwear to today's AI-powered ecosystem has been nothing short of remarkable. Our team of Shopify Plus developers has witnessed firsthand how these innovations are reshaping the entire ecommerce landscape.

The Conspire Journey: From Streetwear to Shopify Agency

The idea of Conspire was born in 2011 when I graduated from Berkeley with a degree in business and economics. Initially drawn to financial engineering, I quickly realized it wasn't aligned with my interests. Instead, a friend convinced me to start a luxury streetwear brand called Doses. We launched that same year on Big Cartel, but the moment I laid eyes on Shopify, we made the switch.

What drew me to Shopify then—and continues to drive our agency work today—was that perfect balance between ease of use and developer customization potential. While Doses exploded and I moved to Los Angeles, the agency remained intentionally small. After eventually leaving the clothing company, Conspire took center stage and continued to grow organically.

From those early days to becoming an established Shopify web design agency, we've maintained our commitment to innovative, boutique-level service. Today, Conspire operates as a Shopify development agency specializing in high-end ecommerce solutions for discerning brands. We're still not one of those massive agencies with 100+ employees, but we've established ourselves as one of the top agencies in the Shopify space and are proud official Shopify Plus partners. This intimate scale allows us to maintain the boutique, hands-on approach that our clients value while staying at the forefront of platform innovation.

Horizon Theme: The Foundation for Tomorrow's Commerce

Horizon is Shopify's new design foundation, harnessing the power of theme blocks for total flexibility, and it represents much more than just another theme release. While Horizon is new, it's Shopify taking a definitive stance on the future of theme architecture. The nestable block functionality that powers Horizon emerged months ago, but this theme serves as a forcing function for the entire ecosystem to evolve.

The "anything anywhere" concept is genuinely powerful. We're seeing another significant step toward bridging the gap between Figma designs and live Liquid code, dramatically reducing development time. Our team can now push much further in theme customization before developers need to step in for final touches.

While AI blocks feel somewhat novelty-driven at this point (we're not implementing them for clients yet), the underlying block system represents a paradigm shift. The ability to build custom theme blocks by simply describing what you want hints at a future where theme development becomes increasingly democratized.

AI: Beyond the Hype to Real Business Value

AI dominated Editions Summer 2025, but the most compelling applications weren't the flashy demos, they were the practical implementations that enhance merchant operations. Shopify's focus on using AI to enrich merchant data particularly caught our attention. Automatically generating missing alt text for images and expanding product descriptions aren't glamorous features, but they solve real problems that agencies like ours encounter daily.

The introduction of Shopify Catalog represents a seismic shift in how discovery and shopping will evolve. The ability for AI shopping agents to discover and showcase products to millions of potential customers using conversational AI fundamentally changes the game. When people start using Claude, ChatGPT, or Perplexity to find products, Shopify merchants need to be discoverable in these new shopping paradigms. Vanessa Lee gave a great last minute talk on the future of Global Catalogs.

What excites us most is Storefront MCP (Model Context Protocol), which allows developers to build AI agents that can make tailored product recommendations, answer questions, create carts, and guide shoppers to checkout. This isn't just chatbot technology, it's the foundation for conversational commerce that feels as natural as talking to a knowledgeable salesperson.

Shopify Plus B2B: Enterprise-Ready at Last

The B2B announcements at Editions demonstrate Shopify's serious commitment to enterprise commerce. The current state showcases impressive wins: customer accounts extensions, expanded invoicing capabilities in draft orders with functions and bundles, B2B markets, minimum and maximum order value with checkout blocks, the NetSuite ERP connector, and B2B compatible apps.

Looking toward the second half of 2025, the roadmap is even more compelling: support for preorders, store credit, pickup in store, local delivery, ACH payments, buyer-managed locations and contacts, functions with payment term customization, improved UX for large orders, and VAT inclusive/exclusive pricing.

Rather than competing with these native Plus features, our Wholesale GOAT app positions itself as the perfect complement to Plus B2B implementations. While yes it allows pricing customization for Shopify stores on any plan, for Plus clients there's super powerful features like streamlining the onboarding process for new Plus B2B users, helping them plan large purchases strategically, and providing advanced tooling that makes draft orders more effective through automated reminders and workflow management.

Shopify POS: The Future of Unified Commerce

The POS updates showcase Shopify's commitment to true omnichannel retail. The fully redesigned POS app represents a major leap forward, but the real game-changer is the ability to charge credit cards using NFC directly on your smartphone. This feature, known as Tap to Pay, eliminates the need for separate card readers in many scenarios.

Tap to Pay allows customers to make purchases by tapping their cards, smartphones, or compatible wearable devices directly on the merchant's phone. This technology is now available on iPhone and Android and represents a significant cost reduction for merchants who previously needed dedicated hardware for every sales interaction.

Additional POS enhancements include the ability to process mixed-fulfillment orders in a single transaction, issue and accept store credit directly from POS, and customize payment options per device. For retailers managing multiple locations, these features create operational efficiencies that were previously impossible.

The introduction of offline payments ensures business continuity even during internet outages, with payment and order data securely stored until connectivity returns. This addresses a critical pain point for brick-and-mortar retailers who can't afford to lose sales due to connectivity issues.

The Broader Platform Evolution

Beyond the headline features, Shopify's platform improvements create ripple effects throughout the ecosystem. The admin is now 30% faster with smarter loading indicators, while developers can now execute up to 25 functions simultaneously, a 5x increase from the previous limit.

The expansion of Shopify Payments to Lithuania, Poland, Norway, Latvia, Hungary, Estonia, Malta, Croatia, Greece, Slovenia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Gibraltar, and Mexico opens new markets for international expansion. For our agency clients exploring global growth, these geographic expansions remove significant barriers to entry.

What This Means for Agencies and Merchants

As an agency that's grown alongside Shopify for over a decade, we're seeing a platform that's becoming increasingly sophisticated while maintaining its core accessibility. The AI integrations aren't just technological showcase pieces, they're practical tools that reduce operational overhead and enable smaller teams to compete with enterprise-level capabilities.

The B2B improvements position Shopify Plus as a legitimate enterprise solution that can compete with traditional B2B platforms. The POS evolution creates true omnichannel experiences that unify online and offline customer journeys. Most importantly, the AI and automation features allow merchants to focus on strategy and growth rather than getting bogged down in operational minutiae.

Looking Forward: A Strong Foundation

From our base spanning Los Angeles and San Diego, Conspire has built lasting relationships with merchants who understand that success in modern ecommerce requires both strategic thinking and technical excellence. The developments from Shopify Editions Summer 2025 reinforce our belief that Shopify continues to be the platform best positioned for the future of commerce.

The convergence of AI-powered tools, sophisticated B2B capabilities, and truly unified commerce experiences creates unprecedented opportunities for merchants willing to embrace innovation. As shopping behaviors evolve toward conversational discovery and omnichannel experiences, merchants who invest in these capabilities today will have significant competitive advantages tomorrow.

For Shopify agencies looking to stay ahead of these developments, this represents both an opportunity and a responsibility. We must stay at the forefront of these innovations to guide our clients through an increasingly complex but incredibly promising landscape. As an experienced Shopify Plus developer team, we're uniquely positioned to help merchants navigate whatever comes next, leveraging our decade-plus foundation to transform these cutting-edge capabilities into real business results.

For agencies like ours, this represents both an opportunity and a responsibility. We must stay at the forefront of these developments to guide our clients through an increasingly complex but incredibly promising landscape. The foundation we've built over the past decade positions us perfectly to help merchants navigate whatever comes next.

Ready to explore how these Shopify innovations can transform your business? Contact our team to discuss your strategic roadmap for 2025 and beyond.