Every six months, Shopify releases a new Edition: a broad showcase of tools, updates, and ideas that reflect both the current state of ecommerce and where the platform is headed. But these Editions aren’t just product announcements. They serve as both roadmap and creative statement.
Back in December, we explored the Winter ’25 Edition, which focused on refining the core. With over 150+ updates and a playfully minimalist interface, it was a celebration of the work that often goes unnoticed—performance, reliability, and seamless workflows. “Boring,” but intentionally so, and surprisingly delightful.
The new Summer ’25 Edition takes a different approach. This time, the spotlight is on design: expressive, visual, and accessible to everyone. At the center of it is Horizon, a brand-new first-party theme that reimagines what it means to build a storefront on Shopify.
Horizon offers merchants total creative control without technical barriers. It combines a modular design system with AI-assisted customization, giving anyone the power to create a polished, high-performing store in just a few clicks.
To understand how this theme came to life—and why Shopify sees it as such a turning point—we had the chance to speak with Vanessa Lee, Shopify’s Vice President of Product. What emerged was a clear picture of where store design is heading: more flexible, more intuitive, and more creatively empowering than ever before.
“Design has never mattered more,” Lee told us. “Great design isn’t just about how things look—it’s how you tell your story and build lasting brand loyalty. Horizon democratizes advanced design capabilities so anyone can build a store.”
A Theme That Feels Like a Design System
Horizon isn’t a single template. It’s a foundation for a family of 10 thoughtfully designed presets, each ready to be tailored to a brand’s unique personality. What makes Horizon stand out is not just the aesthetics but the structure that powers it.
Built on Shopify’s new Theme Blocks, Horizon is the first public theme to fully embrace this modular approach. Blocks can be grouped, repositioned, and arranged freely along both vertical and horizontal axes. All of this happens within a visual editor, no code required.
“The biggest frustration was the gap between intention and implementation,” Lee explains. “Merchants had clear visions but often had to compromise due to technical complexity. Horizon changes that by offering true design freedom—no code required.”
AI as a Creative Partner
AI has become a regular presence in creative tools, but Shopify has taken a more collaborative approach. Horizon’s AI features are designed to support creativity, not take it over. They help with layout suggestions, content generation, and even the creation of custom theme blocks based on natural language prompts.
Describe something as simple as “a banner with text and typing animation,” and Horizon can generate a functional block to match your vision. You can also share an inspirational image, and the system will create matching layout elements or content.
What’s important is that merchants retain full editorial control.
“AI should enhance human creativity,” Lee says. “Our tools are collaborative—you stay in control. Whether you’re editing a product description or generating a layout, it’s always your voice guiding the result.”
This mindset is reflected in tools like AI Block Generation and Sidekick, Shopify’s AI assistant that helps merchants shape messaging, refine layout, and bring content ideas to life without friction.
UX Shifts That Change the Game
Alongside its larger innovations, Horizon also delivers a series of small but highly impactful improvements to the store editing experience:
- Copy and Paste for Theme Blocks allows merchants to reuse blocks across different sections, saving time and effort.
- Block Previews in the Picker let users see what a block will look like before adding it, reducing trial and error.
- Drag and Drop Functionality now includes full block groups, nested components, and intuitive repositioning, with settings preserved automatically.
These updates may seem modest, but they target the exact kinds of pain points that slow down design workflows.
“We pay close attention to small moments that add up to big frustrations,” Lee says. “Features like copy/paste or previews seem small—but they transform how merchants work.”
Built with the Community
Horizon is not a top-down product. It was shaped through collaboration with both merchants and developers over the past year. According to Lee, the feedback was clear and consistent. Everyone wanted more flexibility, but not at the cost of simplicity.
“Both merchants and developers want flexibility without complexity,” Lee recalls. “That shaped Theme Blocks—and Horizon wouldn’t exist without that ongoing dialogue.”
The result is a system that feels both sophisticated and intuitive. Developers can work with structure and control, while merchants can express their brand with clarity and ease.
More Than a Theme, a Signal
Each Shopify Edition carries a message. The Winter release was about stability, performance, and quiet confidence. This Summer’s Edition speaks to something more expressive. It’s about unlocking design as a form of commerce strategy.
Horizon sits at the heart of that shift. But it’s just one part of a broader push across Shopify. The Edition also includes updates to Sidekick, the Shop app, POS, payments, and more—each designed to remove barriers and support better brand-building.
“We’re evolving from being a commerce platform to being a creative partner,” Lee says. “With Horizon, we’re helping merchants turn their ideas into reality—without the tech getting in the way.”
Looking ahead, Shopify sees enormous opportunity in using AI not just for store creation, but for proactive optimization, personalization, and guidance that adapts to each merchant’s needs.
“The most exciting breakthroughs happen where AI and human creativity meet,” Lee says. “We’ve only scratched the surface—and that’s incredibly motivating.”
Final Thoughts
Horizon isn’t just a new Shopify theme. It’s a new baseline for what creative freedom should feel like in commerce. It invites anyone—regardless of technical skill—to build a store that feels uniquely theirs.
For those who’ve felt boxed in by rigid templates, or overwhelmed by the need to code, Horizon offers something different. It removes the friction, keeps the power, and brings the joy back into building for the web.
Explore everything new in the Shopify Summer ’25 Edition.