Shopify has announced that the next edition of its developer’s development meet — Shopify Unite — will be a virtual event. Last held in September 2022, the next edition will be hosted in early 2024. The event that brings the developer community of Shopify together is eagerly awaited by those who are part of the ecosystem.
“Last year, we shared that we were evolving Shopify Unite to a series of events in cities around the world. We loved getting together with the community, but realized that we still couldn’t be in enough places to connect with everyone,” Shopify said in a blog published on June 28.
Last Edition
Planned in three different cities — London, Toronto and Melbourne, the 2022 edition of Shopify Unite saw the release of Shopify Editions, which helps merchants, developers and agencies to know about the biggest Shopify updates. Shopify released it online, making it audible to all. The Canadian e-commerce giant is planning something similar to Shopify Unite.
“At the same time, we introduced Shopify Editions, where we brought together the biggest product updates for our ecosystem and put them all in a new digital experience, for everyone to interact with anytime, anywhere. We want to do the same thing with Shopify Unite,” Shopify states.
“Instead of limiting the event to only a few cities, we want to open up the experience to reach even more developers. As part of its continued evolution, we’ll be moving to a virtual event in early 2024 where you’ll be able to deep dive with the Shopify team on the latest releases for our developer platform. There will be opportunities to interact with each other as well as the Shopify team through office hours and technical AMAs. Stay tuned for more updates,” the company adds.
What to Expect?
Shopify didn’t reveal many details about the event but some new formats are expected in the time to come. “And while virtual gatherings are great to make sure everyone can join, we know how much the community values in-person gatherings as well. So we’ll continue to share opportunities to connect IRL, starting with some new formats coming soon.”
“We can’t wait to continue building the future of commerce with all of you,” Shopify concluded.
Starting in London, the last year’s event was later held in Toronto and in Melbourne in a series of two-day events in each location. Shopify experts led sessions and discussions on development best practices with partners, held one-on-one technical office hours and guided hands-on coding workshops in the event.
Keynote speakers at the London event included Dion Almaer — VP of Engineering and DX at Shopify, Liat Zakay — Director of Strategic Growth at Shopify and Surma — DX Engineer at Shopify. The Toronto edition saw keynotes by Almaer, Vanessa Lee — VP of Product at Shopify and Farhan Thawar — VP of Engineering.
In Melbourne, Almaer was accompanied by Tracy Kaur — Senior Launch Engineer at Shopify and Scott Dixon — Developer Advocate at Shopify.
Who Should Attend Shopify Unite?
Shopify Unite is an important event for those who are creating or planning to build apps, custom storefronts or themes on Shopify. It is a developer-first event series with coding workshops and one-on-one technical problem-solving sessions. The event focuses on content and programming as well.
One doesn’t need to be a Shopify Partner to attend Shopify Unite. Any commerce developer interested in knowing more about building on the platform as well as in-house developers who work for Shopify merchants can participate. However, in order to participate in workshops, one has to complete setup steps that include having a Partner account. Other steps depend on the topic of the workshop.
As it was a physical event last year, space was limited at each event. Each organisation could get only three tickets across all the locations. As keynotes, workshops and other things were almost similar across all the events, there was no need to attend the event at more than one location.
Add to this, Shopify Unite 2022 was not streamed live. However, recordings of Shopify talks, keynote presentations, workshops and Partner-led talks were later released on the Internet.
In 2024, Shopify would aim to address this issue. While a virtual event doesn’t struggle with a space crunch, live streaming is also possible to reach a wider audience.
Prior to this, Shopify Unite was held on June 29, 2021. During the live event, significant changes were announced to boost performance and facilitate ease of use of its e-commerce platform. Several updates and changes were demonstrated which was termed “Online Store 2.0.”
In the London chapter of Shopify Unite, Openxthinking showcased its Bullet theme for Shopify merchants on September 13. The Bullet theme was introduced by Shopify as its in-house Theme Devs product on March 17, 2022. Be Yours by Roartheme and Drop by Undergrndmedia are two other themes launched with the Bullet theme by the Canada-based e-commerce company.
On Shopify Theme Store, the Bullet theme is priced at $280 USD. It uses a minimal grid-based structure that can be useful for contemporary brands. It provides support in five languages — English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.
Disappointment For App Developers
The company’s decision to host Shopify Unite in a virtual manner has disappointed some developers, while some are complaining about the skipping of the 2023 edition.
“Next Shopify Unite will be virtual and will take place in early 2024. What a disappointment… We might have to organize our own community Unite,” Coralie, a Shopify Theme Developer at Clean Canvas, said in a tweet.
Another app developer Colin Fetter joined in by saying “Sad, but like you said opportunity for others to create events. Also, if they are going virtual why is delay to 2024 needed?”
Sad, but like you said opportunity for others to create events. Also, if they are going virtual why is delay to 2024 needed?
— Colin Fetter (@cfetter) July 1, 2023
“I know, I was disappointed too! I was hoping to get over to the U.K. for it this year,” said Brenda Storer, Founder and Shopify Theme Partner at Coquelicot_io.
Me too! The UK or anywhere else 😭
— Coralie (@nomad_maker) July 1, 2023
App developers play an essential role to help merchants sell on Shopify. They create useful apps that make life easier for merchants as well as customers making online purchases. Shopify values app developers like no other e-commerce platform. Recently, the company announced new updates to assist app developers in making e-commerce a better place for everyone.
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein took to Twitter to make the announcement. “Shopify is the best place to build your app – period. Thousands of devs have built businesses on the Shopify App Store, and more are joining daily. Being the best place to build means constantly evolving. We deeply value our community’s feedback. That’s why we recently shipped a ton of new updates to make it faster and smoother for you to build and sell apps on Shopify,” he said in a Twitter thread, discussing four most important updates for the app developers.
