---
title: "Shopify Unite 2021: Where Online Store 2.0 Began"
description: "Shopify Unite 2021 in review: Online Store 2.0, sections on every page, metafields. The announcements that still define Shopify theme architecture today."
url: https://shoplab.cc/en/shopify-news/shopify-unite-2021
datePublished: 2021-07-21T03:00:00Z
---

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Shopify News

# Shopify Unite 2021: Where Online Store 2.0 Began

July 21, 2021 · 3 minutes reading time

![Portrait of Mark Chang, shoplab founder and CTO](https://shoplab.cc/images/team/mark.jpg)

Mark Chang

Founder & CTO

## Shopify Unite 2021: What's changing?

On June 29, 2021 the virtual event Shopify Unite 2021 took place. We took part and tell you what will change in the future and what is already changing in the e-commerce shop system - for retailers and developers.

Unite 2021 was opened by Chief Executive Officer Tobi Lütke, who immediately increased curiosity and anticipation for the upcoming contributions and presented the three guiding principles:

1. **Make commerce creative**
2. **Make the important easy**
3. **Make everything else possible**

What do these three guiding principles mean in terms of implementation? Product Director Vanessa Lee explains: Developers should have more freedom and retailers should have the opportunity to create the desired storefront quickly and easily.

## Online store 2.0

Traffic to Shopify stores has doubled in the past year. Online shopping is now more part of everyday life than ever before and it is impossible to imagine life without it. Therefore, Shopify has rolled out the most important and biggest update, which they simply but convincingly call Online Store 2.0 due to its importance. The innovation is now available to you and will convince entrepreneurs and creative people with the revision of the following areas:

## Themes & Editors

Online shops can now be **configured completely modularly** . The design adapts perfectly to your offer and your personality. **No coding knowledge** is required to build and customize the individual pages completely individually and easily, or to integrate apps into the themes using app blocks. This means improved and simple handling for retailers and advantages for app developers.

![This is what the new Themes Editor looks like](https://shoplab.cc/images/blog/shopify-unite-2021-1.webp)

_This is what the new Themes Editor looks like_

![The Shopify theme store, browsing themes by industry - tiles for Furniture, Food & Drink, Jewelry & Accessories, Home & Garden, Sports & Recreation and Art & Photography](https://shoplab.cc/images/blog/shopify-unite-2021-2.webp)

## Store Content: Metafields

With Online Store 2.0, **metafields** have a more flexible type system and also now support media such as images and PDF files. Developers have access to the content under “Settings/Files” via the new Files API GraphQL. Media can be selected and uploaded there.

![The new "Add product metafield definition" screen in the Shopify admin, with the content-type list open on Measurement, Number, Reference, File, Text, True or false and URL](https://shoplab.cc/images/blog/shopify-unite-2021-3.webp)

## Checkout extension through apps

There is no e-commerce without a checkout - which is why major improvements have also taken place here. Features previously only available through 'checkout.liquid' or through Shopify Plus will soon be available to all and are designed to make the Shopify checkout the best in the world, even with huge sales. This includes, for example **, adapting the payment process via apps** . A **new payment platform** will also be one of the innovations from autumn 2021.

According to Shopify itself, further improvements are to be published in a developer preview later this year. The check-out extension enables an **interaction between the check-out and the thank you page** . There can

* Product Upsells
* calls for donations
* discount offers
* Survey

are integrated and the customer experience and the relationship between customer and retailer are improved.

![Diagram of a checkout page with three green arrows marking the areas apps can extend, and a fourth arrow pointing at the order summary](https://shoplab.cc/images/blog/shopify-unite-2021-4.webp)

## What will change for me? Do I have to have my theme redeveloped?

Of course you want to benefit from the new themes and settings as quickly as possible, that's for sure. But what do you have to do for it? There are two options here.

1. We're upgrading to take full advantage of the new Shopify editor.
2. We are developing a completely new theme that supports the editor out of the box.

Both routes are [Shopify development](https://shoplab.cc/en/shopify-development) work. An update is about making the theme compatible with the new Shopify features. Features include “Sections everywhere” and the handy App Blocks. However, the first thing to consider is whether the upgrade makes sense. We will decide that together with you, depending on the complexity of the adjustments. If we already know your theme and have programmed it ourselves, chances are that we can easily upgrade it. Let's talk about your options!

Where the new APIs reach their limits is where [custom Shopify app development](https://shoplab.cc/en/shopify-app-development) begins.

## Shopify Unite 2021 - extensive, new and better than ever

The Shopify Unite 2021 convinced with many surprises and promising news. You can read the content in even more detail at [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/shopify-unite-announcements-2021) yourself, or simply look up Unite 2021 yourself! If you have specific questions for your own store, you can always contact the Shopify experts at shoplab, we look forward to hearing from you!

![All news at a glance in our graphic](https://shoplab.cc/images/blog/shopify-unite-2021-5.jpg)

_All news at a glance in our graphic_

1. [01Shopify Unite 2021: What's changing?](#shopify-unite-2021-what-s-changing)
2. [02Online store 2.0](#online-store-2-0)
3. [03Themes & Editors](#themes-editors)
4. [04Store Content: Metafields](#store-content-metafields)
5. [05Checkout extension through apps](#checkout-extension-through-apps)
6. [06What will change for me? Do I have to have my theme redeveloped?](#what-will-change-for-me-do-i-have-to-have-my-theme-redeveloped)
7. [07Shopify Unite 2021 - extensive, new and better than ever](#shopify-unite-2021-extensive-new-and-better-than-ever)

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Got questions?

## Let's clear things up!

We've gathered the most asked questions with answers to help you better understand our services.

 

![Portrait of a shoplab team member](https://shoplab.cc/images/faq/faq-contact.jpg)

Still have a question?

Let's have a call and clear things up.

### Do you only work with Shopify?

Yes. We have worked exclusively with Shopify and Shopify Plus since 2020, and turning down other platforms is what got us here. The trade is deliberate: a team that sees the same platform every day knows which problems have a native solution, which need an app, and which need custom code - so less of your budget goes into rediscovering that. It also means we follow Shopify's own conventions instead of porting patterns over from Magento or WooCommerce, which is what keeps a store upgradeable after we hand it over.

### What services do you offer?

Strategy & consulting, custom Shopify theme development, custom app development, store migrations, UX/UI design, integrations & middleware, ongoing store management, and AI e-commerce readiness. Most projects combine three or four of those: a migration usually arrives with an ERP integration and a redesign attached, and a redesign usually surfaces a performance problem. Everything runs through one team, so a design decision and its development consequence get settled together rather than negotiated between two agencies.

### Can you redesign my existing Shopify store?

Absolutely, and it is one of the most common ways clients start with us. We audit the current store first - conversion path, page performance, and the templates that carry the most revenue - then redesign against what the audit found rather than against a moodboard. Your products, customers, orders and URL structure stay where they are, so rankings and store data are not at risk. Redesigns can also ship in stages: the pages that sell first, the rest afterwards, so you see the effect before the whole budget is committed.

### Do you build custom Shopify themes?

Yes, from scratch rather than by reskinning a marketplace template. A custom theme means the sections your merchandising team actually needs, editable in the theme editor without a developer, and no inherited code for features you will never use. That last part is the performance argument: off-the-shelf themes carry the union of every use case they were sold for, and you pay for it in Core Web Vitals on every page load. We build against your catalogue and your content model, then hand over documentation so your team can run it.

### Can you migrate my store from another platform?

Yes - WooCommerce, Magento, Shopware and other platforms, in a staged, low-risk process. Products, variants, customers and order history come across, and every indexed URL gets a mapped 301 so the rankings you already earned survive the move. What decides the timeline is rarely catalogue size: it is data structures with no direct Shopify equivalent (bundles, configurable products, customer-specific pricing) and the systems your store talks to. We inventory both before a cutover date is set, which is why our migrations do not end with a redirect list written the night before launch.

### How long does a Shopify project take?

It depends on scope: focused improvements often take 4-6 weeks, while full custom builds or migrations typically run 8-16 weeks. A store moving onto a configured theme is usually live in 4-8 weeks; a fully custom storefront runs closer to 10-16\. You get a timeline with defined milestones before we start, and those milestones are staged releases rather than one launch date at the end - so a delay in one area does not push everything behind it. What moves a timeline most is late scope additions and integrations nobody inventoried at the start.

### Will my Shopify store be optimized for mobile?

Always. We design mobile-first because that is where most e-commerce traffic sits, and where most of the conversion loss happens. Every store is tested on real devices rather than a resized browser window, and measured against Core Web Vitals - largest contentful paint, interaction latency, layout shift - before it goes live. Image handling, font loading and third-party scripts get the most attention, because apps are usually what turn a fast theme into a slow store. Performance is a launch requirement here, not a follow-up ticket.

### Do you provide ongoing support after launch?

Yes. Store management plans cover Shopify and app updates, iterative improvements, testing and technical support, on a monthly scope you can adjust as priorities change. Most stores need the first weeks after launch more than they expect: real traffic finds edge cases staging never produced, and the analytics only start telling the truth once volume arrives. After that, ongoing work tends to be conversion iterations on the templates that carry revenue, seasonal campaign support, and keeping the theme current as Shopify ships platform changes.

### Can you improve my store without rebuilding everything?

Definitely, and we will say so when a rebuild is not the right call. We often work in focused iterations - a conversion audit, performance optimization, or redesigning the handful of templates that carry most of the revenue - shipped as staged releases with measurable outcomes instead of a big-bang relaunch. For a store that already converts this is usually the better economics: you keep what works, spend where the data points, and avoid the risk window a full replatform opens. A rebuild earns its cost when the underlying theme or data model is the actual constraint.

### How do we get started?

Book a free strategy call - about thirty minutes, and you keep whatever comes out of it. We ask what you run today: platform, catalogue structure, connected systems, and what should be better after the project. From there you get a written proposal covering scope, timeline and pricing, with named work blocks rather than one number. If the call shows that what you need is smaller than an agency project, we will tell you that too. It is a cheaper conversation for both of us than finding out in month two.

[Read more questions](https://shoplab.cc/en/faq)

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