Shopify News: These are the Shopify updates in April 2024

April 2024 has brought a host of exciting new features for Shopify merchants. As the world celebrates Earth Month, Shopify is stepping up its sustainable commerce and carbon reduction efforts. At the same time, important updates and features are being introduced that will improve the Shopify experience for merchants and customers alike. In this blog post, you can learn more about the latest developments and how they are changing commerce on the platform.

By the way: This post will be updated every month, so be sure to bookmark this page so you don't miss any news!

Earth Month: Shopify strengthens initiative for sustainable trade and CO2 reduction

Every year in April, Earth Month is celebrated worldwide - to mark the occasion, Shopify is stepping up its sustainability initiatives this April.

At the center is the Planet app, a powerful tool that supports merchants and customers alike in the fight against CO2 emissions. By providing carbon-neutral shipping options with every order, Shopify is helping to promote high-quality carbon reduction technologies.

In April, Shopify went one step further by doubling all CO2 removal funds generated by the Planet app.

Since its launch in 2022, the Planet app has helped neutralize the shipping emissions of over 25 million orders and removed 23,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. In addition, Shopify merchants have contributed over one million dollars to fund important carbon reduction projects.

Find out more in the Shopify news article.

New function for Plus merchants: Transparent display of additional fees in the checkout

On 8 April 2024, Shopify released a feature for Plus merchants who use products to display additional fees or costs in the checkout and use checkout.liquid to customize the order summary. Plus merchants can contact their MSM or support teams to request access to this feature.

This new feature allows Plus merchants to further customize their checkout processes and display additional fees or costs clearly and transparently to their customers.

Update: New maximum limit for gift cards

On 18 April, Shopify introduced a new maximum limit for issuing gift cards. From 15 May 2024, a maximum value limit of USD 2,000 (or the equivalent in global currencies) will apply to the issuance of gift cards. After this date, all versions of the Gift Card API will display an error if issued gift cards exceed the limit of USD 2,000.

The purchase limit for gift card products is 10,000 USD (or the equivalent in global currency).

To help Shopify merchants stay within this limit, Shopify has introduced a new query for Gift Card Limits that returns the maximum value in each currency.

This change ensures that Shopify merchants remain compliant with the law when it comes to issuing gift cards and prevents accidental violations of these regulations. The new limit does not affect gift cards issued before 15 May 2024.

PCI DSS v4.0 becomes mandatory: Shopify offers a PCI-compliant checkout

The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) published version 4.0 of the PCI DSS back in March 2022. The update is the most comprehensive update of the security standard for credit card data to date. Since 31 March 2024, PCI DSS v4.0 has completely replaced the previous version v3.2.1 - from 31 March 2025, the new security standard will become mandatory. This version of the standard introduces new requirements, particularly with regard to protection against digital skimming attacks. In addition, new requirements will be placed on the integrity and authorisation of scripts on both the main and payment pages in the checkout process.

The good news is that for Shopify merchants who have upgraded to Checkout Extensibility, PCI DSS v4.0 compliance is made easy. Merchants using Shopify Checkout benefit from an already integrated solution that offers PCI DSS v4 compliance without the need for additional work. This allows you to focus on your core business while ensuring a secure checkout process.

By utilizing sandboxing technologies, secure code is executed in isolation, improving the security of the checkout. To ensure compliance, all scripts must be checked for necessity and integrity. Shopify Checkout provides mechanisms to ensure that only authorized and secure scripts are loaded.

You can find more details on this topic in Shopify's blog post.

Storefront API Cart now supports the use of Gift Cards API

Effective 9 April 2024, the Storefront API Cart supports adding and querying gift cards with version 2024-07 of the GraphQL Storefront API.

Gift cards can be updated in two ways:

• When creating a cart by adding the CartInput giftCardCodes property.

• After a shopping basket has been created, by executing the command cartUpdateGiftCardCodes.

It is also possible to search the shopping basket for applied gift cards using the appliedGiftCards property.

This update enables merchants and developers to seamlessly integrate gift cards into their storefront API implementations and create an even more diverse shopping experience for customers.

Hydrogen April 2024: New features and improvements for an even better Shopify experience

With the release of Hydrogen version v2024.4.0, Shopify is launching a range of new features and improvements for developers and merchants worldwide. This update is all about an improved user experience and increased performance. The following highlights take center stage:

• The integration of Shopify Analytics directly into the platform to give developers and merchants an even better understanding of their data.

• The stabilization of Vite support, which offers a significant acceleration of hot module reloading and thus considerably increases the efficiency of development.

• The implementation of improved SEO tools to optimize the visibility and findability of Shopify shops in search engines.

• The stabilization of the ‘env push’ command, which allows developers to upload and manage environment variables at scale.

• The introduction of a Customer Account API client that simplifies authentication for users and makes access to their accounts seamless.

• The integration of SSL tunneling functionality into the CLI to ensure a secure connection between the developer environment and the Shopify platform.

In addition to these new features, the Hydrogen April 2024 release includes a variety of updates, performance improvements and bug fixes to further enhance the Shopify experience. Check out this blog post from Shopify for more information.

Conclusion

From strengthening sustainability initiatives to providing powerful tools for merchants and developers, Shopify is committed to improving commerce for all stakeholders. We're excited to see what's next and how these new developments will continue to advance commerce on the platform. 

Latori: your partner for Shopify Plus

As a Shopify partner and the first Shopify Plus agency in Germany, Latori has first-hand knowledge and is always up to date with changes to the store system. We have had the pleasure of helping numerous national and international brands switch to Shopify Plus.