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What is the Shopify Shop app?
The Shop app was launched in 2020 as a digital shopping assistant, to “help businesses sell more by making it easier for customers to buy.” Customers can use the Shop app as their go-to shopping channel: it shows them a feed of their favourite products by their favourite brands and stores, which they can easily add to their cart and order, straight from the app. After an order is placed, Shop also takes care of communicating order details and shipping information.
Through the Shop app, customers can easily discover new products and brands - while merchants have an extra channel where they can connect with buyers who show an interest in their product. What is more, Shop offers buyers personalized product recommendations based on their previous purchases and the brands they follow, thus making it easier for brands on Shop to turn customers into repeat customers.
What is Shop Pay?
Payments in Shopify's Shop app go through Shop Pay, a digital wallet that speeds up the checkout process considerably by saving a customer's payment details and having them sign off with a five-digit code. Shop users can also pay through Shop Pay when they visit a Shopify store outside of the Shop app, provided this store has Shop Pay enabled.
Shopify's answer to Amazon?
To e-commerce insiders, Shop's similarities to Amazon suggest that Shop is Shopify's attempt to offer an alternative to the world's largest marketplace - by creating its own marketplace of sorts. Uniting Shopify brands of all sizes and shapes in one convenient, customer-facing spot gives all merchants under the Shopify umbrella an extra advantage, and increases sales all over the platform.
For Shopify itself it means shifting some percentage of buyers’ product- and brand discovery, from external channels like Amazon, Instagram and Facebook, to a platform under Shopify’s own control.
Since Shop also allows merchants who are not on Shopify, Shopify might be serious about taking on Amazon in the long run - although it is as yet unclear what Shopify’s plan for Shop is. Recent additions to the Shopify platform, among them Checkout Extensibility and Customer Account Extensibility, suggest that Shopify is working towards a more customer-centred setup. In this scenario, customers will have all their data and preferences stored in a single Shopify account from which they interact with individual Shopify stores.
Why the Shopify Shop app matters for merchants
Shop should be on Shopify merchants’ radar for all the reasons mentioned above. It offers brands not only an extra sales channel, but also a way to connect with potential buyers who have already shown an interest in similar products and brands - at no extra cost.
Since acquisition has become increasingly expensive over the past few years, this is a proposition few merchants can ignore. Combined with the conversion-boosting speed of the Shop Pay checkout, Shop is sure to bring in more sales.
Key advantages of the Shopify Shop app
The Shop app has a lot to offer, both to buyers and merchants. Let's take a closer look at the key advantages for both.
Advantages of Shop for your customers
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Easy discovery of brands and products: Instead of searching for new favourites on social media and buying from an individual brand's online store, customers can conclude their entire shopping journey in-app.
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Curated shopping experience: Shop offers a tailored shopping feed with deals, updates, and new arrivals of customers’ favourite brands and product categories.
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Personalized recommendations: Shop displays products and stores based on previous purchases, browsing behavior, and preferences.
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Local shopping: Shop makes it easy to find businesses in a customer's own region.
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Easy checkout with Shop Pay: Shop Pay stores a customer's payment details and preferences, so they can complete a checkout by entering a five-digit code.
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Transparent order tracking: Shop takes care of keeping a customer up to date on order details and shipping, and makes reordering favourite products easy. The Shop App tracks orders not only from Shopify webshops but also from other webshops; try it yourself!
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Rewards: Shop users earn 1% back of the purchases they made using Shop Pay, in the form of rewards that can be redeemed on future purchases made through the Shop app. Shopify also hosts yearly sale events offering higher rewards.
Advantages of Shop for merchants
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Lower ad-spend: Shop brings in new, quality customers at no extra cost.
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Mobile-first: Shop improves customer experience by being fully optimized for mobile devices.
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Increased visibility: Merchants can showcase their stores and products on the Shop app and customize their home feed, store, and inventory on Shop.
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Improved retention: Customers receive notifications, order updates, and personalized feeds.
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Shop Pay integration: Shop encourages repeat purchases with Shop Pay.
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Analytics and tracking: Shop offers data on how customers interact with your brand in the app.
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Loyalty features: Shop builds trust with verified reviews and product recommendations.
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Reduced cart abandonment: Thanks to Shop Pay’s friction-free express checkout.
Disadvantages of Shopify Shop
As usual with Shopify, they are continuously improving their platform and services - and Shop is no exception. Here are a few things to keep in mind when considering using Shop as a merchant.
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Full functionality requires integration with Shopify's ecosystem, which might not suit businesses using multiple platforms.
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Some features may involve extra fees, impacting overall profitability.
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Customers cannot checkout from multiple stores at once. Having bought several items from different brands, they need to go through checkout for each item separately.
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iDeal is not (yet) available as a payment method in the Shop Pay checkout. We recommend Dutch merchants to look into the new iDeal as an alternative.
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Shop Campaigns is as yet only available to merchants in the US and Canada. With Campaigns, merchants can run ad campaigns targeting new and existing customers at a set price, and only pay when a customer converts.
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To appear in the Shop app, you must enable Shop Payments in Shopify. Here's how you can activate both the app and the payment method:
Shopify is proactive in addressing these concerns, and keeps working on Shop. In Shopify Editions Winter 2025, the place where Shopify launches new features and upgrades twice a year, a number of additions and improvements to the Shop app were announced:
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Shopify introduced a more engaging Shop feed, now showcasing merchants’ brand colours, videos and images in the feed. The app now also features personalized recommendations to engage Shop users.
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Merchants can work with Shop Mini’s to bring their brand to life in the Shop app, which offers (among much else) the option to have customers initiate returns and exchanges directly from the order management page in the Shop app.
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Merchants can now set up search- and collection filters in their online store on Shop, improving how customers browse in the app.
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Shopify has improved the experience for customers signing in to your online store with Shop - boosting the sign in conversion rate by more than 16%.
How to enable the Shop channel in Shopify
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From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Apps and sales channels.
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From the Apps and sales channels page, click Shopify App Store.
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If applicable, then log in to continue to the Shopify App Store.
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From the Shopify App Store, search for Shop, and then click Shop.
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Click Install.
Running into an issue enabling Shop? Check out Shopify’s Help Center here.
Go Shop with Code
With Shop, Shopify offers its merchants yet another advantage compared to other e-commerce platforms: its own sales channel, where brands can find new customers who are already known to have an interest in what they offer, and stay top-of-mind with existing customers. A sales channel that is completely free to use for Shopify merchants, no less.
The Shopify Shop app is a great addition to your marketing strategy, and will help you increase your customer base without spending a ton on advertising. Want to know more about how to boost your e-commerce growth without buying traffic? Check out Code’s E-commerce Growth & Acceleration program for our take on what a healthy growth strategy looks like - and how you can get one.
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