Unleash the Power of Shopify Checkout Extensibility: Mastering the Basics

In the dynamic world of online retail, staying at the forefront is essential. For Shopify Plus merchants, switching from the classic Checkout.liquid to the advanced Checkout Extensibility offers a significant upgrade. This shift isn’t merely an update; it powers the way you can customise, improves user experience and significantly increases conversion rates. Join Verz Design as we talk about the importance of this transition and explore the benefits it offers.

Summary

1. Start Planning Your Upgrade Today
2. What is checkout.liquid?
3. What is Shopify Checkout Extensibility?
4. What does this mean for Shopify Plus merchants?
5. Key Benefits of Checkout Extensibility
6. Connect Your Customisations in Checkout.liquid to Checkout Extensibility

Start Planning Your Upgrade Today

What is checkout.liquid?

For Shopify Plus merchants, checkout.liquid serves as a cornerstone of the Shopify platform, playing a crucial role in generating the checkout pages for your online store. This Liquid template offers a measure of customisation for the checkout process, granting merchants a level of flexibility to tailor the shopping experience. Editing this file required substantial development work and a deep understanding of e-commerce coding. Often, modifications would adversely affect Shopify’s system updates, leading to checkout problems. Many store owners have faced difficulties due to this. Until recently, only Shopify Plus merchants had the capability to modify this file for adding custom content to their checkout pages.

Why is Shopify depreciating checkout.liquid?

Tailoring the Shopify checkout process via checkout.liquid has been a complicated and labour-intensive endeavour, necessitating a high level of coding proficiency. Unfortunately, these customisations frequently encounter difficulties during platform updates, resulting in degraded checkout functionality and a subpar purchasing experience for the buyer. Security concerns also loom over checkout.liquid modifications. In August 2022, a significant disruption took place due to an incompatibility between Google Tag Manager and the theme code, leading to a 12-hour worldwide shutdown of the Shopify checkout system. In response, Shopify has committed to enhancing the reliability and efficiency of the checkout process, simultaneously enabling the integration of new features.

Enter Checkout Extensibility – a comprehensive collection of applications and tools made to streamline the customisation process of the Shopify checkout, enabling the creation of personalised checkout experiences. Checkout Extensibility marks a major advancement, focusing on security, seamless app integration, and the safety of upgrades while offering code-free operation. It notably enhances conversion rates and, for the first time, allows for the customisation of express checkout through seamless integration with Shop Pay.

The Checkout.liquid Depreciation Timeline

To ensure a seamless transition for merchants, Shopify has detailed a phased deprecation schedule for checkout.liquid:

• August 13, 2024: The Information, Shipping, and Payment pages will be affected.
• August 28, 2025: The Thank you and Order Status pages will undergo changes.

Shopify is phasing out checkout.liquid to introduce a new era of enhanced checkout customisation and flexibility. This transition will happen in stages, with critical milestones on August 13, 2024, affecting the Information, Shipping, and Payment pages, and on August 28, 2025, for the Thank You and Order Status pages. This gradual approach enables merchants to seamlessly adapt and prepare for forthcoming updates.

What is Shopify Checkout Extensibility?

Shopify Checkout Extensibility represents a groundbreaking advancement, giving merchants total control and customisation options for their checkout experiences. With its modular and adaptable design, it offers superior customisation opportunities, elevates the user experience, and allows for effortless integration with third-party applications and services.

What does this mean for Shopify Plus merchants?

For Shopify Plus merchants, this shift is a chance to leverage sophisticated customisation options, guaranteeing their checkout process is in perfect harmony with their brand identity. The phasing out of checkout.liquid marks a dedication to offering a stronger, more adaptable solution that addresses the changing needs of the e-commerce world.

Key Benefits of Checkout Extensibility

The Shopify Checkout.liquid has been a steadfast cornerstone for e-commerce platforms. Yet, as the e-commerce landscape shifts, the technologies that support it must evolve as well. Checkout Extensibility introduces a comprehensive array of customisation features, granting merchants unmatched control over the checkout experience.

1. Increased Speed and Conversion

Checkout Extensibility is built on the most advanced platform technology available, offering a checkout experience that is twice as fast as before. Thanks to quick interactions and smooth transitions between pages, merchants can anticipate an average increase in conversion rates of more than 1%. This boost in speed minimises friction during the purchase process and plays a significant role in elevating conversion rates, thereby positively affecting your bottom line.

2. Integration with Shop Pay

Integrating seamlessly with Shop Pay marks a significant advancement for merchants moving to Checkout Extensibility. This allows for the addition of custom features to Shop Pay, ensuring a uniform and brand-specific checkout experience. Moreover, it leverages Shop Pay’s exceptional speed, offering a checkout process that’s four times faster. Such integration provides a smooth purchasing path for your customers, leading to enhanced satisfaction and fostering greater loyalty.

3. Powerful New Checkout Features

Upgrade to Checkout Extensibility and unlock powerful new features that will transform your checkout experience. Enjoy the convenience of a streamlined one-page checkout, the innovative offering of Shopify bundles, and the advantage of stackable discounts. This suite of tools is crafted to elevate the shopping journey, making the checkout process not just more user-friendly, but also positioning you at the forefront of market trends and exceeding customer expectations.

4. Upgrade-Safe

A key benefit of Checkout Extensibility lies in its upgrade-safe feature. Contrary to the manual upgrades frequently required with checkout.liquid, Checkout Extensibility guarantees that checkout upgrades are a thing of the past. This advantage provides immediate access to the latest checkout features upon release, eliminating the need for manual updates and ensuring a smoother, more efficient process.

5. Enhanced Security

Security is a critical concern in e-commerce. Checkout Extensibility tackles this issue by utilising Shopify UI components and APIs in a secure, sandboxed environment. This method significantly bolsters the security of the checkout process, ensuring that both merchants and customers can conduct transactions with confidence, knowing their sensitive information is protected.

6. Consistent Buying Experience

Checkout Extensibility is now accessible for Shopify Plus merchants on the Thank You and Order Status pages, allowing for a comprehensive enhancement of your checkout process. This upgrade ensures a cohesive and branded purchasing experience, building trust and loyalty among your customers.

Upgrading to Checkout Extensibility from checkout.liquid represents not merely a technological upgrade but a strategic enhancement to equip your online store with state-of-the-art features, superior speed, and heightened security. The advantages, including improved conversion rates and a more uniform buying experience, are undeniable.

Connect Your Customisations in Checkout.liquid to Checkout Extensibility

Customise the look and feel of your new checkout

The introduction of Checkout Extensibility marks a significant evolution in how you can customise your checkout’s appearance. Before this innovation, adjustments to the look and feel were made through branding settings in the Theme Editor or by embedding custom CSS/styles into your checkout.liquid theme file. Checkout Extensibility now offers extraordinary flexibility, allowing you to tailor the checkout experience via apps for a seamless visual journey during the purchasing process. For visual customisation, you can leverage the checkout editor or the Branding API, enhancing the aesthetics and functionality.

The checkout editor is a vital tool for tailoring colour schemes, selecting fonts, and refining overall style. Within the editor, access the Settings to customise the visual appeal of your checkout, or explore the Sections to tweak its functionality. For those seeking more nuanced control over the checkout’s branding, the Branding API offers a powerful avenue to significantly alter its aesthetic and user experience.

Add Custom UI or Content to Your Checkout Process

Traditionally, enhancing the checkout experience with custom UI or content involved embedding JavaScript code directly into your checkout.liquid file. However, with the advent of Checkout Extensibility, this process has been streamlined, allowing for seamless integration of customisations via apps. Now, you have the option to either select an app from the Shopify App Store or develop your own custom solution.

The checkout editor simplifies the process of configuring these apps, making it effortless. Dive into a range of apps enhanced by checkout UI extensions, which offer innovative features like upsells, custom banners, loyalty programs, and tailored delivery workflows. With a carefully selected app guide and an expansive app store featuring over 400 compatible apps, you have access to an extensive array of resources to meet your customisation needs.

Extend or replace key parts of Shopify’s backend with custom logic

Shopify Scripts were once the preferred method for integrating custom logic into Shopify’s backend, such as extending or replacing key components. However, with the advent of Shopify Functions, we’re ushering in a new era. These functions enable the replacement of critical backend logic, signalling a phase-out of Shopify Scripts. Similar to UI customisations, you have the option to either install an existing app or develop a bespoke one, which can be configured via your Admin dashboard.

Currently, Shopify Functions offer support for a range of customisations and validations including discounts, payment and shipping options, checkout processes, order routing, custom bundles, and fulfilment constraints. Although Shopify Scripts will continue to be compatible with Checkout Extensibility until August 25, 2025, the shift towards Shopify Functions provides a seamless upgrade path, ensuring your customisations remain effective without worry about the obsolescence of your Scripts.

Track customer events

Previously, tracking customer events required either custom coding or reliance on external tag managers. However, with the advent of Checkout Extensibility, a more efficient option is now available – the Customer Events page in your Shopify admin. This feature allows for the seamless management and tracking of customer events by facilitating the addition of pixels. Users can easily integrate these pixels, either by utilising apps from the Shopify App Store or by configuring custom pixels. It is advisable to first consider pixel apps for a secure and optimised integration experience. For insights into potential future applications, the Checkout Extensibility roadmap offers valuable information.

Make the Switch from Checkout.liquid to Checkout Extensibility with Verz Design Today

Switching from Checkout.liquid to Checkout Extensibility on Shopify Plus is a smart strategy that prepares your online store to thrive in e-commerce. By adopting advanced customisation, enhancing user experience, and allowing for future growth, you’re not just upgrading your checkout process – you’re future-proofing your business. Embrace the opportunity, follow the guidelines in this guide, and fully leverage the capabilities of Shopify Checkout Extensibility to elevate your brand.

Upgrading to Checkout Extensibility offers many advantages, but it’s crucial to acknowledge possible challenges, such as compatibility with current apps or themes. That’s where we step in. At Verz Design, our team of expert developers is here to tackle compatibility issues before they escalate into major obstacles.

Get in touch with us today to ensure a smooth migration, and discover the full potential of Shopify Checkout Extensibility for your business. Give us a call at 6841 1680 or send an email to enquiry@verzdesign for a free consultation.