News in Short

• Shopify has launched Canvas, an AI-powered tool for building online stores.
• Merchants can use Shopify’s Sidekick AI agent to create and edit their stores.
• Canvas shows changes to the actual store code in real time.
• Users can preview animations, interactions and different screen sizes.
• Merchants can also click individual elements and edit them directly.

Building an online store often involves choosing a theme, arranging sections and making design changes. However, deeper customisation can still require coding or developer support.

Shopify is now trying to simplify that process with Canvas. The new tool lets merchants build and customise their stores by chatting with Shopify’s Sidekick AI agent.

Instead of manually editing different parts of a theme, merchants can describe what they want. Sidekick then makes the changes while Canvas shows the results as the store takes shape.

Canvas works with the actual store code

One of the key differences with Canvas is how it displays the store during the building process.

According to Shopify, Canvas does not simply create a static preview. It renders the actual code behind the store.

As a result, merchants can interact with the page while working on it. They can test animations and other interactive elements and see how the store looks across different screen sizes.

Sidekick also takes screenshots of its work. This allows the AI to see the store in a way that is closer to the merchant’s own view.

Sidekick can make changes through chat

Shopify’s Sidekick AI is not new. The company has already used it for tasks such as writing code, building apps and customising themes.

Canvas brings these capabilities together inside a dedicated store-building environment.

Merchants can simply tell Sidekick what they want to change. They can also zoom in, pan across the store and review the wider design as changes are made.

At the same time, users can still select individual elements and make changes themselves.

This gives merchants two ways to work. They can use natural-language instructions for broader changes or directly edit specific parts of the store.

Shopify simplifies themes for AI

For Canvas to work, Shopify has made changes to how Sidekick interacts with store themes.

The AI can work directly with the theme files. Shopify has also simplified the theme architecture so Sidekick can better understand the store’s structure, logic and design.

That approach allows the AI to make deeper changes than simply rearranging existing design blocks.

It also moves Shopify closer to an AI-first approach to website creation, where merchants can describe an outcome instead of learning how to implement it through code.

Canvas enters a growing AI website builder market

Shopify’s launch comes as AI-powered website creation becomes more common.

Companies including Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and Framer already offer AI-assisted website building tools. Platforms such as Lovable and Replit have also popularised conversational or “vibe coding” approaches.

Canvas brings a similar idea specifically to Shopify’s large merchant ecosystem.

For businesses without dedicated developers or designers, this could reduce the technical work involved in creating and modifying an online store.

However, the initial version still has several limitations.

Canvas has some limitations at launch

Shopify says Canvas is still in its early stages. Third-party theme support, app blocks and extensions, markets, translations and theme updates are not included in the initial launch.

The tool is also desktop-only for now.

Shopify plans to expand these capabilities over time. As the product develops, Canvas could make more advanced store customisation accessible to merchants who lack the budget or time to work with developers and designers.

For now, its biggest change is straightforward: Shopify merchants can increasingly describe how they want their store to look and let AI handle the implementation.