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Every online business on Shopify possesses its own unique character, with founders who bring personal narratives, values, and distinct visions that need to be translated into their digital storefronts. To facilitate this, Shopify is launching Canvas, a new design platform that will enable merchants to construct customized online stores conveniently, regardless of their previous design expertise or coding background. This feature will gradually roll out in the coming days and uses Sidekick, Shopify’s AI assistant, to make the design process more accessible.
Ben Sehl, Director of Product at Shopify and the co-founder of Kotn, shared that his own experience building an online store over a decade ago, which required two weeks of coding and troubleshooting, stands in stark contrast to the twenty minutes it now takes an entrepreneur on Shopify to create a superior, fully customized store using Canvas. This advancement aims to narrow the gap between an entrepreneur’s vision and its realization.
Canvas transforms the entire online store into an interactive workspace for creativity and collaboration, allowing merchants to visualize their pages collectively. They can navigate through their site layout, adjusting individual elements with intuitive controls or by engaging Sidekick through a chat interface, ensuring changes appear in real-time for an immediate visual context.
Unlike traditional editing methods that used static previews, Canvas provides a live rendering where merchants can interact with their store, experiencing full interactivity and animations. This allows them to assess different products and layouts across various devices.
Sidekick acts not only as a content creator but also as a collaborative design partner. As it generates content, it engages merchants with questions and suggestions, retaining their prior preferences to foster a more streamlined creative dialogue. This means that merchants can focus on new ideas rather than revisiting previous decisions, all while seeing the results of Sidekick’s work in real-time.
Austin Knight, the design director at Shopify, emphasized that while programming tasks were simpler, steering Sidekick towards making aesthetically pleasing design choices required considerable effort. The AI draws from a rich database of design patterns and evaluations, providing merchants with quality design options that align with their creative visions.
Whether entrepreneurs have a vague concept for their store or a detailed design, Sidekick ensures they have a solid framework that can be refined collaboratively through Canvas, ultimately leading to the realization of their original ideas.
Sidekick has been adept at coding, having already contributed to app development and making over twenty-five million adjustments to themes in early 2026. To tackle more complex store construction tasks, Sidekick now interacts with all aspects of theme files, coordinating its changes more effectively and understanding the underlying structure better.
The AI validates its code and checks the visual outputs against Canvas, creating a feedback loop that enhances its work prior to presenting it back to the merchant. This new capability enables Sidekick to handle various design tasks from small modifications to complete store overhauls, ensuring that the end product accurately reflects each merchant’s individual style.
Historically, crafting a unique online store on Shopify often required extensive coding or hiring external help, turning bespoke design into a daunting challenge. However, with the introduction of Canvas, Shopify is unlocking creative potential for its users, intending to provide a tailored experience for every entrepreneur.
Sehl expressed excitement about making this technology available to merchants eager to innovate and influence future developments. He noted that Canvas is still evolving and does not yet replace existing design tools, but improvements are on the horizon. Canvas is set to empower merchants to create online stores that truly embody their aspirations.
As the rollout of Canvas begins soon, interested users can learn more about getting started with this innovative feature.
