Shopify has launched Canvas, a new AI powered website builder that lets merchants create and edit online stores by chatting with the company’s Sidekick assistant. Previously, Shopify’s no-code tools allowed merchants to customize themes by rearranging sections and blocks, but more advanced changes often required editing code directly or hiring a developer. Canvas is designed to reduce that need by letting users describe what they want in natural language instead.
As Sidekick makes changes, Canvas renders the actual store in real time rather than showing a static preview. Shopify says Canvas displays the real code behind the storefront, allowing merchants to test animations, interactions and layouts as they would actually appear on the live site. Users can also switch between different screen sizes to see how the store will look across devices, and Sidekick takes screenshots of the interface while working so that it sees the same version of the store the merchant sees.
Merchants are not limited to chat commands alone. Canvas still allows users to click individual elements and make changes directly, while also offering zoom and pan controls for navigating the full storefront. Sidekick itself is not new, since Shopify has already used the assistant for writing code, building apps, customizing themes and making other store changes, with Canvas bringing those existing capabilities together into a dedicated site building environment rather than introducing an entirely new assistant.
To make Canvas possible, Shopify gave Sidekick direct access to theme files and simplified the underlying theme architecture, which the company says makes a store’s structure, logic and design easier for the AI to understand and modify. Canvas is still in an early stage and currently works only on desktop, and at launch it does not support third-party themes, app blocks and extensions, Markets, translations, rollouts or theme updates, though Shopify says it plans to add support for those areas over time. Canvas joins a growing number of AI powered site building tools from companies including Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and Framer, as well as newer vibe-coding platforms such as Lovable and Replit, adding to a broader trend of e-commerce and web platforms incorporating conversational AI directly into their design and development workflows.
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