[shopify] 2025: Checkout updates are hard mode!

Merchants (stores) using Shopify will likely receive an email like this around February 19th, 2025, and many stores will be confused and panicking because they don't understand what it means.

I don't know what it means, but I think I understand that in 2026, that is, on August 28th next year , we have to upgrade to a new "Thank You Page" and "Order Status Page"! But what exactly do we have to do?

I'm sure you don't understand anything about that, so I recommend you read this article to find out about future updates.

Depending on the store, the impact will be quite large , so we will also touch on the areas that are most affected!

You can also check it out in the video

What kind of update is it?

This update will bring major changes to the page that appears after customers have finished shopping .

When a customer finishes shopping, they arrive at what is known as a " thank you page ." It's a page that says things like "Thank you for your purchase." I'm sure you all see this often.

At the same time, Shopify will send a "thank you email" which will have a button called "Confirm your order" with a link to a page where you can check your order information. The place you can reach from that email is the " order status page ."

You may not be aware of this, but until now, Shopify has

• Thank you page
• Order Status Page

In fact, we were on the exact same page .

Therefore, when trying to measure the number of visits to the thank you page using Google Analytics, the number of purchases did not match!

After all, it is the same page. Some people access it multiple times during one purchase.

The image is something like this.

This update splits the page into two

This time, the update will see the "thank you page" and "order status page" becoming separate pages, which were previously just one page!

That alone might make it seem like an update that is only "for the better", but in fact the principles themselves have been changed quite a bit behind the scenes, so even we at the production company thought "Huh? So this won't work anymore", and some app companies were left thinking "We'll have to redesign the app from scratch to use this...what should we do?" and withdrew from the market !

The image looks something like this.

You will be redirected to a completely different page !

This is such a big update that it would never be finished if I were to explain every little detail, so I would like to write about the things you should pay attention to going forward.

Scope of impact

There are two main areas of impact! There are not only disadvantages but also quite a few advantages, so this is a big step forward for Shopify !

From a Japanese mentality, you might feel like saying, "What do they think of their users if they couldn't do this until now?", but this is Shopify's strength...or rather, the strength of overseas IT, which is that overseas IT is designed to always overwrite the latest with an attitude of "If you can't keep up, we'll leave you behind!"

Microsoft Office does drastic updates every now and then, right? It's the same thing.

If we were to worry about our users, we would never be able to make progress, so we are willing to abandon the way we have done things in the past in order to make progress (which is why there is a difference between Japan and other countries).

Leaving aside the issue of mentality, let's talk about two major changes !

Checkout apps

First of all, the way you install the app, or rather the specifications for how you use it, will change significantly!

Of course. What used to be one page needs to be able to be displayed on two pages, one for "thank you" and one for "order status." Since not all shops have changed at present, the app company needs to make the specifications compatible with "both," but the programming specifications are also very different from the current situation.

From the perspective of app users, it will be possible to set up the app without coding and customizability will increase significantly, so I think there will be many benefits !

For example, this is a page for updating the thank you page, but take a look at the left side.

You should be able to see things like "Encourage LINE ID integration" and "Referalas Widget" (it may be too small to see on a smartphone).

If your app has evolved to include specifications that support these thank you page updates, you will be able to implement a variety of measures on your thank you page just by adding these blocks !

This is a very powerful tool for increasing sales, and it allows you to add cross-selling and upselling apps at a rapid pace.

The order status page looks like this:

This is a screenshot of the scene where I'm about to add an app block. Can you see that it looks slightly different from before?

But you can still add various things to the app and rearrange them, so I think you can see that it has evolved a lot from the "things you couldn't tweak at all" days!

Yes! This is definitely a positive change from a user perspective!

However, as I said earlier, the app companies are in a tough spot.

There are cases where anything that has been created up until now is completely unusable, and some app companies have given up on updating and have withdrawn from the market. Of course, the companies that have withdrawn will be considered "companies that were not very profitable," so I am concerned that this will continue to happen to more small Japanese app companies.

Also, since the specifications will be completely different from before, there may be many precautions to take for each app when updating.

Regarding these apps, I would like you to refer to the guidelines published by the app companies, but as a merchant I think it is necessary to take measures.

If you don't have a knowledgeable partner, please contact our partner companies, including our company!

Checkout Script

Another big change is that this checkout script will no longer be usable!

In particular, the instructions of apps that have already been installed

 Add the code below to your checkout script.
 <script>
 const aa = order.id
 if(aa == "cc") {
 let b = "BB"
 }
 </script> 

The code itself is very rough, but depending on the app, there were many instructions to embed JavaScript code like this, but this will no longer work!

This was basically the settings section where you could customize the page when it was just the ``one'' thank you and order status page .

The update will change the way the elements that you've used to customize your thank you pages are implemented!

If you see something like the image above in the "Settings" -> "Checkout" section, be careful when updating! Be sure to check the contents before updating .

I think the most common pattern is where the installation code for "Google Tag Manager" is attached, so I will explain this in the next chapter.

Another common pattern is to paste the specified delivery date and time on the thank you page.

 <script>
 Shopify.Checkout.OrderStatus.addContentBox(
 {% for attribute in attributes %}
 {% if attribute.first == "配送希望日" %}
   ' {{ attribute | first }} ',
 ' {{ attribute | last }} ',
 {% endif %}
 {% endfor %} )
 </script> 

This is the pattern with the code attached.

This is pretty hopeless, and there is no alternative! If the app you use to specify the delivery date and time has a function to display the date and time on the "thank you page" or "order status page", you can use that to include it, but if you set the delivery date and time yourself, you will have to create a dedicated app for displaying it yourself! That's the current situation.

Please note that even with other codes, the only alternative may be a "homemade app," so you should basically assume that it's "impossible."

Be careful with Google Tag Manager!

A typical example of writing code using a checkout script is Google Tag Manager!

In Shopify, "themes" and "checkout" (the thank you page from the purchase page) run on clearly separate source codes.

The Google Tag Manager for the "Theme" on the homepage will not be affected, but there are many cases where this checkout script has been used to measure checkout conversions!

In this case, you can continue to use the tag manager code itself by rewriting it in a place called "custom pixel."

Paste the code excluding the HTML part of the tag manager into the "Customer Event" setting. That is the specification.

The meaning of the html tag is <script>, so just think of it as saying "Leave this out!"

For now, the installation of the tag manager itself is complete on the thank you page and order status page, but from here on out, it gets complicated!

Confusing pixels

Tag Manager is a tool that consolidates tags that collect various data via the tags, such as Google Analytics, Clarity, Yahoo Ads, etc. Furthermore, you can collect events and gather data by setting it up from the Tag Manager console, but you also need to embed the code to send those events in the pixel .

And it depends on the item!

For basic Google Analytics data, it's much better and easier to use the "Google & Youtube App" than to use the pixel. Same goes for Facebook's Meta Pixel. It's better and easier to get data from the "Facebook & Instagram App"!

If you want to perform more specific measurements that the app can't obtain, you may need to put in the effort to set up pixels, but generally most customers should be able to avoid this by using the app!

We often get enquiries about strange behaviour in measurements using Clarity or Yahoo Ads, or about events that were previously set using Tag Manager but can no longer be collected because they have been moved to Pixels. In these cases, it is necessary to discuss with the person collecting the data and the person who can manipulate the pixel "What kind of data do you want, and in what form?"

What's more, unfortunately, I have hardly ever met anyone who is familiar with pixels. Our company is also currently feeling our way around. There is very little information available, so the majority of businesses are struggling, which makes it a very difficult situation.

But, as I said before

"Google & Youtube App"

"Facebook & Instagram Apps"

It's so amazing! Honestly, I'm blown away by the system.

Companies that have been making a living with this setting up until now will wonder what they should do? They have collected so much data that we recommend taking this opportunity to completely switch over.

If you want super detailed analysis for super large scale marketing then I recommend using pixels!

Difficult domain settings are also required

The final big change is that the page has been split into two parts: the "Thank you page" and the "Order status page".

Change the URL of your order status page

This problem will occur! It will occur forcibly !

Please rest assured that the order status page will not disappear. So, you don't have to deal with it immediately.

If you update and go to "Installation" → "Checkout", you will notice that it looks like this.

That's right. The URL for the order status page is

https://shopify.com/71124746513/account

(The number is the store's unique number)

It will be forcibly changed to. When you look at it in your browser, it's not surprising that some people have doubts like "Huh? This isn't the URL of the store where I bought it. Could it be a scam site?!" (There are warnings to be careful!)

To avoid this forced event, you can set up a "subdomain" as shown in the screen above.

For example, the homepage part of our company's URL is

★https://cavedescript.com/

This is the URL, but the order status page is

●https://account.cavedescript.com/

It is recommended that you change the URL to this one!

What makes merchants cry more than anything is...

There is an instruction to set up CNAME on the DNS server .

This is not a big problem for the production company that usually handles domain settings, but from the perspective of the stores that we don't usually deal with,

"Eh, what should I do with this??"

It's not hard to imagine the situation this is in! We've had a number of such consultations in just the past month, and there are a lot of customers who don't even realize it !

After all, this was barely announced!

If you read this blog and know someone who is a Shopify merchant, please share it with them!

The change has occurred without us even realising, so it's become something that you may not even notice.

Shopify has prepared an explanation page on how to make the changes.

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/domains/add-a-domain/connecting-domains/connect-domain-customer-account

However, it's difficult to know how to get there, so be careful!

summary

Of all the updates so far, this one is a "mandatory event" that all merchants must update, so it will be quite a surprise.

"What's up with Shopify?"

Some of you may think so, but if you think about it, apps have evolved rapidly, with the ability to collect data with a high degree of accuracy and separate customizations being added to the checkout and order status pages!

In particular, the evolution of data integration has a huge role in helping improve the efficiency of ad delivery.

・Advertising efficiency is overwhelmingly better when you operate an e-commerce site with Shopify!

・We were able to collect data in such detail because we used Shopify!

The benefits are far greater! As overseas IT tools never stand still and continue to evolve, I think there will be many more big changes in that area in the future.

That's why it's strong!

To be honest, it's hard to keep up. Even though we are a production company that specializes in Shopify, we are struggling to keep up.

Thanks to this, we are always able to come into contact with the world's cutting edge technology, so we don't become a company that gets left behind by the times.

Unless you are a specialist, it is difficult to keep up with the details of ad integration and Shopify (to be precise, it depends on how well the engineer can keep up with it, not the specialist).

We often come across sites that are not able to fully utilize Shopify's capabilities, so please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.