Shopify Canvas Builds Online Stores Through Sidekick Chats

Shopify introduced Canvas on Thursday as a site-building tool that lets merchants set up a Shopify store by chatting with its AI agent, Sidekick. [1] The company’s earlier no-code builder relied on themes with modular sections and blocks, while deeper customization could require editing code or hiring a developer. [1] Canvas displays Sidekick’s changes in real time, and merchants can inspect the whole store, focus on details or directly select individual elements for manual changes. [1]

Canvas renders the store’s real code instead of a static preview, allowing merchants to test interactivity and animation and inspect pages across different screen sizes. [1] Sidekick previously supported writing code, building apps, customizing themes and making other edits, but those capabilities had not been assembled into a full site-building product. [1] Shopify gave Sidekick direct access to theme files and simplified its theme architecture so the agent could more easily understand and change a store’s structure, logic and design. [1] Canvas joins AI-powered site builders from Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and Framer, as well as vibe-coding platforms including Lovable and Replit. [1]

Canvas shifts Shopify’s builder from arranging theme components toward a workspace where Sidekick can alter actual files while the merchant watches the rendered result. Compared with the AI site builders named by TechCrunch—Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and Framer—Shopify’s approach centers on an agent already used for code, apps and theme work, now unified around the full store. The practical test is whether chat and direct editing provide enough control for deeper customization without manual coding or outside developers. What the sources don't address: when Canvas will reach all merchants, what it costs, or what safeguards govern Sidekick’s file-level changes.