Shopify’s official WordPress plugin has opened the door for publishers and bloggers to add simple ecommerce functionality without migrating to a full storefront. The plugin lets you embed products and collections directly into any WordPress post or page, then handles orders through Shopify’s secure, mobile‑friendly checkout. For content‑driven sites that want to monetize with physical goods or digital downloads, this hybrid model offers the best of both worlds: WordPress for SEO and content control and Shopify for payment processing and inventory management. But while it’s a step in the right direction, it’s not yet a one‑stop WooCommerce replacement. This post examines the missing features and improvements we’d like to see in future versions.
How the plugin works
Before diving into what’s missing, it helps to understand how the plugin operates. After installing and connecting your Shopify account, you can add Shopify blocks to any WordPress page via the Gutenberg editor. These blocks let you choose a product or collection to display, pick a grid or single‑product layout, adjust image sizes and alignment and control what information appears (title, price, description). When a visitor clicks “Buy,” they’re directed to Shopify’s hosted checkout, which is optimized for conversions, supports Apple Pay, Google Pay and major cards and inherits your logo and colors. Product management, pricing, taxes and fulfilment continue to live in your Shopify dashboard, while your WordPress site retains its SEO plugins, page builders and themes.
What the plugin gets right
The plugin shines in several areas:
Fast setup: Going from installation to live product blocks can take under an hour a huge win compared to cobbling together multiple WooCommerce extensions.
Secure, mobile‑first checkout: Shopify’s checkout is proven to convert and is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant. For merchants without developer resources, this is a major advantage.
Reduced maintenance: You avoid many of the plugin conflicts and security headaches associated with traditional WooCommerce setups.
Built‑in compliance: Tools for GDPR and fraud prevention are baked in.
Reliable infrastructure: Shopify handles uptime, performance and payment processing behind the scenes.
Despite these strengths, the plugin currently leaves a lot to be desired, particularly for merchants who need more control or advanced functionality. Here’s where the plugin falls short and how Shopify could improve it.
Missing features and needed improvements
1. On‑site and customizable checkout
The biggest limitation is that checkout always happens on Shopify’s domain. The plugin cannot host checkout on your WordPress site, nor can you embed third‑party scripts for analytics or upsells unless you’re on Shopify Plus. This off‑site redirect can be jarring for users and makes it impossible to add custom fields or modify the flow without a $2,000/month enterprise plan. Ideally, future versions of the plugin would either allow on‑site checkout with tokenized payments or provide deeper customization on standard plans, such as adding order bumps, surveys or post‑purchase funnels.
2. Limited styling and branding options
Product blocks come with a few layout choices and basic color tweaks, but they don’t automatically inherit your theme’s typography, spacing or button styles. According to Shopifreaks, merchants often need to write custom CSS to achieve brand consistency. Better integration with WordPress themes and page builders would make the plugin feel less “bolted on.” Ideally, you could choose from multiple button styles, fonts and layouts—or even sync design tokens from your theme.json file—without touching code.
3. No support for app integrations
One of Shopify’s strengths is its vast app ecosystem for reviews, upsells, subscriptions, product bundles and loyalty programs. Yet the current WordPress plugin doesn’t support any of these integrations. For example, you can’t display star ratings from a review app, offer a “Subscribe & Save” option or present cross‑sells and upsells at checkout. Adding hooks for Shopify apps—or at least native support for core features like reviews and subscriptions—would elevate the plugin from a simple product embedder to a robust commerce solution.
4. Lack of localization and multi‑currency support
Global brands need to sell in multiple languages and currencies. The plugin currently does not handle multi‑language or multi‑currency experiences. Visitors in Europe or Asia see prices in your default currency, which can hurt conversions. Shopify’s Markets feature allows multi‑currency pricing and auto‑redirects shoppers based on location, but that functionality hasn’t made its way into the plugin. Future updates should integrate Shopify Markets so that WordPress shoppers see local pricing and translated product details.
5. SEO metadata and structured data limitations
Another frustration: the plugin does not sync each product’s SEO title and meta description from Shopify to WordPress. Instead, every product page on your WordPress site displays the site’s default SEO title. This is a missed opportunity for ranking product pages in search results. Shopify could update the plugin to pull individual product meta fields, generate JSON‑LD schema markup and allow custom meta tags within WordPress’s SEO plugins. Until then, merchants must edit meta tags manually or rely on work‑arounds.
6. Two dashboards and split analytics
Running the plugin means managing content in WordPress and inventory/orders in Shopify. Analytics are also separated: SEO and engagement metrics live in WordPress, while ecommerce metrics live in Shopify. Switching back and forth can be cumbersome. A more unified experience—perhaps a simple analytics dashboard within WordPress or a content editor inside Shopify—would streamline workflows. Even a synced analytics layer that surfaces key metrics (conversion rate, revenue per post, time on page) in one location could help merchants make faster decisions.
7. No advanced ecommerce features
The plugin works well for simple product sales, but it lacks built‑in support for subscriptions, memberships, dynamic pricing or bundles. The ecomm.design review notes that merchants seeking complex checkout flows or heavy customization will find the plugin limiting. Adding native subscription options (similar to Shopify’s “Subscriptions” app) or the ability to bundle products together would make the plugin more competitive. It would also be helpful if the plugin integrated with Shopify’s new AI recommendation engine so that merchants could display personalized product suggestions based on visitor behavior.
Workarounds and temporary solutions
Until Shopify addresses these shortcomings, there are a few ways to bridge the gaps:
Custom CSS and page builders: Use your theme’s custom CSS area or a page builder like Elementor to restyle product blocks. While not ideal, this can improve visual consistency.
Third‑party translation and currency plugins: Tools like Weglot or WPML can translate your site content and display currency selectors. These aren’t fully integrated with the Shopify plugin but can localize other parts of your WordPress site.
Manual SEO fields: Use a WordPress SEO plugin (Yoast, Rank Math) to set custom titles and meta descriptions for each product page. This is time‑consuming but better for SEO than default titles.
Custom API integrations: Developers can build custom blocks that call Shopify’s storefront API to fetch more data (reviews, variants, etc.) and display it in WordPress. This requires coding, but it’s possible until the plugin supports more features.
Improvements we’d love to see
To make Shopify’s plugin a true competitor to WooCommerce and other WordPress ecommerce solutions, consider these enhancements:
On‑site checkout with custom fields: Offer an embedded checkout that allows merchants to add custom fields (e.g., gift messages or survey questions) and control the layout without needing Shopify Plus.
Better styling controls and theme support: Provide more block variations, support for theme typography and spacing and the ability to import design settings from popular page builders. Even a drag‑and‑drop style editor would help.
App ecosystem integration: Expose hooks so that Shopify’s review, subscription and upsell apps can render within WordPress. Or provide built‑in mini‑apps for common needs like reviews and membership subscriptions.
Localization and multi‑currency: Integrate Shopify Markets so that the plugin automatically displays prices in local currency and loads translated product data based on visitor location.
SEO and schema improvements: Sync product meta titles and descriptions from Shopify to WordPress; generate product schema markup for rich snippets; allow structured data customization within the WordPress editor.
Unified dashboards and analytics: Build a WordPress dashboard widget that aggregates key ecommerce metrics (sales per post, top‑performing products, conversion rate) and allows quick product edits without leaving WordPress.
AI‑powered personalization: Add an option to enable Shopify’s AI product recommendations on product blocks or embed AI chatbots to answer customer questions. Given that AI personalization can boost engagement and revenue, integrating these features could help merchants stay competitive.
Native social commerce integration: Let merchants connect their Instagram Shop, Facebook Shop or TikTok Shop directly via the plugin. With social commerce projected to represent 17% of global ecommerce sales, this integration would allow you to sync inventory across channels and sell on social platforms without additional plugins.
Conclusion
The relaunched Shopify WordPress plugin solves a long‑standing challenge: combining WordPress’s content strength with Shopify’s high‑converting checkout. It offers fast setup, strong security and fewer maintenance headaches than a traditional WooCommerce stack. However, it still lacks several key features that seasoned ecommerce merchants have come to expect—from on‑site checkout and full design control to localization, SEO syncing and app integrations. If Shopify delivers these improvements, the plugin could become a serious contender for mid‑tier and enterprise stores. Until then, it remains best suited for bloggers, creators and small businesses looking for a lightweight way to sell through their WordPress sites.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: Do I need a Shopify subscription to use the plugin?
Yes. The plugin itself is free, but you’ll need at least a Basic Shopify plan ($29/month) to sell products.
Q2: Can I customize the checkout page on WordPress?
Only to a limited extent. You can change your logo and colors, but deeper customization (like adding custom fields or changing the layout) requires a Shopify Plus subscription.
Q3: Does the plugin support subscriptions or upsells?
Not natively. The plugin doesn’t currently integrate with Shopify’s app ecosystem for reviews, upsells or subscriptions. You’d need custom API work or additional Shopify apps to add those features.
Q4: How can I make product pages SEO‑friendly?
Until Shopify adds metadata syncing, you’ll need to manually set titles and descriptions with a WordPress SEO plugin and generate product schema markup yourself. It’s extra work, but it ensures your product pages can rank in search results.
Q5: Is the plugin suitable for large catalogs?
For stores with hundreds of products, managing inventory and content across two dashboards can be cumbersome. WooCommerce or a headless Shopify approach might be better until the plugin adds bulk editing and unified analytics.
