TORONTO, March 5, 2026, 15:03 (EST)
- Shopify rolled out a revamped Shopify POS and introduced POS Hub hardware, both targeting in-person checkout experiences.
- Shares gained roughly 3% in New York on Thursday. In Toronto a day earlier, Shopify advanced 6% as tech stocks bounced back.
- Among the additions: inventory transfer reports, plus more restricted staff access to customer data.
Shopify Inc climbed roughly 3% on Thursday, building on gains from a sharp rally in Toronto the previous day. LSEG data showed the Canadian e-commerce company’s stock recently changing hands at $133.76 in New York.
Shopify, largely recognized for its e-commerce storefront tools, is now working to shore up the in-person shopping experience. Its point-of-sale product, Shopify POS, is grabbing a larger share of attention, especially as more of its merchants juggle both physical and online sales at checkout.
The pressure is on as retailers clamp down on operations and keep a close eye on how staff are performing. When stores get crowded, even minor hiccups—checkout backups, tech malfunctions, clunky inventory moves—can quickly start to stack up.
Shopify on Wednesday detailed new features in Shopify POS v11.0, pointing to tweaks aimed at streamlining the most common cart and checkout actions. The updates were highlighted in a blog post as part of the company’s rolling point-of-sale update cycle.
Shopify is rolling out its POS Hub, a new hardware accessory designed to link an iPad or Android tablet directly to checkout devices—think card readers, receipt printers, barcode scanners, and cash drawers—via wired USB. That’s a shift away from relying on Bluetooth, which has a habit of dropping connections.
Shopify rolled out fresh inventory transfer reports inside its Analytics suite, and merchants now have the option to tap “Sidekick,” its AI tool, for generating ShopifyQL queries. The feature lets users create these queries—Shopify’s proprietary data language—just by typing in plain English instructions.
A new update introduces a “View Customer Details” permission, giving retailers control over which employees can access personally identifiable info—names, emails, addresses, phone numbers—without restricting their ability to process sales.
Shopify shares jumped 6% in Toronto on Wednesday, rallying alongside Canada’s tech sector, which advanced 2.2%. The move tracked the wider tech market this week, with investors recalibrating risk as Middle East tensions flared, according to Reuters. “During wars it’s often good to take a pause and take a look at what it is you own and why you own it,” said Michael Sprung, president at Sprung Investment Management. Reuters
Shopify’s newest product updates follow just weeks after the company raised its first-quarter revenue guidance and revealed a $2 billion buyback, doubling down on AI across its platform.
Shopify’s expansion into physical retail moves it squarely into the path of payments and POS rivals like Block’s Square, plus Canadian retail tech player Lightspeed. These days, it’s not about who can launch an online shop—it’s about who can manage checkout, inventory, and payments without a hitch.
The new tools carry a real hitch: adoption isn’t consistent. Plenty of merchants skip buying new hardware, and store employees often lack training or access to reliable data—making it tough to get much out of reporting and permissions. Should consumer spending cool off or retailers slash tech budgets, POS upgrades may fail to deliver the hoped-for lift in payments and subscription revenue.
