Shopify Launches Official Plugin for WordPress

Shopify announced today that the company is jumping into the WordPress market with a new official plugin and three WordPress themes. The Canadian company captures just 8% of the e-commerce technology market share, trailing WooCommerce (31%), Magento (19%), OpenCart (11%), Prestashop (10%), and others (13%).

The new Shopify Buy Button plugin is intended for users who already have a business set up on WordPress and are only looking to sell a few products with a buy button, as opposed to a full-fledged store. It allows users to sell products that have already been added to their Shopify stores and requires a $9/month Shopify Lite subscription.

Shopify partnered with Themezilla, Themify, and Ultralinx to build Shopify-powered WordPress themes. The themes are only free to download for a limited time, which leaves users without updates unless they purchase the theme from the commercial provider.

The corresponding plugin is currently hosted on GitHub but is in the process of being reviewed for WordPress.org, according to product representative Daniel Patricio.

“Many users have already been using it through the themes for a couple weeks now so we just wanted to get it out there to the rest of our users,” Patricio said. “We are in the review cycle to get it listed and should be up shortly where people will be able to get updates as we add features.”

It is not advisable to use or install the plugin until it is hosted on WordPress.org, as Shopify currently has no way to deliver security updates to users. It is unclear why the company chose to officially launch its new WordPress integration without updates in mind, but this is a major concern. If a vulnerability were discovered, the company has no straightforward way to alert people who have downloaded the plugin from GitHub.

When asked for an ETA for the plugin’s arrival on WordPress.org, Patricio said, “We don’t have a timeline yet but will be getting it up there soon.”