Shopify & Framer | When is Shopify going to integrate a Framer plugin?

[devonveillette]

Hi Shopify,

Shopify currently does not support Framer and I would like to know when this is coming or if there are plans for near future? 

The current theme editing tools for Shopify themes are agonizing from a designer's workflow. The dominance of Figma in the industry is for good reason and with this industry standard of design / development I would like to request there be more steps to match these workflows. 

---

Extended Exposition // 

• I would love to design & build in Figma and be able to publish to the Shopify directly. Building in framer is a similar experience to building in Figma (and by extension Webflow).
• The ability to freeform around a canvas (just like Figma) would be a night & day quality of life improvement to Shopify's current workflow. 
  • This would also apply and free would-be Shopify Store owners from the constraints of their current theme (which vary widely in user-friendliness). 
  • Cannot reiterate enough the power of this ability & how it is my favourite thing about Framer which I would adore to see on Shopify.) This is critical when you have a lot of different pages and products you would like to quickly go through. This is something Figma does incredibly well.
• Visible Breakpoints would be a killer feature.

Benefits //

•  Shopify would cater to designers outside of those with high HTML & CSS knowledge.
• Lower barrier to entry.
• Match current workflows already established as industry standard with figma. 
• There would be a lot more creativity with designs and by extension themes that would be available. 
• Less to no reliance on outside Shopify developers for more complicated themes.
• Reduce / overshadow appeal of Squarespace Commerce due to the more user-friendly WYSIWYG editor of Squarespace version 7.1 building / customization tool. 
  • Sidenote: This is a huge proponent of why I'll setup a client on Squarespace is because the handoff of the project requires little to no coming back for future edits / additions. 
• This is something the Shopify & Framer Community wants. It would result in a boom of new stores / upgrades to current stores. 
• Seamless development for business & static sites without DNS edits (or less) regarding subdomains etc.

---

Outside Discussions on the topic //

• https://www.framer.community/c/support/framer-and-shopify 
• https://www.reddit.com/r/framer/comments/10h19br/checkout_integration/ 

---

Kind regards,

Devon

[Joda_Stoesser]

Hi Devon,

I understand your frustration, and have asked myself similar questions a few times over the years. Here are some of my thoughts on this.

Shopify will not provide a native solution to this

In the past, if Shopify partnered with an external service to provide a feature, they integrated it natively after some time and severed the reliance on the third party service.

Especially, since they already have some kind of "Page builder" of their own with their theme customizer as well as the section and blocks logic of Online Store 2.0. Currently in developer preview is something like "Online Store 3.0" with "Flex Sections", announced close to 2 years ago: https://www.shopify.com/ca/editions/summer2023?product=flexible-sections

They should allow deeper nesting of sections and blocks, as well as more flexible options and positioning.

Here are some resources on it:

• https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/themeblocks

• https://shopify.dev/docs/storefronts/themes/architecture/blocks/theme-blocks/developer-preview

Of course, it's unclear when they will actually release and themes support them. A lot of theme developers have questions about them and the upgrade path:

• https://github.com/Shopify/reference-theme/discussions
• https://github.com/Shopify/reference-theme/discussions/36
• https://github.com/Shopify/reference-theme/discussions/26
• https://github.com/Shopify/reference-theme/discussions/16
• https://github.com/Shopify/reference-theme/discussions/1

Framer itself or an app developer might build an integration

It is more likely that Framer itself will build an integration into Shopify, than Shopify moving on this. Either by providing a way to push templates to Shopify to build your own theme or by pulling in Shopify data like products, and showing them in your Framer site (headless).

However, in the Framer community thread you linked, a feature request for this exact feature seems to have been deleted, so I wouldn't get my hopes up: https://www.framer.community/c/requests/integration-request-framer-shopify

There could also be an external developer building an app to facilitate something like this, but it is a lot of work.

As you never got an answer here, you might ask in the new developer focussed community: https://community.shopify.dev/

Maybe somebody there has more information on the technical challenges.

There are alternatives already

Framer Commerce

Mentioned in the Framer community thread you linked, is something called https://framercommerce.com/

They connect a CMS collection in Framer to the Shopify store and pull the latest products in. This allows you to extend your Framer site with Shopify data.
This means you cannot use Shopify apps that add frontend elements, as everything is going through Framer.

ShopiFrame

Again, mentioned in the Framer community thread you linked, is also something called https://shopiframe.com/

The approach is somewhat different and relies on Shopify's headless functionality. As far as I understand, the page is full built in Framer and has the same limitations as Framer Commerce regarding Shopify apps. However, the Shopify data is not synced to Framer, but is pulled from Shopify directly when the visitor opens the page.

Builder.io

Even before Online Store 2.0 Builder.io, a service not too dissimilar to Framer, provided ways to build templates and push them to Shopify. With Online Store 2.0 they adapted and allowed you to build out sections and blocks to use in Shopify directly. A nice approach, especially people would be less reliant on them in their day-to-day.

Check out their current features:

• https://www.builder.io/m/shopify
• https://www.builder.io/c/docs/shopify-plugin

Instant.so

Another service, specifically for Shopify this time, is https://instant.so/

They come as a Shopify app and a service to build a lot of custom elements for your theme. This could provide a hybrid solution for you, even it is not what you were looking for originally.

Good luck

Joda