Shopify’s winter edition consists of 100+ product updates. Here are the top product releases that are powerful new updates that will enable Shopify stores to convert better, drive more omnichannel presence, discoverability and accelerate growth. The below updates align really well with Shopify core principles that absolutely will result in an increased rate of successful entrepreneurs. The below updates are reason enough for the best DTC brands of tomorrow to be built on this platform.
These five principles were a) be the easiest way to start a digital native business b) Be the ideal way to sell globally in all channels c) Be the best developer and platform ecosystem d) Uphold technical and design excellence e) Create leverage from scale.
Powering Conversions:
1. SEO Improvements with Semantic Search 🎯: is Shopify’s AI powered storefront search engine feature. Which goes beyond keywords that helps businesses better understand buyer intent. For example, someone might type organic products to prevent colds and coughs, and the search might throw results for herbal supplements, ayurvedic products that prevent colds and coughs, even though they have not used keywords. Customers can use more natural words and phrases, and get richer, more relevant results. Exclusive to Shopify Plus. Customers can now match multiple values, using filter logic.
2. Swatch filters in Search & Discovery App 🚀: Visual filters can now be added for swatches on Collection and search results pages, so customers can easily find products that come in certain colors, patterns or materials. Filter Logic, can find products that match multiple values, like jeans that are both slim fit and tapered. Plus, choose how you’d like to display filters in a scenario where filtering leads to no product results.
3. Shopify Subscriptions 🎁 : increase customer lifetime value and predictable revenue by offering products like subscriptions with Shopify’s new, free subscriptions app. Easily set up and manage subscriptions directly from Shopify admin and give your customers the flexibility to modify or skip subscription orders directly from their account.
4. Product Merchandising 🌞: unlock up to 2,000 variants per product to better support more complex catalogs. Available in developer preview, and to select businesses in 2024. This looks promising as Shopify looks to tap other verticals with complex product variants like automobiles.
5. Shopify combined listings: Products that come in multiple colors or styles can all be merchandised from a single parent listing, each variation with its own description, media gallery, and URL. This would help in accelerating SEO rankings of each product and improve discoverability.
6. Shopify Bundles: Shopify increased the maximum number of products that can be offered from 10-30. Merchants who use Shopify Scripts can now also use Shopify’s bundle offering to increase their average order value.
7. Shop Pay & Payments🎯:
Shop Pay Now Integrates with all Commerce Platforms: this is big! The internets highest converting checkout Shop Pay, now integrates with all commerce platforms. Read more about Shop Pay and its integration here.
i. Discount Code Flexibility: You might want to use discounts as a way to promote sales, special offers, or as customer loyalty rewards. You can hence create both manual and automatic discounts. When you create a new discount code, it displays on the Discounts page in your Shopify admin. To distribute this discount code, you can send the code to your customers by email or display it on your online store. Your customers need to enter the code during checkout to receive the discount. After your discount codes are set up, you can use the Sales by discount report to find out how often your discount codes are being used.
Learn about the ultimate martech stack loved by the best DTC brands here.
ii. Shopify Checkout Extensibility: Checkout Extensibility is future way to customize the highest-converting checkout. It’s now even more powerful with 14 new APIs and UI components. It is also supported on the Thank You and Order Status pages. Exclusive to Shopify Plus.
a. In the past, Shopify offered the checkout.liquid file as a solution, but it had its limitations. Customizations made through checkout.liquid were difficult to test and maintain, incompatible with Shop Pay, and required periodic and complicated upgrades to access new features. Customizations made through Checkout Extensibility works seamlessly with Shop Pay, which converts up to 50% better than guest checkout. New features like one-page checkout, Shopify’s bundles offering, discount stacking, and more are instantly available, and they’ll work consistently across all buying surfaces.
Brands are supercharging checkout with checkout extensibility driving growth. Still using checkout. liquid? Checkout Extensibility is the new way to customize Shopify checkout that replaces it. Start planning your upgrade now to get ahead of these deadlines: Checkout.liquid will be turned off in stages – first on August 13th 2024, we will see information, shipping and payment pages getting turned off and then thankyou and order status pages on August 28th, 2024.
b. Shopify checkout one page design: Shopify’s new, streamlined one-page checkout reduces buyer completion times by 4 seconds. Shopify’s infrastructure improvements have accelerated checkout loading speeds by up to 95%.
c. Estimated instalments amounts on product pages: Boost conversion with the new Shop Pay Installments Purchasing Power feature. Customers can see their estimated instalment amounts directly from the product page and complete their purchase with more confidence.
Learn 2024 ecommerce trends and thoughts for DTC owners here.
8. Expansion Across Channels:
1. Shopify POS Updates : A large portion of Shopify’s updates have been made of POS updates largely to fulfil omnichannel experiences making Shopify a powerful force to reckon with. Key updates are as below:
i. Sell reliably at the counter: Accept tap, chip, and swipe payments and power your busiest sales days with solid Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, backed by Shopify’s 99.9% platform uptime.
ii. Easily capture display emails: with one tap now display digital receipts, collect emails and marketing opt-ins by tapping into Shop Pay’s extensive buyer network.
iii. POS Go available in Ireland and UK: Retailers in the UK and Ireland can now benefit from the all-in-one mobile POS to scan barcodes, accept payments, and manage their store from one handheld device making way for exceptional on the go experiences!
iv. Remote log out for POS Go: to ensure privacy and security one can remotely log out of any POS device from the Shopify admin.
v. Other POS capabilities: include ability to see and access retail inventory transfers. See incoming transfers and receive inventory intuitively from the Smart Grid, attribute online sales to retail locations and staff with Send Cart, easily capture reasons for returns in-store, manage taxes, cancel orders, and void payments in POS, enhanced security and control over staff access.
vi. Shopify continues to make it easier for merchants to sell around the globe with enhancements to its Markets Pro offering, including multi-currency, language translation, merchant of record services, inventory management, and more.
vii. Shopify Collective: new timelines to track orders on Shopify Collective.
viii. Better Product Visibility: Better filters and supplier details for discovering new products. Expand your product assortment with access to thousands of brands. Narrow your search with filters for retail price, category, margins, and free shipping. Then assess quality with verified product ratings.
ix. Faire Wholesale Platform Partnership: Sell Wholesale, a new sales channel for Shopify merchants. Shopify’s partnership with Faire, the leading online wholesale marketplace, to help brands reach new B2B customers. Install the Faire, sync your products, and effortlessly connect with a vast network of retailers.
Learn how to optimize checkout experiences from cart to post purchase offer here
9. Drive Marketing Initiatives Stronger:
Stronger retargeting options and ad benchmarks💥: Shopify has introduced smarter algorithms that maximize performance on the top ad platforms. Most merchants at least double the size of their retargeting audiences with improved custom Retargeting Boost lists in V2.2. Exclusive to Shopify Plus.
i. Shopify is doubling down on the Shop App: Shop Cash is now Shop Campaigns and expanding beyond just offers on the app. Soon, you’ll also be able to attract buyers on Meta and Google. You’ll also get real-time estimates for new customers, sales, and return on spend, and understand and improve campaigns with expanded analytics. Shoppable videos and product recommendation quizzes. Increase order conversion using lead capture with Shop: Allow customers to sign in on your lead capture form, automatically applying their discount and helping them speed through their checkout. The Shop assistant gets smarter across surfaces with AI recommendations for products. Switch between multiple stores in Inbox. Custom email templates using HTML and Liquid. Get email notifications when someone submits a Shopify Form
ii. Shopify App Store: One of the most powerful components of Shopify is its ecosystem of app partners and now it’s even easier to find the ones that will help take your ecommerce store to new heights. Find the best apps for your business using AI. Compare apps side by side on the app store. Up-front permissions and smoother app installations. Search for apps right from the admin.
iii. Shopify Audiences V2.2: just released and more than doubled the size of retargeting audiences for all merchants. Shopify also released new benchmarks for measuring performance so you can compare your ad performance to similar stores or industry groupings.
iv. New benchmarks for measuring performance – Explore key metrics and separate seasonal trends from campaign performance with historical data.
10. Shop Cash now offers ability to attract new customers across more channels. Get real-time estimates for new customers, sales, and return on spend, and understand and improve campaigns with expanded analytics.
11. Shoppable videos and product recommendation quizzes: Boost engagement with Shop Minis, including shoppable videos on the home feed from Tolstoy, shoppable videos in your store from Videowise and Showday product recommendation quizzes from Shop Quiz.
12. Increase order conversion using lead capture with Shop: Boost order conversion when you let 100M+ customers with Shop accounts sign in on your lead capture form, automatically applying their discount and helping them speed through checkout.
13. AI Powered Shopping Assistant: With complementary product ideas and suggestions, the AI-powered shopping assistant helps shoppers discover the best product for their needs – now online and in the app.
14. Custom email templates using HTML & Liquid: Code your own emails and import them to create custom email templates you can use in automations and new email campaigns.
15. Get email notifications: when someone submits a Shopify Forms: Turn on email notifications in Shopify Forms for any forms you need to watch closely, like contact forms or wholesale inquiries.
Learn more on 14 best takeaways for 2023 for ecommerce stores here.
Integrated Reviews: Sync ratings and reviews across more surfaces like the online store, Shop app, and Shopify Collective using Yotpo, Loox, Judge.me, Okendo, and Stamped.io. Replies to reviews in Shop now sync across channels. Now the replies you write to reviews seamlessly sync everywhere, with improvements to data management powered by metaobjects. Shop-generated reviews in your online store now include a verified by Shop badge to build trust with customers.
Know and predict the value of your customer cohorts: Use historical and predictive spend metrics found in the Cohort Analysis report to gain Shopify-powered insights into the long-term value of your customers and optimize customer retention over time.
Review a customers email history from their profile: Provide better, more informed customer support with a record of all transactional emails sent to each customer directly on their profile – notices like shipping updates and order confirmations.
Shopify Collabs: Harley is bullish on the creator economy, and it shows with significant updates to Shopify Collabs – including Intuitive filters and search for recruiting creators. Pay commissions automatically with Shopify Billing. Consolidated creator profiles. Manage creator applications in bulk with additional features for searching for specific creators, sorting by date applied, or filtering by country. Organize your creator connections in Shopify Collabs with affiliate tiers, tags, sales-driven, etc. Customize affiliate offers by segment in Shopify Collabs with different commission and discount rates.
Learn more about Smarte Digital email marketing services here.
Scale Operations Efficiently:
i. Transform your product photography with AI: Create professional product photos with new AI-enabled image editing features. Instantly generate, match, or remove the background of your existing images using just a few clicks or keywords. No design skills needed.
ii. Tell your story with content created by Shopify Magic: Complete new pages in your store more quickly with AI. Ask Shopify Magic to write an About Us or FAQ page for your business to help customers build trust in your brand.
iii. Data Privacy: Privacy settings now live on a centralized page, with recommendations on which settings to activate, and are configurable by region.
iv. Built in tools for managing privacy and compliance across markets: Increase buyer trust with intuitive privacy and consent management tools.
Privacy settings now live on a centralized page, come with recommendations on which settings to activate, and are configurable by region.
v. Shopify Lending: Three new products that provide more flexible and customizable financing solutions: 1) Capital Loans & Cash Advances 2) Term Loans 3) Line of Credit
vi. Shopify Balance: Shopify will now pay you an annual percentage yield on all of the money you keep in your free. Balance account, including the ability to set aside estimated sales tax automatically. You can also automate bill paying by syncing invoices from Gmail, Quickbooks Online, or Stocky.
Shopify Balance: Shopify will now pay you an annual percentage yield on all of the money you keep in your free Balance account, including the ability to set aside estimated sales tax automatically. You can also automate bill paying by syncing invoices from Gmail, Quickbooks Online, or Stocky.
vii. Shopify Tax: Shopify released a new US sales tax report that simplifies your annual, quarterly, and monthly filing. Shopify Tax also now supports international businesses selling in the US, helping determine where you may be liable, accurately collect tax, and save time filing with custom reports. VAT recommendations for France, Germany, and the UK have also been released.
viii. Shipping & Fulfillment: Empowering merchants to fulfill orders faster with fewer errors: Always-on address validation protects your business from failed deliveries, address correction fees or lost sales. Connect your buyers to the right stock and reduce overselling by limited products available on the storefront and checkout to physically fulfillable inventory based on your shipping configurations. Outsource fulfillment with the Shopify Fulfillment Network powered by Flexport. Edit shipping costs and discounts on orders if a buyer chooses the wrong shipping rate at checkout or if an order update means the shipping details need to change. Shopify-suggested shipping services for every order. Customize your inventory index save up to 86% with USPS Ground Advantage. Lower shipping costs with UPS Ground Save. Exchanges on Shopify: Available in early 2024, you can now easily create, track, and manage exchanges for any order from the admin.
Outside of this Shopify have developer experience and developer extensibility.
Learn more about Smarte Digital personalization solutions here.
ix. Shopify Functions ⭐: Enables complex shipping discounts like a percentage or fixed amount off specific shipping options and discounts based on buyer identity or purchase history with the Shipping Discount Function. Allows for Multiple discounts from a single function. Customize discount reduction logic. Provides dedicated webhook topics for discounts. Enables one to Cancel orders via GraphQL. GraphQL Admin API now supports combined listings, enabling multiple child products under a single parent product. Receive data from Web Pixels API on DOM events (user click, form submit, etc.) to better understand how visitors engage with an online store. Access Share ad cost and impression data with Marketing APIs and helps Identify online store visitors with the Visitor API. New Store Credit Primitive and API allow merchants to issue, track, and report accurately on store credit.
Shopify Winter 2024 Build is here learn the why behind the build.
In summary, this was a outstandingly impressive suite of product releases and updates from Shopify. I am super excited to see how they continue to make commerce easier for merchants.
Smarte Digital Inc. is an ecommerce retention marketing partner for modern DTC brands. We offer exclusive pricing offers for our ecommerce strategy consulting services and our lifecycle marketing services such as email marketing, SMS marketing services for Q1 2024.
We are also offering a free martech stack audit for Q1 2024. To identify gaps in your tech stack and optimize your martech stack, lets chat. Strengthen your foundational retention strategy now for growth, book a free 30 min discovery call with us at https://smartedigital/contact-us.
