With Shopify's most recent Editions now being fully rolled out, let's look at what you need to be aware of.
Every six months or so, once the dust has settled and we’ve got to grips with everything that Shopify have released in their most recent edition, we can’t help ourselves but impatiently wait for them to release their next one.
We’re currently in the dust settling period of Shopify’s most recent edition, their 2024 Summer Edition, and with that in mind, here’s everything you as an eCommerce retailer need to know.
Firstly, this was one of Shopify’s largest editions to date, with more than 150 updates, so it was certainly a big one for us to get our teeth stuck into. The theme for this edition was “unified,” a theme that looks to tie in all elements of running an eCOmmerce business, be it analytics, web development, point of sales, and even design. As a full service eCommerce agency, it’s a theme that runs through us too, and so without further ado let’s look at some of the key new features introduced in Shopify’s Summer Edition 2024.
Markets is Shopify’s cross-border management tool. First introduced in 2021, Markets has been one of Shopify’s most essential offerings to businesses looking to grow and expand internationally, as it means they don’t have to set up a second store front. This most recent edition sees Markets become the central hub for, not just cross border stores, but for all secondary stores too.
Whether it be brick and mortar, your international stores, or even B2B for Shopify Plus retailers, recognising the importance and power of the tool, this new edition sees Shopify push Markets to be the do-it-all hub for managing all of your different stores. Previously, accessing each of these different sections of your store was a more long-winded process than it needed to be, and so Shopify has significantly cut down on this, configuring all expansion efforts under one hub. The new and expanded Markets tool seeks to give you a more holistic picture of your business overall.
For retailers who sell many different types of products, it’s unlikely that your products all get shipped from the same location, or even use the same shipping company. This means that one item may arrive days before another. But to a customer, all they see is the blanket “shipping” option applied to their entire order.
Split Shipping seeks to clearly convey this, illustrating that different products may have different delivery times, and different shipping rates. So a customer has the option to choose express shipping on a product they really need, but the standard shipping rate on the remaining products that are less essential to them. Similarly, if a high shipping cost is stemming primarily from one component of their order, a customer is given clear information and can choose to remove that item from their cart and save significant cash on shipping, which will potentially improve conversion rates overall.
We’re all about making data driven and information led decisions. However, doing so requires access to the most accurate data you can get and having that data displayed in a way that’s tailored and made for your business needs.
Shopify clearly recognises this too, and this edition sees them massively expand on their analytics dashboard, allowing merchants to build their dashboard in a way that suits them. Many merchants still heavily use Google analytics in favour of Shopify’s solutions, but this new, pre-built reporting dashboard will likely pick up a lot of the slack
The big one.
We love a headless storefront - why do you think we have a development team to begin with? However, whilst headless eCommerce gives you more functionality overall, it can slow you down. Similar to collaborative design tools such as Miro or Figma, Shopify have introduced the Hydrogen Visual Editor powered by Utopia. This tool opens a test version of your Shopify site, and allows designers and developers to make visual changes to pages in tandem - as if they were working on a big Adobe Illustrator project.
The whole point is to allow an entire team to work together at the same time, not in a sequence. The tool reads, writes, and understands code too, so as a change is made, it’s written into the code that powers the page. So the Hydrogen Visual Editor is set to massively empower not just designers, but developers too.
Not everything Shopify releases can be the most ground-breaking new feature, and this edition is no different, with a number of smaller updates being unveiled too. So let’s go through a lightning round of some of our favourites
A cute new feature tailored more towards those new to the Shopify platform is Shopify Sidekick. Sidekick is essentially a chatbot tool that answers questions and can direct merchants to the right place.
Equally, there were further edits made to the Shopify Magic AI image generator tool. The new edits allow you to edit more images, and have even brought the feature to Shopify’s mobile app.
In their previous edition, Shopify rolled out theme blocks, allowing merchants to customise individual elements of their store’s theme, rather than being limited to a rigid layout. “Style Settings” allows merchants and theme developers to make edits to sections and blocks of your Shopify store, akin to an email designer like Mailchimp.
Retailers with a physical storefront or those who regularly host pop ups, pay attention, as Shopify’s POS now offers solutions to link in-store customers into your email marketing activity, send digital receipts, and determine whether or not a product can be returned.
One of the biggest announcements from the last editions was the introduction of the Combined listings app, a feature that linked together products with many different variants, all from the same product listing. This time around, it’s finally been rolled out. Our entire development team can breathe a deep sigh of relief, as this new feature is certain to save them a ton of time.
As we get fully to grips with all of the new features, we can’t wait to see what Shopify puts out in their next edition, whether it be functionality for developers, further empowering new store owners, or something completely unexpected. And, if you’re on the lookout for a full stack eCommerce team to take your Shopify store to the next level, contact us.