Shopify Over the Years
For the past 20 years, Shopify has been working towards making commerce better for everyone. We were there early on, having built the 123rd store ever launched on the platform… and so we’ve seen first-hand how Shopify has evolved over the years.
Our co-founder Luke Green often makes the comparison that
in those early days, Shopify was like the Duplo of ecommerce – whereas now it’s more like Lego Technic.
That is to say, Shopify is an extremely flexible toolset to build with, but if you put the pieces together incorrectly you can very easily end up with a Frankenstein’s monster of an ecommerce store!
Over recent years, Shopify has been using its Editions to help keep merchants and agencies up to date with the latest product releases on the platform, and all of these releases are geared towards making commerce better for everyone.
Let’s dive in and see just what you should be excited about from these latest announcements.
Shopify Editions: The Headlines Acts!
Shopify Markets goes pro
When comparing Shopify Markets against the expansion store approach, we’ve always come to the conclusion that Markets is a great feature for testing the water with international expansion – but expansion stores are the enterprise solution. However, we might just need to reevaluate the options following the latest updates – and while our conclusion might stay the same, there is no doubt that Shopify Markets has just got a huge upgrade.
For a long time, Shopify Markets has allowed you to specify your domain, set prices and currency, translate your site, and manage your catalogue – all on a per-market basis. But you needed to know where to look in order to manage this information. One of the biggest updates here is the redesigned admin, that puts Markets front-and-centre, thus making it easier than ever to manage your international expansion.
Now, one of the top new features for me, is the ability to customise your theme on a per-market basis. Shopify suggests you’ll have the ability to display specific sections to different markets – for example, you could show your B2B customers in the UK a unique version of your theme, with a specially customised banner that’s just for them!
At time of writing, this feature doesn’t appear to be available in our development stores yet… but you can be sure we’ll be checking it out as soon as possible!
Store performance tracking
As an agency, we’ve been approached countless times by store owners who need our help to fix poorly-performing storefronts, and boost their page load speed. Well, this latest product update targets exactly those questions!
When you install a new app, you will be able to directly see the impact that app has on your store's performance. With this information, you can then make informed decisions about the value the app provides, versus the performance impact.
While this update isn’t a silver bullet to magically improve your store's performance across the board, it is nevertheless a fantastic quality-of-life update, which gives store owners far better visibility on how recent updates have impacted performance.
Shopify Sidekick
The newest generation of AI began to crop up around 2021, and we’re still busy trying to work out if it’s really the revolution they promised! That said, AI is – without a doubt – proving a massively powerful tool when it comes to focussed tasks, mundane admin, and freeing us up for more executive thinking. So with that in mind, how exactly can Sidekick help you?
You can make better business decisions, and resolve tasks quickly – by delegating to Sidekick, directly in your admin. Sidekick understands your store and data, making its responses relevant to your specific needs.
Here’s an example: ask Sidekick to generate a customer segment of your most valuable customers, then have it set up a marketing email specifically to those contacts… and even generate a discount code, added into the email!
Or how about AI image generation, native in your media editor? Just describe the background you want behind your products, and let Sidekick do the rest. AI image generation tools are now available everywhere you can access media in the Shopify admin.
Additionally, Shopify Sidekick can automatically suggest responses to customer queries – making it quicker and easier to handle your support mailbox. Because remember – providing shoppers with real-time answers to their questions can increase conversion by 69%!
Shopify Sidekick is currently being rolled out to merchants across the globe – but you can get ahead of the queue, by signing up for early access.
The Hidden Gems
Bulk Import & Export Product Metafields
This is a big one for me. When planning product data for a new store build, there have been countless times that product metafields would have been the natural fit for a specific piece of product data. However, we’ve always had to weigh this against the ease of populating and managing that data.
Not anymore, though – as product metafields can be imported and exported within a product CSV just as easily as all the standard product data. No longer do you need to rely on third-party apps, or add the metadata via the admin’s bulk editor.
Take better control of your filter options
Here’s another smash hit feature from Shopify. Ever since the introduction of native filters using Shopify’s Search & Discovery app, there has always been one minor pain point: What if you don’t like the order the filter options are presented in? Perhaps you stock 15 brands, but want the five top brands featured at the top of the filter group? Well, now you can easily modify the order directly within the Search & Discovery app, meaning you can promote key brands – or even just list the options in a way that is more logical to your consumers.
Go on, give it a try… and see how it affects the sales of those key brands.
Draft orders now work with discounts
Discounting a draft order was always possible, but it required a little bit of manual work for the merchant creating the order. Now, with the introduction of native discount support, it’s just that little bit easier. When you’re creating a draft order you can add a discount code, apply automatic discounts, or even go the good old-fashioned way – and add a custom discount specifically for this customer.
What Does This Mean for Your Store?
Keeping up with all the latest announcements from Shopify can feel like a full-time job! Not only that, but understanding what features are right for you and your store – and which should be left turned off – is not always quite so simple. After all, what is right for one storefront isn’t necessarily right for you.
That’s where we come in. So while you focus on running your business, let Inspira be your Shopify technical development team – always ready to implement the latest and greatest features! Get in touch today to see how we can support your store going forward.
