New and Improved Shopify Product Updates - Shopify Editions Summer ‘23

Following the groundbreaking Summer '22 "Connect to Consumer" Shopify Editions, which transformed how merchants establish connections and enhance customer touchpoints, and the forward-looking "Built To Last" Winter '23 Editions, introducing product updates for long-lasting experiences, Shopify has now unveiled its newest Editions: "Imagine My Business."

Twice a year, Shopify launches over 100 new products and updates tailored for businesses and developers, empowering them to maintain agility in the ever-changing e-commerce landscape and craft experiences that cater to consumers' evolving needs and rising expectations.

So, what are the highlights of this Edition? 

Imagine My Business: New Shopify Product Updates

With the world evolving at an unprecedented pace, Shopify’s ‘23 Summer Edition is fully equipped to back your business through any hurdle, utilizing the potential of AI to ignite creativity and propel scalable growth. The overarching theme of these editions highlights Shopify’s commitment to assisting merchants in navigating these dynamic times with confidence and success.

• Shopify Magic

Slowly but surely, AI is sparking a revolution in the way businesses operate, elevating productivity, fostering creativity, and automating various processes. That's why Shopify is integrating AI directly into the platform, calling it Shopify Magic—a suite of AI features catering to merchants' content creation needs. 

Accessible to all Shopify merchants, irrespective of their subscription plan, this powerful tool empowers brands, particularly small to mid-sized ones, to effortlessly generate product, email, and brand content. Additionally, it automates customer responses for live chat inquiries and FAQs. For global brands, Shopify Magic predominantly supports English, with some features extending language support to German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese.

• Sidekick 

Meet Sidekick, a cutting-edge commerce assistant that merges AI technology with Shopify's data, providing comprehensive support for merchants’ - particularly rising entrepreneurs’- everyday tasks. 

Conversational by design, Sidekick understands and acts on everyday language – helping merchants elevate their stores, simplify time-consuming tasks, and enhance business decisions. With Sidekick, you gain access to a wealth of support, whether it's suggesting the ideal apps for your business or aiding in marketing campaigns. Sidekick not only answers your questions and solves problems but also boosts your efficiency, allowing you to accomplish more, faster.

• New Checkout Extensions 

Renowned for its reliability, flexibility, and outstanding performance, Shopify's checkout has rapidly emerged as the undisputed leader in the e-commerce industry, boasting an impressive 15% higher conversion rate on average compared to other top commerce platforms.

With an unwavering commitment to continuously elevate the checkout experience, Shopify consistently introduces new APIs and updates aimed at improving the overall customer experience This time around, Shopify unveils the one-page checkout—a seamless online process that automatically fills in customers' billing and shipping information, streamlining the checkout process and reducing cart abandonment rates.

Exclusive to Shopify Plus users, the new 17 APIs and checkout UI extensions present exciting opportunities to customize delivery options, upsell subscriptions, offer pre-orders for out-of-stock items, and validate buyers’ addresses during the checkout process.

• Shopify Credit 

In this edition, Shopify unveiled Shopify Credit, a pay-in-full business card tailor-made for entrepreneurs. Businesses can apply for Shopify Credit without any impact on their credit score, gaining the freedom to make payments wherever Visa® is accepted. With Shopify Credit, entrepreneurs effortlessly earn valuable cashback rewards while channeling real money back into their businesses, all without worrying about annual, foreign transactions, or setup fees. This exciting opportunity is presently available to select businesses in the United States, offering a game-changing financial solution for their growth and success.

• Shopify Collective 

Expanding your catalog with new items has proven time and time again to boost sales and increase the average order value (AOV). That's where Shopify Collective comes into play.

Currently available to select businesses in the United States, Shopify Collective facilitates the seamless connection and curation of complementary products from top-quality brands on Shopify, ensuring direct shipping to customers. Merchants can effortlessly discover and add these products to their stores, earning a margin on their sales. This offers an excellent opportunity to curate fresh products and expand your business without the hassle and cost of managing warehousing and high inventory levels.

• B2B on Shopify 

Shopify has also introduced a range of B2B features, exclusive for Shopify Plus merchants, to streamline the ordering process for your wholesale buyers and effortlessly manage both DTC and B2B sales within a single shop.

1. Online Store Editor: With the Online Store editor, businesses leveraging B2B on Shopify and Shopify Markets can now seamlessly edit their store to include context-specific pages dedicated to wholesale and international customers. This editing capability is all managed within a single store, providing enhanced convenience and efficiency.

2. Wholesale migration: Shopify is simplifying the process for businesses to migrate historical orders from their existing store to B2B on Shopify without requiring any code (available for Shopify Plus only).

3. Volume pricing: Effortlessly apply quantity price breaks to incentivize business customers to make purchases in larger quantities.

4. Automation with Shopify Flow: Shopify Flows has expanded its support for B2B now including companies and company locations. This enhancement allows you to perform various tasks, such as assigning terms, sending invoices, and more, providing added flexibility and efficiency for your B2B operations.

5. Store personalization: Without the need to code, B2B merchants can design and craft website pages tailored for their business customers, displaying relevant content seamlessly within a single centralized store. 

6. Quick order lists: Present customers with a list of product variants, enabling them to easily order sizes, colors, and more—all from one section of your product pages.

7. PayPal payments: PayPal payments are now available, offering customers the convenient option to pay for their orders and invoices using PayPal. As a merchant, you can easily reconcile these payments directly in the admin, streamlining your payment processes.

8. Vaulted credit cards: Business customers can now utilize a previously stored credit card on draft orders at checkout or when paying an invoice.

• Shopify Bundles App 

Now, merchants can enhance their customer experience with curated product bundles, offering enticing discounts that can boost average order value significantly. For fixed bundles and multipacks, merchants can explore the latest free Shopify Bundles app. 

For more advanced bundling options, such as mix-and-match bundles, Shopify recommends that merchants use one of the updated bundle apps in the Shopify App Store or build a custom bundle offering using Shopify’s API, if merchants are on Shopify Plus. 

All apps integrate with the admin and include real-time inventory syncing for oversell protection.

• Shopify Marketplace Connect 

The Shopify Marketplace Connect App is the ideal solution for brands seeking to expand their reach through wholesale. It empowers merchants to seamlessly connect their product catalog with various marketplaces, such as Walmart, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. With this app, managing and synchronizing listings, orders, and inventory becomes effortless, while performance measurement is centralized on the Shopify platform.

• Polaris Updates 

Shopify has introduced additional resources to support app developers in delivering the finest experience for businesses and meeting the Built for Shopify requirements. With the beta release of Polaris v12, developers can proactively update their app's look and feel to align seamlessly with the newly redesigned Shopify admin, ensuring a cohesive and modern user experience. 

Polaris is currently in the process of developing version 12, set for release in September. To assist apps in aligning with Shopify's new design language, this version is now accessible in early beta.

As the name suggests, the Summer ‘23 Shopify Editions strongly emphasizes reimagining businesses and empowering entrepreneurs to revolutionize the way they operate. 

As a Shopify Plus agency, we are thrilled to leverage these new features to provide our clients with the ultimate experience. If you'd like to learn more about how these latest updates can elevate your business or need expert support in implementing them into your current Shopify store, don't hesitate to get in touch with us. We're here to help you seize the full potential of these advancements.