Latest Shopify Editions – Developments and updates.

Once again, Shopify has unveiled its biannual updates called Editions, aimed at supporting merchants, partners, and Shopify developers in keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of e-commerce.

These updates provide essential products and tools to adapt to shifting consumer needs.

The Summer Shopify Editions encompass an array of over 100 updates, many of which introduce significant enhancements, including entirely new features and workflows.

We’ve curated an overview and concise summary highlighting the key updates for your reference.

Let’s delve deeper into the key aspects.

Shopify’s Vision-

In the latest Editions rollout, Shopify extensively explored the changing nature of commerce and its path ahead.

Their main aim was to empower all kinds of merchants,

whether beginners or seasoned businesses, by providing them with cutting-edge tools and advancements needed to thrive in this constantly evolving field.

With a range of updates, fresh features, and the introduction of new products,

Shopify intends to transform the landscape of how businesses function.

Take a closer look at these recent advancements to assess how they could be applied effectively in your own store.

Major Updates and Key Features Unveiled by Shopify

Shopify’s latest Summer Editions release brings a slew of fresh enhancements and functionalities,

poised to make a significant impact on mid-market to enterprise-level brands and our clientele.

Introduction of Custom Landing Pages

Shopify introduces the capability for merchants to create custom templates using meta objects,

a feature that streamlines the development of unique content templates.

This simplification is crucial for effectively communicating essential brand and product information to drive e-commerce sales.

By utilizing metaobjects, merchants can structure design elements for their storefronts, incorporating quizzes, customer highlights, product features, and brand specifics.

This approach establishes a content library, facilitating the integration of metaobject templates onto pages, inputting SEO details, and publishing—all in a straightforward manner.

Shopify flow ( now available for all plans)

Shopify Flow, an application enabling store proprietors to establish robust automated processes such as sending welcome emails or removing sold-out items, is now accessible for Basic plan users.

Initially exclusive to Shopify Plus merchants, this app has progressively extended its availability to other subscription tiers.

Effective immediately, Shopify Basic stores can also utilize Shopify Flow at no cost.

Sidekick

Side Kick is An AI-driven commerce assistant harnessing Shopify’s data to provide day-to-day operational support.

It is aimed at streamlining your routine tasks such as workflows and research.

This efficient assistant eliminates the need to navigate through the Help Desk by swiftly addressing inquiries.

Sidekick essentially serves as an additional member of your team, available at no extra cost with any Shopify subscription.

Sidekick primarily caters to entrepreneurs seeking aid in managing their store operations.

However, it might not be as beneficial for larger enterprises equipped with established internal teams.

Note- Only the beta version is accessible to merchants.

Packaged Deals Galore

Introducing the new Shopify Bundles app for fixed bundles and multipacks.

This app allows you to craft personalized bundles using products already present in your catalog.

Moreover, when customers buy these bundles, the inventory of bundled products gets automatically updated.

The primary advantage lies in its seamless integration and the fact that this solution is available for free.

While the App Store hosts numerous third-party bundle apps, the majority of them come with a price tag.

The Shopify Bundles App stands to benefit brands of various sizes aiming to elevate AOV,

enhance product discovery, or liquidate inventory through bundled deals.

Expanding Product Variant Limits

One of the standout updates is the expansion of the product variant limit, breaking the previous 100 variant barrier.

Shopify merchants faced limits before this update.

Now, they’re freed to include diverse product combinations.

No more complex workarounds are needed.

This upgrade holds immense value for brands dealing with a substantial number of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). 

Buy Now, Pay Later with Shop Pay

Merchants can offer interest-free payment plans directly to customers for orders ranging from $50 to $17,500.

Shopify introduced a new premium package for Shop Pay Installments, allowing merchants to provide interest-free payment options for up to 12 months

or interest-based monthly installments for up to 24 months.

Shop Pay Installments provide customers the flexibility to pay for their orders in installments, whether they’re making purchases online or in-store.

Orders ranging from 50 USD to 17,500 USD qualify for installment payments.

During checkout, your customers can select from the following installment payment choices:

1. Four equal, interest-free payments made biweekly for orders between 50 USD and 999.99 USD.
2. Monthly payments available for orders between 150 USD and 17,500 USD.
   These monthly installment plans have interest rates ranging from 10 to 36% APR and offer payment durations of three, six, or twelve months, depending on the purchase amount.

Global Updates Available for All

Shopify Magic (AI capabilities)

Ideal for entrepreneurs and small brands seeking additional support without hiring dedicated teams,

Shopify Magic comprises AI-powered features integrated across various Shopify products and workflows.

Shopify Magic is an AI tool aiding merchants in content creation for

product descriptions, email content, and brand materials, and generating customer responses for live chat inquiries and FAQs.

This tool is accessible to all Shopify merchants, irrespective of their subscription plan.

While primarily supporting English, it extends features to other languages like

German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian), and Chinese (simplified), beneficial for brands operating internationally.

Theme Flex Sections in the Online Store Editor

Shopify continues to give merchants more tools to control their frontends using the simple drag-and-drop method.

The introduced flex sections in Shopify 2.0 offer merchants enhanced editing capabilities, enabling them to modify alignments, add elements, resize sections, and more.

This feature empowers merchants to create distinct and appealing store layouts effortlessly.

It presents a valuable opportunity for brands to strengthen their online presence.

With the ability to make quick adjustments to their websites, merchants can better respond to market changes, seasonal events, and promotions.

As a result, this feature enhances merchants’ capacity to engage customers, improve shopping experiences, and increase conversion rates.

This could be beneficial for merchants of varying sizes, especially those equipped with in-house design or marketing capabilities.

Shopify Subscriptions (Early Access)

Shopify Subscriptions is an application seamlessly integrated into the Shopify admin interface, enabling business owners to create

and manage subscription-based products conveniently from one location.

Through the Shopify Subscriptions app, merchants can directly select products from their catalog to offer as subscriptions.

They can customize delivery frequencies and discounts.

On the storefront, customers can choose subscription intervals, proceed to checkout, and manage their subscriptions by skipping, pausing, or altering payment methods.

The app also offers default templates for reminding customers about subscription payments and delivery details.

Ideal for small-sized businesses seeking a straightforward subscription option.

Shopify Marketplace Connect

Shopify Marketplace Connect empowers merchants to integrate

their Shopify product catalog seamlessly with major marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy.

This feature allows merchants to sell their products across various global marketplaces using a single app.

It streamlines the connection between merchants’ product catalogs and selected marketplaces,

enabling them to manage and synchronize listings, orders, and inventory—all within Shopify.

Existing listings can be linked retrospectively, and for international brands,

the feature includes built-in currency conversion, enabling sales across marketplace regions.

A valuable tool for brands aiming to broaden their reach through wholesale.

Suitable for entrepreneurs (Etsy) up to mid-market businesses (Walmart).

New Checkout Extensions and Exclusive Plus Features

Shopify remains focused on improving the checkout experience. To begin with, Shopify has introduced a streamlined one-page checkout.

17 new APIs launched for developers; Checkout Functions are now available across all Shopify plans via public apps.

This condensed online checkout expedites the process by pre-filling customers’ billing and shipping details, reducing cart abandonment rates.

Additionally, through new checkout extensions (exclusively available for Shopify Plus), merchants can now upsell subscriptions

and offer customers pre-orders for out-of-stock items during the checkout process.

Checkout upgrades benefit businesses of all sizes, even large brands not using Shopify Checkout.

With Shop Pay now accessible to enterprise retailers not on Shopify, integration into their existing checkout systems is feasible.

B2B Functionality on Shopify (Exclusive to Shopify Plus)

Introduction of new B2B features simplifying order placements for customers and management for merchants.

These B2B feature upgrades are valuable for merchants engaged in B2B sales, particularly for wholesale or bulk purchase-focused store owners.

The enhancements present chances to enhance customer experiences, streamline transactions, and potentially boost order sizes and customer loyalty.

Several of the prominent new B2B functionalities include:

Storefront customizations in theme editor for B2B clients:

Businesses employing B2B on Shopify and Shopify Markets can now customize their stores,

including context-specific pages tailored for wholesale and international customers using the Online Store editor. This editing capability is managed from a unified store interface.

Automation via Shopify Flow:

Implementation of terms assignment, invoice generation, and more streamlined processes.

Wholesale Migration:

Simplified migration of historical orders from an existing store to B2B on Shopify without requiring coding skills (exclusively for Shopify Plus users).

Native volume pricing:

Easy integration of quantity-based price breaks to incentivize larger purchases by B2B customers.

Storefront personalizations:

Creation of website pages optimized for business customers without the need for coding.

Quick Order Lists:

Display product variant lists for convenient bulk ordering, encompassing sizes, colors, and more, directly from the product pages.

PayPal support for B2B:

Customers can make payments for orders and invoices using PayPal, with simple payment reconciliation for merchants.

Vaulted Credit Cards:

Business customers can utilize previously stored credit cards for draft orders during checkout or invoice payments.

This new update will initiate effortless centralization of entire organizations within Shopify’s ecosystem.

Previously, Plus admin was designed to assist Shopify Plus merchants in managing their multi-store organizations more efficiently.

Now, these store settings have been integrated into store admins, eliminating an additional step from merchants’ daily operations.

Consequently, soon, all tasks previously performed in Plus admin can be managed from a single central location.

For detailed information- Take a note! Shopify Plus Merchants

Conclusion

The latest release, Shopify Editions Summer, introduced an abundance of innovations tailored to aid businesses utilizing Shopify.

Selecting just a handful of these additions posed a challenge, so be sure to explore all updates beyond this limited selection.

Additionally, there were numerous smaller updates tied to Shop App and Shop Pay.

In my view, the main highlights were Artificial Intelligence (AI), B2B improvements, and new applications developed by Shopify’s team.

On the whole, Editions Summer represents a notable stride for Shopify, furnishing businesses with more tools and resources to thrive in the e-commerce domain.

Interested in discovering how these latest updates can elevate your business? Reach out to us for expert assistance in seamlessly implementing them within your existing Shopify store.

Drop your query/suggestion at support@webkul.com or create your ticket at Webkul UV Desk.