Shopify releases a new edition of its platform updates every six months, called “Editions.” The latest one, Editions Summer ’23, was launched in August and offers more than 100 new tools and features for Shopify merchants. In this article, we will highlight some of these tools, including AI and B2B solutions and various apps to enhance your online store.
Explore New Tools Powered by Shopify Magic
Shopify Magic:
is the platform’s AI engine that uses proprietary data and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to generate content for your store. With Magic, you can create product descriptions, content that matches your brand voice, and email campaigns using Shopify Email. You can also use Shopify Inbox to create personalized FAQs and answers from your store data.
Sidekick:
is an AI tool that works like a chatbot to help you run your e-commerce store more efficiently. You can ask Sidekick to do tedious tasks and optimize your store using natural language. Sidekick can help you with inventory management, order fulfillment, marketing, analytics, and more.
Shopify Marketplace Connect:
is an app that lets you link and sync your Shopify product catalog with various marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy. You can update your products, inventory, and orders in real-time across different platforms. You can also manage, track, and improve your performance from your Shopify dashboard. With the app’s currency conversion feature, you can sell in any global region and category.
TikTok:
With the TikTok app, you can link your Shopify account to your TikTok Shop and easily sync your products to TikTok. You can also manage your orders from Shopify without any hassle.
Shopify Collective:
is a new feature that lets you sell products from other Shopify sellers as a dropshipper. You don’t have to worry about fulfilling and shipping the products, as the suppliers will do it for you. You can browse through a variety of items to sell in your store and request to connect with the suppliers you like.
Checkout:
You can now customize and enhance your checkout experience with 17 new APIs and updates from Checkout. You can offer more options to your customers, such as subscribing to your products or pre-ordering items that are out of stock. You can also use apps to add custom logic to your cart and checkout, such as validating the delivery options and the buyer’s address. You can see how your one-page checkout, thank you page, and new customer account pages look in the checkout editor.
One-page Checkout:
Shopify now offers a one-page checkout that makes buying faster, easier, and more user-friendly. You can also check how your app works for the three-page checkout to ensure a smooth experience for both layouts.
Shopify Subscriptions:
With Shopify Subscriptions, you can easily create and manage recurring, scheduled sales of your products. You can offer different subscription plans with various frequencies and discounts for one or more products. Your customers can also manage their orders, such as pausing or skipping them, changing their payment and shipping information, and more. You can also show a subscription widget on your online store to attract more customers.
Shopify Flow:
Shopify Flow lets you create custom automation without coding, and it’s now available for basic plans. You can connect apps to automate tasks like reordering inventory or spotting potential fraud. You can also use Flow to turn on or off sales channels automatically.
Marketing Automation Template:
You can sync Marketing Automation Templates with Shopify Email to create automated email campaigns for your customers. You can customize the templates to match your brand and send emails for different purposes, such as welcoming new customers, upselling after the first purchase, or re-engaging inactive customers.
Shopify Bundles:
With Shopify Bundles, you can create fixed bundles and multipacks from your admin dashboard for free. You can customize how your bundle product page looks with images, variants, and product options. You can also track your inventory in real-time to prevent overselling. Your customers can select from different options like size or color for the products in the bundle.
Themes:
You can now create stunning animations for your themes, such as scroll-based fade-in, image banner effects, and card and button hover effects. You can also personalize the announcement bar and header to suit your brand. Boost your sales with apps that let your customers create wishlists and join loyalty programs, and show them next to your cart.
Shopify POS:
Shopify POS is now more user-friendly and faster. You can process refunds to existing gift cards, both physical and digital. You can also choose the nearest pick-up location for your customers. Add a custom QR code to your receipts, so your customers can access feedback surveys, discount codes, or any other URL you want. You can also cancel orders and void payments easily if your customers change their minds.
Flex Sections:
With Flex Sections, you can use CSS Flexbox to create custom layouts for your store with easy drag-and-drop editing. You can align elements within different sections of your store. You can also resize, group, and edit elements as you like.
Smart Order Routing:
With Smart Order Routing, you can automatically send orders from the best place to fulfill them — for example, a warehouse, a retail store, or a third-party logistics provider.
Shopify Help Center:
An AI-powered assistant that provides fast answers is now available for merchants on the Shopify Help Center.
Shopify Tax Platform:
With the Shopify Tax Platform, merchants can access integrated tax services from trusted partners and use Shopify’s built-in tax calculations to manage all their sales tax needs.
Return Rules:
With Return Rules, you can make returns easier to handle. Create rules that automatically apply to an order and inform customers about fees and items that cannot be returned before they make a return request.
Shopify Credit:
Eligible merchants can get a business credit card with Shopify Credit. It offers cashback rewards on key spending categories and has no credit checks, interest, or fees.
B2B:
Shopify Plus has enhanced its B2B features to offer more flexibility and convenience for both merchants and customers. Some of the new features are:
- Volume pricing: Merchants can set different prices for different quantities of the same product, and customers can see the discounts applied automatically in their cart.
- Storefront customizations: Merchants can tailor the look and feel of their online store to suit their B2B customers’ needs and preferences, such as hiding prices or requiring login.
- Quick order lists: Customers can create and save lists of frequently ordered products, and add them to their cart with one click.
- Company account requests: Customers can request to create a company account, which allows them to have multiple buyers under one account, and manage their orders and invoices.
- Secure credit card storage: Merchants can securely store their B2B customers’ credit card information, and charge them later when the order is fulfilled.
- PayPal payments: Customers can now pay for their orders and invoices using PayPal, and merchants can easily track and reconcile the payments in their admin.
Hydrogen:
Headless commerce with Hydrogen, Shopify’s React-based stack, has become easier and faster with new features that help merchants build a store quickly and efficiently. Some of the new features are:
- Mock Shop API: Merchants can create a mock storefront without a Shopify account, and test their design and functionality using fake products and collections.
- Live product inventory: Merchants can connect their Hydrogen app to their Shopify store with one simple command, and sync their real products and inventory data.
