Shopify’s New Features 2018

If you remember in back May this year, Shopify made some really exciting announcements at their annual developer and partner conference: Shopify Unite.

Keynote speakers presented us with a series of new features, automated functionalities and simplified tools that have been built in order to improve business management for existing merchants and to offer an array of new opportunities for global expansion. Shopify also wants to welcome more merchants into joining their ecosystem and taking advantage of these new products and services.

This fits in with Shopify’s vision for an inclusive international commerce ecosystem, which should be “in the hands of the many, not the few” (Harley Finkelstein, Shopify COO).

On that note… let’s recap on what we thought were the most impressive new features announced at the conference.

 

1. Internationalisation

 

Multi-currencies

(Shopify Plus merchants)

Let’s start with our favourite announcement.

What we are most excited about is the long-awaited multi-currency feature, which allows merchants to sell in multiple currencies. At the moment, the feature enables online transactions in 9 currencies: AUD, EUR, JPY, SGD, USD, CAD, HKD, NZD and GBP.

This is a huge deal for Shopify users – as this is paving the way to a more globalised online selling environment, including non-English speakers.

So, thanks to this fantastic new feature, now Shopify merchants can expand their reach and build international consumer relationships, resulting in maximised sales and higher revenue.

 

Local Payments

(Shopify Payments)

Shopify has introduced a degree of optionality to consumers by implementing Local Payments, which allows the consumer to use whichever payment method is preferred in their country of purchase, eroding conversion rates at checkout.

For example, consumers in Germany pay through SOFORT, whereas in China, consumers pay through WeChatPay and Alipay.

This makes the purchase process more seamless for consumers, builds a trusting relationship with the consumer and reduces friction, therefore improving the overall user experience.

 

Multi-languages

Also contributing to Shopify’s new focus on diversity is the multi-language function, which allows merchant’s to set their admin dashboard to any of the following languages:

• Japanese
• French
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Italian
• Spanish
• German

 

These new features are proving Shopify to be moving in a direction that is more internationally-minded and culturally aware.

 

2. Business Management

 

Locations

(Shopify Plus merchants) 

Shopify Locations will improve many aspects of business management for merchants, as they will have the ability to monitor and update their inventory across multiple locations from one centralized management system, increasing the speed at which they sell.

Having the ability to track incoming orders, fulfillment, refunds etc in a common area will allow merchants to operate more efficiently and reallocate the time that they previously spent manually updating inventories in different locations on other aspects of their business.

In a nutshell, Locations will simplify the selling process for Shopify merchants.

To be the first to hear when Locations is available, sign up here!

 

Fraud Protect

(Shopify Payments)

Fraud Protect is a new feature that automatically assesses the risk on a new order and acts to ensure protection and prevent fraud.

Due to its automated nature, merchants will no longer have to physically review the risk on every single order and therefore can spend more time working towards being more efficient and meeting other business goals.

This also provides a degree of confidence when moving into new markets.

 

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Connectors for Shopify Flow

(Shopify Plus merchants)

Hence the name, this feature connects your existing business apps and tools to create a workflow, which automates everyday tasks that merchants currently carry out manually.

The workflow begins with a trigger, which can be set to an app or an incident. In the diagram, the trigger is app LoyaltyLion.

The merchant can set conditions that decide whether or not an automated action should take place. If the trigger meets these conditions (in this instance, the condition is that the customer has accepted marketing in Shopify), then an action (a task in an app or in-store) will take place.

The action in this example is that Klaviyo app is activated and automatically sends an email.

This is a really exciting step towards automating two completely unrelated apps to work together.

If you already use Shopify Flow, to apply for early access to Connectors for Shopify Flow, sign up here!

 

3. Selling Made Simple

 

Dynamic Checkout

Not only will selling be made easier for the seller, but also for the consumer. Dynamic Checkout features a button either beside or below the ‘Add to Cart’ button, which will either allow the customer to pay with Apple Pay, PayPal etc in one click, depending on their historic preference.

This should encourage consumers to purchase products more instantaneously, and therefore increase sales and revenue for merchants.

 

Shopify POS

Also contributing to seamless selling are Shopify’s Point of Sale features.

These include a Tap and Chip reader for Apple and Google Pay, allowing merchants to run their business from any device. Additionally, a tipping feature gives customers the ability to reward merchants for their good service. And finally, POS offers a returns and exchanges functionality which customers can take advantage of, whether they purchased in-store or online.

So to summarise, Shopify POS improves user experience and seeks to maximise sales and revenue.

 

BOGO & Other Discounts

Buy One Get One and other discounts offer automated promotions and improve the checkout experience. Merchants can create incentives for customers to add value to their purchases, and reward them for doing so with this functionality.

This feature allows merchants to experiment with different discounts and incentives to boost the average order value and increase customer loyalty.

 

4. Additional Features

 

App Store

Shopify’s new snazzy app store will have a totally new design. Not only is it visually attractive, but it will also offer personalized recommendations to merchants based on their store requirements.

This new and improved platform will increase visibility to a range of useful apps, and has been described as “Netflix for commerce apps”.

 

Expert Services Marketplace

This new functionality runs in the Shopify admin, and allows merchants to browse through experts who can help them with specific issues they have. This increased accessibility to support and information will increase overall efficiency for merchants.

 

 

 

So there you have it. Just a few of the many exciting new apps and features – some of which we are still waiting to see come to life.

It’s evident that Shopify is taking us in a new direction of interconnectedness, inclusiveness and increased efficiency, all of which are shaping the future of online retail selling.

 

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