5 Shopify updates you should know about

Yes, it’s officially Spring, but before the cold weather is officially gone, we wanted to revisit and recap the flurry of exciting updates from Shopify’s Winter 2024 product release. Every Shopify product release can get pretty technical, which makes it hard for the average Shopify merchant to parse through the details of the 100+ product releases and determine what is going to be the most beneficial for their store.

Most store owners will skim the the launch announcement, get overwhelmed/slightly confused, and move on. If you have a store on Shopify, chances are you haven’t implemented many of the new launches. But, there’s a lot of great products buried in the announcement that are packed with potential to elevate and grow your business.

Let’s dive into the top 5 new Shopify product releases that AdTribe thinks has the greatest likelihood of saving you time and increasing revenue.

1. Shopify Combined Listings:

Manage products with multiple variations, like colors, sizes, or styles, from a single listing using the Combined Listings app. We this is a particularly valuable release for apparel and accessories businesses that sell multiple variants of the same product and have to spend a lot of time uploading each variant. This improves the customer experience, and ultimately, conversion, because customers can see all of their options in one layout and easily toggle back and forth between different variants to choose their preferred one. *Note this option is exclusive to Shopify Plus.

2. Shoppable Videos and Product Recommendation Quizzes

Content, specifically video content, is the name of the game these days with ecommerce businesses. Engaging content that clearly showcases a product and describes the value props does half of the work when it comes to online sales. In an environment where customers can’t physically touch or try on a product, video demos are the next best thing. Shopify released a whole group of new products to facilitate shoppable videos with several app partners, including Shop Minis, shoppable videos from Tolstoy, Videowise and Showday, and product recommendation quizzes from Shop Quiz. Adding one of these apps to your store is a no brainer.

3. Shopify Collabs

Shopify Collabs is designed to compete with other influencer outreach platforms, but the nice thing about this product is that everything is done within the Shopify ecosystem, which helps store owners save time and track data better. Shopify Collabs helps streamline the process of connecting with influencers, sending them product, and setting up promo codes and affiliate tracking links. We do want to call out that like all influencer outreach platforms (and influencer/affiliate marketing in general), the creators on the platform can be hit or miss. There’s no guarantee of sales conversion and you may encounter a scammer or two, but that’s part of the process if you decide to invest in influencers and affiliates. This can be a very time consuming channel and this is Shopify’s attempt to make it a little more efficient.

4. AI-powered Smarter Search:

Shopify Semantic Search helps people find the products they want more easily. Instead of typing in specific words or phrases, they can use natural language, like they're talking to a friend, and Shopify will show them the products that match what they're looking for. The search bar on websites can be a frustrating experience - sometimes it’s the back-end algorithm and sometimes it’s human error. Semantic Search helps vague search keywords into more precise search results. *Note this feature is for Shopify Plus only.

5. Checkout Extensibility

When Shopify first rolled out one page check out, it made a huge impact on reducing friction along the path the purchase, but there were also plenty of issues. With this latest update, Shopify introduced a bunch of customization elements, including: delivery options, extensions for Thank You and Order Status pages, privacy consent, product thumbnails. Plus, advanced color settings/schemes, header and footer customizations, and container styles enable storeowners to create a more branded checkout experience.

What we’ve been discussing around the AdTribe Watercooler

• New Instagram Updates: Improvements for Ads Featuring Promo Codes

• 5 Essential Revenue Operation Metrics for Sales and Marketing

• All you need to know about Meta's "Learning Phase” for ads

• Creepy or cool? An AI tool that turns videos into cartoons.

Need to update your Shopify store?

Is your Shopify store outdated and in need of a refresh? Or just want to get some free advice on what to do or where to start? Reply to this email or email me directly at [email protected] and let’s chat!