S hopify recently rolled out their Winter Editions 2023, which features100+ new product updates and announcements. As a Shopify Plus Partner, our team can’t wait to test out these new features and functionalities.
Most of all, our team is very excited for the new flexibility and customization Shopify is enabling on their platform – and how this will enable us to deliver better solutions for our clients. Below are the standouts from Shopify’s Winter Edition 2023 that are worth calling out. Since there are a lot of great updates, we categorized them into updates for developers, B2B merchants, marketers and social media marketers. Hope you find these helpful! If you have questions on how to implement these in your project, please reach out to us.
Shopify Winter Edition News Developers Will Love
Shopify Functions
In the latest Winter Edition 2023, Shopify delivered Shopify Functions, a feature that puts the power of the Shopify platform in the hands of the Shopify community. At BlueBolt, we know the new Shopify Functions will be a game changer for merchants. Shopify Functions opens up Shopify’s backend logic, giving merchants ultimate control over their website. Shopify Functions allows brands to extend and customize Shopify features to meet their unique business needs. With this new feature, developers will now be able to these customizations and have them execute in under 5ms. This enables brands to autoscale for the largest of marketing campaigns and promotions, ensuring you don’t miss sales during Q4 and other special events.
One Page Checkout
Shopify’s checkout leads the ecommerce industry in security, reliability, and performance standards. However, conversion rates have lagged due to the multi-step check out process, giving shoppers opportunities to abandon their orders. For years, merchants have relied on custom development work or third-party apps to work around these limitations to help increase their conversion rates. With Winter Editions 2023, Shopify announced a one-step checkout is now standard across all Shopify storefronts, with built-in checkout extension functionality. Brands are now able to update the look and feel of their checkout with the Branding API, add upsells, cross-selling opportunities, and dynamic discounts within a singular view. This welcomed update enables customers to complete their checkout, without leaving the buying experience. Additionally, the One Page Checkout feature is locked down for security and speed optimization, which will be appreciated by merchants and their shoppers alike.
Drag-and-Drop Checkout Editor
One neat feature of Winter Editions 2023 is Shopify’s new drag and drop checkout editor, which makes it easier for developers and merchants to customize and integrate Shop Pay seamlessly. The new drag and drop editor can be found in the “Checkout and Accounts” tab of the Shopify store dashboard, where merchants can customize the checkout page easily. The new editor allows brands to change the checkout interface design, such as the logo, text colors, text fonts, and more, giving merchants control of their Storefront presentation. Additionally, if merchants want to design a more unique checkout page, they can use the Checkout Branding API and API Client tool. Additionally, companies can now also install external applications to add features that can increase the conversion rate on the checkout page, enabling cross-sell setup and automatic discount setup. The new checkout is fully responsive, ensuring an optimal experience on any device, including cell phones.
Product Bundles
Shopify agency partners have long been asking for product bundles, so this is exciting news for developers! Creating native product bundles celebrates the platform’s ability to accept product variability and complexity. This allows merchants to create new combinations of SKU offerings and new product experiences, which ultimately helps increase Average Order Value (AOV). Bundling is still in beta mode and invite-only for now. However, it is expected to be widely released in the coming months.
Granular Permissions
To help make managing a business and team easier for merchants, Shopify announced new granular staff permissions that help delegate more product related tasks with confidence. There are ten new granular permissions for products, including view-only permissions, so merchants can have better control over staff access across to products. These new permissions include view products, view cost, create and edit products, edit cost, edit price, manage inventory, delete products and collections, view catalogs (price list), create and edit catalogs and delete catalogs. These new permissions give merchants the ability to delegate with confidence.
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Exciting Shopify Winter Edition Updates for B2B Merchants
B2B APIs
A customizable B2B sales channel has long been an acknowledged weak spot with the Shopify platform. With Shopify’s new B2B APIs, brands can now create customizable rules and functions for the most complicated of wholesale businesses. These B2B API’s enable marketers to set up custom pricing tiers, delivery notes, net payment terms, loyalty programming for select customers, and much more. BlueBolt is excited to bring this new functionality to our B2B clients.
B2B Vaulting Payments
Shopify just launched B2B Vaulting Payment, which enables B2B buyers to vault credit cards and reuse them for purchases at checkout, for both pay now and with payment terms. This feature provides B2B buyers the flexibility to seamlessly pay for orders at checkout or to be charged at a future date when their payment is due, without manually re-entering their credit card information. This happens all while providing the merchant peace of mind and ability to more efficiently complete payments on orders without buyer interaction.
Additionally, both B2B buyers and B2B merchants have full visibility and control over their vaulted credit cards. This process allows for credit cards to be stored at the company location level so that any B2B buyer for that location has the ability to manage their vaulted cards on their customer account. This means B2B buyers can view and delete any of their vaulted credit cards at anytime.
Merchants can also view and delete vaulted credit cards including the ability to charge buyer’s vaulted credit cards through the admin controls. Additionally, merchants will be able to push notifications for B2B buyers to update their vaulted credit card information via their account.
Quantity Rules
With their commitment to offer B2B ecommerce as an integral part of their platform, Shopify continues to expand their B2B product offerings. Since the platform started to support B2B business 6 months ago, Shopify has released diverse features and support. Quantity rules are one of the new features in this Shopify Winters Edition. This enables merchants to create order quantity rules, including minimums, maximums, case packs, and increments. These quantity rules will increase the Average Order Value and simplify the fulfillment process, which is a welcome addition for B2B merchants.
Checkout to Draft for B2B
Traditionally, B2B commerce orders are very nuanced and complex, needing multiple checks in the ordering process to ensure the right custom product is delivered. With Shopify’s new Checkout to Draft feature, B2B merchants can streamline the order process for their customers by using the Checkout to Draft. Customers can place draft orders and submit them to a merchant, so the orders will not be processed until both parties confirm the details. In this feature, merchants can also change the order content in case they lack inventory. Since orders from a business can be large in volume and amount, being able to manage risks within Shopify is very convenient for B2B merchants.
Marketing Teams Will Appreciate these Shopify Winter Edition Additions
Shop Promise
Another one of the most exciting announcements for marketers in Shopify’s Winter Edition has to be Shop Promise. Shopify has announced that it is going to compete head-to-head with Amazon by guaranteeing two-day delivery. It’s bundled as a sales channel within Shopify’s fulfillment network and available within the Shop app. It’s too soon to say whether or not this will move the needle for merchants’ conversion rates and increase Net Promoter Scores (NPS scores) for brands. However, Shop Promise appears to be a promising new offering to entice more brands to join Shopify’s in-house fulfillment network.
Shop Minis
The direction Shopify is taking with the Shop mobile app is an intriguing customer acquisition strategy. Originally initiated as a way for shoppers to get delivery tracking and notifications for their orders, Shop is the go-to mobile destination for discovering brands across Shopify’s network. Now, Shop is introducing Minis to enhance the buying experience further. It’s slowly transforming into fully-fledged mobile shopping app featuring the best of Shopify’s brands. Shop Minis lets customers interact with video reviews, shoppable Instagram posts, and live shopping. While still in its early days, it’s exciting to hear how Shopify is extending their platform to help merchants attract new customers and build loyalty.
Markets Pro
The new Shopify Markets Pro is an all-in-one, global market solution that helps merchants enter hundreds of markets with just a few clicks. Markets Pro is an extension of Shopify Markets, which launched in February 2022. Companies that use Shopify Markets benefit from a centralized hub of cross-border features to streamline back-office operations, as well as a selection of localization tools. Within Markets Pro, brands also have access to liability management features like prepaid duties and fraud protection, automated localization to better the buyer experience, and pre-negotiated international shipping rates. Shopify’s Markets Pro is a turnkey solution for marketers looking to sell merchandise internationally.
POS GO: All-in-One Mobile Selling Hardware
Not only is Shopify is the leading eCommerce platform, but it also features great in-person purchasing experiences. POS GO is Shopify’s latest mobile POS (point of sale) device that can help you sell products in person, such as at a market, event in a brick-and-mortar store. With this device, brands can easily manage all inventory in one place. Shopify’s PSO GO joins a great line up of other Shopify POS devices, giving marketers even more capabilities to reach customers wherever they may be shopping.
AI Generated Product Descriptions
Anyone who has worked with websites knows how time intensive and exhausting it can be to put effective product descriptions into the metadata fields for each product in a Shopify store to optimize SEO values. With Shopify Magic, marketers no longer need to spend valuable time on these repetitive (but important) tasks. The new Shopify Magic announced in Shopify’s Winter Edition 2023 can create product descriptions based on keywords or product features. It even allows marketers to choose the text language tone. Since the descriptions contain input keywords, the product description will tend to be strong for SEO. Leveraging this new feature will greatly reduce time to market and increase staff productivity.
Translate and Adapt App
With Shopify’s new features, there will be no national or language border for eCommerce. For marketers selling in one country, localizing your Shopify store content for your market can increase site traffic, improve SEO, and expand your target market area. The Shopify app store has a dedicated Translation and Adapt App that provides free automatic translation in up to two languages. The editor allows you to easily compare and review translations and tailor content for different market characteristics. Currency or regional regulations also may be a potential barrier to expanding the store globally. For marketers who are selling products internationally, check out Shopify’s Market PRO to learn about Shopify’s end-to-end capabilities.
What Social Media Marketers Will Enjoy About the 2023 Shopify Winter Editions
Sync and Sell on YouTube
Easily Sync and Sell products on YouTube! Shopify collaborated with YouTube so that brands can now sell products on the streaming app to create a new shopping experience for customers. After continuing its partnership with Google, Shopify allows brands to sell products directly on YouTube. With this Sync and Sell feature, marketers can put product information below videos, pin it in the chat, or tag it during a live stream. Products appear as pinnable product cards throughout the video stream, where viewers can buy instantly from their favorite creators. This smart move enables Shopify stores to dominate one of the largest ecommerce marketplaces, allows merchants to sell in one of the world’s largest search engines, and strengthens relationships with YouTube creators turned DTC brand founders. It extends Shopify’s progress and cultural cache with the ‘cool’ kids and leverages Google’s reach as a powerful sales channel add-on layered with YouTube.
Shopify Collabs for Influencer Marketing
Because Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) are increasing sharply due to environmental factors, such as privacy regulations, more and more social media marketers are starting to pay attention to collaboration. Shopify Collabs offers merchants a platform to leverage creator partnerships for their Shopify store. Collaboration partnerships typically are formed in three areas – partnerships with other brands, collaboration with social media influencers who have a large following, and every day customers who want to participate in user generated content. With Shopify Collabs, brands can now create and manage a community of creators who promote products to their fans. Normally, conducting influencer marketing takes time because a suitable creator needs to be matched to a brand image, then marketers send out product samples, and communicate with their influencers to keep track of their creation process. However, with Shopify Collabs, this is all managed in one place, including sending gifts, tracking orders and managing relationships. With a growing database of influencers across industries, brands can contact them directly, set up commission-based affiliate links, and launch promotional campaigns with minimal effort. Shopify Collabs will become a necessary tool in the Shopify marketing stack.
Tokengated Experiences
NFT (Non-Fungible Token) technology excels at incentivizing people and building community through token design. In Shopify’s ecommerce predictions for 2023, it is expected that this technology will be leveraged to offer customers a new purchasing experience and increase sales dramatically this year and next. This new Shopify feature allows merchants to distribute unique NFTs in their Shopify store. For example, brands can reward loyal customers by giving them unique NFTs, which many customers enjoy collecting. Moreover, since NFT is a sort of digital currency, collectors feel they belong to a community among people who own same or similar NFTs.
In summary, the Shopify Plus Winter 23 Edition is a major upgrade to the software titan’s ecommerce platform, offering new and improved features designed to enhance merchant’s online store’s performance and customer experience. Whether merchants are looking to streamline their order fulfillment process, manage inventory more efficiently, or provide a better customer experience, the Shopify Plus Winter 23 Edition has you covered. If you need a Shopify expert who can help you with your commerce priorities, click the contact us button and let us know how we can help.
