Shopify Summer Editions 2024 Top 10 Features Analysed

As the AI boom is revolutionising e-commerce, Shopify aims to solidify its leadership position.

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The recently released Shopify Summer Editions 2024 offers over 150 new features and apps, empowering your online store with the latest AI advancements.

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This article will decrypt the top 10 announcements and what changes they bring! 

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1. What are Shopify Editions?

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As of now, in 2024, 4.63 million online stores are powered by Shopify. 

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Shopify Editions are biannual updates released by Shopify, designed to announce the platform’s new features and improvements. 

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These editions aim to support merchants, partners, and developers by introducing updates and new tools that adapt to the evolving e-commerce landscape. 

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Each edition typically includes many updates, from AI-powered tools and enhanced analytics to new customisation options and logistics improvements.

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This Shopify Summer Edition 2024 theme is "Unified," which integrates various back-office features to simplify merchants' operations.

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By following their Editions release, you can stay up-to-date with the latest e-commerce trends, whether you use Shopify or not 

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You can adopt Shopify's best practices to improve your own site and get ideas for new tools and features. 

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2. 10 key Shopify new features decrypted 

2.1 Unifying markets

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Shopify Markets gets a major upgrade.

It is now directly integrated into your back office, allowing easy creation and management of different markets with specific rules, catalogues, and taxes.

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Previously, these functionalities were scattered across the platform, making them difficult to manage without a deep understanding of Shopify admin settings. 

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Markets also enable highly customised buyer experiences for each market from a single store, eliminating the need for separate stores and complex data synchronisation. 

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For example, if you are expanding to France, you can create a new market for the region, and customise your product catalogue, pricing, and store theme to cater to French buyers.

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Shopify POS users can now manage pricing and publishing for retail stores more effectively.

It includes setting specific catalogues for different locations, such as marking down prices or restocking bestsellers. 

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Shopify Plus merchants can expand their B2B operations more easily, customising store themes for each B2B market to cater to different regions efficiently.

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2.2 Split shipping at checkout 

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The Split Shipping feature allows orders with multiple products to be shipped from different locations, optimising for cost or speed. 

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If a customer orders items available in different warehouses, Shopify can now split the shipment, ensuring efficient and cost-effective delivery. 

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This feature particularly benefits online businesses with heavy or bulky items, allowing for more flexible shipping options.

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Online stores can now offer split shipping at checkout, letting customers see upfront if their order will arrive in multiple packages and choose different shipping speeds for each item. Just like Amazon!

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This gives buyers more control over delivery times and costs, potentially boosting trust and sales.

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2.3 Sidekick AI assistant

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E-commerce just got a major AI upgrade with Shopify's Sidekick. 

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It acts like a mini ChatGPT, understanding the context of your shop and helping with various tasks. It is designed to tackle the daily challenges of running an online store. 

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Sidekick provides instant access to relevant information and best practices, tailored to your store's data. 

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You can ask Sidekick to automate the creation of customer segments, apply discounts, or generate content, all from within your store's back office. 

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It can also help you with customer inquiries so you can answer quickly and efficiently, in different languages.

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2.4 Retail checkout

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The new retail checkout will facilitate faster transactions and simplify omnichannel expansion. 

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POS features simplify in-store tasks with the new updates, including sending in one-tap digital receipts to customers.

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If a customer is a Shop Pay user, they are automatically recognised, and digital receipts can be sent. 

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This bridges the gap between offline and online stores. Collecting customer information at checkout, like email addresses, and logging staff attribution became easier. 

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You can streamline return options, as POS automatically identifies which products can be returned, removing uncertainty for staff and creating a unified brand experience.

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2.5 Shopify Magic for images

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Shopify Magic, which started with text generation, now includes image enhancements. 

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Merchants can modify product images directly within their back office by describing the desired background or setting. 

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This tool is perfect for merchants who don't have the budget for professional photoshoots. It allows them to create high-quality images with minimal effort.

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2.6 Enhanced analytics for better store optimisation

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Shopify has significantly upgraded its Analytics dashboard. 

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You can now customise your dashboard, creating dynamic data tables similar to Excel pivot tables. 

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This feature allows for real-time data curation and performance metrics tracking, making it easier to understand and optimise your store's operations.

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You can drag and drop pre-made Shopify reports and resize them on your dashboard according to your needs. 

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Each pre-made report is designed to answer the most common questions you have about your online store, such as return rate, net sales, and sales evolution week over week. 

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However, you can edit the reports to add any dimensions or additional metrics to further personalise your data analytics. 

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This feature allows you to cross-analyse various metrics, such as sales, conversion rates, and margins, providing deeper insights into your online store's performance.

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2.7 Flexible sections in themes

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Shopify continues to enhance theme flexibility with new modular sections. 

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These "Flex Sections" offer more configurable options, allowing merchants to easily customise their shopfronts. 

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The updates include responsive design features, so you can tailor your store's appearance for different devices without duplicating fields for desktop and mobile views.

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2.8 Hydrogen for headless commerce

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Hydrogen, Shopify's framework for headless commerce, now includes a Visual Editor powered by Utopia. 

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This tool provides a real-time view of changes, enabling easier collaboration and faster implementation of front-end updates. 

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It simplifies headless commerce for merchants by providing a unified working environment with team collaboration and content management features.

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Content updates and design tweaks can now be managed more easily, with no specific technical or coding requirements. 

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Developers can create templates that team members can modify using the new Visual Editor. 

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2.9 Product search & discovery

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A good shopping experience starts with easy search and discovery. 

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Shopify’s built-in taxonomy now supports over 10,000 categories and 2,000 attributes to enhance product discovery across your store. 

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The latest update includes image filters for search, helping customers find the right products more quickly through advanced filtering options like logos, icons, or other images.

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Merchants can now set up custom data with meta fields and metaobjects to display these visual filters, such as fabric colour swatches. 

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Visual filters help customers quickly understand the available options, reducing searching time and improving overall satisfaction.

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The app Search & Discovery is free and available on the Shopify App Store!  

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2.10 Logistics improvements

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Shopify has introduced several logistics features to streamline operations. 

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The "Ship to Store" option allows products to be transferred between stores for customer pick-up, enhancing inventory management. 

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Similarly, "Ship from Store" enables local stores to fulfil online orders, reducing shipping times and costs.

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The Shopify Summer Edition 2024 brings numerous enhancements designed to unify and simplify e-commerce operations. 

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These updates offer powerful new ways to optimise your online business, from AI assistants and flexible split shipping options to advanced analytics and headless commerce tools. 

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As the e-commerce landscape continues to evolve, embracing these features can help you stay ahead of the competition and meet your customers' growing expectations. 

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Which exciting new features will you implement to elevate your online store?

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