Shopify recently released its latest list of product updates to help eCommerce businesses build for the long term. The Winter 2023 edition boasts over 100 new updates. While not all of these updates are particularly exciting, there are quite a few that have me really amped up for the year ahead in eCommerce.
We’ve picked out a few of the top highlights from the announcement and shared them below.
Here are Our Top Highlights
1.One-page checkout + drag-and-drop editor
This one will be nice for finding the optimal checkout experience for your eCommerce customers. any opportunity to reduce friction (i.e. going through multiple pages) in the checkout process should be seen as a huge win. It’s faster, higher-converting, and exactly what your customers expect.
- Fewer fields to enter make it faster for customers to complete their purchases.
- Fewer page loads mean less friction for customers, which leads to higher conversion.
With the drag-and-drop editor you can (Shopify Plus members only):
- Easily edit the look of your checkout: Add your brand’s logo, change the background color or image, and update the font of your checkout.
- Install checkout apps that integrate with the editor to add more functionality to your checkout experience.
2. Optimized image rendering and focal points
Beyond having crisper, more attractive imagery on your site, your site will load faster, reducing friction. As Shopify puts it, this new feature will optimize your images for the highest quality and lowest file size to improve your store’s speed and increase conversion rates. And having the ability to choose the focal point of your images, will let your products shine.
3. Better built-in search and recommendations
In my mind, surfacing the right products for your customers has always been a huge gap for Shopify storefronts. The search apps often create extra page load or technical issues that impact Google’s crawling. Integrating a better site search experience will have a ripple effect on the rest of your shopping experience. The new and improved search relevance ensures your popular products are highlighted, and misspellings still return the right result to better match the customer’s intent. What I’m excited about is the search suggestion functionality as you type and the fact that Shopify is integrating data from across all of its stores to improve recommendations.
4. Product bundles
It’s no secret that bundling related products together is the easiest way to increase your average order value. This soon-to-be-release feature will allow you to set up bundles of your products. This bundling will help your bottom line, while also providing a single, value-oriented purchase of complementary products for your customers.
5. Sync and sell on YouTube
It just got a lot easier to sell through YouTube. And the fact that YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine shouldn’t be overlooked. You can now have up-to-date product info below your video, pinned in the chat, or tagged during a live stream. So no matter how you use the video platform, you can effortlessly connect your fans with your products.
6. Audiences extends to the Google network
If you’re not already using Shopify Audiences, you should get on that, especially now that it is connected to the Google network. If you’re unfamiliar, Shopify Audiences helps you find high-intent buyers and increases the likelihood of conversions. With this latest integration, you can automatically create, export, and refresh store-specific audiences to use across the Google Ad network. So you can better target users across your Display, Shopping, and even Video campaigns.
7. Marketing automations for re-engagement
The fact that Shopify is integrating this feature into their platform tells you how important re-engaging potential customers is to improving store sales. You can set up automations to email customers who abandon a cart or checkout, or who browse products without buying. This integration will make it a lot easier for you to track and measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns because all of the data will all be within your store’s reporting.
This batch of new releases from Shopify truly serves its customers. There is a lot to be excited about in this latest edition that will make online shopping experiences all the better.
