Summer 2023 is an exciting time for Shopify with the much-anticipated debut of Summer Editions. This year we are seeing hundreds of changes, upgrades, and enhancements to the Shopify platform, all in one compact bundle that will enhance the merchant and shopper experience.
Shopify is on a roll this year with their release and announcement of Shopify Editions Summer ’23, a strong follow-up to Shopify Editions Winter ’23. Shopify is known for constantly evolving its powerful ecommerce platform, staying well ahead of the curve to elevate the experience of both shoppers and merchants alike. With Shopify’s release of their Summer '23 Edition, we are going to go over 10 new and soon-to-be-released updates that we think are worth noting, including a redesign to the admin sections, AI integrations, and new and improved apps.
In the following sections, we break down the 10 different categories of updates showcasing the remarkable enhancements within Shopify’s Summer '23 update:
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1. Redesigned Admin
One of the improvements launched with Shopify Editions Summer ’23 is to the Admin, one of the most substantial updates to the Admin in the past several years. Shopify merchants, with stores of all sizes, put in countless hours every single day managing their businesses through the Shopify admin, so it goes without saying that improving the admin experience is crucial to running a better online business.
With this edition, Shopify has redesigned the admin, providing users with a fresh visual design and single-column layout for the home page, making everything appear more streamlined, focused, and functional. The new design eliminates distraction and is made to help you work with efficiency by simplifying everything to its core. With the update to the Admin, you’ll notice improved fonts, icons, and higher information density, a more efficient search bar.
2. Shopify Collective
This update introduces Shopify Collective, a new and exciting function that will allow merchants to expand their store catalog with new products through partnerships with other brands on Shopify.
A new tool to add to your online business, Shopify Collective allows you to form partnerships with other stores and gain access to products they sell that you wish to display and sell through your storefront. With Collective, you can curate new products from brands in the U.S. and add their products to your store.
These suppliers ship directly to your customers so you don’t need to store and manage the extra inventory and shipping, you’ll just be gaining new ways to boost your bottom line and increase customer order value.
Shopify Collective is free to use and is currently available to selected stores in the US. Interested in selling your products with other merchants on Shopify Collective? Learn how to become a supplier.
3. Shopify Bundles App
A newly launched Shopify App, Shopify Bundles allows you to create and sell product bundles through your store, making it another great way for stores to increase their order value by offering product groupings.
The Shopify Bundles App is currently in general availability and is free. The app can be integrated into your shop and can be used to create and launch product bundles of your choosing quickly.
The app is excelling for simple and fixed bundles, but for more advanced “mix and match” bundles, you can use the updated bundle apps in the Shopify App Store.
4. Shopify Subscriptions App
This summer Shopify is unveiling their Shopify Subscription App. Subscription services are a big trend in the ecommerce space, allowing merchants to essentially put customers “on repeat” when they sign up for a subscription for a recurring product purchase or service, like a monthly coffee subscription or pet food subscription.
While there are many recommended subscription apps on Shopify’s App Store, Shopify will be releasing its very own free subscription app for Shopify merchants. The soon-to-be-released Shopify app will help merchants set up and manage simple subscription offers. With the app, you can set up new customer accounts, and provide customers with the flexibility to pause or skip orders, update payment and shipping details, and more.
While the app is yet to be released, you can sign up for early access to Shopify Subscriptions.
5. Marketplace Connect App
This summer’s update is really about expanding how and where you sell your products, and Marketplace Connect (formerly Codisto) is being launched on Shopify to expand your online sales to new platforms.
With Marketplace Connect, you can essentially connect your Shopify store and its product catalogs with other top marketplaces and global platforms like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay. This new Shopify app allows you to completely streamline the management of your marketplace listings, inventory, orders, and fulfillment—directly through one centralized Shopify app that keeps everything in sync. Marketplace Connect allows inventories to stay updated across channels in real-time and allows a world of possibilities when it comes to multi-channel sales.
6. Improved B2B Features
B2B (business-to-business) has grown significantly in recent years, and Shopify has been working to make the B2B experience even better with every Edition.
With the improved functionality of B2B on Shopify, you can easily manage selling B2B and D2C all from the same shop.
In this Edition, you can set Volume Pricing on your products to offer bulk discounts for your wholesale customers. However, Volume Pricing and quantity rules is currently exclusive to Shopify Plus stores.
When it comes to B2B payments, customers can now pay for orders using PayPal. Business customers can also use previously stored credit card information on draft orders at checkout or when paying an invoice with Credit Card Vaulting, a secure way to save credit card information.
Learn more about B2B on Shopify: Shopify Plus B2B Features: How to Sell Wholesale
7. Shopify AI Sidekick
An interesting new addition, Shopify has announced an AI-powered assistant aptly named Sidekick. Sidekick blends AI technology and Shopify data to provide personalized and helpful assistance to merchants for various functions ranging from shop development to marketing, and customer support.
Sidekick, your new AI commerce assistant, is conversational by design and was developed so that you can use everyday language to improve your store. The AI assistant can save you time by doing things like suggesting the best apps and can help answer questions and solve problems, so you can achieve more, a lot faster.
Sidekick will help merchants tackle repetitive tasks, research, workflows, and more. This new feature will be available for free to all Shopify merchants, regardless of the Shopify subscription plan you are using.
8. Improved Checkout
Shopify already has The Best Checkout Page of 2023 and the new Editions update is set to make it even better and more efficient at converting visitors into paying customers.
Shopify checkout has an impressive overall conversion rate that leaves the competition well in the dust, and it is better by up to 36% and by an average of 15%. Shopify is now making checkout even more efficient by streamlining everything into a one-page checkout experience. Shopify is also rolling out 17 new APIs and updates to help you create the best checkout experience for your business and unique business needs.
9. Editor- Flex Sections
The store editor is where merchants and designers spend much of their time crafting the look and feel of their online stores, and Shopify is rolling out a new update that will make store design easier, more intuitive, and customizable.
They are calling the new function on the store editor Flex Sections, a soon-to-be-released update that makes it easier than ever to create customized layouts for your online business. Shopify uses CSS Flexbox, which enables better multi-directional responsive layouts and easier content alignment With Shopify’s introduction of multi-directional and highly responsive block layouts, Flex Sections allows users to easily drag and drop, resize, group, and edit your store to make it uniquely yours.
10. Shopify Inbox
While we've had Shopify Inbox for a while now, there’s been another update that enhances the efficiency and productivity of your online store. If you aren’t already using a chat app in your store, Shopify inbox is a tool you can use to engage customers in real-time. What's new and exciting about Shopify Inbox is that it has new AI capabilities that can help turn casual store browsers into buyers, by helping you manage customer conversations, create automated messages, and get insights on the chats that convert.
You can also save more time with AI-generated FAQs. With Shopify Inbox you can review and publish Pre-approved FAQs and answer where customers can select their question and quickly get answers.
Conclusion
We’ve gone over 10 new updates brought about by the release of Shopify Editions in Summer ’23. Shopify's announcement for the next phase of their platform heralds a new age in ecommerce that provides a more flexible, innovative, and overall more streamlined experience to ecommerce.
You’ll notice that Shopify is staying up-to-date by embracing AI technology and introducing it to many aspects of the platform, they also continue to make multi-channel commerce easier, giving merchants more opportunities to make sales any time and place.
This new release and announcements made with Shopify Editions Summer ’23 deliver features meant to help you confidently and successfully achieve your brand goals, and we're looking forward to the updates as much as you are.
Learn more about Shopify Editions Summer ’23.
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At Ecommerce Pro, we help entrepreneurs and business owners build better and more successful Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce businesses. Have a question or a project in mind? Get in touch with us today!
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