The Future of Shopify and eCommerce: What we learned at Shopify Unite 2022

Our team recently attended the London Shopify Unite event and we can’t help but get excited about the future of Shopify and eCommerce after listening to some of Shopify’s most talented and experienced developers and eCommerce experts share the newest updates and developments on one of the world’s fastest growing eCommerce platforms.

Shopify Unite is the company’s annual conference that’s now split up across three locations. This year’s first event was held in London. It’s a great opportunity to hear what’s new, talk about the future of eCommerce and connect with some of our favourite people in the industry.?

Here are the top new announcements from this year’s event (and the ones we’re the most excited about), and what we think this means for eCommerce merchants, developers and designers alike as we close out 2022 and look toward 2023.?

1. Biggest and best checkout experiences yet

Checkouts are going to be more customisable than ever before. Think branded extensions and new powerful ways to enhance and customise the checkout experience for your customers.?

Here’s what we think this means for you:?experience and details are?everything?as eCommerce continues to grow post-pandemic. Consumers want to feel good. They want to trust you. They want those details to extend to every possible touchpoint and interaction with your brand. Which means even up to the point where they’re inputting their credit card details. And, Shopify is about to make that a whole lot easier.?

2. Make your apps stand out?

Shopify eCommerce apps are getting some well deserved attention with the latest app design guidelines. From app structure and full-screen functionality, to responsive design, layouts and new tools to help design / measure performance and checkout UI extensions to let app developers build custom functionality. Mobile in-app shopping experiences are getting a serious uplevel.

Here’s what we think this means for you:?it’s an exciting time to build lasting relationships with your customers and there’s really no better way to do that than providing in-app shopping experiences that are branded extensions of your website. “Increasing customer lifetime value” sounds great - but what does that really mean? How does that translate into real business results? Well, for us it means creating environments that your existing customers want to be a part of. It means making their lives as easy as possible. It means communicating with them in ways they understand. It means merchandising your stores so that shopping from you is an enjoyable experience.?

Developing stand-out apps that are beautiful and easy to use is one of the easiest ways to do that. Shopify clearly know what consumers want, according to BuiltWith, there are over 3.9 million stores currently powered by Shopify. Looking at what developments they’re investing time and money into is a big indication of what’s going to be important to anyone whose business is dependent on the platform - whether a merchant, developer, designer or agency.

3. Shopify content platform, customisable business logic & high performance headless

From Shopify’s new and faster content platform, content creator collabs, even more customisable backend business logic and super high performance headless (for those of you with in-house ability to manage and develop a complex headless site), it’s getting easier and easier to build the business you really want on Shopify.

Here’s what we think this means for you:?Consumers are used to the convenience and speed of online shopping and eCommerce is only going to continue to dominate. In the UK, almost half of annual spending is now done online. This year’s Shopify Unite only proves that as consumers look to spend more and more time investing in online experiences, the world of eCommerce will need to keep up. With all of the new Shopify updates, partnerships, developments and new capabilities, Shopify will surely lead the way in leading this eCommerce revolution and connecting more consumers to more brands, easier and faster than ever before.?

These are our top 3 picks and the developments we’re keeping an eye on at Cake. Which one will make the biggest difference for you?