Sam Shares #5: Webinar invitation, no-code development and OpenAI's vision with SORA

Hi all,

Welcome to the 5th edition of the Sam Shares newsletter, I hope you're all doing well!

In this edition I'll...

1. Invite you to join a webinar I'm hosting next week
2. Dive into one overlooked Shopify Winter Edition release
3. Look into tools that optimise and automate development
4. Introduce you to a promising tool for email marketing
5. Share OpenAI's vision for the future with SORA

Enjoy!

1. Shopify Winter '24 Edition: How to take advantage

It's been 3 weeks since Shopify dropped 100+ updates in their bi-annual Editions release. By now developers, consultants and agencies have all spent time to find out what'll move the needle this year, now it's time to bring the insights to the merchants.

Next week dear digital is hosting a webinar where I'll do exactly that. I'll isolate the most impactful updates, and tell you why and how to take advantage. So, if you could use some guidance in the novelties, do subscribe! (Also because I'd like to surpass last webinar's number of participants, which was 58 ??)

Sign up by clicking the image:

2. An overlooked, yet important change within Shopify

Over the past 3 weeks, I already posted my 2 cents on some updates. (Smart semantic search, product variants, native subscriptions, returns & exchanges, customer account structure...)

In 2024, Shopify is set to greatly enhance its online storefront capabilities. The focus is on making it easier for shop owners to customise their sites without needing to code. This means you'll be able to make your Shopify site look and work exactly how you want it to.

A key part of this upgrade is the introduction of 'theme blocks'. These are pre-made elements like images, text, dates, columns, headings, and more, that you can easily add anywhere on your site through the customiser. This will unlock massive flexibility for merchants in the future, especially in combination with meta-objects. Feel free to watch this Loom to dive deep with me!

3. No-code development

To stay on the no-code topic, here's a little piece about how we can get the most out of developers. Good developers are invaluable. In order to give them time and resources to make the difference, I'm investing a lot of time in looking how to optimise and automate workflows at dear digital .

In this context, I've been looking into tools like builder.io, Shopify apps like instant.so and Figma plugins like Anima App.

The existence of such tools makes the process of translating design to functioning webpages so much faster. There's probably a bunch of other tools that have similar capabilities, but I've come across these 3 a lot. They are breaking barriers when it comes to efficiency in the flows between design and development.

In short what these 3 tools are about:

1. Builder.io: This tool acts as a bridge between design and code, enabling users to visually build and customise their websites or web apps directly. It's particularly useful for teams looking to iterate quickly without deep diving into code for every change.
2. Instant.so offers a no-code solution for building custom, high-converting Shopify pages and sections. It features drag-and-drop simplicity, pre-built templates, and easy third-party app integration. All visuals, no-code.
3. Anima App: Anima App transforms Figma designs into clean, usable code in React, HTML, and Vue... Haven't tried it extensively but it looks like an awesome time-saver to get the basics right in no-time.

Please do let me know if you have found that one tool that has helped you. I know there are a lot of developers subscribed to my newsletter, so drop a comment!

4. Tool to watch: Make emails shoppable with Interactify

I read about an awesome tool in Coralie Delpha 's newsletter last week (highly recommended by the way). I saw Youness Id bakkasse post about it today as well, so it's triggering the right people.

The tool is called Interactify , and its purpose is in the name: It makes Klaviyo emails interactive and thus shoppable. This is mainly promising for brands that display products in their emails. Customers will be able to select products and quantities within the email, and then proceed to Shopify's checkout with the correct input. Also, managing subscriptions from your inbox is possible. It promises an increase in revenue of 30% from email marketing. One to watch for sure!

5. OpenAI's Sora: Vision for the future

Now a less work-related part, but a truly fascinating one.

Last week Open AI released its new video model Sora. Comparing to what text to video looked like last year, I can only imagine what next year will look like.

One of the things that OpenAI included at the very end of the release, was their vision for the future. What is this all leading up to? Essentially, virtual worlds. And the possibilities are hard to even grasp.

Imagine stepping through a scene so realistic it feels like second life. AI will not only create this world around you, but also personalise the journeys, the people, and the creatures that you run into. You'll be able to explore the world that has been adapted to you.

I think these worlds will very much be about entertainment and gaming, but also new ways of working, new ways of educating yourself, as well as whole new social interactions. I'd also imagine you would be able to meet historical figures or even your older and younger self.

What's interesting is Meta and Apple are both trying to get there through the hardware side of things, while OpenAI is doing it through the software side.

Things are moving so fast, are you keeping up? ??

Thank you for sticking with me until the end, have a great rest of the week!

Until the next one,

Sam