Shopify Announces New Features: Everything You Need to Know

On March 10, 2022, Paul Gray, "Product Marketing Lead at Shopify," announced some new features, upcoming releases, and updates to Shopify. In this blog, we cover them all, including how they're making app and theme discovery simple, secure, and more personalized, how merchants are becoming more global and more mobile, and what developers and partners can expect this year. etc.

To run a successful online business is getting harder and harder, which is why the growing global business base is turning to the Shopify ecosystem for help. These merchants need Shopify to be the simplest, most secure, and most personalized commerce ecosystem in the world. And that's why Shopify is making significant improvements to the way merchants discover, select, and use apps and themes this year.

As more and more merchants join Shopify to grow and scale, so does the need for innovative solutions from developers that can fuel their success. In fact, the average merchant uses about 5 apps to run their business. This demand creates new opportunities for Shopify developers to succeed and shape the future of commerce. This natural alignment between merchant and developer success is a cornerstone of the Shopify platform strategy.

?Shopify is going to experiment with new approaches so they can recognize the best way to help merchants and make their ecosystem secure, simple, and personalized. In this post, we'll share a little more about Shopify's future plans and how we can get involved.

What’s New at Shopify

?1.????Update to v.18.1.1 of the Shopify App Gem

Version 18.1.1 replaces the deprecated EASDK redirect with an App Bridge redirect when trying to exit an iframe. This happens when an app is installed, requires new access scopes, or is re-authenticated because the login session has expired. To learn how to update an app, you can refer to the Shopify update guide on GitHub.

2.????New Shopify POS Space coming soon to your Partner Dashboard

You'll soon have access to a new, personalized area within your partner dashboard created specifically to help you support traditional merchants using Shopify POS. Shopify POS takes advantage of the order editing KPI so that merchants can edit the order as many times as needed to complete a refund or exchange. Additionally, you'll have access to new resources, new insights, and relevant guidance that will help you generate more revenue for your clients.

·?????An instant view of your retail customers

See which of your customers are using Shopify POS so you can support their ability to generate more revenue online and in-store.

·???????A survey to help Shopify understand how they can help you with Shopify POS

When you unlock this new area of your dashboard, Shopify will ask you a few questions to customize your Shopify POS dashboard for your requirements.

·???????Resources curated just for you

Your custom Shopify POS dashboard features content and tools to help you grow as a Shopify Partner.

3.????Help Merchants Sell Worldwide with Shopify Markets in GA

?Shopify Markets is now generally available, which means merchants can more easily sell to anyone on the internet from a single store.

This states that international storefront experiences now spin around the customer's country. It is important that apps and themes that introduce customer-facing components are aware of the country context so that relevant content, currency, and pricing details are displayed.

There are two key areas to consider ensuring your app or theme supports country-based contextual storefronts:

1.????Use dynamic URLs to support subfolders. If you don't, buyers will see the wrong currency and price at checkout.

2.????Use country instead of currency.

?4.????Channel Attribution Now Available in Beta

New fields are now used for sales channel attribution in the Order, Payment, and Draft Order APIs. Passing the correct information to these fields will now enhance the accuracy of order origination. Also, reporting down to the sub-channel level and reduce the time merchants spend organizing and fulfilling marketplace orders.

5.????Improved Search Experience in the Shopify App Store

Shopify is making search smarter and more personalized to help merchants find the right app for their query. Roughly half of all search queries are for app brand names, with the rest being a mix of categories and use cases. Here are some improvements they're making to search the Shopify App Store:

Recommend app names: When a user enters the initial letters of a search that matches unique app names with high confidence, those apps may be returned. This permits the user to click directly to the app's listing page.

·???????Show past search results – Shopify will display past searches from registered merchants.

·???????Improved search term suggestions – Shopify made improvements to increase its query coverage and added better support for non-English search terms.

·???????Displaying suggested categories – Shopify will display personalized recommended categories to merchants, based on multiple aspects of their business, from age to industry to size.

Shopify will continue to improve the search experience to make it as fast and seamless as possible.

What Will be the Upcoming Initiatives from Shopify?

?1.????Simple: Make it Easy for Merchants to Get Help

When merchants sign up for Shopify, they need to know the suite of apps and themes that will get them to their first sale. Shopify wants to make it as easy as possible to get to these solutions, so they focus on the main UX improvements that will ease most of the burden on merchants. Shopify will help merchants understand what apps are and provide them with everything they need to set up their store, create product catalogs, run marketing initiatives, and make operations and support more efficient.

Few Areas Shopify is Working on:

1.????Intuitive Navigation – Shopify learns how merchants navigate apps and themes and tries different approaches, including focusing more on merchant goals than app taxonomy.

2.????Clearer Categories – Shopify will provide educational context on what the different categories are used for, so developers can explain their apps more clearly.

3.????Apps and Themes Cards – Shopify experiments with highlighting different details about apps and themes depending on the context they're in, from the home page to search results.

?2.????Security: Increase Trust Between Merchants and Developers

Merchants expect themes and apps to be functional, to work quickly and reliably, and to keep their customers' data private and secure. Most Shopify partners share these goals and work hard to earn and keep merchant trust. But Shopify will also tighten controls on the small minority of fraudulent actors, helping merchants while also leveling the playing field for trusted developers.

Shopify will provide clearer guidelines on how to meet these new standards, as well as make it easier to test app quality and get new apps approved. They are also focused on:

·???????Privacy and security: Merchants want to know that developers treat data with care, adhere to platform policies, and comply with applicable laws and regulations. Developers can build trust by using the API responsibly and by keeping applications up to date.

·???????Trust: Shopify wants to make it easier for merchants to find helpful reviews, getting quick signals about the quality of an app or theme. Shopify also wants to share information with developers about how their products are used and evaluated. Fake reviews erode trust and continue to strengthen the tools that flag potentially fraudulent reviews.

?3.????Personalization

Merchants have a lot on their plate, so Shopify wants to guide them to the apps and topics that are most relevant to them, as quickly as possible. Shopify has made improvements to the Shopify App Store around discovery and personalization, but they're just getting started. Shopify focuses on the following:

·???????Personalized recommendations: Shopify shows merchants recommendations that consider the maturity of their business, the country in which their store operates, and the type of business they are in. They will continue to deepen the quality of these recommendations and showcase them in new recommendations with highly contextual surfaces in the future.

·???????App detail pages that convert – Shopify recently made app images and videos more prominent on the app detail page. Next, they're updating the app categories, making it easier for merchants to learn about and compare apps at a glance. Shopify will share details about these updates so you can make sure your apps are accurately described. There will also be new marketing opportunities to help your app continue to stand out.

·???????Smarter Search: Right now, search queries are a combination of app brands, app categories, and goals like improving AOV or bounce management. Shopify now recommends app names, shows suggested categories, and saves search history so merchants can get to the right solutions faster.

?4.????Unlocking New Growth Opportunities

?·???????International

By 2022, e-commerce sales worldwide will exceed $5 trillion. Increasingly, merchants are looking to sell to customers in other markets, and Shopify is also seeing more entrepreneurs opening stores in different countries. Already 20% of merchants use Shopify in a language other than English.

However, going global is not easy. Developers play a key role here, helping merchants at all stages of the buyer's journey, including attracting buyers in new markets, delivering a compelling experience in multiple languages, handling multi-currency and tax considerations, and compliance management on a global scale.

Localizing existing apps and themes will make them more relevant and valuable to a larger group of marketers and provide an opportunity to grow your existing business.

·???????Mobile

We all know that shoppers are browsing and shopping more on their phones than ever before. So are merchants, who are increasingly starting and running their businesses on mobile devices. This becomes even more true in high-growth markets like Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, so building with mobile in mind is the foundation for future growth.

Making managing apps and themes simple, easy, and intuitive on mobile devices is a top priority. Shopify will change the current mobile experience from a lightweight companion app to robust and comprehensive store management. Shopify will share details on how to make your apps and themes more mobile friendly soon.

Amplify Your Shopify Experience

?If you use Shopify to sell products online, make sure you get the most out of it by taking advantage of all the above features and enjoy more success with your store today. Moreover, you can contact us for any Shopify-related queries.

https://shopify.synapseindia.com/