Introduction

Shopify’s 2018 Unite conference was one of the Canadian tech giants largest ever product and feature announcements - introducing some long awaited and powerful tools to help merchants sell online faster, simpler and more effectively. Some of these releases shows Shopify’s commitment to empower store owners to sell more products and take control of marketing and operations, which is unparalleled in todays fast packed world of eCommerce. Here are some of the most impressive features from Unite 2018;

Improved discount codes (buy-one, get-one free and more)

A feature that has already been rolled out on the Shopify admin dashboard, merchants will now have the ability create new custom discount features. In addition to the standard $ off or % discounts, Shopify have also just announced BOGO - which can be combined with customer-specific targeting, allowing merchants to reward loyal customers with targeted discounts. Find out more about configurable discounts here.

Multilingual Support

Shopify serves as a global marketplace and on the back of rapid international growth, Shopify is putting in place multilingual support for the product’s admin system. Starting with French, German, Japanese, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish, the beta programme is preparing to take the platform global - increasing it’s reach and service.

Global Payments

Scheduled for an Autumn release, Shopify Payments is changing the game by providing payment options specifically to a customer’s geographic location, customers will be presented with more convenient, familiar payment options than ever before - making selling to a global marketplace easier than ever before.

Fraud Protection for Shopify Payments

Shopify Payments is about to get smart on fraud management. Introducing Fraud Protect for Shopify Payments, enabling it will mean that Shopify will analyse each eligible order for fraud, and provide an instant protection decision. This means that instead of manually reviewing orders, stores using Fraud Protect can confidently fulfil all protected orders without having to think about managing fraud - eliminating a huge part of the order fulfilment process. It’s coming first for the US, and then for everyone else. Find our more here.

Multi Inventory Locations

Managing your inventory across multiple locations can be a complex and time consuming business challenge. With the release of Locations, Shopify has announced powerful, in-built features to make managing multi-location inventory as easy as creating new variant. Taking orders online and fulfilling them from different locations is what this new feature will help you achieve - you can find out more here. Find our more here.

The Marketing Solution

This summer, Shopify merchants will get access to a brand new Marketing admin section within the admin dashboard - dedicated specifically to creating, distributing, managing and measuring digital marketing campaigns from within your store dashboard. It’s designed to unify social, paid, e-mail and PR activities to streamline costs, reporting and ROI. In addition to these improvements comes a series of personalised recommendations - presenting insight-led, intelligent opportunities to capitalise on the most effective outreach activities that will helped you sell more. Find our more here.

A Brand New App Store

In addition to Shopify’s powerful built-in features exists an ecosystem of apps designed to solve complex issues commonly found when upscaling your store. Shopify have announced a brand-new app store designed to make it easier to search and install the right app for your business. The new and improved app store is coming this summer.

Summary

The features introduced this year have been revolutionary to say the least. Shopify has broken down the complex barriers commonly seen with other online sales platforms, giving the store owner the ability to control what they sell, how to market, and how to improve their operations.

Much of what we do at Whiley Mai is to match solutions to your businesses needs,  we are excited to work with you to see how theses new features, along with Shopify’s core functionality will help take your business to the next level. There has never been a better time to explore the benefits of Shopify, so get in touch today to find out how we can help you sell more online.