Summer is here, and you know what that means – another round of updates from Shopify to help take your business to the next level. As a Shopify store owner, you need to stay on top of the latest changes so you can leverage all the new features to boost sales and keep your customers happy. This summer, Shopify has rolled out some exciting updates, including making Shopify Flow available to Basic plans, introducing new apps like Subscriptions and Bundles, and enhancing the checkout experience. Whether you’re looking to streamline your operations, offer more flexibility and personalization to your customers, or simply speed up your store, the Summer 2023 updates have you covered. Read on to discover the top six updates you need to know to make the most of Shopify this season.

Shopify Flow Now Available for All Plans

Shopify just announced some exciting updates for summer 2023, and Shopify Flow is now available for all plans. This means even businesses on the Basic Shopify plan can take advantage of Shopify’s powerful automation app.
Shopify Flow allows you to create workflows that handle repetitive tasks automatically. For example, you can set up a flow to:
•Send an email campaign to customers who haven’t purchased in 3 months.
•Post new blog content to your social media channels automatically.
•Send a personalized discount code to customers on their birthday.
•Update inventory levels when a product gets low.
The options are endless! With Flow, you can focus on high-impact activities while it handles the routine jobs.
To get started with Shopify Flow:

1. Log in to your Shopify admin and go to the Apps section.
2. Search for “Shopify Flow” and install the app. It’s free to use.
3. Create your first flow by choosing a trigger (like “New order” or “New blog post”) and one or more actions (“Send email” or “Post to social media”).
4. Customize the details like email content, hashtags, and more.
5. Turn on the flow and let Shopify Flow do the work for you!

Shopify Flow is designed to save you time and boost productivity. Especially for small business owners wearing many hats, automating key processes can help reduce stress and allow you to focus on growth activities. With the recent update, even those on the Basic Shopify plan now have access to this powerful time-saving tool.
Leveraging apps like Shopify Flow is a great way to get the most out of your Shopify experience. Check it out and start building the automations that will transform your business!

Introducing Shopify Subscriptions (Early Access)

Shopify’s new app, Shopify Subscriptions, is currently in early access for select merchants. If you’re one of the lucky ones with access, it’s time to start planning how you can use it to boost recurring revenue.

Shopify Subscriptions allows you to easily sell subscription products and services. Think weekly meal kits, monthly beauty boxes, or annual gym memberships. You choose the billing frequency, subscription length, and pricing. Shopify will then handle the recurring billing, payments, and order fulfillment automatically.

Offer discounts and promotions

Encourage customers to sign up for longer subscription lengths by offering bigger discounts the longer they commit. For example, give 10% off monthly plans, 15% off quarterly, and 20% off annual plans. You can also run limited-time promotion codes for subscribers to save on their first order.

Provide extra value

Look for ways to provide additional value to your subscribers beyond just the core product or service. Things like exclusive content, early access to sales, bonus items in shipments, or loyalty programs are great options. The more value you provide, the less likely subscribers will be to cancel.

Make it easy to upgrade and renew

Once someone becomes a subscriber, make it simple for them to upgrade to a higher-tier plan or renew for another cycle. Send email reminders before their renewal date and offer a small incentive to renew, like a discount code or bonus item. The easier you make it, the higher your renewal and retention rates will be.

Track key metrics

Pay close attention to your key subscription metrics like acquisition cost, lifetime value, churn rate, and renewal rate. Look for ways to bring acquisition costs down, increase lifetime value and renewal rates, and keep churn to a minimum.

Make data-driven decisions to optimize your subscription program over time.
With some planning and effort, Shopify Subscriptions can become a major source of recurring revenue for your business. Get started now and you’ll be well on your way to subscription success!

Wholesale Made Easy: The Shopify Marketplace Connect App

Shopify’s new app, Shopify Marketplace Connect, makes selling wholesale and facilitating business-to-business (B2B) transactions a breeze. Formerly known as Codisto, this app was acquired by Shopify and rebranded to provide an all-in-one solution for wholesale and B2B selling on your Shopify store.

With Marketplace Connect, you can create a wholesale channel on your store for business buyers. This gives them their own login, pricing, discounts, and checkout experience separate from your retail customers. You determine wholesale customer eligibility and can set minimum order quantities, apply tiered pricing discounts based on order volume, and customize the wholesale experience to match your brand.

Some of the major benefits of using Marketplace Connect include:

#1. Automated order processing:

The app handles everything from accepting wholesale orders to applying the correct pricing and discounts. This streamlines your fulfillment operations and reduces errors.

#2. Branded B2B experience:

You can create a customized B2B landing page and checkout for your wholesale buyers. This provides them a professional experience tailored to their needs.

#3. Wholesale customer management:

Easily add new wholesale customers, set their pricing levels and discounts, view their order history, and more. Staying on top of your B2B relationships has never been simpler.

#4. Tiered pricing:

Create multi-level pricing for your wholesale buyers based on factors like order volume, customer type, location, and more. This flexibility allows you to provide the best possible value to customers at every level.

#5. Order approvals (optional):

If desired, you can set wholesale orders to require your approval before processing. This gives you an extra layer of control and oversight for your B2B sales.

By streamlining your B2B operations, providing a tailored experience for business buyers, and offering maximum pricing flexibility, the Shopify Marketplace Connect app is a must-have for any store selling wholesale or facilitating business-to-business transactions. Take your B2B sales to the next level with this powerful app.

AI for Your Shopify Store (AKA Shopify Magic)

Shopify’s AI and automation features allow you to save time, boost sales, and gain valuable insights into your business. Two key tools are Shopify Magic and Shopify Sidekick.

#Shopify Magic

Shopify Magic uses AI to automatically adjust your marketing, product recommendations, and email campaigns based on customer data and behavior. It learns from every customer interaction to optimize the shopping experience and increase sales. Some of the ways Magic helps are:

• Personalized product recommendations: Magic studies your customers’ browsing and buying habits to suggest products they’re likely to purchase. These tailored recommendations lead to higher conversion rates.
•  Automated email marketing: Magic can send targeted emails to your customers promoting new arrivals, seasonal sales, abandoned cart reminders, and more. The AI finds the optimal time to send each email for the best open and click-through rates.
•  Dynamic re-targeting ads: Magic creates custom ads to re-engage visitors who left your store without making a purchase. The ads display products the customers viewed, encouraging them to come back to your store to buy.
• Customer segmentation: Magic analyzes your customer data to identify key segments based on location, purchase history, and preferences. You can then create specialized marketing campaigns tailored to each segment.

To enable Magic, simply turn it on in your Shopify admin. There are no apps to install or additional fees. Magic is available for all plans and gives smaller merchants access to powerful AI typically only affordable to large brands. With regular use, Magic gets smarter and the results get better over time.

#Shopify Sidekick

Sidekick is Shopify’s AI-powered virtual assistant. It can answer questions about your store’s metrics, make suggestions to improve sales or optimize your store, and even take actions on your behalf like enabling an app or updating store settings. Sidekick learns from every conversation to provide increasingly helpful information tailored to your business.

While still in beta, Sidekick shows the promise of AI and automation for streamlining operations and unlocking new growth opportunities. As these technologies continue to advance, tools like Magic and Sidekick will become indispensable for savvy Shopify merchants looking to gain an edge. Staying up-to-date with the latest AI features and making them work for your store is key to success.

Faster More Flexible Storefront – Theme Flex

Shopify’s faster and more flexible storefront updates are coming this summer, allowing you to create unique shopping experiences tailored to your brand and customers.

#Theme Flex Sections

With Theme Flex Sections, you’ll have more control over your storefront design without needing to know how to code. You can drag and drop different sections like featured collections, video, testimonials and more. Arrange them in any order you like and customize the styling.

Want to highlight your bestselling products right on the homepage? Drag in a featured collection section. Have amazing customer reviews you want to showcase? Add a testimonial section. You can also adjust things like background colors, fonts, and spacing to match your brand.

Theme Flex Sections provide an easy way to:

1. Promote sales and offers
2. Engage visitors with videos
3. Build social proof using testimonials
4. And so much more!
5. You’ll be able to test different layouts to see which ones drive the most sales and conversions. Keep visitors scrolling with sections for every part of the customer journey.

#Faster Storefronts

In addition to a redesigned storefront, Shopify is optimizing performance. Stores will load up to 30% faster, providing a better experience for your customers. Faster page load times have been shown to improve rankings in search engines like Google, so this update may give your store a boost in visibility and traffic.

The speed and flexibility improvements are designed to:

1. Keep visitors engaged for longer
2. Increase conversion rates
3. Provide a premium user experience that builds brand trust

With a faster, customizable storefront, you’ll be able to create a unique shopping destination tailored to your ideal customers. Stay up-to-date with the latest ecommerce trends and keep improving your store’s design over time. Shopify’s new features empower you to build a store you’re proud of and that keeps customers coming back.

Check Out the New Checkout

Shopify’s updated checkout experience is designed to streamline the purchasing process for your customers. Several new features aim to reduce friction and encourage more completed sales.

One-page checkout

The new one-page checkout condenses the entire checkout process onto a single page. Customers can see all their order details, payment info, shipping address and total cost in one place without having to click between pages. This simplified experience can help avoid abandon carts since customers feel like the finish line is in sight.

Saved payment methods

Customers can now save payment info to use for faster checkout on future orders. Shopify will automatically suggest saved payment methods at checkout, and customers just have to select one to complete the purchase. For subscription-based stores, saved payment methods are ideal since customers don’t have to re-enter their info each billing cycle.

Checkout customization

You now have more control over the look and feel of your checkout. Upload your own logo, choose page colors to match your store theme, add custom CSS or HTML, and reorganize elements like the order summary or payment methods. These options allow you to provide a seamless branded experience from product page to purchase.

Alternative payment methods

In addition to credit cards, customers can now pay using alternative methods like PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Shop Pay Installments. Offering more payment options, especially interest-free installments, makes purchasing more accessible and affordable for customers.

Fraud analysis

Shopify’s built-in fraud analysis helps detect and prevent fraudulent orders to reduce chargebacks and disputes. The updated fraud analysis engine uses machine learning to analyze hundreds of data points per transaction and block orders that meet the threshold for fraud. You can customize fraud settings to your risk tolerance and even create exemptions for trusted customers.

The new checkout features focus on speed, simplicity and security—all of which can positively impact your conversion rates and customer experience. Be sure to explore all the options to determine what combination works best for your store and customers. With the right checkout setup, you’ll be ringing up more completed sales in no time!

Conclusion

So there you have it, business owners. Shopify has rolled out a ton of exciting updates for you this summer that are sure to make running your store that much easier. Whether you want to offer subscriptions, bundle products, tap into AI technology or simply speed up your store, Shopify has you covered. The options can seem overwhelming, but start with what interests you most and what could benefit your business and customers the most. Play around, see what works, and keep optimizing – that’s the key to success on Shopify and in ecommerce. Before you know it, summer will be over and you’ll be wondering where the time went. But with these helpful new tools at your disposal, you’ll be able to make the most of the busy season and set yourself up for success into the fall. Now get out there and update your store! Your customers are waiting.