Sep 27, 2022

A quick guide to Shopify Editions: Summer 2022 updates

The e-commerce space is constantly changing to adapt to the new ways customers shop and the latest technologies we use. As a result, Shopify comes out with dozens of updates every year, and it can be challenging to keep up. It’s also difficult to understand how these changes will affect your business or how you can start utilising new updates for your store.

This article will briefly cover most of the significant updates, new apps and tools for Shopify Merchant and Shopify Plus members. The Shopify Summer Edition targets six main areas of e-commerce: customer acquisition, conversions, online store customisation, business admin and scaling your business.

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New tools for customer acquisition

New tools and updates for converting shoppers

New tools for making your store your own

New tools for building customer relationships

New business admin and scaling tools to keep your business growing

New tools for customer acquisition

You are all aware of how important it is to acquire the right customer so you can spend less on costly ads and see higher conversion and returning customer rates. Here are some new tools to capture high-value customers that Shopify has outlined in their Summer 2022 Editions:

Shopify audiences: This tool allows you to find a high-value Shopify audience based on shopping behaviours across all Shopify stores. Businesses can capture shoppes at the top of the funnel who are the most likely to convert. This feature is only available to Shopify Plus members.
Shop Cash – The Shop app is a shopping platform for Shopify with an integrated Shopify payment system. Shop offers rewards in Shop credit (Shop Cash) to customers. Shop Cash is free to use; you only pay for boosts. A Shop Cash boost gives shoppers a higher incentive to shop in your Shopify store, and shoppers can view all boosted stores in one place.
LinkPop – We all know the frustrations of linking on Instagram; well, with LinkPop, you can make your Instagram bio link shoppable. Customers are 2x more likely to convert if your link in bio is shoppable.
Marketplace Kit – Use this tool to build shopping experiences on any platform, including TikTok, Spotify and Twitter shopping.

New tools and updates for converting shoppers

Now you have the tools to get new customers shopping in your Shopify store; you need a sure-fire way of converting all your shoppers. Here we outline some of the latest Shopify tools for maximising your conversions.

B2B on Shopify – You can now customise your Shopify storefront, product pages and Shopify checkout for wholesale. You can adjust product values across your store to sell to businesses and customers simultaneously. You can even use a single Shopify storefront or multiple ones. This feature is only available for Shopify Plus members.
Shopify Point of Sale POS – You can use the Shopify POS app to integrate in-person commerce and e-commerce. You can sell anywhere from your mobile with POS. Tap to pay on iPhone is now available in the US, so there is no need for card reading hardware.
Shopify Markets – This new feature allows businesses to easily customise their Shopify storefront and shopping experience to international markets. It is simple to set up and edit your international markets. You can create a single-country market or multi-country segments and adjust your currencies, shipping and Shopify payment options.
Checkout extensibility – Fully customise your Shopify checkout with your brand aesthetic. This feature is only available for Shopify Plus members.
Shop Pay – The Shop platform has its own payment system, so shoppers can quickly checkout from any Shopify store that uses it with one click. Shop Pay can speed up checkout by 4x, reducing the number of abandoned carts.

Shop Pay allows shoppers to buy now and pay later to increase average order values; customers can also try before they buy to make buying decisions easier. Shoppers can even pre-order popular items.

Discount combinations – A new Shopify feature is the possibility of combining discount codes for customers at checkout.

New tools for making your Shopify store your own

Shopify prides itself on usability for businesses; however, this can sometimes be limiting for companies that want to offer a completely customised shopping experience. Here we look at new tools for customising and optimising your store functionality for improved user experience and simpler back-end management.

Hydrogen and Oxygen – These new features will undoubtedly excite Shopify developers, allowing for seamless headless commerce. You can use this new coding feature to fine-tune your Shopify store customisation; more is possible with Hydrogen than liquid. Hydrogen also delivers instantaneous reactions to changes in the Shopify script. Oxygen integrates and delivers these high-functioning storefronts for wherever your customers may shop. You may need a Shopify expert to help you get the most out of these tools.
Tokengated commerce – Shoppers can now connect their Crypto wallet to Shopify; they can purchase tokens, and businesses can reward token holders in return. Token holders may receive early bird offers and access to exclusive products or events.
Editor and Themes updates – Shopify has brought in eight new free themes and ten premium themes; there’s even more choice of website themes to suit your brand. The no-code editor has also been updated for easy, user-friendly site customisation.
Metafield updates – Although Shopify has loads of new themes, you may still need metafields to add more specific information to your site. You can now add metafields across your whole Shopify store. You can even personalise these metafields to your customer segments. Customising your metafields can be complicated, so it may be worth hiring an expert.

New tools for building customer relationships

Shopify’s new Connect to Customer (C2C) approach focuses on engaging your current customers to improve retention. Since ads are getting more expensive to run, keeping the customers you have acquired is even more critical than ever. Here, we explore some of Shopify’s new tools to boost customer engagement.

Customer engagement tools – There have been updates to Shopify’s automated Shopify email service so you can target and re-target specific groups better than ever. We have introduced a Shopify inbox chat feature so you can offer customer support 24/7.
Shop re-engagement offers – You can set up re-targeting on Shop so that your customers will receive post-purchase offers to keep them returning to your site. This, combined with Shop Cash, will inevitably help retain valuable customers.
Shop re-engagement recommendations - Another great reason to start using Shop is to re-target customers with personalised product recommendations, new product launches and curated collections to keep your customers in the loop about your business.

New business admin and scaling tools to keep your business growing

Shopify fulfillment network – Ship your products to one of Shopify’s warehouses, where you can get free storage for six months per item. When a shopper orders from your online store, order fulfilment will pack and ship your orders off with a verified 2-day delivery window. Your inventory is accurately managed, and you can offer fast international shipping. This service is currently only provided to stores in the US.
Shopify Functions – This feature lets developers build custom apps that can be configured in Shopify admin. Shopify Functions were built to scale up for significant sales events while executing milliseconds.
Shopify balance – This is a tool to manage your business and your money in one place.
Shopify Captial – Shopify has increased its funding for first-time borrowers. This means that start-up businesses can accelerate their growth faster with Shopify Capital.
Planet – You can choose to make your deliveries carbon neutral by supporting carbon removal projects. Tell your sustainably minded customers to boost sales.