Shopify Reunite is an annual conference aimed at sharing knowledge and announcing upcoming platform updates. Due to the COVID-19 global outbreak, Shopify Reunite 2020 was hosted as an online event. We wouldn’t be wrong if we said doing so helped reach more Shopify sellers, partners, and Shopify merchants.
Shopify reunites 2020 dropped some major announcements that affected the entrepreneurial community. If you missed the gist, don’t bother. Here’s a quick overview of the biggest changes:
1. Shopify Balance
This is part of the initiatives launched by Shopify to help merchants manage their cash flow. It serves as a quick and easy way for them to access funds when needed.
The Shopify Balance will cover:
- Rewards: independent businesses will access exclusive cashback and discounts.
- Shopify card: both virtual and physical cards. Much like an ordinary ATM card, it will enable money withdrawals.
- Shopify balance account: track expenses easily, monitor cash flow, pay bills, and make informed financial decisions without having to pay a fee.
The app also provides pop-up product recommendations and a swift checkout experience through Shop pay. Current innovations are directed at leveraging the app to tell a brand’s story.
4. Performance Tools
A storefront renderer and the online performance dashboard tools enable new levels of quality and speed. Performance issues can now be easily troubleshot to improve service offerings.
5. Delivery & Pickup Methods
The new improvements on Shopify’s Shipping and Fulfillment features allow customers to go for local and curbside pick up from any location of their choice. The local delivery feature will also enable sellers to provide a new local delivery feature for buyers in other locations asides theirs.
6. Fulfillment Updates
The upgrade in Shopify Fulfillment Network is aimed at increasing effectiveness. Some major improvements include:
- Inventory intelligence: recommendations on inventory storage and how to best deliver it to customers.
- Easy Integration: easy installation of the Shopify Fulfillment app.
- Same-Day fulfillment: any orders received by 4 pm EST or before enjoy same-day shipping.
- Brand Control: customers’ experience is improved by using strategies like packaging inserts and custom packaging.
7. Back-Office Improvements
Shopify’s new back-office features allow online orders in-store to be easily organized, managed and fulfilled. The newly included product state feature allows products to be created and saved as drafts for whenever later edits or use.
The faster product creation feature will provide every offline business that is transitioning to the online space the speed they need. Features like the orders list page will help fulfill requests more effectively.
8. New Resources For Making Better Sales Online
(a) Custom Foreign Exchange
The custom foreign exchange pricing with rules-based padding will enable purchases in local currencies. As a result, merchants will be able to receive payment in their currency while still showing a stable price to shoppers. This support is available for 133 local currencies.
(b) Multiple Store Domains
This improvement takes some work off the shoulder of stores with an international presence. It helps improve customers’ experience by personalizing multiple domain stores using the preferred language or currencies of local buyers.
9. Improved Features & Tools For The Online Store
Shopify is also introducing several new tools to help improve online sales.
(a) Express Theme
The Shopify Express Theme is a perfect fit for small-scale online traders. With it, they can easily set up a one-page mobile-optimized website for their business. This feature enables brands and products to be easily visible online.
(b) Gift Cards & Gift Tippings
The new gift card idea helps sellers make some cash through free Shopify gift cards. Tipping is also another new feature by Shopify. It can be used to generate some extra revenue, but also for charity donations, tipping off the carrier, and many other things during the checkout.
10. Better Marketing & Sales Channels
This is intended to help drive sales and improve revenue.
(a) Shopify POS
The new Shopify POS feature is an excellent idea for those who also own an offline store. The fully rebuilt and redesigned point-of-sales system comes with amazing omnichannel capabilities at the forefront.
Included in its new features one can find an option for contactless checkouts, seeing what’s in the store feature, the opportunity to highlight the most used discounts, apps and workflows, adjustable tile grids, and several other updates that will be included along the way.
(b) Shopify Ping
The Shopify Ping feature is a special messaging app that integrates with other regular messaging platforms. It will enable merchants to reach out, answer, and communicate with their buyers easily.
(c) Shopify Email
The newly launched email feature is another tool to communicate with customers. It comes with numerous email templates to choose from and will serve as a marketing tool.
(d) Facebook & Google Shops
This allows increased visibility and reaches on both platforms. Products can easily be listed on Google’s shopping tap or the Facebook shop feature. For the moment, it is only available in the U.S.
Conclusion
Shopify is committed to providing better services. In this post, we’ve listed 10 of their most important announcements so far. With Shopify Reunite everyone will enjoy a better experience.
Guest Author bio
Phillip Akhzar is the Founder and CEO of Arka with over a decade’s experience in packaging. Phil is a San Francisco native and attended Cal Poly SLO as an Industrial Engineer before graduating from both Y Combinator W15 and 500 Startups Batch 16.
About Koombea
Koombea is an app development company and Shopify Plus Partner with over 12 years of experience in eCommerce.
