Shopify Summer 2024 Update Explained: It’s Worth a Shot

Introducing: the full scoop on Shopify’s Summer 2024 update, with more than 150 new features and enhancements to help make commerce more awesome for everyone. This enormous release is actually aimed at the basic ways every application works and is smoother, quicker, stronger, and more cohesive than was previously possible.

So let’s go deeper and observe why this update deserves at least the chance to be attempted.

One of the hallmarks of this update is the new Markets command center. This platform allows you to conveniently oversee all your cross-border selling efforts, business-to-business selling, and face-to-face selling. Before, what used to be managing these configurations entailed dealing with different sectors of the Shopify platform and now, everything is in one location.

The Markets tool is ideal since it will allow you to see and analyze all your growth activities at once. This tool is invaluable for your growing business since it enables you to understand your operations precisely and broadly. Whether you’re getting an overview of the important markets to focus on or zooming in on specific changes made to the platform and UI, Markets provides that essential detail and responsibility.

Some most significant updates in the Markets section are as follows:

This means that you can now develop highly accredited buyer experiences for each market through a single store. This entails that there is no necessity to have different inventory statuses or synchronized data among various stores. For instance, let’s say you wish to market your online store in the UK; you can add the region and modify the configuration and catalog along with your store design, in one go.

The merchandising and publishing for the retail stores are flexible in managing the price now. You can set up specific catalogs for different store yards. For example, you can price your goods lower to the outlets in the U.S. while displaying only popular items in your East 34th Street store.

Currently, growing the wholesale businesses into new regions has become easier for the Shopify Plus merchants. Store themes are now more flexible, enabling you to set up the default store theme for each B2B market without extra costs, meaning your store will fit different markets’ needs.

Some other updates include:

Shopify has certain products that are barred by customs; any products following these will not be allowed into another country, which makes selling internationally hassle-free.

You can now add the duties and import taxes right to your product prices for the areas where clients are used to paying for everything in one sum at the checkout. This in turn enhances the conversion rates because clients are not shocked by other costs when they are checking out.

These updates are planned to cut down and improve the expansion approaches which can take place through new markets or bettering of the current ones. The Markets command center is in many ways the central hub of your business and a battle station that fits your business into growth to any horizon you desire.

Shopify’s Summer 2024 update introduces a unified shopping experience, no matter the environment. The new tools and features should help expand flexibility and coordination so you can control all the different sales outlets better.

Here are some useful ones included in the Summer 2024 update:

With this update, the customers get the idea whether their products will be delivered in multiple shipments and this gives the customers better control over the shipment methods.

Beforeward, customers viewed one shipping rate and date, even though products were delivered out of several warehouses. Now, sellers can offer the lowest price, the guarantee of the shortest delivery time, or individually for each delivery speed. For instance, a customer requires a desk lamp to be delivered immediately while the sofa will follow maybe after a week.

Benefit: This increases the level of trust as well as customer loyalty by offering the customers a clear understanding of the shipping options and estimated delivery times.

This new feature enables and configures the store transfers to enhance pickup points for the customers.

In case a certain product has not been ordered at the preferred pickup store, the customer can be relocated there. This feature is your retail stores and distribution centers; it will enable you to meet the needs of the customers more efficiently.

Benefit: This flexibility is beneficial to the customer since it increases the number of pickup points hence improving the delivery and the stock management of the products in different points of sale.

Other updates include:

It gives the retail staff the ability to ship orders from store locations and spares any particular store that may be faced with a lot of pressure to ship the consignment while at the same time, eradicating the issue with expensive shipping costs. This way, instead of delivering to a particular store that could be congested with lots of activities, the order can be directed to the next store, depending on the logistics.

Shopify also synchronizes the in-store and online fulfillment operations to guarantee increased options for the delivery of purchases, which in effect improves the experience.

Overall, these updates showcase how Shopify is continually improving the adaptability and efficacy of online and offline eCommerce sales. Shopify ultimately assists the merchants to present more choices and even the required information to the consumer leading to increased purchases and thus enhanced satisfaction amongst the consumers.

Some of the AI tools that are being offered by the recent Summer 2024 update of Shopify include the following. These are tools that help in the easier and more efficient running of your store by outsourcing certain tasks and giving objectivity.

Here are some of the top AI and Automation features introduced in the Summer 2024 update:

Autocorrect Image & Video Editing is now live throughout the Shopify admin and our mobile app. It enables you to make professional image edits regardless of whether you are in the comfort of your office, at home, or traveling. Product images can be improved, lighting can be changed, as well as the background can be erased with ease.

Benefit: Images make your store more professional and attractive, which in turn increases the ratio of sales since high-quality product images portray the store as professional.

Shopify Magic also uses AI to recommend products that are intelligent, and specific. This tool enables products to be easily found on your site, social media, and other platforms where you sell. For instance, it can recommend the most suitable categories and attributes of the new products.

Benefit: Correct category management will always help increase your store’s traffic and consequently sales since customers will always find what they want quickly.

Sidekick is an AI-based business companion that assists in decision-making. Sidekick comprehends your store and your business data hence the answers it gives are more concise. It can actually produce customer segments, aid in marketing, and give guidelines unique to the company’s business.

Some other AI and Automation updates include:

Shopify’s new analytics simply feeds data in real-time thus facilitating timely business decisions. Information that earlier used to take 24 hours to update is no longer required.

AI instruments can sort customers by their conduct and inclinations, making it simpler for you to accomplish and market directly.

All these AI and automation updates are meant to be time-saving and improve your store’s productivity. Shopify assists your business through AI integration of image editing, better product recommendations, and fruitful business intelligence that ultimately helps to survive in the continuously growing eCommerce platform.

Shopify’s analytics and reporting tools have been redesigned in the Summer 2024 update to provide store owners with the most helpful information. That is the reason that these changes are made in order to offer better, faster, and more sophisticated information which helps the merchants to make the right decisions.

Here are some of the top updates for Analytics and Reporting:

Their new analytics tool called ‘real-time dashboards’ streams data directly. This means that instead of having to wait for the accumulation of data for a day or a week to get updated results, it is ‘real-time’ information available immediately. Live updates can be seen on your dashboard in terms of your sales, visitors, and other important factors.

Benefit: Real-time data also enhances responsiveness and action with changes or adaptations made in real-time resulting in better adjustment of your marketing and sales.

You can now use the drag-and-drop feature, change the size of the metric cards on the dashboard, or add or delete them. This feature gives you the ability to manage the metrics that should be included in the dashboard according to what is important to you as a businessman. For instance, you can set goals such as achieving a certain level of sales, maintaining specific costs of customer acquisition, or specific conversion rates.

Benefit: A customized interface assists the user in paying attention to the critical areas that are vital to the success of the venture.

Shopify provides various comprehensive and prepared reports that will give answers to frequently asked questions in commerce. These reports should enable you to compare your sales across various time periods, monitor your stocks, and understand your clients’ patterns. Also, subgroups can be created to look at particular intervals to further analyze data intersections, such as conversion rate compared to sessions.

Benefit: Automated reports help users avoid spending hours and manual reports offer users freedom to explore their data to make necessary changes to help improve their businesses.

ShopifyQL helps in writing custom queries on the data you need in your store. This feature combines the point-and-click report with the code-based data query from the same window. It is useful to move freely between the visual editor and writing the ShopifyQL code to have accurate results.

Benefit: Interactive visualization and code-based data analysis give the flexibility and accuracy that is needed for the non-IT literate user as well as the upcoming merchant.

Some other updates include:

The new analytics platform provides the opportunity to drill down your data information and to build different levels of comparison which you need to get the right result.

There is the option of designing an individual view that tracks certain measures and characteristics that are essential for your organization.

The changes to the analytics and reporting systems in Shopify’s Summer 2024 update are timely and relevant information to assist in running the business. In delivering real-time data, selection of preferred dashboards, and robust reporting, decisions are made with perfect information.

This Summer 2024 release includes several valuable tools and features that, in the minds of our developers, will simplify their work. These improvements aim at increasing flexibility and control, at same time as delivering fast progress in development.

Here are some significantly interesting updates:

Hydrogen took a major leap forward with the Hydrogen Visual Editor utilizing Utopia & more. The new visual editor can be easily plugged into your stack.

Hydrogen Visual Editor makes storefront design and development possible in a visually oriented manner, enabling developers and non-developer teams. It means that developers are in control of the code to make sure any changes are all correlated to GitHub. While only technical authors can create structures and templates, annotate components, and add structures to the authoring layer, stakeholders can still edit content directly in the editor.

Benefit: This tool enhances the speed of development by also encouraging multiple people to work on the same file at once through real-time editing. It holds true that the numerous changes that may be synchronized by a team are more efficient when the teams work together.

New and improved themes for users/developers to have more control over customization. Style Settings are also available for merchants to adjust and configure sections and block placements within the themes.

Undoubtedly, it will allow developers to make blocks more general and flexible while giving merchants control over the settings such as direction, alignment, and spacing gradually. These settings are not fixed and can be modified according to the type of computer or other device being used.

Benefit: It is useful to allow merchants the liberty to develop designs that are specific and sensitive to their services being offered rather than having to deal with standard developers most of the time; It becomes easier to maintain a single look across different platforms.

The update introduces improved APIs, for more complex stores and customer account functions. These new APIs offer more utility for constructing commerce-independent fronts and handling customer profiles. This entails custom transactions, customer interaction, and better client information.

Benefit: These enhancements enable developers to build more personalized and highly customizable, yet elastic storefronts, that produce enhanced client experience and optimized enterprise back end.

Here are some other updates:

By specifying that blocks can pass resources like products, collections, and metaobjects to their children in a format suited for the layout – even in the most complex layout – it becomes much easier for developers in the ecosystem.

Theme developers can use conditions starting with an element such as a ‘More’ button that only appears if there are more items in Products_join_Collection than can fit on a page.

These supported developer tools and customization options in Shopify augmented in the summer of 2024 are such that offer the required flexibility and control for creating intricate and exclusive storefronts. Thus, by increasing the chances of people interacting and personalizing, Shopify gives developers and merchants the tools that can be used to make the best out of the shops and, of course, the shoppers.

If you’re all excited about the new Shopify update, it’s worth a shot. These 15 new features that we’ve discussed will make a significant difference in ways your online store operates. If you need any help in understanding or leveraging these new features, you can always reach the eCommerce consultants at Techtic for support.