Shopify Unite 2019, the annual event and conference hosted by Shopify has come and gone once more and was, as per usual, packed full of new announcements that the Shopify team has to offer.
Both merchants and partners of Shopify were on hand to deliver the announcements at the event, which is where agencies and developers come together to discover and explore the newest and latest innovations, updates, and features on the Shopify platform.
So, below we have broken down some of the key takeaways from Shopify Unite 2019 that we think are going to bring the biggest changes that may affect your business.
Shopify POS
Shopify’s unique POS system has received an all-new facelift and redesign to greatly enhance the user experience within the system. Performance was also improved, which came as an impressive development to some.
The Shopify POS system saw improvements to areas such as refunds and exchanges getting a speed performance boost, as well as the checkout system and overall back-end system to help improve customer data management across the entire POS system.
A welcome surprise also was the mention of a “Buy online, pick up in store” feature, which will be available soon.
Storefront Improvements
A variety of announcements were made relating to improvements to the Shopify Storefront. There was mention of a native 3D model and video support, which will soon allow merchants to show off their products like never before, taking the browsing experience to the next level by allowing customers to view products from every angle.
Sections are the key to almost every storefront, but now, a much-needed update will allow for page-specific sections that will enable merchants to independently change the look and feel of their store on each page. Gone are the days of section changes impacting all pages of your store!
Backend News
The Shopify backend is what makes the system function, and so any improvement here is always welcomed by merchants from every industry.
A highly anticipated feature was finally announced this year: order editing. At last, store merchants will have the ability to replace, add and remove products for their customers’ orders post-purchase! To many, this will be the diamond that customer service has been awaiting.
Shopify will also soon bring in the ability to support new languages, allowing international merchants to soon be able to use the language of their choice enabling a much easier and fluid use of Shopify to many. Admin is set to include 11 new languages with Dutch, Hindi, Traditional Chinese and Norwegian being just a few of the additions. The Shopify Partner Portal is now also available in 10 languages.
Shopify Plus
What will most matter to larger brands, Shopify Plus has received multiple new updates to ease the complexities that arise with large-scale business growth. A newly refreshed user interface will be shortly rolled out with dashboards for orders, customers, and multiple stores being centralised into a single place – a feature that will put a smile on many faces.
Simpler tasks will be able to be automated thanks to Shopify Flow allowing you to focus more on what matters.
The Shopify Fulfilment Network
And finally, in a move that will put Shopify head-to-head with Amazon’s FBA business, Shopify announced their new fulfilment network, which is a new fulfilment-as-a-service solution to pick, pack, and ship your orders for you which they claim has a 99.9% order accuracy.
This will bring with it reassurance to many merchants and also improve customer satisfaction as delivery times are set to be reduced. Currently, Shopify has only secured warehouses across the US but we expect this to expand to other countries in the near future.
Shopify also states how currently the feature is available for merchants shipping between 10 and 10,000 packages each day but hopes to expand this to businesses shipping 3 to 30,000 shipments per day.
Applications for early access to the Shopify Fulfilment Network can be submitted here.
This year’s Shopify Unite conference delivered some exciting upcoming changes to the platform that will aid your business’ organisation and delight your customers with an improved shopping experience. We can’t wait to see what future changes Shopify will bring!
