Shopify Reunite 2020 - The Future of eCommerce
With many industry experts predicting the state of ecommerce to have accelerated 10 years, there’s been no better time to either start or focus your strategy to a Shopify centric approach – and here’s why!
Some of you may have never used Shopify a day in your life, whereas others may use it daily. Regardless we’ve got some pretty exciting news that is sure to benefit anyone who is thinking about or already selling online. Each year, Shopify hosts a Unite conference that outlines the upcoming platform upgrades and new features to help you sell better online. As Shopify users, this is an annual event that can’t be missed. But in case you did, we’ve got the full re-cap below, so get comfortable and check out our summarised version of the 2020 Shopify Unite conference.
Shopify Pay - Buy Now Pay Later (new)
While in NZ and Australia we have access to some extremely reliable and handy buy now – pay later options, there are always a few minor hassles that accompany these. Now with Shopify’s NEW pay instalment scheme, buyers will be able to pay for purchases in 4 equal instalments, very similar to what you would see with After Pay or Laybuy without any interest or fees. The beauty of this is that Shopify merchants will receive the total purchase amount straight away as Shopify collects the remaining payments over time.
The best part of this is that you can keep all different payment options within Shopify rather than going through external payment portals. Instalments will be fully integrated into the Shop Pay accelerated checkout, so you can provide your customers with another payment option that is sure to help increase conversions at the cart level.
International Selling
Selling into multiple countries can certainly cause some issues, which is why Shopify’s NEW international centric approach to selling will make things a lot easier. As New Zealand is a small marketplace in comparison to the America’s and Europe, you’ve no doubt got your eyes set on or are already selling overseas. With local domains and custom FX you’ll be able to do this with ease.
Local Domains – You may be operating multiple localised domains e.g. .co.nz or .com.au and like us have struggled with ensuring the correct customers and ending up on the correct store which can sometimes be the reason for lost sales. With local domain’s you’ll be able to use the hreflang html tag to help Google direct customers to the right domain based on their IP address ensuring positive ranking and SEO.
Custom FX – Pricing for multiple currencies can prove to negatively effect international sales and have you even questioning why you started selling internationally in the first place. Well with Shopify’s new multicurrency feature, you’ll be able to maintain static pricing while selling in up to 133 currencies and receiving payments in your own while showing a stable price to customers. This is a key feature and allows your customers to see exactly what they will be paying without navigating away from your website to find out the exchange rate themselves (by this time they may have forgotten what it was they were buying in the first place!).
Shopify POS
Now more than ever it is important for merchants operating both physical and digital versions of their stores to ensure there is a sense of connectivity between both. This can be achieved through Shopify’s new POS which is a fully re-designed, rebuilt and extensible point-of-sale system with omnichannel capabilities. Contactless Checkout allows merchants to offer additional contactless payment methods for those who don’t have access to options such as Google and Apple pay. Buyers can also scan a QR code to pay for in-store purchase via their phone which encourages a safe (social distancing) checkout process while allowing multiple purchase options for buyers.
Shop & Shop Channel
Coming soon to a digital platform near you is the highly anticipated personalised Shopping assist: Shop. This exciting new method to shopping online couldn’t come at a better time, as buyers will have the ability to purchase and receive products with ease. This is due to the shop local feature where buyers can locate their nearest retailers who are stocking their desired item and shop local to help support and seal the deal. As some items require a considered purchase decision it could be a key selling point for customers to try and decide in-store rather than online.
Shop can customise product recommendations based on the customers purchasing history which will help to increase conversion rate’s and allow your site to be interact with ready to buy customers. Customers are treated to a fully immersed experience right from the discovery phase and all the way through delivery. Shop is the new personalised shopping partner that will help the right people see your products.
Delivery & Pickup Methods
With delivery now being delayed in most areas of New Zealand by up to 1-2 weeks, keeping transparency with your customers is a great way to ensure trust and increase conversion rates at the cart level. Shopify’s new delivery and pickup methods allow customers the best buying experience possible.
To offer customers a more personalised delivery experience, local delivery fees can be defined by merchants down to post codes and radius. The merchant can also set specific delivery fees and minimum order prices to provide buyers with the best delivery options.
Local pick-up options have become extremely popular in light of Covid-19 as buyers hope to help support local retailers while getting the items efficiently. Merchants can now set multiple pick up points for buyers to choose from enabling a hassle free checkout process and total transparency including time until the order will be ready.
Performance Dashboard
Shopify Dashboards are the key to your store’s insights, metrics and selling information. From this page alone, you can see exactly how well your store is operating, what pages are seeing the most traffic and your buyer’s navigation behaviour. In a nutshell you can make a lot of claims from the information on your dashboard which is why Shopify saw this as an essential upgrade.
Soon you’ll be able to access a new dashboard that will allow you to understand how theme code customisations and app installations impact store speed as well as making troubleshooting easier to understand to help keep your store operating at an optimal speed.
Shopify Balance
Shopify as a platform is targeted toward small to medium businesses’ and in many cases’ it’s these business’s that struggle the most with banks as they have been known to not effectively meet the needs of these smaller businesses. That is why with Shopify’s new balance account, you can take your financial back into your own hands. The new balance account allows view of cash flow, ability to pay bills, track expenses and more. There’s no monthly fees for this or a minimum balance. Shopify card is another awesome addition to these updates where you can use a physical or virtual card to access the money in your Shopify account.
Conclusion
It’s clear to see from these 2020 releases and updates that Shopify is handing over the keys to each merchant and allowing them to run their business their way. In light of Covid-19 buyers are expecting more transparency, an efficient buying process and the ability to meet all customer needs whether that be physical or virtual.