Top Updates Announced in Shopify Summer Edition 2024

Recent Shopify Summer Edition 2024 gives merchants many reasons for joy since over 150 splendid updates are coming. The DigitalSuits team is excited to share with you the most crucial upcoming Shopify features that store owners will be able to leverage shortly. We present them, just like in Shopify Editions, within eleven categories to make it easier for you to navigate through updates.

#1 Expand across markets

Shopify strives to give unlimited opportunities for those business owners who want to sell across international markets. That's why they updated previous functionality and added new features.

Updated Markets

Among the most essential updates announced in Shopify Summer Editions 2024 is new Markets. It lets you customize user experiences across international markets.

What’s new?

In a few months, Shopify users will get a unified set of options for running and managing their business internationally from a single place. Previously, managing store localizations was much more complicated since Markets' options were spread across Shopify’s platform. Soon, expansion tools will be included in the main Shopify navigation.

There are three sections for the new Markets tab:

1. Region is for selling cross-border. You can create and manage multiple markets, such as the UK, Australia, etc., and submarkets and customize your store themes specifically for each region.
2. Retail includes the tools for setting specific product catalogs and managing prices for all your retail locations using Shopify POS.
3. B2B is available only for Shopify Plus users and is intended for wholesale business expansion. Just like with retail stores, you can create B2B stores and customize your themes for different markets.

In addition, at the top of the Markets dashboard, you will find brief reports for each of your created markets.

#2 Sell online

Selling online is among the top priorities in Shopify Editions updates. New features are intended to help improve user experience, customer loyalty, and store performance.

Shop sign-in feature

Activate Shop Pay and enjoy new opportunities to identify customers with custom avatars and one-click passkeys that you can place anywhere in your store.

Taxonomy for enhanced navigation

Shopify added 10K+ categories and 2K+ attributes for product taxonomy to improve navigation across stores and searches with AI.

Image filtering for product search

The updated Shopify Search & Discovery app helps customers find the right products faster by filtering by images, logos, and icons.

Shopify Combine Listings app

Shopify Plus users have the option to install the Shopify Combined Listings app to showcase unique rich media galleries, descriptions, and URLs for multiple product characteristics under one parent listing.

Store credits

All Shopify users can test the Shopify store credit feature, which is available for early access. You can issue store credits for your customers in the admin panel to let them exclusively spend credits at checkout in your store. This feature is intended to improve customer loyalty and grow your business long-term.

Performance and events

In your Web Performance Dashboard, you can now monitor how events such as app and third-party service installation, theme updates, and new code implementations influence your store's performance. This will help you optimize performance by making strategic adjustments.

#3 Sell in person

Retailers will significantly benefit from Shopify Summer Edition since the number of innovative features is impressive.

Easy retail checkout

Simplify in-store tasks and stay more connected with retail customers using Shopify POS.

• Use one-tap digital receipts, automatically recognize ShopPay users' email addresses, and let them opt-in to receive marketing notifications.
• Automatically capture customer details at checkout, collecting email addresses and logging staff attribution.
• Automatically determine whether or not the product can be returned, providing staff with context on why. Any returns that fall outside the policy are blocked, yet the administrator has the right to override restrictions if needed.

Buy X get Y discount

Create buy X get Y promotions to motivate new customers to purchase your products or reward existing ones. You can apply these promotions in two ways: using discount codes or automatic discounts. Discount codes are available for online stores and retail locations on POS, while automatic buy X get Y discounts are available for online stores and retail locations on POS Pro.

Discount combinations

Combine multiple discounts, such as order, product, or shipping discounts, in a single retail checkout to give your customers the best possible options. Customers attempting to use discounts that cannot be applied together will get the corresponding notification.

#4 Sell wholesale

If you’re running a B2B business, Shopify Summer Editions 2024 will bring something new for you as well.

Trade theme

Set up your B2B store with the free Trade theme specifically designed for wholesale businesses. It includes repeat and bulk purchasing functions, an easy-to-customize design, access to the latest features, and more.

Combined deposits at checkout

Shopify Plus users who run B2B businesses can now require percentage-based deposits at checkout based on the order subtotal. The deposit amount can be applied for each company location.

Accurate supplier shipping rates

Shopify Collective now allows you to charge supplier shipping rates based on weight and location rather than using a flat rate.

Product management in bulk

Shopify Collective lets you quickly show products to customers by importing, managing, and publishing supplier products in bulk. In addition, there is an option to sync more product fields.

#5 Sell globally

Expanding your business internationally has never been so accessible as with the Shopify Summer '24 Edition updates.

Managed Markets

Managed Markets, formerly known as Markets Pro, is a feature for Shopify Plus users integrated with the new Markets. Activating this feature offers an even more simplified international selling process since its merchant-to-record model manages international payments, customs regulations, duties, and shipping complexities.

With this feature, you can import taxes or remove duties, restrict specific products, offer more shipping options, and get even deeper into managing your expansion strategy.

Multiple business entities, one store

Create multiple Shopify Payments accounts for each business entity, such as different localizations, in a single Shopify Plus store.

New theme for Japan

Start or expand your business into the Japanese market by leveraging the Rise theme, specifically designed for stores targeting Japan. Shopify has also released 17 Japanese fonts, included by default, to customize your store.

#6 World’s best checkout

Checkout optimization helps significantly boost sales, that's why Shopify focused on adding features to help merchants customize and improve their checkouts.

Free checkout blocks

Customize your checkout page by adding app blocks directly without using checkout extensions. This feature is exclusive to Shopify Plus users and requires no coding.

Checkout and accounts editor

Use the checkout and accounts editor to customize and manage the functionality and appearance of your checkout, thank you & order status pages and new customer accounts pages in a single place. This feature is available for all Shopify plans.

Automatic payment capture

Shopify Plus users have access to the automatic payment capture when an order is partly fulfilled to meet customer preferences and reporting requirements.

Shop Pay for in-store pickup

Enterprise retailers with activated Commerce Components and Shop Pay Component can allow customers to buy online and pick up in-store.

#7 AI for ecommerce

Shopify keeps up with the times and continues implementing AI technologies to help ecommerce businesses thrive. Meet the upcoming AI features announced in Shopify Summer Edition 2024.

Shopify Magic

Get tailored help without hassle right in your Shopify dashboard with Shopify Magic features.

• Sidekick is an AI assistant that helps with daily shopping routines by answering questions and resolving tasks. It understands your store and its business data and solves not only generic issues but more profound ones related to your current needs.
• Another AI feature is suggested replies in your Shopify Inbox to give quick answers to customer requests.
• Shopify Magic translates the ShopifyQL code for a segment into a simple description to efficiently utilize this information in marketing campaigns.
• Shopify Magic's AI-powered media generator helps modify product images, separating a subject from the background and removing or replacing the background. This feature is now also available on mobile and is expected to be added to more places across Shopify admin, such as in the email editor.

Shopify Magic is free for all Shopify users; however, the features it offers may vary depending on the subscription plan.

#8 Connect with customers

Shopify Editions has always cared about helping businesses reach their audience, and Summer Edition is no exception.

Shop Campaigns & Audiences

Convert more customers and make your spending more efficient with Shop Campaigns & Audiences.

Leverage custom audience lists to find potential clients through improved algorithms and certain commerce signals. With the latest updates, you can also run additional promotions on external platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Google and only pay for new customers.

YouTube Shopping affiliate program

Shortly, US Shopify Plus users will be able to tag their products for the YouTube Shopping affiliates program. This program allows verified YouTube creators to tag your products in their videos, expanding your reach.

Shop campaigns in Canada

Shop Campaigns are now available for Shopify Plus users to reach customers in Canada and the US.

Ad performance data

Sync your campaign data from channels like Google and TikTok in your Shopify admin to simplify metric comparisons and make decisions on improvements based on unbiased insights.

Look up customer in segment

Automate emails and other marketing campaigns with a new action in Shopify Flow: Look up customer in segment. This action helps identify whether a customer joins or leaves a segment and plan your campaign accordingly.

Customer privacy settings

Set permissions for each custom pixel individually to maximize data collection while respecting customer privacy preferences.

New Shop Minis

Boost average order value (AOV) and conversions with new Shop Minis, including Simple Bundles and Zoorix Bundle Kit & Cross Sell. Shop Minis allows adding new features to your Shop Store, such as livestreams and size charts.

#9 Ship and fulfill orders

Improving shipping options in Shopify Editions 2024 aims to boost customer satisfaction and meet customer expectations.

Split shipping

Let your customers get more control over their shipping options.

Previously, customers could only pick a single shipping price and delivery date. Instead, customers can choose between standard, express, and custom shipping options for each product in their cart through split shipping. For example, if a customer purchases a lamp, table, and chair but needs a lamp to be delivered faster, they can choose express shipping for a lamp for extra cost, while the table and chair will be delivered for free within standard shipping terms. You can also add a Promise badge to give your customers a guarantee of timely delivery.

In addition, Shopify has added an option to inform customers if their orders will arrive in multiple shipments, helping to avoid misunderstanding and unexpected expenses.

Ship to & from store

Connect online orders with in-store fulfillment and give your customers more flexibility and convenience regarding pickup.

The Ship to Store feature allows you to handle situations when a product isn’t available in the customer’s desired pickup store. In this case, you can enable store transfers to ensure the product reaches the preferred location for pickup. Shopify allows you to use the network of retail stores and distribution centers to provide more convenient pickup locations.

Ship From Store is an update for merchants who use Shopify POS, aimed at simplifying the shipping process for retail staff. It allows all your retail locations to help prepare and process orders faster. For example, if one retail point is too busy to process the order, another can handle order preparation, thus streamlining the fulfillment process.

#10 Centralize operations

The Shopify team strives to provide merchants with holistic ecommerce solutions that help them manage multiple operations in a single place and organize their business effectively.

Rebuilt Analytics

Explore your store data with updated Shopify analytics. In its rebuilt version, the analytics dashboard is fully customizable. You can drag, drop, resize, and remove metric cards to tailor your dashboard to your preferences. In addition, there is an option to combine various metrics into a single view and create custom reports. You get access to real-time data without having to wait for updates.

Organization settings for all plans

Soon, merchants of all plans will be able to efficiently manage billing, staff access, and more for multiple stores by combining them all under a single organization using Organization settings.

Staff access with the roles

Shopify announced the role-based access control model for Shopify Plus users, now only available for certain merchants with early access. With this feature, you can assign roles to users and user groups, granting them specific permissions tailored to their job requirements.

Merchandising data import

With the enhanced store data import functionality, you can import existing store data like products, variants, collections, and metafields with just a few clicks. This feature is only available for the Shopify Plus plan.

Content-aware top navigation

Replace traditional buttons and modals with an intuitive top bar that seamlessly adapts to the task for better navigation.

#11 For Developers

Shopify Summer Editions 2024 announced plenty of new features for developers. Here, we inform you about the most crucial innovations.

Hydrogen Visual Editor

Enable your team to work in a unified environment with Hydrogen Visual Editor powered by Utopia. This new Shopify feature lets your team members – developers, designers, and managers – work without blocking each other. They can add comments, reorder sections, edit content, and more in real-time, not in sequential order, streamlining workflows and improving productivity.

Theme style settings

Improve your store style and customize themes with the newly introduced Style settings, improved Theme blocks, and upcoming Drag & Drop editor. At the moment, Style settings and Theme blocks are only available in the developer preview to let you familiarize yourself with the updates.

What’s behind these innovative features:

• Style settings allow customization of the appearance of the store's mobile version without a separate setting for each breakpoint.
• Theme blocks are reusable components for building store themes, providing merchants with flexibility while allowing theme developers to control where blocks can be utilized.
• Drag & Drop editor is an upcoming update allowing merchants to group, resize, and edit theme content, as well as customize common layout properties without coding skills.

Conclusions

To sum up, here's a recap of the top ten Shopify updates you should bear in mind in the first place.

1. Updated Markets is a set of tools for international selling, including retail and B2B.
2. Split shipping provides different shipping options for multiple products in the cart.
3. Shopify Magic is an AI assistant in your Shopify dashboard that helps you handle daily tasks.
4. Rebuilt Analytics is a fully customizable analytics dashboard with custom reports and multiple metrics combinations.
5. Theme style settings help flexibly customize your theme’s styling.
6. Hydrogen Visual Editor ensures real-time team collaboration on the project.
7. Managed Markets is a Shopify Plus feature that improves international sales management.
8. Ship to & from store features provide additional pickup locations and the ability to reassign fulfillment between different points of sales.
9. Easy retail checkout stands for many features that simplify in-store tasks.
10. Shop Campaigns & Audiences offers custom audience lists and promotions on external platforms.

Remember to check the updates of Shopify Winter Edition 2024 to ensure you don’t miss out on any cutting-edge features announced in Shopify Editions 2024.

Stay tuned for more news about Shopify, and contact us for the implementation of any desired Shopify feature, custom development, and more. The DigitalSuits team is always happy to assist in building your Shopify store from the ground up or improving your existing projects.