Shopify Editions: Understanding Shopify’s Most Powerful POS Version Yet
If you believed the business news, you’d think that ecommerce and retail, in general, are going through a major slump after the pandemic highs.
That’s not how Shopify sees it.
With the release of Shopify Editions for Summer 2022, it has created its most powerful version of Shopify yet, connecting physical stores with their online versions and providing new point-of-sale features and tools needed to continue to grow and evolve.
They even have a name for this new type of commerce: C2C or Connect to Consumer.
The latest version of Shopify Editions includes over 100 new updates. This comes after the complete rebuild of Shopify in 2021 and it will be followed by new fully integrated POS hardware later in the year, further improving the checkout experience for customers.
The platform is built on React Native’s application framework, a unified codebase that means you’ll have access to the same Shopify POS features with both iOS and Android devices.
Shopify Editions includes a huge suite of powerful new marketing tools that can help you to:
- Connect with and attract new customers/sales
- Convert more shoppers wherever they are around the world
- Develop your branding
- Build closer customer relationships with engagement tools
- Increase back-office efficiency
- Scale-up your business
Shopify Editions is the only POS system that connects seamlessly to your Shopify store and facilitates sales everywhere your customers are — whether you have 50 store locations around the world or a single popup store.
Let’s take a quick look at how some of the main apps in Shopify Editions can help you run a more effective retail operation…
Connect with and attract new customers/sales
Following is a brief rundown of the apps that help you find new customers:
Shopify Audiences
This is designed to help you find your next “best customer” and create higher-converting, better-performing ads. It utilizes Shopify’s machine-based learning insights on purchase intent and its merchant network to identify buyers who are looking for your products.
Shop Cash
This enhances Shopify’s most popular checkout by giving buyers millions of dollars in Shop Cash rewards for their Shop Pay purchases. Shop Cash Boosts helps you create offers to attract new customers who are already using the Shop app (over 100 million).
Twitter Shopping
This app lets you highlight your products directly on your Twitter profile, increasing your potential audience among hundreds of millions of Twitter users to boost sales.
Dovetale
This app helps you build relationships with creators and influencers, build communities and track affiliate sales — important for developing new audiences and increasing sales.
Linkpop
Linkpop makes the link in your social media bios shoppable, powered by Shopify’s fast and secure checkout. Shoppable links are twice as likely to convert.
Marketplace Kit
This one helps you build shopping experiences into any platform with Shopify’s flexible APIs.
Convert more shoppers wherever they are
Shopify Editions includes a swathe of apps for converting more shoppers wherever they are looking to buy…
B2B on Shopify
This app helps you sell to direct and wholesale customers from one store, with wholesale pricing and net terms and customized discounts. The most essential wholesale features are now integrated into the Shopify admin, creating a seamless, customized shopping experience for B2B and B2C customers.
Shopify POS
Shopify Point of Sale helps you sell in-person, from any device, in physical retail locations, and in 11 different countries.
This used to be a clunky experience until the latest version of Shopify Editions. You can also now accept payments with tap to pay on iPhone in the US and it supports Google local inventory sync, allowing shoppers to see essential information like stock availability, store location, operating hours, directions, and local pickup or delivery options.
Shopify Markets
Shopify Markets helps you sell anywhere in the world, opening up new geographic regions to expand your reach. It helps you optimize your business for global sales from your Shopify admin by setting price lists and domains by market, selling in local currency/language, collecting duties/taxes at checkout, customizing storefronts, etc.
Shopify Checkout
This is a high-converting, one-click checkout providing a 70-percent higher checkout-to-order rate than standard checkouts. Combined with Shop Pay, it also offers a 4X faster checkout experience.
Checkout Extensibility
This is for Shopify Plus merchants looking to customize their checkout with branding, loyalty programs, recommended products, etc. It’s secure, fast, and upgrade-safe, integrating fully with Shop Pay for a high-converting experience.
Shop Pay Enhancements
Shop Pay Enhancements boost average order value with Shopify’s new and flexible built-in buy-now-pay-later (monthly installment) options. It includes free fraud protection.
Discount Combinations
With the new Shopify Editions, you can combine different discounts on the same order, making it easy to launch promotions to attract new and existing customers and increase conversions.
Pre-orders, subscriptions and try-before-you-buy
New apps available in Shopify Editions also help you increase conversions by offering pre-orders, subscriptions, and “try before you buy”, all integrated into the Shopify platform.
Develop your branding
Shopify Editions includes many tools to help with brand-building for your store…
Hydrogen + Oxygen
This is the new solution for high-performance storefronts that helps you go from build to launch faster. It includes pre-built components and starter templates, as well as hooks and utilities that map directly to Shopify’s APIs. Hosting is included as part of your Shopify plan.
Tokengated Commerce
This is your solution if you want to start with NFTs and tokens. Customers can connect their crypto wallets to your store and unlock personalized benefits, including exclusive merchandise, early access to drops, collaborations with other brands, etc. Checkout is easy with Shop Pay.
Online Store: Editor and Theme Updates
As part of Shopify Editions, eight new free themes and 10 new premium themes have been introduced, designed to increase conversion and storefront customization options.
Metafields
This app helps you share product information like care instructions, restock dates, warranty details or complementary products with customers and staff across each store location in Shopify POS. You can dynamically showcase custom information across your storefront.
Search and Discovery App
This app increases conversions by making it easy for customers to find what they need — with customizable search, filtering, and product recommendations. For this one you have to sign up to get notified when it is available in your region for now.
Build closer customer relationships with engagement tools
Customer engagement is the name of the game whether you are selling online, offline, or both. The following apps are the main ones in Shopify Editions that help with that…
ShopifyQL Notebooks
Big data is great but most stores do not have the technical nous to unpick it and provide insight. This app makes it easier and faster for Shopify Plus stores to interpret the business data from a single interface, helping answer questions fast and uncover relevant insights/opportunities.
Customer Engagement Tools
These tools help you build eye-catching campaigns with Shopify email customization tools that segment your audiences and automatically connect you with more customers. 24/7 chat helps you engage more readily and, by including forms on all pages, you can capture information and grow your list.
Re-engage Customers
First-time customers should become loyal repeat customers. You can encourage that with Shopify’s free re-engagement tools like post-purchase offers, personalized product recommendations, and prioritized search.
Shop
Shop is an out-of-the-box app strategy for building brand loyalty through richer shopping experiences. It helps you customize your store and get featured in curated collections in the home feed.
Increase back-office efficiency
Multiple apps help you run your Shopify store’s back end more efficiently, including the following…
Admin Enhancements
Multiple apps help you make many minor improvements to the back end, which makes life a lot easier — including uploading, editing, organizing, and setting up in Shopify (with more to come).
Shopify Fulfillment Network
These tools are designed to help you spend less time on shipping and more time on growing your business, including verified two-day delivery and free storage for six months per item (lower upfront costs and simplified returns).
Shop Promise
The Shop Promise badges demonstrate your commitment to fast, reliable two-day deliveries and hassle-free returns, increasing trust with buyers.
Order and Inventory Management
These tools increase efficiency and automate repetitive tasks, expediting product fulfillments with bulk label printing and helping you to accurately track inventory.
Global Shipping
Merchants in France and the UK can now easily set up Shopify Shipping to save time and money on shipping labels, with everything managed from within the Shopify admin system.
Supplier to Buyer Logistics
Shopify is acquiring Deliverr, so you can expect greater supply chain efficiencies, with faster delivery, smarter inventory, and pre-fulfillment logistics support with Flexport.
Shopify Flow
Shopify Flow is available to all merchants on the Shopify plan and above, helping to automate tasks like inventory tracking, fraud detection, and email campaigns — and freeing your time up to focus on growing your business.
Scale-up your business
Scaling up and growing your business is made easier and more eco-friendly with the latest version of Shopify Editions…
Built for Shopify
Built for Shopify provides the tooling, functionality, and documentation to build apps that look and perform as if they are a seamless part of the native Shopify platform — and also increase usability and performance.
Shopify Functions
Shopify Functions is the app that developers need to build apps that customize discounts, shipping, and payment settings and configure them in the Shopify admin. This helps you scale up for major sales events with increased demand — but without slowing your store down.
Data Protection
Now you can better control which apps access customers’ personal data, enhancing compliance with privacy and data protection rules by adding new data minimization, transparency, and security requirements for apps.
Shopify Balance
Shopify Balance is a free money management account for your business, enabling you to manage your money in your store’s admin. This facilitates more control over your finances with faster payments and rewards — and no monthly fees.
Shopify Capital
Shopify Capital increases funding for first-time borrowers, enabling accelerated growth.
Planet
This app powers carbon-neutral shipping and support for cutting-edge carbon removal projects. You can inform your customers about this with storefront icons.
Ready for a new phase of retail?
As the retail landscape changes again, Shopify stores should embrace the tools made available by the latest updates to Shopify Editions.
During the pandemic, ecommerce became the way to buy and that mindset remains to a large degree. But selling in-person is back.
Shopify Editions helps balance online and offline commerce.
Whether you’re an international brand or a smaller enterprise looking to open a new popup shop to sell in-person, Shopify Editions shows you the way for retail in 2022 and beyond. With the latest version for Summer 2022, it’s easy to sell wherever your customers are with customized experiences that help your brand grow.
