Shopify Winter Edition 24 is packed with announcements and fresh product innovations. Here's a quick roundup of the coolest new features that could make a world of difference for all you Shopify merchants out there. Let's dive in!
1. AI Photo Transformation: Integrated seamlessly within the Shopify admin's image editor, this innovative tool leverages machine learning to automatically enhance image quality, remove backgrounds, and add creative effects. This powerful functionality will be available soon for all eligible Shopify stores, empowering merchants to create professional-looking product listings that captivate customers and drive sales.
2. Native Exchanges and Returns: Shopify introduced self-serve returns and return rules. This allows customers to submit return requests directly in your online store. More info here.
3. Native Subscription App: You can seamlessly integrate a native subscription solution into your store. While we believe that the Shopify Subscriptions App won't necessarily replace popular apps like Recharge or SKio, it's a fantastic option for new merchants looking to dip their toes into the world of subscriptions without the hassle of additional costs or external installations.
4. Expanded Bundles App: The Shopify Bundles App just got a boost! Now you can create richer, more enticing bundles by including up to 30 products – a significant jump from the previous 10 limit.
5. Sidekick, Your E-commerce Guru: Imagine having a personal Shopify guru permanently attached to your hip – an AI-powered assistant called Sidekick that provides tailored advice and insights to help you grow. Sign up for early access and start experiencing the future of e-commerce support (we might need to brush up our resumes 😂).
6. Centralized Privacy Settings: Say goodbye to privacy setting headaches! Shopify's Winter Edition introduces a centralized privacy settings page. This user-friendly hub in your Shopify backend (Settings > Customer Privacy, just above Policies) allows you to manage all your privacy and compliance needs across different markets, with helpful recommendations for optimal settings and the ability to configure them by region.
7. Fulfillable Inventory: Now Shopify lets you control which products are available to customers based on their shipping location. You can set different inventory levels for each product variant, make products unavailable when out of stock, and set different levels for different shipping locations. Read more.
8. Shopify Combined Listings app (Shopify Plus Only): In our experience building Shopify stores one of the most common custom features we implement for our merchants is combined listings. This is used to display each variant as a separate product on collection pages but group them as variants on the product page. Now, for Shopify Plus merchants, the Combined Listings App offers a native solution. Sign up for early access to Shopify Combined Listings.
9. Smarter Search (Shopify Plus Only): This new search feature goes beyond keyword matching to better understand the intent behind a customer’s search. Customers can use more natural words and phrases, and get richer, more relevant results. Exclusive to Shopify Plus.
10. Up to 2,000 Variants per Product: Previously, the limit for product variations in Shopify was 100. However, the Increased variants developer preview now enables us to use the GraphQL Admin API to create and edit products with up to 2,000 variants. While you'll likely need a developer to use this functionality, it's a game-changer for complex catalogs.
There goes our top ten. If you have any questions, we are here to help.