Shopify Entrepreneur Weekly

Hey there! 👋

Welcome to HeyCarson's weekly newsletter.

It's been an awesome week! All eyes were on Shopify's Winer Editions, where they dropped over 100 updates and improvements in their bi-annual product showcase.

I've rounded up some of the most exciting updates below. But you know what's really got everyone hyped? The increase in the Shopify product variant limit, going from 100 to a 2000. That's a game-changer for a lot of merchants who used to rely on variant/swatch apps (and pay for them).

As always, we've got your back for all your projects with our support packs. Choose from 10, 25, or 50-hour buckets for design, development, performance, and optimization tasks. Our dedicated team, including a developer, a designer if needed, and an account manager, ensures smooth operations as you manage the work queue. Just go ahead and submit your project to get things rolling!

Thanks for reading! See you next Friday, same time.

Lidia from HeyCarson

✨ Winter ‘24 Edition round-up

• Shopify boosts variant limit from 100 to 2000 per product.

• Combined listings: Now, buyers can choose from various product variations all in one place. Each variation comes with its own description, media gallery, and unique URL. 

• The maximum number of products per bundle has been raised from 10 to 30.

• Shopify Markets Pro is now available in the US.

• Semantic search, an AI-powered storefront feature, improves search results by understanding shoppers' intent beyond keywords. This leads to more relevant outcomes and higher chances of purchases. The algorithm recognizes what shoppers are looking for, even if they don't use specific keywords. 

• New web performance dashboard.

• Shopify's one-page checkout simplifies the process, reducing buyer completion time by an average of 4 seconds.

• New POS terminal.

• POS Ship from Store: Select a retail location for order fulfillment. Your staff can conveniently pick, pack, and ship orders right from your shop.

• Shopify Subscriptions, a free app that allows you to effortlessly make your products subscription-based, boost recurring revenue, and efficiently manage it all in the Shopify admin. Now available to all merchants in full release!

• Native exchanges: merchants will soon be able to handle exchanges directly in their Shopify admin without a third-party application.

• Media Editor lets you use generative AI to DIY your product images instantly and for free, directly within your Shopify Admin

• Here's the scoop on Shopify's Winter '24 Editions! I'd love for you to check out Shopify Editions for the complete lowdown on over 100 updates!

🛍 Shop updates round-up

New features on Shop - Shopify’s shopping app:

- Shop Cash offers is now called Shop Campaigns. Create smarter campaigns with real-time estimates and analytics.
- Customize your Shop Store with Shop Minis for a more personalized touch.
- Get discovered on the Shop home feed with shoppable videos from Tolstoy app. Drive engagement on your Shop Store with shoppable videos from Videowise and Showday.
- Boost conversions with product recommendation quizzes from Revenue Hunt.
- Showcase customer reviews in more places to boost sales. Reviews automatically sync and now partner with Yotpo, Loox, Judge.Me, Okendo, Stamped.
- Verified by Shop badge on Shop-synced reviews to boost shoppers' confidence.
- Shop Pay Installments now show estimated loan amounts on the product detail page, helping shoppers make informed decisions.
- Shop Pay expands to enterprises off Shopify.

💫

Hey, take a look at these cool projects our developers worked on for our clients' Shopify stores this week:

– Display promotional advertisements within the product grid on the collection page. These ads can include images, text, and links. You have control over the position and frequency of these ads.

– Setting up and designing a new theme. This includes researching themes, setting up theme styles, configuring navigation menus and footer sections, and setting up the homepage, collection, and product pages based on available theme options.

📘 Read of the week

If you're in need of extra financing, you should definitely explore the variety of options available for businesses, such as Shopify Capital Loans, Cash Advances, Term Loans, and a Line of Credit. Just make sure to consider your cost of debt and how much you need to borrow when choosing the right one. Shopify has got you covered with a fresh article that compares financing options and helps you calculate the cost of debt. So, you won't have to do all the heavy lifting! 😉

🚨 New theme alert

Minimalista by Segment – Experience a stylish design and high performance all in one theme, featuring 5 built-in styles.

Discover Minimalista, a minimalist theme that stands out with its dark mode and endless possibilities. Transform any section of your website into captivating full-screen videos for a more dynamic and engaging experience. Boost your sales with professional-grade tools like product showcases, catalog filters, variant pickers, and a unique shipping reward tracker.

🖼 Photo of the week

Big shout out to the Shopify Editions Team and the product teams behind these exciting Winter Editions. They totally went above and beyond with the website design itself, which is an absolute delight to browse. Plus, they even added a mini-game called Chill Hill as an Easter egg on the website. Have you stumbled upon it yet? 😄