We don’t mean to alarm you here, friends… But we are nearly half of the way through 2024! How is this new year treating you?
Here at Inspira, we’ve always been very focussed on the future. But in this article, we want to take just a moment to cast our minds back to 2023. Because last year, Shopify released some absolutely fantastic new tools and features.
So our question is – how many of last year’s Shopify features have you put to use so far? And are you really getting the most you can out of your online store?
Now that we’ve had some time to use them, let’s talk you through our five favourite Shopify features that released in 2023:
- Meta-Objects
- Landing Pages
- One-Page Checkout
- Bundles
- Multi-Currency Subscriptions
Meta-Objects
The introduction of Meta-Objects was one of those subtle, quality-of-life improvements that you might not have noticed – but we’d certainly notice losing it, now that we have it.
Essentially, Meta-Objects is a streamlined and easily-accessible way of storing data for your store.
For example, you might have a list of featured brands on your store, and associated with each, is a name, a logo, perhaps a short bio or a link to a website, or featured collection. Previously, all this data would have been stored in your theme settings – which made it easy to lose data when switching to a new theme.
Meta-Objects very cleverly pulled all this data together, to create interconnected data points which could then easily be exported from one theme to another.
All this might sound rather geeky – and the effect is invisible from the customer’s side – but trust us when we say that the concept of Meta-Objects will likely have saved many wasted hours, and countless development headaches since it launched.
Landing Pages
Building on from Meta-Objects, the new Landing Page option allowed whole web pages to be spun up from the data in these sets. For example, your Meta-Object might contain data on a brand, including its:
- Name
- Logo
- Description
- Featured collections
- CTAs for special offers
- SEO metadata
Shopify’s Landing Pages tool then turns that data into a new page on your store.
Complete with a custom URL, this page then acts as a Landing Page displaying any relevant info and product collections related to the given topic (in the above example, for a specific brand).
Landing Pages has been a great tool – it effectively automated a very common task, and it can have a positive impact on your sales due to improvements in both the user experience, and also the SEO value of your Shopify store.
One-Page Checkout
We already shared an article telling you everything you need to know about Shopify’s One-Page Checkout. But to recap:
One-Page Checkout does exactly what it sounds like – getting the customer to the point of purchase in the fewest possible steps.
Shopify has always led the way in streamlined ecommerce design, and looking back now, it’s hard to imagine a world without One-Page Checkout! All the regular features and payment security measures are still present, but gone are the loading times, the extra clicks, additional basket review pages… and all other unnecessary steps during which a customer might pause, or change their mind.
One-Page Checkout is fast, intuitive, and almost guaranteed to boost your visitor conversion rate.
By the way: it’s worth noting that while all standard stores were automatically updated to this feature, Shopify Plus stores need to manually upgrade to take advantage of One-Page Checkout.
Bundles
Bundles was another deceptively simple feature, which actually opened up a huge number of possibilities for your store. When Inspira’s Jess Vaughan-Milanta wrote our article about Shopify Bundles, she highlighted how:
“The basic function offered by the Bundles app is to combine multiple products into a single ‘bundled’ listing. This then appears as one single item in your public-facing product catalogue, alongside your other products, ensuring a streamlined browsing experience for your customers.”
Bundles quickly became a must-have Shopify feature, thanks to its improvements to your store’s accessibility and browsing experience, combined with powerful real-time inventory syncing.
Especially when it comes to combo discounts, seasonal sales and stock clearances, Bundles is an indispensable tool in your ecommerce arsenal.
Multi-Currency Subscriptions
Last but certainly not least, let’s talk about Multi-Currency Subscriptions. Perhaps you saw our piece last year, announcing that Recharge would add multi-currency support?
By now, a lot of brands have caught onto the power of subscription services. Signing up customers for an ongoing relationship is infinitely better for your business than targeting just one-off sales, and many high-profile companies such as Brewdog, Symprove, and My Family Vets are already using Shopify subscriptions to powerful effect.
Up until last year though, there was still one glaring problem – the subscription service offered by the Recharge feature was not compatible with Shopify’s currency conversion system. This meant that buyers could only sign up for subscriptions in the store’s default currency.
Thankfully though, 2023 saw the full integration of multi-currency support for Shopify Recharge – which was absolutely fantastic news for all brands looking to expand their business into other markets and regions.
Make Shopify Work for Your Brand
At Inspira Digital, we have many years of experience working with a wide selection of ecommerce platforms. But there’s a reason why we always recommend Shopify to our clients.
As last year demonstrated, Shopify never sits still for long. The platform is always innovating, always growing, always adding more flexibility to embrace and support the diverse business goals of the countless number of online stores that call Shopify home.
And that’s the beauty of working with Shopify – it’s not just about what your Shopify store can do today. You’re signing up to a platform that will always be better tomorrow! A platform that grows with you, and will always keep adding the tools and features you need to stay at the very top of your game.
If you’re thinking of migrating to Shopify, or even if you already did but need help getting the most from this platform – talk to us.
Inspira’s expert Shopify advisors will be glad to join you for a no-obligation consultation, and talk you through all the ways this platform can help your business to excel. So get in touch now, and let’s start planning your future success.
