Shopify Store Innovation

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that simplifies running a store for small merchants. It offers online marketing, payments, shipping, and point-of-sale services for online retailers.

More than half of all employees report that senior leaders at their companies are slow to adopt emerging technologies. Relevant upskilling and purposeful experimentation could help close the gap.

1. Shopify Scripts

Shopify Scripts allow you to personalize your customers’ shopping experiences in cart and checkout. Using these tiny pieces of code, you can offer them favorable discounts and provide them with important information such as shipping options and payment gateway choices. This will enhance their trust in your brand and improve their overall shopping experience, leading to a positive impact on conversion rates.

For instance, some top-performing brands, such as Bombas (premium sock company) and Chubbies (lifestyle apparel brand), utilize a simple but highly effective Shopify Script to encourage shoppers to increase their orders by offering them free gifts or additional discounts on each new purchase. This strategy helps boost average order size and allows these brands to capture shoppers’ email addresses for future marketing campaigns.

Additionally, some eCommerce sites use Shopify Scripts to provide customers with pre-calculated shipping costs that are displayed before the customer enters the checkout page. This reduces cart abandonment and makes shoppers feel valued by a brand that is transparent with their prices.

For fashion brands, Shopify Scripts enable them to create complex pricing mechanics that maximize sales and create an enhanced experience for their customers. For example, they can use a Shopify Script to quickly reduce the price of products that belong to the same category or share a specific tag. These types of discounts are known as tiered pricing and can be very effective in boosting sales for fashion stores.

2. Shopify Analytics

Shopify Analytics is a collection of reports that help you analyze your data and understand how your store works. This information will allow you to make more informed decisions about your products, marketing campaigns, and sales strategy. The reports will also give you insights into the behavior of your customers. This information can help you create a more user-friendly store that is easier for customers to browse and purchase from.

Shopify reports offer a variety of metrics related to your website’s traffic, conversion rates, and sales numbers. These metrics are smartly segmented so that you can analyze the data more accurately. These reports include net sales, sales versus payment, canceled orders, gross sales, and more. They are available for any merchant using the platform and can be easily accessed from the back end of your store.

You can use the Sales by Traffic Referrer report to see which sources are driving customers to your site. This is useful because it allows you to focus your marketing efforts on the channels that are delivering results. This will help you increase your revenue and improve your store’s performance.

Another important report is the Sales by Product report. This shows you which products are selling and when they’re sold most often. You can then focus your marketing efforts on these products and boost sales.

You can also find out which products are popular in your store and what the average order value is. This can help you better meet consumer demand, maximize your profit margins, and manage taxes in a more effective way. This is especially beneficial when launching new products or promotions.

3. Shopify Payments

Before Shopify Payments, merchants using the eCommerce platform needed to find and integrate third-party solutions to process credit card payments. Those third-party payment processors typically have their own terms and conditions, which can add to the overall costs of running an online store.

With Shopify Payments, merchants are able to reduce transaction fees and create a faster, more secure checkout experience for customers. The payment gateway complies with PCI standards and has 3D security, ensuring that the data transferred is encrypted. This means that it is difficult for hackers to use stolen customer credit card information to make fraudulent purchases.

The platform also allows merchants to accept payments via bank transfer. The process involves the merchant providing their bank account details to customers, who then initiate a direct deposit from their own bank accounts into the merchant’s bank account. This provides a level of trust and transparency for customers that other methods cannot offer.

Shopify’s payment gateway is available for US and EU-based businesses, as well as in some other countries. However, if you want to sell products in multiple countries, it is recommended that you set up separate Shopify Payments accounts and stores for each country. You may also need to comply with local rules and regulations.

You should be a legal resident of the United States or duly established and registered, if required, to conduct business in your country of residence. You must provide a valid bank account that accepts USD deposits and is eligible for Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers. Virtual accounts, flex-currency accounts, and savings accounts are not supported. You must also agree to comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including those relating to data privacy, security, and fraud prevention.

4. Shopify POS

Shopify POS is an all-in-one point-of-sale system that helps retailers manage inventory, and track sales, and customer behavior. It also offers a suite of other business tools to help grow online and offline businesses.

The system enables users to track key metrics such as sales and revenue, total orders and average order value, profit margins, discounts, returns, and inventory forecasts. It can even automate workflows for businesses, helping them save time and effort.

One of the best things about this POS system is that it provides a seamless, end-to-end checkout experience for customers. This helps increase sales, reduce costs, and improve overall customer satisfaction. The system also allows retailers to create customer profiles by capturing their contact information and other details during the checkout process. This can be used to create follow-up engagement campaigns and turn new customers into loyal brand advocates.

Another great feature of the system is that it integrates seamlessly with the Shopify e-commerce platform, allowing for unified inventory management and synchronized sales data across all channels. This is especially beneficial for omnichannel retailers who sell both online and in-person.

Lastly, Shopify POS is easy to set up and offers several helpful onboarding resources. It also offers 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, and email. It also has a robust help center with detailed guides on migrating from other systems, using the POS app, and customizing the checkout experience.

Despite these great features, the POS system does have some limitations. It does not have a developer option, which could be a problem for some stores that want to customize the system further. The system also has some minor issues with stability and can be slow at times.

5. Shopify App Store

There are thousands of Shopify apps that help you set up, run and grow your business. Some of these are built by Shopify, while others are developed by third parties. Many of them fulfill features that are missing from the default Shopify functionality. For example, some help you edit images for SEO purposes or provide advanced analytics. Other apps can manage customer loyalty, SMS marketing automation, or returns processing.

When choosing an app, consider how much you are willing to pay for the benefits it offers. The price is typically based on whether it is a custom app for a single store or a public app offered in the Shopify App Store. Public apps must support thousands of merchants around the clock, putting much greater demands on scalability, reliability, and accuracy.

Using apps can be a great way to increase the efficiency of your e-commerce operations and improve customer experience. However, you must be careful about which apps you choose, as some may damage your site or cause performance problems. For this reason, it is important to back up your shop before installing any apps. If something goes wrong, you can restore your site to a previous version using an app like Rewind.

In addition, it is a good idea to read reviews and carefully understand an app's terms of service before you install it. You should also check the developer's website, email address, phone number, privacy policy, and support link.

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced store owner, the right apps can make a big difference in your business. To find the right ones for your needs, you can browse the Shopify App Store or ask for advice from a professional.

Shopify Development Trends: Most Shopify store owners focus on their digital marketing alongside their web development. Keeping up with the cutting-edge Shopify Apps in ensuring a frictionless checkout for their online store, with additional tools to fill the Shopping Cart. Online shopping continues to grow year-over-year as the user experience improves with tailored customer service practices. Behind the scenes, are Shopify partners such as TheGenieLab. We are helping business owners and shopkeepers to drive continuous improvements through digital marketing services. Furthermore, they are providing Web Development in Shopify, BigCommerce, and other eCommerce store architectures. If you need a hand in any aspect of eCommerce, feel free to reach out to use at wish@thegenielab.com