Twenty years of Shopify, and over 150 new updates. Shopify didn’t disappoint in their latest product release. This edition’s theme—Unified—perfectly captures Shopify's approach to creating an ecosystem that drives scalability and growth for retailers of all sizes. But what’s in it for enterprise retailers? Internationalization, new B2B capabilities, advanced storefront customizations, and performance enhancements stand out in the platform’s celebrated release.
Hai-Long Nguyen, Edi Bouazza, and Alex Young, from VML’s Global Shopify Center of Excellence, shared what features and updates excite them. See what they had to say:
Key Themes & Takeaways from Shopify Editions: UNIFIED
- Internationalization Enhancements
- Shopify Markets
- B2B Advancements
- Performance and Scalability
- Storefront 3.0
- Utopia Video Editor and Hydrogen
Internationalization & Shopify Markets
Hai-Long: "The ability to configure different payment accounts tied to separate financial entities is a big step forward in Shopify’s path to better support internationalization."
Alex: "And for merchants that have multiple stores serving different regions, Shopify Markets has evolved significantly. They can now manage content for every region through the customizer on a single store, assign tailored pricing, and see a master flow chart mapping different catalogs and regions."
Hai-Long: "The ability to create themes by different markets also positions Shopify to better meet internationalization needs. It’s all about making it easier to manage a global presence on a single platform."
B2B Advancements
Edi: "I’ve noticed a strong focus on B2B capabilities this year. Shopify now makes it easy to collect deposits at checkout, create invoice drafts with payment terms, and utilize manual payment methods. This replaces the need for heavy and sometimes clunky customizations."
Hai-Long: "We’ve definitely seen a trend towards more B2B initiatives, and these new features are a clear indication that Shopify is continuing to invest in this area. It's a big improvement that will only get better."
Edi: "And let’s not forget the Customer Accounts API. It provides the ability to enhance the new customer accounts experience, which is a much-needed step for enterprise clients that require customizations to their account pages."
Performance and Scalability
Edi: "Performance is another key area. Shopify has introduced enhanced performance insights and scalability tools, ensuring stores remain quick and reliable, even during peak times."
Alex: "These tools are crucial for maintaining optimal performance, especially when it matters most. It’s great to see Shopify providing deeper insights and robust scalability options."
Storefront 3.0
Edi: "I’m really excited about Storefront 3.0. The introduction of theme blocks and theme style panels will bring even greater levels of customization and modularity to Liquid storefronts. This highlights Shopify’s continued investment in Liquid as a best-in-class tool for merchants."
Alex: "And in the customizer, the ability to assign a single content block to multiple sections is a huge time-saver. It makes content management much more efficient by treating blocks as reusable elements."
Utopia Visual Editor and Hydrogen
Edi: "Another development I'm excited about is Utopia, soon to be the visual editor for Hydrogen builds. It fills a big gap in the current merchant experience of headless stores, rounding out Hydrogen nicely."
Hai-Long: "Speaking of Hydrogen, I’ve noticed that it tremendously streamlines the development process. It’s built to support reliable, fast, easy-to-grow, and easy-to-maintain headless websites."
Alex: "Building in Hydrogen is like using Legos, where each component can exist as a standardized 'brick.' Plus, Utopia displays the UI elements and the code in a single view, which really helps merchants and developers design, merchandise, and build with a shared store view."
Conclusion
Shopify Editions 2024 brings a wealth of features designed to support the complex needs of enterprise retailers. From advanced internationalization capabilities and B2B enhancements to cutting-edge storefront customizations and performance tools, Shopify continues to evolve as a leading platform for large-scale commerce.
