Over the past week, we’ve been sharing a lot of the product-related information announced at Unite, Shopify’s partner and developer conference. If you haven’t already, make sure to visit the Web Design and Development Blog to get all caught up on what’s new and improved for Shopify Partners.

Today, we’re sharing a special edition of What’s New at Shopify, and bringing you all the updates from Unite that affect the way your clients run their businesses. Here’s a glimpse of everything we’ll be covering:

1. Help clients sell simply using new marketing solutions

Marketing continues to be a challenge merchants face when running their business. To help you and your clients, we’ve been actively working on the following solutions that will make it easier for your clients to find their first, and hundredth, customer.

Digital marketing campaigns made easy with the merchant marketing section

 

This summer, Shopify merchants will gain access to a brand new marketing section within the Shopify Admin. Merchants can create smarter, multi-channel digital marketing campaigns that put their products in front of the right shoppers—all within Shopify.

In the new marketing section, you’ll be able to expose your app directly to merchants as they plan and launch their marketing activities, increasing visibility and engagement with your app. In addition, you’ll be able to surface campaign results in this space, ensuring that merchants see the value your app brings to their business, every time they log into Shopify.

Centralized customer conversations with Shopify Ping

 

Announcing Shopify Ping, a mobile workspace that brings customer conversations, marketing workflows, and more together in a single app. Merchants will be able to interact with and respond to customer messages from Facebook Messenger, Rep.ai, and Chat Kit (with more to come!), all within the Shopify Ping app.

Your clients will be able to spend less time shuffling between separate tools and more time on what matters most: serving their customers and growing their businesses.

 

Shopify Ping will launch Summer 2018—be the first to know when it’s available for download.

Run promotions and boost sales with new discount types

 

Promotions are a great way to incentivize both new and loyal customers to buy. Getting the right offer in front of the right people takes a lot of creativity and hard work. Merchants can get more creative than ever with these new discount types:

• Buy One, Get One: With the launch of the new ‘BOGO` type discount this week, merchants can delight customers with discounts on additional items purchased or by offering free products. For example, merchants can offer a ‘buy one item and receive the second at 50 percent off’ discount.

• Quantity Discounts: Merchants can now easily offer a certain percentage discount, dollar value discount, or even free shipping based on the minimum quantity of items a customer purchases, or on whether their cart is above a minimum dollar value. For example, merchants can now offer a ‘buy $100 or more, and receive 20 percent off your cart value’ discount.

You can find the discounts using Shopify’s built-in discount code functionality in the Shopify Admin. Learn more about these discounts.

In case you missed it: We launched a new interface that shows how discounts are calculated and applied across line items and shipping lines in the Orders API.

2. Retail improvements that deliver standout customer experiences

In 2017, the National Retail Federation reported that for every retail store that closed in the U.S., another 2.7 stores opened. More merchants, especially online-only brands, are excited about the growth and learning opportunities within retail, and are diving in headfirst.

To support this opportunity, we’re building the following solutions to help merchants seamlessly sell online and in-person.

Shopify’s new Tap & Chip Reader offers a frictionless checkout experience

In the fall of 2018, we’ll be releasing our new Tap & Chip Reader, beautifully designed and with enhanced performance. Built by Shopify, the Tap & Chip Reader is a wireless device that can process contactless payments from credit cards and mobile wallets—like Apple Pay and Google Pay—in just a few seconds. Its long lasting battery life can offer your clients additional peace of mind, since it can be used for up to a week without needing to charge.

For a truly seamless experience, the new readers will sync with the entire Shopify selling ecosystem. Encourage your clients to get started and explore new opportunities in retail by learning more about the Tap & Chip Reader.

And with our new Shopify Tap & Chip Reader Dock, an accessory for the Tap & Chip Reader coming at the end of 2018, your clients will be able to create a dedicated countertop checkout point. The dock will allow your clients to create a payment setup that is more customer-facing, so shoppers feel in control of their experience throughout.

Get more details on Shopify’s POS hardware announcements.

New Shopify POS functionality helps merchants offer delightful in-person experiences to their customers

Selling in-person comes with many challenges, as merchants juggle different responsibilities while trying to deliver excellent customer service. We’re introducing several new software features this summer to help merchants rise to the challenge.

Multichannel Returns and Exchanges for Shopify POS

Thanks to Returns and Exchanges for Shopify POS, merchants selling in-person will now be able to accept returns and exchanges in-store from customers who purchased either in-store or online. This solution empowers your clients to deepen their relationship with customers by simplifying the returns and exchanges process regardless of how they made their initial sale.

Tipping on POS for outstanding customer service

We’re working on the ability to enable tipping on Shopify POS. This summer, you’ll be able to set up tipping in your clients’ retail locations right through their POS.

Tipping is a great way for customers to offer immediate and tangible feedback after their visit in-store. It also makes it easy to reward employees for outstanding customer service, all while improving their bottom line.

Customer view POS App

Last but not least, to further enhance the checkout experience, we’re working on the customer view app, available this summer for Android devices. This add-on gives customers a clear view of their order, making the checkout experience more engaging while also helping avoid potential mistakes that could risk losing customer confidence.

The Customer View app also offers customization options to reflect your client’s branding, including the ability to use their logo and colors, and to use their social media info as a screensaver. Plus, it helps retailers comply with U.S. state laws mandating that pricing info and customer-facing displays are part of checkout.

All of this creates a branded, consistent experience for customers, and helps your clients build trust with their buyers.

Learn more about the new Shopify POS functionality.

3. Help clients with multiple locations better manage their operations within Shopify

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of building powerful solutions to help merchants sell online and in-person. We're also enhancing the way our merchants manage their inventory across locations.

Introducing Locations: Help merchants manage their inventory and fulfill orders across locations

This summer, merchants who sell across multiple locations will be able to track and manage their inventory efficiently within Shopify.

Whether they stock inventory at multiple locations, source from dropshipping apps, or store products at home, merchants will be able to easily add, update, and track their inventory across all their locations.

But that’s not all. Locations will also allow your clients to optimize their order fulfillment process. This means that if an order contains items stored at different locations, we’ll split the order into multiple shipments.

What will this look like in the Shopify Admin? Locations are fully integrated across Shopify and will be found in Products, Inventory, Transfers, Orders, and under Settings in a section named Locations.

Locations will be particularly impactful for retailers selling with Shopify POS.

Retail locations for Shopify POS

Merchants using Shopify POS won’t have to worry about constantly keeping track of how much they’ve sold across different shops. After each sale, inventory will be automatically adjusted, giving merchants a clear view of their products’ inventory per location, when they might be running low, and when items are out of stock.

Learn more about Locations.

Shipping pickups will help merchants simplify their workflows

US-based merchants are now able to schedule on-demand pickups for their UPS and DHL shipments. In addition, when Locations (discussed above) launches, merchants will be able to specify which of their locations they would like shipments to be picked up from.

With the ability to choose when and where pickups happen, merchants will be able to avoid long lines, manage all their shipping from within Shopify, and simplify their lives. With no minimum volumes, low cost, and built-in convenience, shipping pickups from any locations will help save your clients time.

4. Help high-growth merchants using Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus provides high-growth merchants with the building blocks they need to run a successful business.

Connectors for Shopify Flow

Shopify Flow is a visual workflow builder that automates tasks and processes in just a few clicks. Since its launch, Shopify Plus merchants have automated almost 150 million workflows inside of Shopify.

However, a merchant’s business doesn’t just live inside of their Shopify store. Merchants use a variety of apps and services every day to optimize their operations. To help further optimize this process, we’re launching the ability to build connectors for Shopify Flow.

Flow’s automation platform will now have the ability to help merchants connect the complex web of tools and services they use every day to run their businesses. Building a connector allows merchants to start and end a workflow from an event or action within one of the apps listed on the connectors for Shopify Flow app store collection.

For Shopify Partners, connectors are created using app extensions, so you can easily build triggers and actions, and enable them for merchants already using your app. Learn how to build connectors today.

Encourage your Shopify Plus clients to simplify their business workflows by signing up for the connectors beta today.

Introducing Transporter: A new data migration solution

Data migration is a complex and important aspect of running an online business for your clients. As seasoned ecommerce businesses onboard to Shopify, it’s imperative that their existing data and store information be brought with them.

Today, we’re announcing two tools to optimize migrations to Shopify:

• Transporter’s command line tool: This tool allows you to transform legacy platform data into Shopify-friendly CSVs. If your clients have complex or irregular data, no problem. You can customize the provided transformation scripts to take you the rest of the way. We’ve provided scripts to convert Magento store data to start, with more platforms to come.
  
  
• Transporter app: Load merchant information into Shopify. The app has many benefits over native CSV importing, like supporting multiple objects, including orders and metafields, the ability to upload files over 100mb, running 10 times faster than standard APIs, and more.

With Transporter, you can focus on the exceptional design and development work your clients have come to expect and enjoy. Learn more about Transporter.

5. Help global merchants create local solutions

Merchants selling to international audiences need to localize their selling experiences in order to serve their diverse customer base. To address the growing global merchant audience, we’re introducing new solutions for how merchants offer and take payments.

Multi-Currency for Shopify Payments

Shopify Payments will offer customers the ability to see product listings and checkout in AUD, EUR, JPY, SGD, USD, CAD, HKD, NZD, and GBP. With localized currency, Shopify Plus merchants will be able to sell in local currencies and settle in their preferred currency, all of which can now be managed in Shopify.

 

By providing a localized experience for the buyer, your Shopify Plus clients in Shopify Payments countries can enhance the customer friendliness of their storefront and checkout experiences to drive delight and increase conversions.

Stay tuned—multi-currency checkout is coming Fall 2018, starting with Shopify Plus merchants on Shopify Payments and eventually rolling out to all merchant plans. We’ll also be looking at adding more currencies soon.

International audience and local payment solutions

Starting this fall, we’ll begin rolling out local payment solutions to address the needs of a global ecommerce business. Since many countries use various payment methods other than credit cards, providing additional payment options opens up a whole new market for your clients.

Merchants using Shopify Payments will soon be able to offer certain alternate payment methods, automatically rendered on checkout, based on geolocation IP or their selected currency. Help your clients set up simple, localized solutions to reach new markets globally.

Fraud Protect for Shopify Payments

Coming soon, Shopify merchants in the US will be able to enable Fraud Protect on their orders. Fraud Protect will ensure merchants are protected in the event of a chargeback due to fraud. If an order is determined to be fraudulent, a refund is automatically issued and we handle the dispute.

Fraud Protect will help keep merchants safe as they scale their businesses—all from within Shopify. Encourage your clients to opt-in to Fraud Protect, so they can spend more time growing their business and less time worrying about fraud.

In case you missed it: Shopify Partner announcements

• 3 Ways We're Helping Shopify Partners Build Better Businesses in 2018
• Build Better Apps Faster with the New Admin API in GraphQL
• Level-Up Your Theme Development with the Next Release of Slate
• Build the Future of Immersive Shopping Experiences—Introducing New Ways to Work with AR/VR
• 3 New Ways to Entice and Engage App Users
• Platform Updates That Will Help you Extend Your Offering and Build Faster

Tools to grow your clients’ businesses

It was a big week at Unite 2018, with lots of launches and announcements that will help you build fantastic commerce experiences for your clients. With new products to help simplify merchants’ workflows, build their audiences, and grow globally, you can help your clients bring their businesses to whole new heights.

What announcement from Unite are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below!