What are you doing on 15 July? Asking us Shopify questions, that's what! Join Littledata, CartHook and Electric Eye for a Shopify expert roundtable. This summer has seen virtual events galore for the Shopify world, and we really like the AMA (Ask Me Anything) format. So Littledata is excited to join our friends at CartHook and Electric Eye for a virtual Shopify meetup on July 15. It will be a Shopify expert roundtable with the option to submit questions in advance, and plenty of time to chat. At this meetup, the panel of Shopify experts—consisting of Jordan Gal of CartHook, Chase Clymer of Electric Eye and Honest Ecommerce, and our own Ari Messer—will answer questions asked by attendees. At the request of past Meetup attendees, the event will be held during the workday (so yes you can practically be paid to attend!). [tip]Have a question for the panel? Submit your questions online here.[/tip] Event details When: 1:30pm ET on 15 July 2020 Where: Zoom! Who: Ari Messer (Littledata) and Jordan Gal (CartHook), hosted by Chase Clymer (Electric Eye) Sponsored by Shopify and Klarna You can register for the event here About Shopify Meetups Shopify Meetups are hosted by Shopify Experts to share knowledge with the growing Shopify enthusiast community. This also includes those who work predominantly on Shopify Plus. The meetings are free and open to everyone. Education and value is the focus of these Meetups, with each event featuring speakers and offering networking opportunities. Attendees range from seasoned ecommerce experts to budding entrepreneurs. What to ask Really any Shopify questions are fair game. Actually, scratch that, anything about ecommerce in general is good too! Interested in ecommerce trends during COVID? We've got the data. Wondering how to choose the most important metrics for your store? Ask away. Looking for more technical details about how Shopify, CartHook and Littledata work (together or apart)? Now's your chance to dive in deep. How to register You can register for the event here. It's a free online event and anyone can register. See you then!

For many Shopify stores, it's an all-too-familiar question: why do online shoppers decide last-minute not to buy a product? Whether you're on Shopify or Shopify Plus, shopping cart abandonment is a serious issue. But surprisingly the main reasons for visitors and even current customers abandoning their carts (ie not making it all the way through your checkout flow) are actually shared by many merchants. On the plus side, so are the ways to reduce cart abandonment! Cart abandonment is not a mystery. While not every reason a shopper abandons their cart is within your control, some things are in your hands. When your cart abandonment rate is high, there are active steps you can take toward minimizing it. [tip]Download the Shopify merchant's guide to reducing cart abandonment for free[/tip] Maybe you've spotted lower checkout completion rates on mobile, or maybe it's a cross-device issue. Maybe it's a significant issue for paid traffic, organic, or both. But first, let's explore cart abandonment from the ground up: What it is Why it matters Why it's a crucial metric, not a mystery What causes cart abandonment? While there’s no quick answer, carts get abandoned for a variety of reasons — although a lower abandonment rate tends to reveal a more intuitive customer experience and a more trustworthy store. Many shoppers may browse your store in hopes of finding a hidden discount, to compare prices, or to see how your product stacks up against similar products. Some shoppers might even be building a wishlist for the future, with no intention of purchasing right now. For this type of shopper, there’s not much you can do to compel a purchase. This means your focus should be on the shoppers who are willing to buy but haven’t, maybe due to a website element or step in the checkout process that sent them scurrying away. As part of the same cart abandonment study, the Baymard Institute conducted a survey of over 4,500 US adults asking why they abandoned their purchase after passing the add-to-cart stage: Many of the factors above can be countered by making tweaks to the checkout process. (We cover as many as possible in our free cart abandonment ebook.) For example, let’s take the second most prevalent response — the site wanted me to create an account. By offering a guest checkout option where an account is not necessary, this 28% group would be one step closer to a purchase, helping you avoid an abandoned cart. How can you improve your checkout experience? Industry lingo like “streamline the checkout process” is often thrown around, but what does this actually mean? What are the parts of your site that eliminate friction in the checkout process rather than causing it? More specifically, we’re referring to the step after a user adds a product to his or her cart. Optimizing add-to-cart rate is, in itself, a separate stage in the purchase funnel that we have discussed before. In any case, here are a few things to consider for a better checkout experience... [subscribe heading="Don't wait to reduce cart abandonment" background_color="green" button_text="Download our free guide" button_link="https://www.littledata.io/app/cart-abandonment-ebook"]

Littledata's Shopify to Google Analytics connection uses a combination of client-side (browser) and server-side tracking to ensure 100% accurate data about your Shopify store in Google Analytics. Littledata automatically integrates with Shopify and Shopify Plus sites to capture every customer touchpoint, including sales, marketing, customer and product performance data. Client-side (browser) tracking During the installation process, Littledata applies a tracking script to all pages (theme.liquid) under your Shopify store, except for the checkout steps: Google's gtag library is loaded on all pages Creates a littledataLayer data layer for all pages, which you can also use with Google Tag Manager (GTM). Minified tracking code, hosted on a content delivery network (CDN) Google's client ID (user identifier) is passed to our servers to ensure consistent user journey tracking Server-side tracking During the Google Analytics connection setup flow in the app, Littledata also applies a set of webhooks to your Shopify store. This means that each time Shopify pings us back and confirms the user action we know which event has to be sent by our servers, ensuring 100% accuracy. There are many advantages to this approach: Smaller script in the browser = faster page load No extra scripts on the sensitive and secure checkout pages Complete event capture for checkout flow, including sales and refunds/returns Accurate marketing attribution (sessions stitched together) [note]Using a headless Shopify setup? Follow the setup steps for headless Shopify tracking with Littledata.[/note] What can you track These are the events that Littledata sends from Shopify to Google Analytics. These events will show up as events under the Shopify (Littledata) event category and in Google Analytics' enhanced ecommerce reports. Read more details on the event properties in our Google Analytics data layer guide. Client-side events Client-side events tracked by Littledata, via a script loaded within your Shopify theme. Event Action Description (pageview) User has viewed a page view_item_list User has viewed a product collection page select_content User has clicked a product view_item User has viewed a product Product Image Click User has clicked a product image Social Share User has shared a product Server-side events Server-side events are tracked by Littledata server's from Shopify and passed onto any destination in cloud mode. Event Name Description add_to_cart User has added a product to the cart remove_from_cart User has removed a product from the cart Checkout User has viewed a step in the checkout Customer created User created as a customer Customer updated Customer information updated Transaction Customer has completed an order Refund Order has been refunded Subscription ecommerce events Additional events available via Littledata's ReCharge connection. Event Name Description Subscription Created Customer has created a subscription Subscription Updated Customer has updated a subscription Subscription Cancelled Customer has cancelled a subscription Order Processed Recurring order has been processed Charge Failed Failed to charge customer Charge Max Tries Reached Maximum tries to charge customer has been reached Payment Method Updated Customer has updated the payment method Customer Update Customer information updated   Custom dimensions With all the ecommerce events from the checkout onwards we sent extra user-scope custom dimensions to help you build audiences and analyze behavior. Custom dimension Description Lifetime Revenue Total of all previous purchases for that customer on Shopify Purchase Count Count of all previous purchases for that customer Last Transaction Date Date of customer's previous order Shopify Customer ID Customer ID as used on Shopify Payment Gateway The gateway used to process the last order's payment

Migrating your website from any platform requires a well thought-out plan and strategy to ensure you continue providing a quality user experience and you don’t risk losing any acquisition channels in the process. This is especially true when migrating your subscription business to Shopify.  In this article we'll discuss the benefits of moving from one platform to Shopify. We’ll also explore some of the pitfalls that brands make when migrating, how to avoid them and best practices when migrating.  Why migrate your subscription brand to Shopify?  Traditional ecommerce platforms such as Magento or WooCommerce require hosting and security updates to be done on a regular basis. When you factor the time required, the cost of maintaining a quality infrastructure and the inflexibility of hosting these platforms, many brands make the move to Shopify.  This is because Shopify is a SaaS (Software as a Service) which means any hosting requirements are automatically applied to the site along with any security updates. This means less time and money invested in simply having an online store and more time and money invested in making it profitable.  Using Shopify means less time and money invested in simply having an online store and more time and money invested in making it profitable.  Shopify’s ecosystem of apps and technology partners means that integrating a marketing tool or specific functionality is much easier than other platforms. Combining Shopify’s platform with ReCharge for subscription management and payments creates a powerful online store that’s easy to manage and guarantees a quality user experience for your customers.  [tip]Do you trust your subscription tracking? Littledata's ReCharge connection guide can help.[/tip] How to migrate your subscription store to Shopify Design  The design of your site is important to your brand; it’s how you showcase your personality. The design will also impact the way that users interact with your site. When you migrate from a platform to Shopify or Shopify Plus, there’s no direct way of converting your site design.  Rather, it requires choosing a theme from the Shopify theme directory, or rebuilding it using the help of a Shopify developer. However, the development cost of a Shopify site is often much lower than other ecommerce platforms.  This usually gives brands the opportunity to take stock of their ecommerce site pre-migration and make design updates to their UX to further capitalise on their migration investment.  Design and UX best practices are updated constantly, and if a brand is moving from an out-dated platform to Shopify then they’re likely to have outdated UX. Using the migration as an opportunity to refresh the user journey, design elements and the mobile experience will help boost the conversion rates of the new site.  [tip]See how your store stacks up when it comes to conversion rates[/tip] Functionality An ecommerce site is not about just looking good, the functionality of the site has to be considered when migrating to Shopify. Similar to the site design, Shopify has its own template language called Liquid, which isn’t used by any other ecommerce platform.  This means that any functionality within the code will need to be re-written. Again, this gives brands an opportunity to iterate and improve upon existing functionality and performance.  To extend the ecommerce functionality even further, Shopify has a very active ecosystem of technology partners. This means implementing functionality such as loyalty points, deferred payments, personalisation, onsite search, UGC and more is very easy to set up.  If you have specific requirements that can’t be fulfilled by one of the apps available on the Shopify market, then custom apps can be built to handle any of your requirements.  Subscription functionality As a subscription ecommerce business, getting the subscription functionality right is absolutely paramount to the success of your platform migration. While there are various subscription tools available on the Shopify and Shopify Plus platform, none come close to the functionality and scalability as ReCharge.  ReCharge has devised an easy 3 step plan to help merchants migrate over to their subscription solution.  Step 1 - Setup ReCharge and test Without making the site publically available, set up all the products within ReCharge and optimise them until you’re happy with how they look. Make sure your shipping, taxes and payment details are correct. Once you’ve done this, run a test subscription transaction and contact ReCharge to make sure it’s come through correctly.  Biomel, for instance, is a Littledata customer using Shopify for their ecommerce platform and ReCharge for their checkout. In this case you'd want to check that the product and subscription type are correct after placing a test order. Step 2 - Compile all the data ReCharge has a handy spreadsheet template that you can use to fill in your existing subscription data. It’s imperative that this is filled in correctly and that all the customer payment information is correct. ReCharge will then review this data to ensure that this is correct.  Step 3 - Set a date  While your existing platform will continue to service the subscriptions until the point of switching over, ReCharge can advise the optimum date to avoid any interruption. On the day of the switch, you will cancel your existing subscription platform and ReCharge will go live. This ensures that none of your customers are double charged and there is a seamless transition between the 2 platforms.  Migrating the data Once you’ve switched over your subscription data, the bulk of your work is done. But if you also sell one-off products, then you’ll want to migrate that data over too. While there is no quick way of migrating your data from legacy platforms to Shopify, it’s important that data fields are matched correctly.  Within the data migration process, you can import past order history data, customer account data and much more. The only exception to this, is importing customer passwords. However, this does give brands an opportunity to reach out and ask customers to change their password, usually, this can tie in with a promotional campaign.  Back office processes 3PL, stock management, warehousing and other back office processes can be a tricky task to get right. Thankfully, due to Shopify’s API and extensive ecosystem of technology partners, there is a solution out there for almost every brand.  Automating these processes as much as possible will help brands save time, reduce the risks of mistakes and make it easier to scale.  SEO One of the biggest worries that brands have when they migrate to a new platform is the impact it will have on their SEO efforts. For established brands that have invested a lot of time and effort into getting decent organic visibility, their SEO state could be the main source of income for the brand.  The key to successfully maintaining and improving the SEO efforts of a site during a platform migration is planning. If it’s planned correctly, there should be no reason as to why a site would lose any ranking.  Redirects No two platform URL structures are alike, and moving over to Shopify will likely change the structure of your site. If you don’t tell search engines that you’ve changed the URLs of your site, then it will assume that all of the new pages are new content and will try to rank them as such. It will then see a series of 404’s on the highly ranked pages, and demote them as they no longer offer quality content.  However, if you invest your time and effort into a proper 301 redirect strategy, you can tell search engines that your new URL is in fact the old one. This will help maintain a steady organic traffic flow while Google updates its listings and will also serve a better user experience for anyone visiting a legacy link.  It’s also worth noting that by putting in a 301 redirect link, you’re also passing over any backlink weight or “link juice” as it’s commonly known.  Content Search engines try to rank sites that offer the best quality content for a specific query. By ensuring that your content on the new site closely matches the old platform, you’re ensuring the same quality content that was previously being ranked for.  Brands will usually take the time to improve on their content at this stage, as it gives them an opportunity to invest more into their organic offering.  Speed Speed is key to a good user experience and Google and other search engines recognize this. That’s why improving the speed of your site can help improve your organic ranking. Because Shopify is SaaS, the loading speed of the platform is handled by Shopify themselves. This means that the platform is always fast and will scale as more traffic comes onto the site.  Usually, merchants moving from a self hosting platform, such as Magento, to Shopify will often see a huge difference in the performance of the site. Shopify is constantly improving the rendering engine, which means sites will actually get faster over time.  [tip]Thinking about migrating from Magento? Here is a comparison of Shopify vs Magento.[/tip] Analytics Finally, no ecommerce site can be truly improved without first studying the analytics of the site. While Shopify itself has an inbuilt dashboard for internal analytics, the industry standard is to use Google Analytics. By using the same GA tracking code on the legacy site and the new site, you’ll be able to compare the difference data pre-launch vs post-launch.  And of course, for a better understanding of your ecommerce data across subscriptions, install Littledata. This will ensure that the data you’re seeing is correct and consistent with what’s actually happening in your store, including subscription ecommerce events: The first part is just getting your tracking right, so you can make data-driven decisions about subscription packages and product marketing on your site. Then comes the fun part: increasing not just overall sales and conversions, but optimizing for customer lifetime value. At Underwaterpistol, we’ve had nearly two decades working at the forefront of ecommerce and as Shopify Plus partners. Our status only reinforces our knowledge of platform migrations, so do get in touch if we can help with your mirgration!   This is a guest post from Will Lynch. Will heads up the partnership program at Underwaterpistol who have been building Shopify stores for over 14 years. Specialising in theme builds, custom development and high-volume SKU migrations, Underwaterpistol think outside the box, helping you build a brand as well as grow your business. Underwaterpistol (UWP) is a Littledata agency partner.

Littledata is pleased to announce the acquisition of two Shopify apps focused on Facebook advertising: Facebook Feed and Pixel Perfect. As customers increasingly turn to Facebook and Instagram for a seamless shopping experience, we're here to help stores give customers what they want: the right product at just the right time, no matter which marketing channel brought them in. Pixel Perfect automatically sets up an accurate Facebook Pixel for Shopify stores, along with numerous features to support dynamic product ads -- including a product catalog feed. If you're only looking to sync the Shopify product catalog, Facebook Feed is a smart product feed that supports unlimited products without timeouts or delays. Our expert analytics team is already providing customer support for both apps, and our product team is working to improve functionality for Facebook Pixel and Facebook catalog feeds, which are essential parts of running dynamic product ads across the Facebook network -- in other words, the keys to automated personalization. To quote Littledata's CEO, Edward Upton: "We believe stores investing tens of thousands in Facebook Ads need more reliable tools to target that spend. Littledata is able to improve upon the integration announced with Facebook and Instagram this week, and enable enterprise-scale stores to track their customer journey on Facebook." Shopify and Facebook Shopping Facebook and Shopify made major announcements recently about the many ways that customers find (and now purchase) products on Facebook and Instagram. They've emphasized that these new features will help small businesses succeed, and that's definitely a potential benefit. But let's be honest -- we all knew this was coming, COVID-19 or otherwise. There's just too much ad spend at stake. These updates and new features include: Facebook Shops: a new, complete storefront experience, integrated with Shopify (among other platforms, such as BigCommerce and Woo, Shopify is clearly the most significant: Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke was on the video call with Mark Zuckerberg) Instagram Checkout: a previously closed beta experience for direct shopping and checkout, now slowly rolling out for everyone At Littledata we're most excited about Instagram Shopping. It's not just a little experiment. Instagram's Vishal Shah told TechCrunch that almost 1 million stores are already signed up and ready to implement Instagram Checkout, so it's much more than its previous incarnation as a beta test with large brands like Zara and Adidas. Shopify is deprecating the Facebook Shop channel and will be pushing merchants to create these new Facebook shopping experiences (either ad campaigns or the full FB storefront). Stores that had product tagging set up through the Instagram channel before the announcement can already access Facebook Shops (the new feature -- different from the previous Facebook Shop channel, ahem...this is starting to get confusing). But like many Shopify announcements of the past, the overall timelines are unclear. And while they have improved the setup for their default Pixel implementation, we still see the same common issues like Product ID and revenue mismatches. Either way, these new features aren't necessarily a great fit for larger DTC brands by default -- they'll need something more reliable and customizable. That said, why not just go direct to the source? Facebook Dynamic Ads are already open to everyone, and they're a proven model for high-ROI retargeting and engagement. What do you need to run Dynamic Ads on Facebook for a Shopify store? Actually just a few things, which don't take long to set up if you haven't already: Facebook Business manager account Facebook Pixel (or SDK) on your site Product catalog feed That's where the new apps come in. Pixel Perfect Pixel Perfect is a popular Shopify app for automatically configuring a Facebook Pixel on your Shopify store. Facebook Pixel allows you to measure the impact of Facebook Ads on revenue, and calculate Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). It also allows you to build website custom audiences based on what users have seen or added to their shopping carts. Shopify has a native Facebook Pixel integration, but as noted it has numerous known issues, in areas such as product and revenue matching. Pixel Perfect fixes this automatically. Key benefits include: Send data to up to three Pixels (e.g. to use a backup pixel) Includes a matching catalog feed to serve Facebook Dynamic Ads 'Niche' product tags for building custom Facebook Audiences Order logs for comparative attribution Questions about Pixel Perfect features or how Shopify works with Facebook Ads? Read the Facebook Pixel Perfect FAQ in our help center. Facebook Feed If you're looking for a free product feed that works automatically with your Shopify product catalog, check out Facebook Feed. There are a number of Facebook catalog feed apps out there, but we were drawn to Facebook Feed because it is extensible and reliable. The app makes it easy to launch dynamic retargeting ads for Facebook users who engaged with your Shopify store. It works for product ads and catalog ads and it can support huge catalogs for Shopify Plus stores. Key benefits include: Up-to-date XML product catalog in the exact format recognized by Facebook Unlimited numbers of products and SKUs (no timeouts for large product sets!) Sync many products with Facebook and avoid pagination Compatible with Facebook page shops and Instagram Shopping Questions about setup or features? Read the Facebook Feed FAQ in our help center. What's next Littledata purchased Facebook Feed and Pixel Perfect from Tony Redfearn, an entrepreneur based in the UK. Tony is excited to see where we take the apps: "I am delighted to hand over the reigns to ensure success in this increasingly complex area. Littledata was the natural partner to take this tech to the next level!" As Littledata's Shopify customer base continues to grow, we are always looking at new connections and integrations. Our plan has always been to integrate Facebook Ads and Facebook Pixel more deeply into the Littledata ecosystem, and these popular apps turned out to be a great starting point. Our immediate plans are to improve both apps to make them even more powerful and extensible. Over time, we plan to fold this functionality into our core analytics app for Shopify merchants. For now, we are working closely with a broad range of merchants to understand their needs and how Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics can work in tandem for better ecommerce analytics, segmentation, remarketing and personalization. Audience building is one of our focuses, but we're also looking into the improved shopping experiences announced (ie Instagram Checkout), to see where events from our server-side Shopify tracking might best improve ROAS, AOV and customer LTV on these new channels and checkout experiences. Is there something you just can't wait to do with Shopify and Facebook? Let us know.  

Littledata's Shopify to Segment connection is the approved source for Shopify stores using Segment as their data integration tool. The connection is fully compliant with Segment's ecommerce spec. Segment is a customer data platform with connectors for many popular marketing, CRM and data warehouse destinations. Littledata's Shopify app for Segment seamlessly pushes data about your Shopify store to Segment. Littledata sends events to Segment, which are behaviors or occurrences tied to a user and a point in time. Data from these events can be loaded into your Segment warehouses, and also sent to Segment streaming destinations. Connection benefits Send data to any of Segment's hundreds of destinations Works seamlessly with Google Analytics Combination of client-side and server-side tracking to capture browsing activity, orders and refunds Extra user fields for calculating LTV and more Minimal, super-fast script and data layer Track email campaigns from Iterable Learn more Ready to link up Shopify and Segment? See how the Shopify to Segment connection works Get started with the connection on your store Read Segment's source documentation

Littedata's Shopify to Google Analytics connection is an advanced Google Analytics integration for tracking ecommerce events, including marketing channels and sales data. Here are Frequently Asked Questions about the connection. [faq heading="Is the connection available in the Shopify app store?"] Yes, you can install Littledata's Shopify to Google Analytics connection directly from the Shopify app store. [/faq] [faq heading="What do I get with the connection?"] End-to-end Google Analytics tracking for the shopper journey Accurate sales tracking, including sales and refunds Accurate marketing attribution (say goodbye to large amounts of mysteriously "Direct" traffic) Complete Enhanced Ecommerce data Meaningful checkout funnels Custom dimensions to calculate customer lifetime value and create custom audiences for retargeting Ability to segment performance in Google Analytics by payment source, subscription plan type, and product category Extensible data layer, plus additional connections for tracking ReCharge and CartHook checkouts See the connection overview for more details. [/faq] [faq heading="How is this different from Shopify's default tracking?"] In short, Shopify's native analytics are inaccurate and incomplete, and their basic Google Analytics integration is hardly any better. Littledata uses a combination of client-side and server-side tracking to stitch sessions together and capture everything that happens in your Shopify store, from marketing channels through browsing behavior, repeat purchases, subscriber behavior and refunds. Initial case studies have found a 10x savings on development time and upkeep, not to mention that the data is far more accurate! [/faq] [faq heading="Will you make Shopify match GA?"] Yes! 88% of Shopify stores have inaccurate data in Google Analytics. There are several possible reasons for this, but Littledata fixes most issues automatically. [/faq] [faq heading="Do I need to disable Shopify's default Google Analytics tracking?"] Yes. During the install flow, you will be prompted to disable Shopify's native Google Analytics tracking setup. This is an important step to ensure that you don't have double tracking in Google Analytics, and that Littledata's tracking works correctly. Disabling the default tracking will not mess with your historic data, only help to improve your tracking going forward. See how to disable Shopify's default GA tracking.  [/faq] [faq heading="How does the manual install work?"] There are several reasons you might need to do a manual installation of Littledata's Shopify to Google Analytics connection. You might have a very custom theme or be under source control. Follow these steps to install or update Littledata's Shopify tracker via the custom/manual route. Note: If you are using a headless setup, follow the headless setup guide instead. [/faq] [faq heading="Can I set up cross-domain tracking for my Shopify store?"] Yes. Littledata automatically includes adds common preset domains for cross- domain tracking, but you can add additional domains manually. Follow this guide to check if you need to set up additional cross-domain tracking. [/faq] [faq heading="Do you support multi-currency?"] Yes. If you are selling in multiple currencies with different Shopify stores, Littledata's Shopify to Google Analytics connection makes it easy to track this and convert sales into your shop currency. Read more about multi-currency tracking and supported payment gateways. [/faq] [faq heading="Do you support headless Shopify setups?"] Yes, Littledata provides accurate sales and marketing data for headless ecommerce. This requires manual setup steps. Follow this guide to setting up Littledata for headless Shopify tracking. [/faq] [faq heading="Does the connection work with GTM?"] Littledata’s tracking script for Shopify stores adds detailed events which you can use to build funnels or trigger other marketing tags in Google Tag Manager (GTM). You can use Littledata to replace GTM, or use Littledata with GTM. Our script uses the naming conventions set by Google for gtag. Here is an overview of Littledata's GTM and Google Analytics data layer. [/faq] [faq heading="Do you track by Product ID or SKU?"] Shopify has a unique way of tagging and organizing products and variants. Littledata enables tracking by SKU, ID and variant in Google Analytics. Learn more about how Littledata handles SKUs, Shopify product IDs and product variants. [/faq] [faq heading="How does the connection fix marketing attribution?"] Google Analytics loses the link between a customer choosing a product, checkout, and payment. Littledata fixes this by linking together the session that the customer had browsing products on your Shopify store with the actual checkout steps and payment. Learn more about marketing attribution. [/faq] [faq heading="Who uses Littledata?"] Hundreds of top Shopify merchants around the world use Littledata's smart connections to increase sales and improve ROAS. Read some of our reviews in the Shopify app store, or feel free to contact us for references on enterprise plans. [/faq]  

This time last year, we were enjoying a beautiful spring in Toronto, chock-full of new announcements for Shopify sellers around the world. But this year, COVID-19 had other plans. [note]Here's everything Shopify announced and updated from Unite 2019[/note] While we would have loved to be in Toronto, hats off to Shopify for making the most of a "lost" event. By restructuring and rebranding Shopify Unite to Shopify Reunite and taking the event virtual, Shopify has actually reached more sellers, agencies, partners and dev teams than by holding the event in-person. More than 100,000 people in the Shopify ecosystem attended the event! With our top-rated Google Analytics app for Shopify adding new features and updates and ourSegment app gaining popularity in the app store (it's the only recommended Segment app for Shopify) our eyes and ears were open wide for this year's slate of announcements! [tip]Here's what's new in our Shopify apps for Google Analytics and Segment[/tip] We chatted with our agency partners to get feedback about which announcements might have the biggest impact on their business, from design and development to growth marketing for Shopify Plus stores. Here are six major updates: [subscribe heading="Top Google Analytics app for Shopify" button_text="Learn More" button_link="https://www.littledata.io/connections/shopify"] 1) Shopify Plus galore! Shopify Plus Admin upgrades New admin helps merchants expand into new countries, products, or brands by launching new stores Merchants can also copy existing data (i.e. themes, users, already-installed apps from existing stores) Offers a more complete overview of store performance COVID-friendly automation templates for Shopify Plus Automate ecommerce workflows and marketing campaigns across apps From Littledata: trace every order back to its original marketing channel with accurate attribution in Google Analytics New Flow and Scripts templates let sellers customize checkouts, automate tasks and build product promotions easily New templates for automation include: Shopify Flow templates specific to COVID-19 Shopify Scripts templates to optimize the checkout experience Shopify Flow Connectors to connect with tools like Launchpad, ReConvert, and Omnisend [tip]Did you know we launched the first Shopify Flow connector for Google Analytics?[/tip] Page activity Merchants can now see who else is working on the same product as you. If someone is currently editing a product page (or saves changes), you won't lose your place since everyone working on the page will be notified [tip]Littledata's enterprise plans are optimized for Shopify Plus[/tip] Storefront renderer Infrastructure upgrade to accelerate site speed Changes the way Shopify serves read requests Better server-side performance 2) New finance tools Shopify Capital Shopify gave away more than $1B in cash advances to merchants this year Extended financing availability beyond US (to Canada and UK stores) Shop Pay Installments Shoppers can now pay in installments (via "buy now, pay later"): 4 equal payments, interest-free, no additional fees Littledata also integrates with Sezzle, another popular "buy now, pay later" solution Shopify saw an 18% conversion rate increase and higher AOV from the added payment flexibility, especially during the economic stress brought on by COVID-19 Shop Pay installments will launch later this year in the US and all merchants currently using Shopify Payments are eligible [note]Easily track your Shop Pay / Shopify Payments data in Google Analytics[/note] Shopify Balance Includes a banking account offering faster access to funds Includes a Shopify Card (either physical or virtual) so businesses can spend flexibly Features a rewards program for everyday spending (Shopify apps, marketing, shipping) [subscribe heading="Top Google Analytics app for Shopify Plus" button_text="Learn More" button_link="https://www.littledata.io/connections/shopifyplus"] What about custom checkouts? For Shopify Plus, new custom checkout features include: Online tipping Cross-border duties Curbside pickup Local delivery settings [tip]Track every checkout step, sale and refund in Google Analytics[/tip] 3) Borderless ecommerce Cross-border domains for international selling Offers a localized shopping and checkout experience for international customers Tailor the currency and language based on customers' buying location [tip]Get accurate multi-currency tracking and better support for Shopify and Shopify Plus[/tip] Custom FX Merchants can set a price for each currency they sell in No more worrying about fluctuating exchange rates Merchants can advertise more effectively with Google Ads and Facebook Ads in every customers' local currency 4) Greater customer reach Shopify POS Better online customer experience at every touchpoint—"the most versatile and scalable POS we've ever built" says Shopify Creates room for popular fulfillment options: local pickup, delivery, or shipping Merchants can search for inventory across locations, set retail-specific staff permissions Local pickup Local delivery Google Shopping Merchants can now list their products with Google Shopping for free via Shopify's Google Shopping app (available only in USD for now) Shop app First-of-its-kind native shopping app developed by Shopify Already more than 16 million users 5) Ecommerce infrastructure Sections (beta) Merchants can now edit sections on all pages, not just homepage, plus drag and drop apps anywhere on their online store Currently in Partner Beta Product states Products now differentiated in draft, active or archive so merchants can filter and organize products by state more easily In other words, products can be saved as unpublished and worked on later 6) Fulfillment updates Shopify Fulfillment Network (SFN) Once this news broke last year, we watched Twitter run wild as store managers imagined the possibilities with Shopify's brand new Fulfillment Network. Designed to compete with the world's top fulfillment networks (Amazon, USPS, etc.), the network will be built across the United States at first before (hopefully) expanding across the Atlantic. Shopify will be pumping over a billion dollars into this infrastructure, expanding and improving the network. Now, in 2020, that expansion and improvement has arrived: Inventory intelligence: Shopify will make recommendations as to which inventory should be stored where so that it's close to customers More brand control: Branded packaging and marketing inserts More data control: better customer insights Simple integration: Shopify will install and help set up the Shopify Fulfillment app for you Same-day fulfillment: Orders received by 4 p.m. EST will be shipped out the same day As mentioned at Unite 2019, SFN will also support the following: Multiple channels: online store, retail, Instagram, eBay, Amazon, etc. Returns and exchanges Custom (branded) packaging Stores of all sizes: "shipping 10 to 10,000 products a day", aiming to get this to "3 to 30,000" per day in coming years Is there anything we missed? Let us know! Next up, Ed and Ari will break down the announcements and unpack what they mean for Shopify Partners, agencies, and for teams that rely on Littledata's smart connections for better marketing attribution and decision-making. Stay tuned!   Photo credits: Littledata, Shopify