Typically, online shoppers aren’t engaging with your products because they’re not engaging with your page. To truly optimise conversions, you need product pages that visually appeal, ooze customer value and surpass common industry benchmarks. Once you start optimising your Shopify product pages, it’s off to the races. But on-page optimisation more of a marathon than a quick sprint to test and launch. Just like CRO, product page optimisation is a continuous, analytical process of reviewing, changing, testing and refining. Optimisations help you discover: What your customers find most appealing What your customers like and care about What about your brand makes your customer trust you What ultimately encourages your customer to purchase If you’ve had trouble optimising (or seeing positive results from) your product pages in the past, there’s no reason to get discouraged — there is always room for improvement. For online merchants, the following reminders are the key to Shopify product page success: 1) Establish product page goals Before you create a product page or make changes to your current landing pages, be clear about what you want to accomplish with the page. Every online merchant wants to increase store sales. But many Shopify store owners have more specific, actionable goals to work towards, such as: Increased sign-ups More user engagement Higher monthly page views When planning your changes, think about what success looks like for your product pages. 2) Know how to measure your content Whether your page is more of a content pillar page, category page, or a long product page with plenty of detail, there’s one easy way to measure engagement: track how far down the page users scroll. For your store, reporting should be as straightforward as possible. In other words, when you make changes to your landing page, focus on tracking only the metrics that matter to your product. These are the metrics that yield the most return to your business. Want the other 6 keys to success? Our free ebook, 9 best practices for your Shopify landing pages, contains proven techniques and advice from top ecommerce brands, Shopify merchants and Littledata customers. With our ebook, you’ll be on your way to more store traffic, product views and orders.   [subscribe heading="Get the free ebook" background_color="green" button_text="Download it free" button_link="https://www.littledata.io/app/ebook-shopify-product-pages"]

Whether you're using Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud or another ecommerce platform, it's crucial to drive high traffic volume to your site. But important as it may be, it's not the deciding factor between a sale and a cart abandonment. If your traffic doesn't convert, the volume of traffic doesn't matter. Customer attraction is only half the battle — customer engagement, however, is what leads to higher conversion rates, which means more product sales for your store. Conversions are the lifeblood of product marketing. So your main goal is not attraction, but persuasion — collecting an email for lead generation or retargeting, completing customer transactions, getting signups up for your newsletter or anything else of measurable value for your store. As a merchant, you know conversions are the name of the game. You'd think every merchant would have it down to a science. In fact, the data suggests otherwise. What's a healthy conversion rate? While average conversion rates vary by product type, price point, location of sale and other factors, we wanted to find true, reliable industry benchmarks. Just recently, our team surveyed 1,127 stores and found the average conversion rate for stores was just 1.4%. This means a conversion rate above 3.1% would put your store in the 80th percentile, with a rate higher than 4.8% in the 90th percentile. Our test also found an ecommerce conversion rate (all devices) of less than 0.5% would put your store in the 20th percentile, with a rate of below 0.2% ranking your store among the worst-performing: Converting sales isn't getting easier, either — reaching the 1.4% industry benchmark can be a challenge for online stores, especially those that: don't price competitively (with the help of historical data) don't use conversion rate optimisation best practices don't optimise their store to increase customer engagement Speaking of customer engagement, we'll dive into how to boost your ecommerce conversion rates (here are some bonus tips on improving CRO). But first, let's overview what customer engagement really is. [subscribe] What is customer engagement, really? Customer engagement is the strongest indicator of how a customer feels about your brand, your products and your online shopping experience. There are many conduits for measuring customer engagement (e.g. email open rates, page views, landing page clicks, average time spent on page, bounce rates, etc.). With a 500-person sample of marketers, a Marketo survey found the following: 22% of people thought customer engagement was a brand awareness tool 63% considered it customer retention, repeated purchases and renewal rates 78% thought it was something that occurred in the final stages of the marketing funnel In other words, modern merchants don't exactly have a solid definition of what customer engagement really is. Even as data analytics experts (a.k.a. data geeks), we consider customer engagement to be more than a measurable set of customer data or online actions — it's also an emotional connection to a brand as well as a tool for brand awareness, chiefly driven by data, measured by data and optimised by data. See the pattern? Customer engagement isn't just short-term set of actions. It's a strategic, long-term play that informs product sales performance, marketing attribution and customer delight. Without accurate, reliable data to support decision-making, it's difficult to move the needle for your store — and especially hard to optimise your conversion rate. Luckily, our commerce connections for top platforms like Shopify, Shopify Plus, Magento and BigCommerce are available for merchants of all sizes. And of course, you're free to try our smart analytics app free for 14 days, including our top-rated Google Analytics connection (free) and highly-rated Shopify app.

As the most popular recurring billing solution for Shopify stores, ReCharge helps Shopify and Shopify Plus merchants sell subscriptions easily and smoothly. ReCharge's feature set also allows for a variety of subscription types, including single product, mixed cart & entire cart subscriptions. In our last post, we talked about major challenges for Shopify store owners who manage subscription orders. Today, we're outlining a major solution. Why use ReCharge? By installing ReCharge, Shopify merchants can customise subscriptions for their store (including custom promotions via Advanced Discounts API). The ReCharge and Shopify APIs allow developers to customise the checkout experience for customers and personalise how those customers manage their subscriptions. And that's not all — with access to the ReCharge API, Shopify merchants can harness the power of marketing automation. Whether you want to automate product discount codes, order cancellation processes or updated pricing on select items, you can do just that. Installing ReCharge on your store also means orders are processed faster (thanks to an increased API call limit). For Shopify Plus merchants, ReCharge has full compatibility with popular apps like Klaviyo and Smile.io. Why connect ReCharge with Shopify? As mentioned above, ReCharge helps Shopify store owners easily sell and manage subscriptions. However, without hiring expensive Google Analytics consultants, ReCharge customers don't have a way to access a complete data collection in Google Analytics — until recently. [subscribe heading="Get Littledata's ReCharge connection for your Shopify store" background_color="green" button_text="get the connection" button_link="https://www.littledata.io/connections/recharge"] Wait, why Google Analytics? Arguably the most powerful free tool available to marketers, Google Analytics is a robust data platform that allows for multi-layered tracking, buyer behaviour analysis, segmenting by user characteristics and much more. While GA offers free features and hundreds of metrics for stores of all sizes, it certainly isn't without shortcomings. However, Littledata offers a way to maximise the power of Google Analytics' powerful data platform along with the Shopify ReCharge connection: How to optimise the Shopify ReCharge connection Unfortunately, simply installing ReCharge on your Shopify or Shopify Plus store limits the full power of the connection. That's where we come in. Littledata's Shopify ReCharge connection opens the door to accurate data for recurring transactions through an automated, advanced Google Analytics integration. With Littledata's connection, merchants not only benefit from accurate data — they get more features, automated tools and ways to track their store's performance in GA: 1) Automatically track first-time payments & recurring transactions Shopify reporting is now 10x easier. With Littledata's Shopify ReCharge connection, merchants can enjoy easy tracking of the entire customer journey along with accurate marketing attribution. The best part: you won't need to lift a finger (after granting GA access, of course). 2) Get marketing attribution for subscription revenue Littledata's smart technology automatically connects your ReCharge checkout with Google Analytics for accurate subscription revenue, including first-time payments and recurring transactions. 3) Segment your performance Whether by payment source, subscription plan type or product category, connecting ReCharge with your Shopify store allows you to track performance by segment. Not only does this ensure accurate tracking of your entire ecommerce funnel, but it also frees you to take full advantage of automated Shopify reporting to grow revenue (including report packs designed for subscription analytics). 4) Benchmark your site See how you stack up against other subscription-based Shopify merchants with Littledata's powerful ecommerce benchmarking tool.  Not only will integrating ReCharge allow you to see website benchmarks by industry, but you'll also see which key metrics are succeeding and which of them have room for improvement. The ReCharge connection also offers access to professional-level subscription analytics tools. How the Shopify ReCharge integration works From marketing campaigns to first-time transactions and recurring revenue, integrating Littledata with ReCharge lets you capture the entire subscriber journey and all the crucial data it produces. With Littledata’s magic sauce, your Shopify store and ReCharge data are automatically connected and reeled into Google Analytics. Once the two are integrated, Littledata’s revenue optimisation tools pull straight from your Google Analytics data. Connect the apps you know and love In addition to the ReCharge connection, Littledata lets you loop in the subscription tools and marketing apps you rely on most — Facebook Ads, Google Ads, CartHook, Refersion, and more!. Bottom line: Littledata automates the process to ensure accurate sales data and marketing attribution for your Shopify store. You can view the data directly in Google Analytics, or in the Littledata app.

For merchants who run subscription-based businesses, accuracy is crucial for tracking recurring orders. The problem: popular platforms like Shopify provide merchants with native analytics that are broken. In other words, these platforms don't offer a complete picture (or an accurate one) of data that subscription-based stores depend on. There are many potential blockers for these store owners, but we narrowed it down to three: 1) Customisable orders & levels of membership Many successful subscription-based stores allow shoppers to customise their monthly orders. While this is an effective draw for consumers, it causes all kinds of headaches for the teams that manage the orders. The ability for customers to customise monthly orders adds layers of complexity for teams who manage product inventory, fulfillment and logistics in the back end. Perhaps the best example is from the hugely popular Dollar Shave Club. Known for their humor-driven marketing approach, the brand constantly encourages its subscribers add more and more products to their monthly shipments, which go out at different times each month. Due to the brand's meteoric growth over the past five years, this creates headaches — imagine fulfilling dynamic orders each month (different cart sizes, products and membership levels) for hundreds of thousands of customers across America. The 'curated box package' is another common subscription model. StitchFix, a curated clothing company for men and women, surprises its customers each month with a package containing 'personalised' new outfits. While the surprise factor might not be a draw for some, the brand's main appeal is the diversity of its products. Every month, StitchFix's variety is what appeals to its majority millennial market. Whether your store offers dynamic monthly ordering (where customers can change the contents of their cart) or follows a more traditional subscription model, it's crucial to have data you can trust. This means finding an ecommerce solution built to handle both customer changes and increased payload as your store scales. [subscribe heading="Automatically track your subscription orders" background_color="green" button_text="find out how" background_link="https://www.littledata.io/connections/recharge"] Affiliate marketing & partnerships It's common for subscription-based stores to partner with affiliate marketers to generate an additional source of revenue and tap into new customer groups. However, with more customers comes more demand, and the importance of accurate data only increases — this includes tracking sales made through affiliate partners, commission owed on each sale, etc. 2) Customer loyalty & reward programs When done right, effective customer loyalty programs create more loyal customers, boost customer retention and increase sales. These programs aren't used by every subscription-based brand, but for the brands that use them, they really do work, according to LoyaltyLion. However, as high shopper expectations continue to soar, the landscape for rewards programs is getting more competitive. Shoppers know that if they don't absolutely love one aspect of a brand's rewards program, they can easily run to a competitor that offers what they're looking for — whether it be a cheaper price tag, better discounts or more rewards available. Mark Hook, Head of PR and Communications for retail management software Brightpearl, had this to say: Over two-fifths of millennial shoppers (45%) admit to being less loyal to brands when compared to a year ago, and are quicker to abandon buying from companies that don’t meet expectations A great example of a rewards program within a subscription is Nike+. By putting the mobile shopping experience at the top of its priority list, Nike has developed multiple apps that work hand-in-hand with the Nike+ loyalty program by allowing its members to 'take the brand wherever you go.' By offering easy member access to the program, Nike gets higher engagement from community members and increased brand loyalty from repeat buyers. However, for merchants, a successful customer loyalty program hinges on back end analytics and whether or not it's set up properly. For merchants relying on Google Analytics for tracking, do you have custom dimensions set up? Are there parameters to track recurring orders, free trial offers, promo codes or even brand events? 3) Payment security & order changes Ecommerce businesses not operating on a subscription model typically receive credit card information every time a transaction is made. On the other hand, subscription-based businesses store data for recurring purchases, which simplifies the user experience and helps encourage users to continue paying each month. With potentially millions of credit card numbers stored in a database, brands are constantly at risk for large-scale fraud. This forces brands to invest in airtight security measures to protect your own revenue and the sensitive data of your customers. Merchants need to stay prepared for orders with expired credit card info, subscription cancellations and changes to recurring orders — all of which make it tougher to accurately track individual events and transactions. Running a subscription-based store with data you can trust Even with these hurdles, there's a shiny silver lining for merchants who rely on subscriptions. Littledata's plug-and-play ReCharge integration connects with Shopify and Google Analytics to do the following: Automatically track first-time payments and recurring transactions Provide accurate marketing attribution for subscription revenue Segment performance by payment source, subscription plan type and product category Benchmark your site and offer access to professional-level subscription analytics tools With Littledata's Shopify ReCharge integration, there's a better way forward for merchants who manage subscription orders. BullyMax, a popular nutrition and muscle-building supplement for dogs, and Dry Farm Wines, a health-focused natural wine club, are two top subscription brands that have seen great success with Littledata's Shopify ReCharge connection. Read more about our topintegration for subscription analytics. In a follow-up post, we discuss a fool-proof solution for Shopify merchants who manage subscription orders. Check it out!

Recently, Smart Goals in Google Analytics have resurfaced as a helpful feature for ecommerce merchants, but particularly Shopify merchants. In a previous post, we outline what Smart Goals are and why some ecommerce businesses use them. However, a lack of trust (and lack of endorsement) with the Google Analytics feature has turned away ecommerce merchants, particularly Shopify merchants. Like we discussed in the previous post, Smart Goals is a goal-setting users can enable in Google Analytics. Unlike other goals, Smart Goals uses both behavioral data and contextual (shared) data to predict which of your web sessions will result in a conversion. The pitfall here is that the data is not your data, which would naturally be the best predictor of future conversions. Instead, Google's algorithm seeks highly-engaged visitors and then uses that data to conclude the likelihood a given web session ends with a conversion. Google puts it this way: To generate Smart Goals, we apply machine learning across thousands of websites that use Google Analytics and have opted in to share anonymized conversion data. From this information, we can distill dozens of key factors that correlate with likelihood to convert: things like session duration, pages per session, location, device and browser. We can then apply these key factors to any website. The easiest way to think about Smart Goals is that they reflect your website visits that our model indicates are most likely to lead to conversions. Are Smart Goals a good idea? There's a big hitch in the original concept. Smart Goals was designed for merchants using Google Ads who don’t use conversion tracking. Smart Goals was to help optimise their Ads campaigns by collecting important metrics of user engagement. In theory, it sounds brilliant and helpful for ecommerce merchants and business owners of all scales. But here's how it breaks down in real life: Advertise, measure, repeat As a rule of thumb, ecommerce merchants with stores of all sizes should be measuring their advertising performance. Even if you're creating a "set it and forget it" Google Ads campaign, it's still crucial to track product views, page views, user engagements, cost per click, etc. If you're advertising your products without measuring, you're likely wasting your time and your budget. So how do you ensure you're making good use of ad dollars? Properly set up conversion tracking. Littledata's Google Ads connection is a great place to start. With the connection, you can be confident in your data reporting and that you're tracking the metrics that matter. [subscribe heading="Get Littledata's connection for Google Ads" background_color="grey" button_text="Get the connection" button_link=https://blog.littledata.io/2019/02/28/link-analytics-to-adwords-with-our-new-google-ads-connection/] With conversion tracking, you can follow a shopper's journey and see how many ad clicks lead to purchases, contacts, downloads, signups and more. This data will help you better optimise your campaigns and adjust the ad copy, visuals and calls-to-action to what performs best. Unfortunately, there are thousands of ecommerce merchants who advertise their products without proper conversion tracking. This sets them up for underperforming campaigns and stalls their online store from scaling. Can you really trust anonymous data? The short answer is a resounding no, and for a few reasons: Using other people's data to make crucial product and marketing decisions around your campaigns, your website and your customers isn't a good idea. Only your own customer behavior trends will guarantee you're making optimal business decisions for your product marketing campaigns and your online store. How does Google's algorithm determine likely conversions? If conversions aren't defined and conversion tracking isn't properly set up, how can likely conversions be determined? Google basically assigns each web session a score, with the top sessions made into Smart Goals. That begs the question, "what defines top sessions?" Google scans anonymous data (such as session duration, pages per session, location, device, and browser) to select the users that are "most engaged" in your online store. For example, let's say Shawna the Shopify merchant. Shawna uses Google Analytics to track her product sales and other "big data" figures. However, Shawna has never set up goals in GA. For someone like Shawna, Google would use engagement metrics in place of conversion metrics, since Shawna has no conversion tracking for her Shopify store. This is not necessarily problematic. What is problematic is that other important metrics are left untracked. This includes metrics like: Average order value Customer lifetime value Cost of engaged users Sales increases Google Ads campaign optimisation If conversion tracking was set up (rather than Smart Goals), Shawna would easily be able to trace the online journeys and user engagements on her Shopify store. Littledata's Shopify connection with Google Analytics would also provide Shawna with curated reports and analytics to help make sense of her GA data stream. What's the verdict? While even Google advocates for conversion tracking, there is a better way to track the metrics that support better decisions for your ecommerce business. When advertising, especially with Google Ads, it’s incredibly important to use your own data to make decisions for the positive growth of your campaigns.

Shopify is a terrific, industry-leading platform that continues to see success with its variety of in-app features and integrations for merchants. One of the ways it hasn't been successful? It's native reporting platform. In a recent post about popular brands using the Segment app for their Shopify store, we outlined what the Segment platform is, and why top brands are choosing to use Shopify and Segment together. In this post, we'll run down the three best benefits for merchants using Shopify and Segment in tandem. First, let's start with the problem: What’s wrong with Shopify reporting? Shopify’s native reporting is simplistic and incomplete, missing key steps in the customer journey. This makes it difficult for Shopify merchants to get accurate data on sales and marketing efforts for their store. The situation is even worse if you want to push that data to Segment, as previously this had to be done manually (i.e. you'd need to hire a developer and a consultant just for the setup). The good news: Littledata's new Segment connection (available in the Shopify app store) fixes this automatically. [subscribe heading="Use your store as a Segment source" background_color="green" button_text="Get the app" button_link="https://apps.shopify.com/segment-com-by-littledata"] How does the Segment connection work? Once the data is tracked within your Shopify store, it's then sent to Segment. By adding Shopify to your Segment sources, it's easier to push your Shopify dataset to Segment destinations so you can report and act on ecommerce behavior. Plus, our app fixes the tracking automatically - so you can make data-driven decisions with peace of mind, knowing that the Shopify data is accurate when you push it to Segment destinations. Tracking for Shopify & Shopify Plus To recap from our post a few weeks ago, Littledata's Segment connection sends the following events from your Shopify or Shopify Plus store to Segment. These events will show up as tables in your warehouse, and as regular events in your other destinations like Google Analytics, Amplitude, Mixpanel, Kissmetrics, Heap and more. Among all Shopify apps, the Segment connection offers benefits unique to Shopify partners. Check out our help center for additional questions on the Segment integration. 3 benefits of connecting Segment with Shopify 1) Capture every customer touchpoint Our Segment connection lets you use Shopify as Segment source. In other words, merchants can now automatically track every ecommerce touchpoint on your Shopify store, including: User/browsing behaviour Checkout steps Sales & refunds Customer lifetime value (CLV) Marketing metrics like customer acquisition cost (CAC) When merchants integrate Segment with Shopify, no touchpoint in the customer journey will go untracked. This includes multiple checkout steps, sales conversion data and customer lifetime value (CLV), one of the most crucial metrics for any store owner to track. 2) Server-side tracking for 100% accuracy Speaking of tracking, Littledata's server-side tracking approach within Google Analytics beats out Shopify's native reporting, which is riddled with inaccurate numbers. Server-side tracking ensures each data metric is 100% reliable, empowering merchants to make better, data-driven decisions for their store. 3) Set up in minutes for any Shopify store Quick integrations should never be undervalued. Within minutes, Shopify merchants can have their stores armed with a steady data flow. Sound too good to be true? That's the power of next-gen tracking and reporting. Which events are tracked? Littledata's Shopify app for Segment users automatically tracks key events in the ecommerce journey. These currently include: From your Segment workspace, you can then push this data to hundreds of Segment destinations, such as: Reporting and visualization tools like Mixpanel and Google Analytics Sales and marketing apps like Hubspot and Salesforce Email marketing like Drip and Klaviyo And the list goes on and on...check out this master list of Segment destinations. Enterprise plans for Shopify Plus stores The Segment integration for Shopify captures every stage in the customer journey, empowering you to do more for your store with an accurate dataset. The best way to get started? Littledata enterprise plans are a popular option for Shopify Plus merchants and other stores set on major growth. Enterprise plans offer reliable customer support, a dedicated account manager, help from our Google Analytics consultants, data analytics experts and ecommerce growth hackers.

Even for essential ecommerce data like product sales and transactions, setting up a reliable data collection system is harder than one might think. Many ecommerce marketers use Google Analytics to track performance, but it's not as simple as a "1...2...3" setup. At Littledata, we work with top apps and agencies in the Shopify ecosystem, especially Shopify Plus partners. In turn, these partners work with marketing managers, data analytics experts and ecommerce store managers across the globe. One of the questions we often receive from these managers: Why don’t my transactions in Google Analytics match those in Shopify? While a plethora of factors can cause differences in Shopify tracking results, we’ve narrowed it down to 6 main causes. 1) Orders go unrecorded in Google Analytics Why does this happen? As a Shopify store owner, your customer never sees the order confirmation page. When online orders go unrecorded in Google Analytics, it’s almost always due to payment gateways not sending users back to the order thank you page. 2) Errors occur in the Google Analytics/Google Tag Manager integration The Google Analytics/Tag Manager integration allows Google Analytics to track only a few  “micro-moments” (page visits, page bounces, etc.) required for a complete picture of your customers' online shopping journey. Though commerce connections like Shopify’s are designed to work for standard websites, some store owners build themes that are more personalised to their products. This requires a custom integration with Google Analytics. Want to know the other 4 causes?  These two issues probably seem highly fixable (they are) but they don't stand alone. There are a host of factors that cause data mismatches between Shopify and Google Analytics data, all of which threaten to weaken your marketing strategy, hurt your sales performance and damage your bottom line. Luckily, we have just the thing to help.  Our free ebook, Why your Google Analytics data doesn't match your Shopify data, isn't just an answer to the question — it's packed with details, pro tips and an ultimate solution to your data mismatches. The ebook will also show you how common tools like ReCharge and CartHook can actually skew your data (and how to fix this). The best Shopify analytics are those that are accurate and trustworthy. With the help of our ebook, you're on your way to Shopify greatness!   [subscribe heading="Get the free ebook" background_color="green" button_text="Free download" button_link="https://www.littledata.io/app/ebook-why-google-analytics-dont-match-shopify-analytics"]

It's been a busy week in Toronto. We're still here at Shopify Unite, but yesterday's announcement day was chock-full of exciting new updates and experiences for Shopify Partners, merchants and agencies. With the most popular Google Analytics app for Shopify merchants and a new Segment app live in the app store as well, our ears perked up and stayed up! We chatted with our agency partners to get some feedback about which announcements might have the biggest impact on their business, from design and development to growth marketing for Plus stores. Here are six major changes: 1) New online store experience (updated design) Shopify's new store design experience will make it easier for merchants to personalise their storefronts without having to write any code. Later this year, Shopify will also introduce a feature that helps agencies provide the "highly valuable skills and services needed to take a merchant's business to the next level". What that feature set looks like is unclear at the moment, but what is clear are the following five design updates: Sections for each page: Sections-based editing is now enabled on every page of a merchant's online store, offering more space for creative freedom and personalisation. Master pages: Merchants can now dictate content and apply changes to all pages by simply editing the master page. Starting points: Shopify themes will offer "starting points", which will be pre-configured content sections to help accelerate store setup. Merchants can choose their starting point and easily fill it with content. Content portability: Store managers rejoice — content is no longer stored in themes, meaning merchants can make changes to their store without duplicating themes. Drafts: Merchants can draft changes on their store without making the changes go live. Merchants can play with design, content, etc. and only publish when they please. UX/UI: A new Shopify interface means (hopefully) a better merchant experience. Shopify says creating a store will now be a more intuitive experience, thanks to the new UI. In light of a new storefront app extension for agency partners, Shopify is unlocking a new feature that lets partners add apps to their storefront. [subscribe heading="Top Google Analytics app for Shopify" button_text="Learn More" button_link="https://www.littledata.io/connections/shopify"] 2) New Shopify Plus admin dashboard (multiple stores, multiple shoppers) Out with the old, in with the new Shopify Plus. The large-scale update will help large, multilayered businesses to manage multiple stores, shoppers and automation — all from a sleek new admin dashboard. The new design will offer brands: Robust insights across all of their stores The ability to manage multiple stores and user permissions from one place A better space to facilitate better store operations Shopify also continues to add more possibilities for what you can do with Shopify Flow, a smart way to automate workflows within Shopify Plus. For example, user admins and assigned staff members will soon be able to copy flows across all of your stores. [subscribe heading="Top Google Analytics app for Shopify Plus" button_text="Learn More" button_link="https://www.littledata.io/connections/shopifyplus"] 3) New checkout app extension for subscriptions [Coming soon] This is a big one, though the details are not yet clear. Later this year, Shopify Partners will be able to access the company's very first checkout app extension. The extension will mainly focus on improving purchase flow for subscriptions. The idea is to keep everything within Shopify's checkout flow, rather than sending shoppers to other apps. In Shopify's words: Buyers will no longer be routed outside of Shopify’s checkout to complete their transactions. Developers will be able to integrate their subscription apps into the checkout experience, surface their app’s information into Shopify’s checkout, and give merchants the ability to process transactions for subscription goods and services within one seamless checkout experience. If you or your clients are using ReCharge for selling subscriptions in your Shopify store, don't worry. Nothing changes now. You can still use Littledata's advanced Google Analytics integration for ReCharge to get accurate data about subscription sales and marketing channels, and we'll keep you in the loop about accurate tracking for checkout app extensions, once those get closer to going live. 4) Custom storefront tools, including multi-currency for non-Plus stores Because the customer journey is about more than an attractive website and pretty design, Shopify has taken the headless commerce approach by creating custom storefront tools for niche and complex ecommerce businesses. They're calling this "flexible commerce" and it promises to have a big impact on key Shopify benchmarks. These flexible commerce tools help merchants: Create a beautiful front-end experience Play a bigger role in a more personalised shopper experience (i.e. connecting to a CMS tool to share more dynamic pieces of content) Engage with shoppers through voice shopping, smart mirrors, smart fridges, etc. Leverage the scaling ability and speed of a headless commerce model Merchants and agencies can also now access the following through the Storefront API: Selling in multiple currencies New product recommendations Shopify Scripts All Shopify merchants now have the ability to sell in multiple currencies with Shopify Payments. This feature was previously only available to Shopify Plus merchants. 5) POS cart app extensions for loyalty and promotions Checkout is now faster and easier for both merchants and customers. Store managers can now see details about customer loyalty and promotions "directly in the cart without having to click away". The POS cart app extensions provide merchants with the "loyalty and promotion app functionality (they) want, where they need it: within the customer cart". With a more seamless checkout experience, merchants and customers can now enjoy better: Speed: The time it takes to apply a discount code is now down from 15 to 5 seconds Visibility: Store managers don’t need to remember to visit the apps section of POS Recognition: Customers feel more appreciated, no matter where a purchase is made The new POS app extensions helps both merchants and development teams improve the user experiences of the storefront(s) they manage. [Coming soon] Shopify's updated POS app will prioritize "quick and seamless workflows, helping store staff focus on what’s most important to them: human-to-human customer interactions and making each sale a positive experience". 6) New order editing APIs Shopify's brand new order editing features of the GraphQL AdminAPI enables apps to add, drop or replace items "before the line item has been fulfilled". This offers merchants increased flexibility after a purchase. 7) Shopify Fulfillment Network Once this news broke, 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. The network gives Shopify merchants access to tools and services previously only available to the biggest stores in the world. Benefits include: One back office: This will reduce both errors and frustration for store management teams Maintain inventory integrity: Made possible by scheduling rhythmic cycle counts Nearly 100% accuracy: Orders will be ready to go on-time without the risk of error regarding order contents, shipping addresses, etc. Your eyes at the warehouse: Shopify is providing merchants with dedicated account managers with "logistics and Shopify expertise". The Shopify Fulfillment Network 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 will break down the announcements and unpack what they mean not only for Shopify partners and agencies, but for teams that rely on Littledata's smart connections for marketing attribution and better business decision-making. Stay tuned! Photo credits: Littledata, Shopify