The better the speed, the higher the conversion rate. The upgraded web performance dashboard shows industry-standard core web vitals for interactivity, loading speed, and visual stability. These three statistics can significantly impact your store’s page ranking and your ability to sell more. For the last few years, the Shopify store team has been working on infrastructure optimisation to make the platform faster. The Shopify store development team have further expanded the global points of presence to 300. It means that now you are visible to users in just 50 milliseconds.

In the new winter edition, they have upgraded the search. The advanced smart search can recognise the context of the user’s query because keyword matching is not enough anymore. This new AI-powered search feature can semantically understand shopper’s intent. To provide relevant results that they will be more likely to buy. For example: If a user searches for ‘healthy breakfast foods,’ the algorithm will recognise they are looking for healthy breakfast options like oatmeal, muesli, fruits, etc., even though they did not use those specific keywords.

The highest converting page on Shopify eCommerce is the checkout. Now, it has become even more powerful and flexible. The newly launched checkout page has:

1. One-Page Checkout: The checkout process is now revamped and contains only one page instead of three pages. It reduces buyer completion time by 4 seconds on average.
2. Checkout Extensibility: They have improved the website checkout process by adding 14 new APIs and updates. It will help in customising Shopify’s checkout process. Additionally, they launched over 90 new apps that unlock powerful features like upsells, post-purchase surveys, loyalty programs, custom content, and conversion tracking.

They have introduced a free subscription app that lets you set up and manage your subscriptions directly from your Shopify eCommerce admin.

2. Channels

You can now extend to a new market or channel, like adding a new product. This new feature lets you sell in a new region, retail location, marketplace, or social channel.

According to predictions, worldwide eCommerce sales are projected to grow by 9.4% in 2024, and cross-border selling is the way to access more of that growth. Markets Pro help you do that, and now it’s available to all US businesses.

This bundle simplifies selling internationally. It simplifies global taxes, customs, duties, restrictions, fraud, international shipping labels, and foreign exchange to ease your Shopify eCommerce business.

To help you find more customers, Shopify eCommerce now offers Shopify store audiences. It will lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) and improve Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). This app allows you to pull custom targeting lists and use them across different ad platforms such as Google, Pinterest, Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat.

Therefore, to improve the Shopify eCommerce volume, they introduced machine learning to the ad system to enhance digital advertising for you.

The improved Shopify winter edition uses smarter retargeting algorithms, and most Shopify eCommerce merchants are seeing a minimum of 2x retargeting audience size. They have also added benchmarks for measuring performance, so you can easily compare the ad results to competitors or industry groupings to pinpoint areas of improvement.

Since its inception, the risk-free customer acquisition program, Shop Cash has already assisted Shopify eCommerce merchants to acquire over 1 million new customers. In this Shopify winter edition, they have rebranded the Shop Cash Offers as Shop Campaigns. Additionally, they have added analytics and estimates to maximise the impact of those dollars for your buyers.

It helps you launch campaigns across multiple surfaces with one click without building audiences or creating assets. Plus, you only pay for converting customers.

They have integrated AI into the foundations of their platforms with Shopify Magic, their suite of free AI-enabled tools.

It’s a fact that building an eCommerce store requires a lot of high-quality assets, which can cost hundreds of dollars per image and weeks to produce. The new Media Editor lets you use generative AI to DIY your product images instantly and for free, directly within your Shopify eCommerce Admin. You can create original images and professional-level edits with a few clicks or keywords without needing any design skills. Soon, it will allow you to erase unwanted pixels and improve details in a low-resolution image (up to 4k).

Sidekick is an AI-enabled assistant for commerce. It allows you to use AI to improve workflows, increase productivity, spend less time on operational tasks, and make smarter decisions. They have rolled out Sidekick to a select number of merchants in first access, and they will let other merchants know when the option is live and ready for you to try.

Shopify Capital has shot up more than $5 billion into merchant businesses for over 7 years. Their offers range from a few hundred dollars to millions. When your business grows, you want more flexibility in your lending options because your needs have diversified. Therefore, Shopify eCommerce has grown its lending suite solutions with two more products.