A Comprehensive Guide to Shopify Editions in 2023

Shopify Editions, the much anticipated collection of 100+ new product updates from Shopify (released twice a year), has an onslaught of riveting new software and even some hardware this time around. We’re talking tools to find your best customers, an all-in-one mobile point of sale, an app for connecting your brand with influencers, and much more.

After the release of Shopify’s Winter ‘23 Edition, we poured over the newest features and updated products to ensure all merchants understand what’s coming to their stores, and to give you a sneak peek at how you can use these offerings.

Here’s what we’re most excited about from the Winter ‘23 Edition:

Sell across channels: Shopify POS Go and YouTube Shopping
Boost conversion: Shop Promise, Sign-in with Shop and AI-generated product descriptions
Go global: Markets Pro
Find and engage customers: Shopify Forms, Shopify Collabs, and Marketing Automations
Fulfilling and delivering products: Smart Order Routing

The theme of this version of Shopify Editions is “Built to Last,” and that’s appropriate considering each of these product updates is designed to ensure the longevity of your business. For instance, you can boost income and explore new sales techniques with the mobile POS Go product, or you might utilize Shopify Collabs to discover influencers who can make your brand far more recognizable to social users and in turn, expand your reach. All of this works to build that brand recognition and move to a level of trust that’s memorable far into the future – ensuring your business has what it needs to grow and scale over time.

Shopify has constantly strived to innovate, and this is a wonderful look at how Shopify continues to do so. There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all ecommerce platform, but we’d definitely say that Shopify is the closest thing to that. It’s exciting to see user requests come to fruition, so let’s dive deep into the newest hardware and product updates from Shopify!

What’s New in Shopify Editions | Winter ‘23?

We organized the Shopify product and feature updates into 5 categories to make them easier to understand for implementing your current operations.

1. New from Shopify Editions: Sell Across Channels

Shopify has always supported multichannel selling, but it’s wonderful to see additional channels and features for reaching out to more customers. In this Shopify Edition, there’s the highly sought after Shopify POS Go. In addition, you can begin syncing and selling products on YouTube with a few clicks.

Shopify POS Go

The POS Go device comes just in time for Shopify merchants exploring ways to expand their selling capabilities. It’s a powerful point of sale device the size of a phone, allowing merchants to walk around with their usual Shopify POS software; syncing with their product catalogs. This opens up opportunities to help customers—by answering questions about products—and also ensures the option to take payment for a sale while walking around the retail floor or while traveling.

Some highlights of Shopify POS Go:

It serves as one back office, allowing you to manage everything from staff to payments, and customers to products from a handy device. And it doesn’t matter if you’re online or in your store.
Shopify POS Go integrates with your online store, and it syncs everything from your Shopify dashboard across devices. The device is designed so that you can have several of them for sales reps to walk around your store.
It has a customizable point of sale software to make navigating modules for customers, products, and staff easier for your operation.
The device provides a secure, sturdy solution for processing payments. It comes with a high-security software to protect everything from customer information to product details.
You can purchase a drop-proof case separately
There’s a built-in barcode scanner to check inventory while on the go, or to scan items for processing.
You can process payments using multiple options, including the tap, chip, or swipe solutions. Shopify POS Go comes with support for mobile wallets, credit cards, and debit cards.
It features fast computer processing, reliable Wi-Fi connectivity, and an all-day battery to boost the amount of time selling.

In addition to all of that, Shopify POS Go comes delivered ready to go. By that, we mean Shopify has already configured the point of sale for you, and it has a battery charge. Simply pull it out of the box, log into your account, and connect to your Shopify point of sale.

YouTube Shopping

YouTube Shopping comes to Shopify to add to the wide variety of social media channels already available. Instead of sticking to mainstays like Pinterest and Instagram, you can now connect a YouTube channel and upload products to YouTube.

It works like this:

Set up the Google channel in your Shopify admin
In the YouTube Shopping section of the Google channel, connect your YouTube account.
Navigate to the YouTube Studio, where you can choose which products to feature.
Add products to your videos from Monetization > Shopping in the YouTube Studio

This circumvents the usual YouTube selling tactic of placing product links in the video description. YouTube has offered pinnable videos in the past, but that required you to work directly through YouTube and copy over links from Shopify. Now, the two work seamlessly, meaning you can quickly link products during the video creation process. All your products instantly sync to Youtube keeping product names, images, pricing and inventory always up to date.

What’s more is that the YouTube/Shopify integration lets you create live shopping experiences. Simply run a live video on YouTube and recommend products in the live chat as you talk.

Finally, every sale made through YouTube gets logged in Shopify, making it easy to understand which sales come from your videos, rather than somewhere else.

Keep in mind, you must have Google and YouTube accounts for this to work.

2. Boost Conversion with 3 New Shopify Tools

The whole point of running an online store is to accumulate sales, so it makes sense for ecommerce entrepreneurs to be on the lookout for ways to boost conversions. In this version of Shopify Editions, we have a lot to discuss in terms of increasing sales for your store. Our favorite new update includes Shop Promise, Sign-in with Shop and AI-generated storefront content.

Shop Promise

Delivery transparency has become increasingly important to customers as delivery times is one of the top things they look for before making a purchase.

Shop Promise is a delivery badge, allowing stores to communicate reliable and fast delivery to customers across their product pages and checkout, with early access merchants seeing increases in conversion of up to 25%.

How does Shop Promise work?

Delivery dates are intelligently predicted by Shopify and automatically displayed across product pages and checkout for products that deliver in five calendar days or less, building trust with customers
Highlight next-day and two-day delivery, and free shipping when those options are offered
Integrated with Shop Pay, extending delivery expectations to the highest converting, accelerated checkout on the planet
Integrated with the Shop app to provide customers with real-time tracking updates on all Shop Promise orders
Shop Promise orders come with a limited guarantee, which covers customers’ shipping fees by awarding them Shop Cash if an order arrives after the Shop Promise estimated dated

Shop Promise is in early access and rolling out to US merchants over the first few months of 2023.

¹This statistic is based on an increase in conversions on product pages that displayed Shop Promise compared to the same product pages, during the same period, when Shop Promise was not displayed. Results may vary for every merchant.

Much like social login tools, the Sign-in with Shop feature improves the user experience of your website by offering a one-click login process. They simply need to have a Shop account (which they can acquire by shopping on another Shopify website, or by signing up on the Shop app). After that, users come to your site and checkout by simply typing in their email address or phone number.

Their Shop credentials, including saved passkeys, automatically populate the checkout forms so that they never have to scramble for credit card numbers, and there’s no need to type in names or addresses for the thousandth time.

Highlights of Sign-in with Shop:

Identify and sign-in high-intent shoppers long before they reach checkout for a seamless browse-to-buy experience.
Lower bounce rates and boost conversions with a one-click checkout.
It’s a secure way to store customer information.
Customers don’t have to type in personal information every time they want to buy something in your store.
Shop even saves their passwords, as well as saved passkeys for future checkouts.

AI-generated product descriptions

One of the most time-consuming activities for new merchants is preparing their store for launch. And one of the most important factors for a store’s early success lies in well-crafted product pages and descriptions. Shopify is here to help make launching your products even easier.

Today marks the official launch of Autowrite, an AI tool designed to write high-quality, compelling product descriptions for your store in seconds; built to help you save time and sell more.

Getting started is simple. Just list a few details about your product, and the tool will generate a product description for you automatically, right on the product setup page in your store's admin. You now have a built-in copywriter in your admin, giving you the ability to quickly generate enticing product descriptions in a consistent tone across your online store. Writer’s block is now a thing of the past.

Highlights of AI-generated product descriptions:

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Use AI to beat writer's block and automatically create product descriptions
Input a prompt or keywords and our system generates a description.
Create, edit, and adjust the tone of your description.

3. Go Global with Shopify

When it comes to expanding a store into new markets, Shopify excels with its use of international market tools. You can convert currencies, define geographic market areas, set subdomains for different markets, and translate languages for customers. There’s even support for local payment methods, product pricing by market, and estimations for import taxes.

Market Pro

Now, the Markets Pro solution from Shopify advances the already impressive international functionality merchants receive for ecommerce. The idea is to grow a business globally.

Shopify Markets Pro offers:

Fraud protection for cross-border selling, which decreases the number of chargebacks and identifies fraud before it happens.
Protection from currency fluctuations when submitting refunds to customers.
Automatic removal of items from your catalogs in certain regions. This may occur if an item doesn’t meet requirements or laws. This way, your company stays compliant, and customers aren’t trying to buy items that are illegal or regulated in some way.
Automated filing for international taxes, registration, and remittance.
Guaranteed duty and import taxes, removing surprise fees at delivery and covering you from discrepancies with carriers and at the border.
Access to discounted rates with duties prepaid, package tracking and pre-customs clearance.
Flexible fulfillment options, choose to print labels from Shopify or other major 3rd party fulfillment partners
Utilize localization tools for currency conversions, language translations, and more.

This brings you into a situation where you can expand into over 150 global markets overnight. There’s no need to commit an entire team of international business experts or sift through a pile of global tax documents. It’s all compiled into Shopify Markets Pro for a turnkey experience with the utmost automation.

4. Find and Engage Customers with Marketing Tools and Leverage Influencers

Automations are becoming more and more common in Shopify, and the process of engaging with customers is no different. The reason we like this section so much is that it opens up all sorts of opportunities to reach out to customers, learn about what they like (and don’t like), and also connect with influencers who are known for successfully sharing information about brands to hungry shoppers.

In the Winter ‘23 Edition, we’re delighted to see three different additions to the overall “customer outreach” category. Shopify Collabs is a little unique (considering you’re actually reaching out to influencers), but your partnerships with influencers are designed to connect you with more customers as well.

Take a look below to learn about all the new features for linking up with customers.

Shopify Collabs

Influencers—the ones that actually have relevant followings and share quality content—are difficult to get ahold of. And once you’ve found the right influencers, managing relationships and tracking results is a big challenge without the right tools.

Shopify Collabs is an end-to-end influencer marketing tool that allows brands to research and recruit influencers, offer affiliate deals, manage relationships, and track results, all from within Shopify's admin. It allows brands to research and contact influencers on the most popular social networks. When recruiting from the Collabs creator database, you have complete control over filters, allowing you to only reveal the influencers who make sense for your business.

For instance, Shopify Collabs offers:

Filters to include or exclude influencers based on categories and keywords.
Ways to only look at influencers with a minimum follower count.
Options to filter based on the types of social accounts, like those who run platforms on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.
Metrics to only see influencers who pertain to your brand image and industry.
Ways to look at things like average video views and average post engagement.
Saving tools to make a list of the influencers you want to contact.

Shopify Collabs comes as a free app for all merchants to install. On the other end, creators and influencers can sign up for an account without much hassle. This means that low-profile and high-profile creators get listed on Shopify Collabs, which is wonderful for ecommerce businesses who may not always want the most popular person in a space.

Furthermore, the Shopify Collabs interface provides an excellent creator management system, with tools to send out gifts, product demos, and discounts. There’s even a tracking feature to ensure you remember where all of these gifts have gone.

Shopify Forms

In the past, most Shopify merchants relied on third-party apps for highly customizable contact and entry forms. No longer is that required, since Shopify released a free app called Shopify Forms. This offers yet another way to connect with customers on a regular basis, and it all happens in the Shopify dashboard.

Shopify Forms allows you to bring in information about high-intent shoppers. It includes a form template designed to improve conversions.

Make forms for:

Acquiring contact information for your email newsletter list by offering discounts or exclusive offers for subscribers
Signing in to your store with their Shop accounts

Each form is entirely customizable, and they offer design features to include the right colors, images, and fonts for your brand. Your new subscribers are now opted in to email marketing, allowing you to market to them with automations and email campaigns.

Shopify Forms functions as an app you install to your Shopify store. It’s free and packed with a wide array of features for incentivizing, performance tracking, completion rates, and segmentation.

Marketing Automations for Re-engagement in Shopify Email

The Shopify Email feature has grown over the years, but nothing is quite as exciting as the new re-engagement automations.

These are marketing automations that let the merchant tap into data for re-engaging customers. For instance, you can reach out to a person who abandoned their cart, checkout, or someone who left your store after browsing products and eventually deciding not to buy.

The issue was that many of these emails weren’t actually automated in the past. Shopify Editions tells us that re-engagement is now in full automation mode.

Here’s everything that’s new:

Pick from automation templates to streamline how emails send out to customers
Edit all automations before activating them
Turn on/off email automations with a simple click
Work with triggers, conditions, and actions to power any marketing moment you can think of
Tweak workflows on a regular basis based on customer responses
Reach out at the right moment using timing and cool-down periods
Track and test email automations to ensure you’re only sending the most effective re-engagement campaigns

Keep in mind that Shopify Emails is not an entirely free product. Shopify does a great job of offering up to 10K emails per month for free. After that, you must pay for what you use, which costs $1 for every 1,000 emails on top of the original 10K.

5. Fulfillments and Deliveries, the Smart Way

Shopify turned up the heat with their out of the box fulfillment and delivery capabilities, and it’s all due to a feature called “smart order routing.”

Smart Routing for Orders

The idea behind smart order routing is to make fulfillment easier and more efficient for merchants who are managing their own warehouses as well as merchants that are partially outsourcing fulfillment.

Order routing lets you:

Pick the best fulfillment locations for each order based on your own customized strategy, using a set of predefined routing rules.
Decide whether an order should be split among multiple locations to optimize for speed or prepare at a single location
Prioritize locations over others due to things like duties and customs fees.
Reduce shipping times and costs by picking the ideal fulfillment locations based on customer proximity.

The good news is that smart order routing is included across all Shopify plans for no additional cost.

A Summary of Shopify’s Winter ‘23 Edition

With every Shopify Edition, we wonder what’s next from the Shopify ecommerce platform. Some Editions introduce smaller features, or backend fixes that may not affect merchants on a larger scale.Yet, this Edition did not disappoint.

To recap, the Winter ‘23 Edition announced impressive product updates like:

Shopify POS Go
YouTube Shopping
Shop Promise
Sign-in with Shop
AI-generated product descriptions
Market Pro
Shopify Collabs
Shopify Forms
Marketing Automations for Re-engagement
Smart Order Routing

As mentioned a few times in this article, we feel that the Shopify POS Go device is the most anticipated advancement in Shopify’s tool shed of technology. However, it’s also wonderful to see offerings like the Shopify Collabs, Shop Promise badge, and Shopify Forms. We particularly enjoy that Shopify Collabs is bound to turn creator/influencer marketing into a simpler task for ecommerce stores. And that’s a good thing, considering so many shops rely heavily on boosting profits through social influencers.

What are you most excited about with the Shopify Edition announcements? Is it the Shopify POS Go device or something more subtle like email re-engagement or Sign-in with Shop? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Also, share if you’ve used any of these features yet!