Shopify Winter '24 Editions

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Shopify

Over the past year, Shopify has significantly ramped up its updates. Introducing quarterly editions and maintaining a regularly updated changelog, the ecommerce provider has been rapidly rolling out updates to merchants. With this rapid pace, it can sometimes be challenging to stay ahead of the changes. Is this new update accessible to the public? Will this feature benefit my business? Meta what? To simplify matters, we've delved into Shopify Editions Winter '24 and highlighted what we believe are the key features.

Theme Blocks

When Shopify introduced 2.0 in 2021, it completely transformed how Shopify themes were constructed. With the adoption of sitewide sections , we gained access to reusable components applicable across all pages of our site. In Winter '24, Shopify unveiled the introduction of theme blocks, creating an even deeper advancement of customisation within sections. While specific blocks were previously limited to only one layer within sections, theme blocks now offer a depth of up to 8 layers. This means multiple layout options for a single design. There's also the introduction of global blocks, which can be implemented site-wide. For example, if you have payment icons in the footer, you can create a block that can be placed under the add-to-cart buttons or within a payment policy page. Currently, these features are only accessible to developers, but will be rolled out across all merchants throughout 2024.

Product Attributes and Category Metafields

In 2024, customers have more avenues for shopping beyond just your website. With platforms like Google Shopping, Meta, and Shopify's own Shop gaining traction, making sure your products are easily discoverable is crucial. Shopify has recently introduced product attributes and category metafields to enhance this accessibility. When creating a product, simply assigning a category grants access to fields such as colour, size, and material. These attributes are AI-driven, dynamically adapting based on your product category. For instance, if you designate your product as "Electronics," relevant fields and attributes are automatically generated. These additions not only streamline the search process on external shopping platforms but also empower Shopify to implement advanced filtering within collection pages. Particularly beneficial when dealing with a large inventory, customers can now effortlessly locate specific items like "grey cotton trousers" amidst hundreds of options, elevating their shopping experience.

Variant Limit Increased

This has been a pain point for a long time for Shopify merchants. Previously, you could only have 100 possible variants. Many of you would’ve had to install apps like ‘Infinite Options’ or have to find tricky workarounds. Well, good news! Shopify is increasing this from 100 to 2000. This will come as music to your ears if you are working with custom products, or stock multiple variants of one product. All your colours and sizes on one product! This is currently available for developers and then will be rolled out to stores in 2024. If you are needing this, let us know and we can request for early access.

Core Web Vitals

Understanding SEO and page speed can be a murky territory for many business owners. However, Shopify has taken strides to demystify this aspect by introducing their new web vitals dashboard, which offers three key parameters for measurement:

  • Loading Speed: Evaluates how quickly your site loads.
  • Interactivity: Gauges the responsiveness of the page to user actions such as clicking or typing.
  • Visual Stability: Measures the extent to which content shifts around the page during loading.

    With these comprehensive measurements at our disposal, pinpointing areas for improvement becomes more precise, eliminating the need for guesswork. If your vitals appear in the red or orange zone, indicating areas for enhancement, we're here to offer tailored advice on how to accelerate your site's performance. Don't hesitate to reach out for assistance!

Customer Privacy Settings

Within your store settings, a brand-new, shiny "Customer Privacy" dialog awaits. Particularly for merchants catering to regions mandating cookie consent, this setting now offers a straightforward setup for banners. Among its features, this update includes:

  • A data sales opt-out page
  • Simplified access to store policies
  • Storage for marketing information

    If you've been relying on third-party apps for any of these functionalities, you'll be pleased to know that Shopify's settings now provide stable, publicly available alternatives. This integration offers a seamless transition, ensuring consistency and reliability in managing your customer privacy needs.

If there are any other things you want to explore with Winter ‘24 Edition you can visit Shopify’s site here. As always, we are always here to help.