Shopify Winter Edition 2024: New B2B Features, AI Tools, and More

Get ready to check out Shopify’s latest update, the Shopify Winter Edition. This update shows Shopify’s ongoing effort to improve and expand its powerful tools and services, helping merchants keep up with the fast changes in e-commerce.

As a trusted Shopify Plus Partner, we are excited to share the best parts of the Shopify Winter Edition with you. In this blog, we’ll focus on the key features that will make a big difference and boost merchants’ productivity. Join us as we dive into Shopify’s newest innovations and see how they will change the e-commerce experience.

Quick Overview of Shopify Winter Editions 2024

The Shopify Editions Winter 2024 introduces several key enhancements to improve product management, customer experience, and merchant capabilities. In this section, we’ll analyze these new features and updates:

• Combined Listing App: Unified listings for multiple product variants streamline product management and improve customer navigation.
• Increased Variant Limit: The new GraphQL product API now supports up to 2000 variants per product, allowing for more diverse catalogs.
• Semantic Search: AI-powered search delivers more relevant results by understanding shopper intent. AI-enabled image editing tools enhance product photography, while Shopify Magic accelerates content creation.
• Web Performance Dashboard: The dashboard helps monitor core web vitals to boost conversion rates.
• Native Shopify Subscriptions App: This app simplifies subscription management directly within the Shopify admin panel.
• Expanded B2B Features: Enhanced features include better support for sales reps, custom discounts, and headless integration with Shopify Hydrogen.
• Shopify POS Terminal: The new terminal offers an enhanced checkout experience with an integrated customer display.

1. Combined Listing App

The main upgrade of Shopify for product listing centers on enhancing product variant management and presentation through a single, centralized listing system. This upgrade significantly improves both the merchant’s product management process and the customer’s shopping experience.

Key upgrades and benefits include:

• Unified Listings for Variants: Merchants can now list multiple variants (like colors, sizes, and styles) of a product under one unified listing. This reduces storefront clutter and simplifies navigation and product discovery for customers.

• Individual Variant Customization: Each product variant within a combined listing can have its own dedicated description, media gallery (including an image carousel), and a customizable, descriptive URL. This feature ensures that while the variants are part of a unified listing, they can be individually tailored to highlight their unique attributes.

• Enhanced Visual Presentation: With the ability to assign specific image carousels to each variant, customers get a clear and comprehensive visual representation of the options available, making it easier to browse and make a selection.

• Tailored URLs and Publishing Settings: Merchants gain control over the URL structure and publishing settings for each variant, allowing for a more personalized and SEO-friendly online presence. This can aid in direct marketing efforts and improve search engine visibility.

• Customizable Listings: Beyond just variations, each combined listing can be customized with its title, product description, and image gallery. This level of detail ensures that every variant is not just a part of the catalog but is showcased to capture customer interest effectively.

• Streamlined Product Management: The app significantly streamlines the process of managing product listings by consolidating variations into a single entry point. This simplification can save merchants time and reduce the complexity of maintaining an extensive inventory of products with multiple variants.

2. More Product Variants

Shopify has officially launched its GraphQL product API, which notably supports up to 2000 variants per product. This significant increase in variant capacity opens the door to more intricate and diverse product catalogs than ever before. While these new APIs are currently in developer preview, a full release is on the horizon.

Variants are essential for offering diverse options within a single product, whether it’s different sizes, colors, or materials. However, the previous limit of 99 variants has been a source of frustration for many. But fear not, because a game-changing announcement has arrived to brighten your day.Explore the full opportunity for your products with individual sales of up to 2000 SKU per product. This expanded limit empowers both merchants and developers to create richer and more sophisticated product options.

3. Semantic Search – Smart Searcher

Shopify’s semantic search, powered by AI, understands shopper intent. It delivers relevant results even when users express their needs in natural language, enhancing your customers’ search journey.

Semantic Search is a cutting-edge AI-powered feature that revolutionizes storefront search capabilities. Contrary to traditional keyword search, Semantic Search is making the deeper intent recognition to deliver search results that respond accurately to what the customer wants. This revolutionary software translates natural language such as sentences or phrases and is in turn used to filter and sort the most relevant and appropriate search results, which consequently leads to a better shopper’s experience.

Powered by Semantic Search on Shopify Plus, merchants benefit from a superior customer search tool, which enables customers to freely use their own words to express their needs. Therefore, they can achieve a more personal and easier-to-use browsing.

4. Web Performance Dashboard

Speed matters. The dashboard provides dedicated access to an interface where you can monitor the core web vitals—loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. You can maximize the potential for the shop window to improve conversion rates.

Shopify AI

AI, currently all-pervading the domain of the tech world, has placed Shopify at the apex of this field. Following the launch of the magic Shopify Product Description in 2023, the fellow AI-powered features were launched by Shopify in 2024 as well. On top of the Winter Edition 2024, Shopify brings additional AI capabilities on board, which allows merchants to tap more and more into the power of AI in their business.

Through features such as highly sophisticated image editing, improved AI-assisted autowrite, and AI-upgraded search features, Shopify today is going beyond the normal limits by inventing new things with AI. It’s a time to discover some of the fundamental new AI abilities that are to transform the way merchants perform in the e-commerce business.

Transform Product Photography with AI

In the e-commerce world, every item that is in your store needs to be photographed with exciting and riveting pictures that will spark the interest of potential customers. In addition to this, images of different kinds require a lot of time to be handled and corrected.

Imagine if you could streamline this process with integrated AI tools. Well, now you can, thanks to the expanded capabilities of Shopify Magic’s image manipulation features. Here’s how Shopify Magic’s AI-enabled features are changing the game:

• AI-Enabled Image Editing: Simplify the creation of professional product photos with advanced AI tools. Edit images with ease, whether you’re generating new ones, changing backgrounds, or making minor adjustments.
• Background Generation and Removal: Effortlessly add or remove backgrounds. Want to showcase your products against a vibrant sunset or a serene beach? It’s just a few clicks away.
• Time-Saving Capabilities: Simplify the photo editing process. With AI assistance, it will only take you a few minutes which you would spend half a day or even more to be done. This gives you more space in your schedule for the most important tasks.
• Enhanced Visual Appeal: Employ AI to redefine the products’ photos for higher customer appeal and higher conversion rates. Visual content with well-thought-out pictures is the golden key to success if you want to quickly capture regular buyers’ attention to increase online sales.

Create Store Pages Faster with Shopify Magic

You can easily write fantastic product descriptions in a matter of minutes with the help of Shopify Magic. This tool makes you a time-saving and hardworking tool by merely integrating the keywords and the product title, thus prompting the description, which you may not have to think of.

Now, the convenience of Shopify Magic extends beyond product descriptions to other sections of the Shopify Admin, including Pages. With just a few clicks and prompts, you can effortlessly create essential pages such as About Us or FAQ pages. Say goodbye to hours spent crafting content and hello to instant, professionally written text with Shopify Magic.

5. Native Shopify Subscription App

Subscription services now have changed the dynamics of selling goods, where they offer merchants a steady and consistent income. Whether it is coffee every day, 1 weekly, or 1 box of beauty, subscriptions will ensure that your customers are always on your side and are engaging for a long time. Realizing this model’s ability, Shopify has now with boldness taken a big step forward.

The Shopify Subscriptions app is an embedded, free solution that is built into the Shopify admin panel that merchants can use to set up and control their subscription systems. This development is a game-changer for businesses on the platform, offering:

• Direct Integration with Shopify: Put all your third parties together without launching multiple apps. One of the key advantages is the fact that the Shopify Subscriptions app is integrated excellently into your Shopify admin which simplifies both the setup and management of subscriptions.
• Enhanced Customer Flexibility: Today customers are no longer bound to pre-planned and inflexible orders as they can quite conveniently change or even skip any upcoming order just from the account in your store. This control level is not solely a comfort level but a mechanism to increase customer satisfaction and retain customers.
• Streamlined Subscription Management: Shopify having a native subscription management tool, eases everything that previously seemed quite complicated. With just a few clicks, you will be able to view, adjust, and track your subscription orders all in your Shopify dashboard in a matter of seconds.
• Reduced Costs and Complexity: Engaging Shopify clients requires eliminating extra costs and getting the operation streamlined by using subscription apps. It also enables business owners to grow their merchant platforms by eliminating third-party subscription apps.

6. Expanded B2B Features

Shopify Plus merchants already enjoy the convenience of B2B capabilities tailored to their unique needs. Now, with the latest enhancements announced during Shopify Editions Winter 2024, these features receive a powerful upgrade.

Sales Rep Support

Assign dedicated sales reps to your B2B customers, empowering them to place orders and access customer information for their designated company locations. Define access levels for sales managers and reps using roles within staff permissions, offering personalized support and guidance to B2B clients.

Headless Integration for B2B

 Extend your B2B store’s reach with headless development through Shopify Hydrogen. Build custom B2B storefronts using Shopify’s APIs and developer tools, allowing for endless customization possibilities and seamless integration with a bespoke frontend design.

Custom Discounts for B2B

Leverage the power of Shopify Functions to create tailored promotional discounts exclusively for B2B customers. These discounts can be automatically applied at checkout, offering additional savings on specific catalog prices and enabling hyper-specific discounts for your B2B clientele.

7. Shopify POS Terminal

For retail stores leveraging Shopify, Shopify POS has already proven to be a valuable asset in expanding their omnichannel presence. But now, brace yourself for the next big leap with Shopify POS Terminal.

The POS Terminal is an on-counter tool that is Wi-Fi and Ethernet connected and has an integrated customer display. You may customize the screen with your corporate symbols for a one-of-a-kind brand experience. Exciting new features include the ability to capture customer emails at checkout and provide one-tap digital receipts.

This dedicated countertop payment terminal with a full-featured customer display enhances the checkout experience for your customers. With real-time itemized purchase views and intuitive flows for payment, PIN entry, tipping, and receipt selection, customers can check out confidently and efficiently.

Unlock New Features of Shopify Editions Winter 2024 Now!

Considering all its impressive features, Shopify Winter 2024 Edition is like a gift that keeps merchants ahead of the ever-changing and competitive e-commerce trend. Shopify continues to grow and develop by augmenting its B2B capabilities and applying the AI enhancements like image editing and semantic search, and AI leads its market.

As you embark on your Shopify journey, expert guidance is essential. That’s where Mageplaza’s Shopify Store Setup Services shine. Our streamlined packages offer comprehensive support, from branding customization to homepage configuration, ensuring your store reflects your brand identity and is optimized for success.

Partner with Mageplaza to navigate the complexities of setting up your Shopify store with confidence. With ongoing support and a satisfaction guarantee, you can launch your store knowing you have a dedicated team by your side. Don’t let setup challenges hinder your e-commerce dreams—let Mageplaza help you build a standout online business today.

Read more: Shopify Summer Edition 2024: Key Features & Updates