Is a hot tech company even really a hot tech company if it doesn’t have a flashy mid-year event to showcase its wares?

Shopify obviously thinks not, as it releases its new Shopify Editions bonanza.

Shopify’s latest Edition sees the release of 100+ new updates and features. From social commerce to local shopping offers with Google, B2B selling, crypto and more.

Shopify News

“Today, we’re unveiling Shopify Editions, our new semi-annual product showcase that features new launches and improvements across the entire platform. With our Summer ‘22 Edition, we’re ushering in an era of commerce that’s more expansive than ever—and we’re calling it Connect-to-Consumer (C2C).”

C2C is designed to help sellers find buyers and scale their business through Shopify. Here’s how it aims to do that.

Local inventory on Google

Merchants can now notify customers when stock becomes available in-store. The move mirrors Google’s attempt to make local search happen – and to be fair to the giant, searches have grown 3x in the last three years.

Shopify News

“That’s why Shopify and Google are making it easier for merchants to be discovered by nearby shoppers, generate foot traffic, and grow their sales.”

As you can see, this update will be helpful to merchants who operate physical stores and should increase the chance of making sales based on a person stumbling across your product online and deciding to wander along to your nearest location.

Shoppers can also find information like stock availability, store location, hours, direction and pick-up or delivery options.

B2B on Shopify

The inclusion of a B2B marketplace is the first time Shopify has provided an option for merchants who sell to other businesses.

The new marketplace is designed to remove pain points such as manual data entry and one-off invoices and will use the same software used for B2C customers. Shopify has also developed a checkout that can provide payment flexibility.

Shopify News

“For a merchant’s wholesale customers, B2B on Shopify provides a similar online store experience that we know consumers love, but optimised for business buyers with tools that make it simple to purchase products in bulk.”

Twitter Shopping

Twitter Shopping should be of real interest to marketers who have spent ages cultivating an engagement and loyal following on Twitter but haven’t worked out how to monetise it yet.

Shopify’s Twitter sales channel will let brands reach out to consumers from Twitter profiles and provide an easy way to make sales directly from social media.

Shopping features also include Shop Spotlight and Twitter Shops and are available to all U.S merchants selling to U.S customers.

Jessica Stevens, Senior Social Media Manager, Trixie Cosmetics via Shopify

“The Twitter sales channel makes it quicker and easier to meet our customers wherever they are. The automatic syncing will help us save so much time, and the sales channel allows me to easily connect the two platforms that we already tap into to sell products and engage with customers.”

Tokengated commerce

Shopify merchants will now be able to dip their toes into the world of crypto via Tokengated commerce.

Businesses can now sell NFTs that give holders exclusive access to perks, experiences and products. Brands will also be able to collaborate with each other by opening a storefront to someone else’s NFT holders.

Shopify News

“For these consumers-turned-fans, all they need to do is connect their crypto wallets to a Shopify online store, and they can use their NFTs to unlock exciting experiences. Best of all, merchants will be able to activate Shopify tokengated commerce experiences everywhere—from online to mobile to physical retail through POS.”

Tap to Pay on iPhone

As pandemic restrictions are being lifted around the world, in-person shopping is becoming more popular once more. That’s why Shopify is introducing Tap to Pay on iPhone in the U.S. Tap to Pay will let bricks and mortar stores expand the number of payments they can accept without investing in new hardware.

Shopify News

“Think farmers markets, new pop-up experiences, test shops for established merchants to expand to new physical locations. Enabling Tap to Pay on iPhone will broaden the possibilities in offline commerce, giving merchants who haven’t yet tried in-person selling an easy way to connect with customers IRL.”

Shopify Functions

Have you got a snazzy coding team at your disposal? Well, now you can unleash them on Shopify and let them have some real fun.

For the first time, developers can extend or replace Shopify code to create a custom experience. For example, you can now build custom offers such as volume discounts or add a free gift with a purchase.

Shopify News

“Merchants and developers can now have it all: Functions create the flexibility of an open-source platform without needing to deal with any of the hosting, security, or code versioning headaches. And because the code runs on Shopify’s global infrastructure, all experiences created with Functions are built to scale.”