At its latest Summer ‘23 Edition showcase, Shopify unveiled more than 100 updates across its platform that allow merchants to be more productive, creative, and powerful.
Sidekick, a first-of-its-kind, AI-enabled commerce assistant, is purpose-built to answer the questions of business owners as they start and scale their business. They can have a conversation with Sidekick to jumpstart the creative process, improve the quality of their store, increase productivity, streamline workflows, and make smarter business decisions. Merchants can task Sidekick with things like setting up discounts, redesigning stores, finding out best-selling products, and preparing an email campaign.
Sidekick is the centerpiece of Shopify Magic – a suite of AI-enabled features integrated across the Shopify platform. It combines AI technology with platform data to help businesses work faster, smarter, and more creatively. New Shopify Magic features include FAQ and personalised response recommendations, as well as instantly generated blog posts and emails.
As merchants grow their businesses, they also grow the number of platforms they use to sell products. Managing additional sales channels adds complexity and merchants often need separate business processes or apps for each marketplace to handle orders, fulfillment, inventory, and product listings.
That’s why Shopify is launching Shopify Marketplace Connect. A single app for merchants to sell on all major marketplaces including Amazon, Walmart and eBay, while connecting, managing, and fulfilling every order directly from within Shopify.
Shopify is also doubling down on checkout extensibility with 17 new APIs and updates that enable partners and developers to create unique checkout experiences with apps and manage them from within the checkout editor. For example, to offer customised delivery options, Checkout can be modified to include things like pickup points, delivery dates, and suggested addresses.
Shopify director of technology services and enterprise for Asia Pacific, James Johnson said, “Over the last year, AI adoption has skyrocketed and is accelerating the pace of change in the world around us. Retail is no exception to this and embracing technological advancements is paramount to success.
“The growing influence of AI in the industry presents a huge opportunity for retailers to enhance productivity and make smarter decisions, without the need for a technical skill set. Our latest AI products, Shopify Magic and Sidekick, are tailor-made for the commerce sector, empowering merchants worldwide with personalised and precise solutions for all their business requirements. This, in turn, provides unparalleled custom business intelligence to effectively operate, grow, and scale their businesses.
“When combined with our other offerings like Marketplace Connect and Checkout, these innovations can create a new era of entrepreneurship, facilitating the business growth of retailers, providing greater customisability and making commerce accessible anytime, anywhere.”