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Impact of Shopify Editions Winter ’25 on Business Owners

Posted on by Taylor

The changes introduced in Shopify Editions Winter ’25 have significant implications for business owners using the platform. The updates offer several benefits, such as increased efficiency, a better customer experience, and expansion into new markets and sales channels. However, adapting to these changes may also require adjustments to existing workflows and potentially additional costs for utilizing new features or apps.

Improved Speed and Performance

Increased Sales and Conversions: The focus on speed improvements, such as faster cart and checkout loading times and accelerated checkout buttons, is likely to result in increased sales and conversions for business owners. A faster, more responsive online store can lead to a more positive customer experience, encouraging customers to complete their purchases.

Reduced Cart Abandonment: The faster cart loading speeds, up to 50%, are expected to reduce cart abandonment rates. Customers are less likely to abandon their carts if the checkout process is quick and seamless.

Enhanced Global Reach 

Access to New Markets: The rollout of “Markets” to all merchants will enable businesses to expand their reach to new geographic regions and customer segments. This feature facilitates customized shopping experiences tailored to different regions, languages, and customer preferences, potentially unlocking new revenue streams for business owners.

Streamlined International Selling: Features such as multilingual search using Semantic Search, improved translations, and a more localized experience for merchants in Europe and Japan will simplify international selling. Businesses can cater to a wider customer base without significant language barriers.

Enhanced B2B Capabilities

Improved B2B Customer Experience: The ability to customize B2B customer accounts with apps offering features such as quoting workflows and downloadable PDF invoices will improve the B2B customer experience. Streamlined processes and self-service features like B2B returns can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Efficient B2B Operations: Features such as automated new account setup and tax exemptions for companies, available for Shopify Plus merchants, streamline B2B operations, saving time and reducing manual work for business owners.

Data-Driven Decision-Making: New B2B-specific analytics provide insights into B2B sales performance, allowing business owners to track key metrics, identify trends, and make informed decisions to optimize their B2B operations.

Automation and Operational Efficiency

Time Savings and Reduced Errors: The enhancements to Shopify Flow, including metaobject triggers and new return automation templates, allow for increased automation of tasks and processes. This can save time for business owners, reduce manual errors, and free up resources for other business-critical activities. Shopify also increased the admin load times by 25%.

Unified Fulfillment Logic: The consistent fulfillment logic across different sales channels ensures streamlined inventory management, preventing overselling and reducing fulfillment errors. This leads to a smoother operation and fewer customer service issues related to incorrect order fulfillment.

Giving Us the Power of AI: Shopify’s AI-powered assistant will be rolling out to merchants worldwide, offering insights and assistance to streamline business operations.

Overall, Shopify Editions Winter ’25 offers numerous benefits for business owners, empowering them to grow their businesses, streamline operations, and enhance the customer experience. However, adapting to these changes might require time, effort, and potential costs. Carefully considering the implications and planning for implementation will be crucial for maximizing the benefits of these new features.

Have any questions or need help thinking through a challenge or opportunity?

Speak to one of our Shopify professionals today. We are are here to help… no strings attached.

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4 Essential Apps for Optimization

Posted on by Taylor

In the ever-competitive world of e-commerce, optimizing your Shopify store for maximum performance and user experience is essential. Our five-part series on essential Shopify apps will explore key categories that can help you enhance your store’s functionality and boost conversions. In this first article, we’ll delve into apps for A/B testing, advanced reporting, SEO, and file compression. Get ready to unlock the full potential of your Shopify store and take your business to the next level!

1. A/B Testing

What It Does: A/B testing apps allow merchants to experiment with different versions of their website elements to determine which performs better in terms of conversions and user engagement.

  • Examples:
    • Intelligems: Maximize your store’s profit through A/B testing with Intelligems. Split test anything on your site in just a few clicks: Content Testing lets you experiment with themes, landing pages, UX and content to boost conversion and reduce CAC.
    • Shoplift: Simplifies ab testing, so you can quickly set up and run split tests. It seamlessly integrates with your theme, so you can start experimenting in minutes. Build tests directly in the Theme Customizer, or Lift Assist™ will build pixel-perfect tests for your store automatically based on millions of shopper sessions.

2. Advanced Reporting

What It Does: Advanced reporting apps provide in-depth analytics and insights into sales data, helping merchants track performance and make informed decisions.

  • Examples:
    • Google Analytics: Integrates with Shopify to offer comprehensive reporting on traffic, sales, and user behavior. Get a complete understanding of your customers across devices and platforms. Google Analytics gives you the tools, free of charge, to understand the customer journey and improve marketing ROI.
    • Triple Whale Analytics: Triple Whale is the source of truth for the data that helps you make better decisions. From integrations with your most important platforms to ecommerce-specific AI, Triple Whale helps find the data points you need, with customization and personalization to fit your business.

3. SEO

What It Does: SEO apps help boost and manage search engine optimization efforts, ensuring that your store ranks higher in search engine results.

  • Examples:
    • Avada SEO Suite: Say goodbye to technical SEO headaches with our powerful SEO optimizer. We start with an in-depth SEO audit and help speed optimizer (even on mobile) by image optimizer, lazy load, minification, etc. Every aspect of on-page SEO, from titles, meta tags to keyword research, will be covered by ChatGPT.
    • Booster SEO: Booster SEO is all you need to improve SEO scores easily! Our image optimizer uses a bulk image compression engine, boosting your page load speed & encouraging traffic. Save hours on optimization with our AI AutoPilot feature that finds & fixes SEO issues for you- The reliable SEO tool to keep meta tags optimized for you to rank & convert.

4. File Compression

What It Does: File compression apps help optimize images on your site, reducing file sizes for faster loading times and improved site performance.

  • Examples:
    • TinyIMG: TinyIMG is a one-stop-shop for all page speed optimizer and SEO tools: image ALT text, JSON-LD, 404 page, 301 redirect, plugin seo, rich snippet, SEO image compressor, generate AI description, photo resize, crush, lazy load, sitemap, ChatGPT AI. Use image and SEO optimizer to optimize page speed & search engine rankings to ensure your store’s success. Use our automation and SEO manager reports to boost store speed and SEO results faster. This SEO & site speed optimizer will transform your store!
    • SEO Image Optimizer Wizard: Our system will optimize your images, compress images, improve your site speed, audit, and rank your site for business, marketing, technical and eCommerce purposes. The system will guide you through actionable items per segment so that you can improve your store’s performance today. 

In this article, we emphasized the significance of utilizing Shopify apps to amplify customer engagement. Look out for our upcoming article on crucial apps for customer engagement, where we will delve into categories such as Back in Stock Alerts, Customer Reviews, and more!

Have any questions or need help thinking through a challenge or opportunity?

Speak to one of our Shopify professionals today. We are are here to help… no strings attached.

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BTI Direct

Posted on by Taylor

Company Summary

Leveraging 80 years of agricultural experience from the American heartland, BTI Direct serves as the dependable supplier for genuine John Deere equipment such as: large tractors, combines, sprayers, and other farm equipment, along with a variety of lawn and garden parts such as mower blades, belts, and filters. Every item is guaranteed to be original, sourced directly from the manufacturer, and crafted to the highest quality standards.

Project Summary

BTI Direct collaborated with Ambaum to explore a solution that would expand the number of SKUs available in their store. BTI wanted this functionality because they had a large demand from farmers (BTI’s primary customer) for parts that were not listed for sale by BTI in their online product catalog.

Scope of Work

We jointly determined that launching a new Shopify theme + the custom product builder would give BTI exactly what they were looking for. It’s important to note that all Shopify development was completed within a Shopify Theme so the client could view the progress in real time.

The big lift on this project was Ambaum created a custom middleware application for products, here is the scope of that work: 

  • Company login to manage raw product information
  • Search bar for name, ID, Part Number, SKU
  • Results page representing all product variations, sorted by most recent at the top
  • An intuitive page of all products that have changed from the last update, so the client can verify or modify products before pushing to Shopify
  • Organizing product information by date and “raw” when the information is gathered
  • Once the information is modified by the client, the information is saved as “modified” for transparency
  • Option via a button to “Update Shopify” on the Product Edit Page which will update that product information immediately with the new “modified” product information
  • Option to schedule an update. The schedule can be paused and changed and only update Shopify if a new version of the product information exists.

Solutions

To meet BTI’s requirements, Ambaum divided the project into three distinct custom apps to cater to their specific needs. These apps were strategically designed as follows:

  • App 1: Shopify Automated Product Pricing & Inventory Updates
  • App 2: Product Data Aggregators
  • App 3: Automated Product Image Resizing & Watermarking

Ambaum employed open-source software to create the custom apps for BTI. Although there were a number of languages and frameworks that were considered, our decision to choose open source software best served the client’s long-term objectives.

App 1: Shopify Automated Product Pricing & Inventory Updates 

Numerous businesses in the parts industry seek ways to gather real-time product and pricing data from external sources. The software development process for BTI Direct’s specific needs unfolded as follows:

  1. Development took place in PHP and Python, utilizing the Laravel framework and a MySQL database.
  2. The Shopify App incorporates a user-friendly management interface accessible via Shopify Admin for BTI’s convenience.
  3. The app’s functionality involves BTI inputting product part numbers or SKUs, either individually or in bulk through CSV uploads.

This streamlined approach aligns with the overall objective of efficiently enhancing BTI Direct’s product offerings on their Shopify store.

To streamline operations and avoid excessive API calls to Shopify, we write the inventory values to a JSON file, storing it on AWS CDN. This file is regularly updated during business hours, ensuring the latest information is readily available for loading onto the corresponding product page in Shopify. Using this approach minimizes the need for frequent API calls, enhancing efficiency in the data update process.

App 2: Product Data Aggregators

Merchants often encounter challenges when consolidating product data from diverse locations and formats for bulk import into platforms like Shopify. While tools like MS Excel, Google Sheets, or Matrixify facilitate bulk manipulation, some scenarios like those involving CSV files and various websites demand a more automated approach. BTI, managing an extensive catalog of 20,000 SKUs, faced inefficiencies with manual processes; working with CSV files and various websites to acquire product information then moving that information to Shopify. This resulted in a system that was not scalable with the business.

In collaboration, we developed a Shopify App that automates data acquisition, syncing with Shopify, and product management. The system intelligently navigates online pages housing BTI’s product information, utilizing overlapping data to automate decisions on titles, descriptions, etc., based on client-defined rules. 

In essence:

  • BTI supplied us with product data sourced from various online platforms.
  • We engineered a Python-based system to systematically retrieve and compile data from each source into a central repository stored in a MySQL database.
  • Addressing the intricacies of these processes, we implemented comprehensive error checking and logging using the ELK Stack.
  • Complex logic was developed to intelligently determine the optimal data for utilization.
  • Scheduled updates, defined by BTI, automatically refresh all product data. Additionally, users have the flexibility to manually request an immediate data update within the App.
  • The application maintains a meticulous log of the complete history of data acquisition, Shopify updates, and any encountered errors.

App 3: Automated Product Image Resizing & Watermarking

BTI sought a solution to streamline their extensive catalog’s image processing to optimize and watermark product images for Shopify. While Shopify offers a native image resizer, it has a limitation of resizing only six images at a time and this is not a viable solution for merchants dealing with a large SKU count. In response, we collaborated to create a Shopify App that not only automates resizing and watermarking but also automatically acquires and syncs all product images. 

BTI initially faced a time-consuming task of photographing individual products, followed by manual resizing, watermarking, and adding to Shopify—a process unsustainable with a catalog of one million parts featuring multiple images each. Our tailored app for BTI now seamlessly manages product images based on SKU, processes them, and is queued to Sync to Shopify. Each step of the automated process is fortified with error checking, rules, and logging, ensuring a meticulous review of the image’s status and progression through the system.

This Shopify App designed by Ambaum to handle the intricate process of importing, resizing, watermarking, and syncing product images addressed BTI’s concerns about the labor-intensive task of individually processing images for their extensive catalog. This particular app not only automates these tasks but also incorporates error checking, rules, and logging for a seamless and error-resistant workflow. Furthermore, the collaborative effort resulted in an intelligent system that acquires and optimizes product data from multiple sources, ensuring BTI’s product listings are always up-to-date and accurate. These solutions collectively showcase Ambaum’s commitment to providing tailored, efficient, and scalable solutions for businesses navigating the challenges of extensive product management.

Summary

In response to BTI’s challenges managing a lot of parts, Ambaum devised a comprehensive set of custom Shopify Apps, each strategically tailored to address specific pain points. Leveraging leading open-source software, we built automated product pricing and inventory updates, product data aggregation, and streamlined image processing. These solutions not only automate tasks that were once time-consuming and manual but also enhance efficiency and scalability in managing BTI’s extensive product offerings.

Need custom solutions for your business? Let’s talk about how we can help today.