In 2021 Shopify announced one of its biggest advancements to date with Shopify online store 2.0.
OS 2.0 brought a vast improvement to the building and maintenance process for Ecommerce sites as well as having a material impact on the underlying performance. It was built “from the ground up” to ensure enhancements could be made at every section of the development process and end-user experience.
In a nutshell, the update is all about creating better customer experiences more easily.
Below is a breakdown of Shopify 2.0 main features.
Features
The following are some of the core features that OS 2.0 brings to all Shopify store owners.
Shopify Themes 2.0
Shopify's new admin panel no longer requires users to drill down into specific sections. The side panel now displays items in a far more legible tree view. This view is where store owners can alter the structure of their page or hide specific sections with the click of a button.
Shopify 2.0 Sections
Previously Shopify's modular blocks were only available on the homepage. With the update of OS 2.0, these sections are now available from any page on your store. This improved control of page hierarchy is a major advancement on prior versions of Shopify. These reusable modules of content have given the power to add, remove, and reorder content within a section allowing for more customisation.
Embedded Application Blocks
The older version of Shopify had integrations with countless applications but the maneuverability often left a lot to be desired for and substantial coding knowledge should you wish to make changes. Now apps can be transformed into blocks that can be added, removed, repositioned, and customized on any page with far greater ease for the retailer.
Github Version Control
Shopify store themes can now be connected directly to Github with native version control. This addition makes it far easier for developers to complete actions like pushing code changes, creating new branches, and merging branches with the master file.
Liquid Input Settings
Store owners can now input liquid code from the admin panel itself rather than rummaging through the recesses of liquid code templates. These liquid objects are similar in nature to the HTML section that you may be used to except liquid will give you access to certain global and template-specific objects.
Themes & Performance
'Dawn' was the original new standard storefront theme hailed for improving performance by 35% relative to the old default theme 'Debut'.
The Dawn theme can be previewed here. 8 more themes have been added since Dawn last year each designed for different needs and industry sub-sectors such as beauty or home and DIY.
Metafields
The revamped version of metafields has led to a host of new possibilities in giving customers a great experience on your store and ultimately helping to increase conversions. Metafields can be applied in a number of ways including on orders to give custom notifications on similar products and metafield lists allows multiple values to be stored in one field significantly enhancing search capabilities. Read more about metafields in our detailed blog.
Checkout App Access
Although most customizations to the checkout are reserved for those on Plus plans, Shopify 2.0 now grants users on all other plans access to checkout apps. These checkout applications can be used to present post-purchase offers to customers while maintaining the availability of Shop Pay for faster transaction times.
Shopify 2.0 Success Stories
StudioForty9 have been working with leading Irish pet suppliers Petstop to to cater to the needs of pets and their owners across Ireland in store and online. A key value-add that Petstop were keen to bring in was a subscription system where pet owners could have their essential pet supplies delivered automatically at a frequency that suits them.
We have helped Petstop to migrate their store to Shopify 2.0 and this move makes it possible to use Recharge to better improve the subscription service offerings. Customers will be able to subscribe to products, change products to subscribe to, pause or cancel their subscription at anytime and choose a recurring time-period to dispatch their items which best suits their needs.
We have also partnered with Irish fashion retailer Willow to update to the Symmetry theme 2.0 on Shopify to improve site speed, functionality and to give them more flexibility when it comes to making site changes.
Summary of Shopify 2.0
Shopify Online Store 2.0 is a major upgrade to Shopify’s offering. It grants improved usability and a smoother UI for retailers while also improving the capabilities and ease of use for developers, all for no additional cost.
Interested in migrating to Shopify 2.0 to enhance your Ecommerce capabilities?
StudioForty9 are Ireland's leading Shopify experts as the very first Shopify Plus partner in Ireland. We are a specialist Ecommerce agency supporting many of Ireland’s best known retailers to excel in a dynamic and fast paced online marketplace. As well as being experienced in developing, migrating and customising platforms, we also offer a team of digital marketing specialists who support clients to develop and implement digital marketing strategies to continually grow their business.
Contact us to get advice on platform migration, customisation or growth marketing, email info@studioforty9.com for more information.
View our work with some of Ireland’ top retailers.
