The modern shopper shops everywhere. Whether in-person, via web browser, or through social media platforms, the modern shopper cannot be contained to one channel. The twenty-first century has seen the development of the modern shopper from a person who needs a vehicle to drive to a physical store to a person with the ability to shop at home, online, on a whim - I see, I want, I shop, I buy. This is the mantra of the modern shopper.
The expanse of the digital world has created this new shopping persona. The pro is that shopping, and subsequently the desire to shop, is far more accessible than ever before. The con is that small businesses are obligated to keep up with the constantly changing landscape or risk getting left behind. Luckily, when you build your brand and website with Shopify, you will never get left behind. Shopify is constantly researching and updating their platform based on current trends, so you can focus on selling.
POS Go
POS Go is Shopify’s newest addition to its POS technology. POS Go is its own hardware, allowing for consolidation of tech - read: you won’t need additional tablets or card readers to make a sale. This means lower costs overall and lower hassle for you as the business owner.
Our favorite feature of the POS Go is its mobility. Purchasing a POS Go is tantamount to purchasing the flexibility to create an interactive experience for potential customers. For example, if you own a retail store and your fitting room attendant builds a bond with a customer, they can now make the sale right there in the fitting room. Gone are the days when patrons are sent to the cash wrap and change their minds as they mull over their imminent purchase in a long and frustrating checkout line.
POS Go is highly functional, allowing payments to come through via tap, chip, or swipe of either a card or mobile wallet. It also has the ability to seamlessly integrate all inventory across your brick and mortar and online stores, giving you the full scope of your store with just a tap of the admin screen. When it comes to hardware options, most platforms try but few succeed. We're here to shout it: POS Go is one of the best tools you can have to reach even more people.
Sync and Sell on YouTube
Blended customer experiences are a big trend in 2023 among modern shoppers. While that may feel overwhelming as a business owner, social media platforms are a great place to start! Think livestreams on Instagram with an employee walking followers through new products or create fitness events on YouTube where items in the video (clothing, fitness products, etc.) are also linked for sale. Other platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, or Facebook also have their own unique array of experiences and ways to promote other content - the sky is the limit!
To further enhance this process, Shopify now offers YouTube integration, allowing you to sync products directly to your channel, so potential customers can purchase directly from YouTube through live and on-demand video. Being the best video sharing platform in the business, this is an excellent collab on Shopify's part. With this new integration, you will have peace of mind knowing all of your product information is fully up to date on each broadcast, making blended experiences and posting videos more approachable and FUN for business owners and shoppers alike.
Even More ‘Shop App’ Customization
If you aren’t already acquainted with Shopify’s Shop app, let’s debrief.
As the world transitions more and more to mobile devices taking the lead as the primary digital format, retailers worldwide are coming to terms with one looming fact: this includes shopping. The current shopping landscape as we know it is likely to be completely overhauled in the coming years. For example, people are already far more likely to shop on their phone via an app than via a web browser.
Pro: you can get ahead of this trend early by creating an app for your store to maximize its mobile features and UX.
Con: if you’re a small business owner just starting out, convincing more customers to download an additional app on their phone when you’re also building a brand from the ground up can seem daunting and impossible.
Solution: Shopify’s standalone app Shop
The Shop app is a hub for Shopify businesses to broadcast their stores to customers in an app-specific mobile format. Within the Shop app, users have easy access to all the online stores under the Shopify umbrella that choose to opt in. The app strives to provide consumers with relevant experiences (think blended experiences like mentioned above!) and product recommendations to keep customers excited about the inventory they’re seeing. The goal is to turn this excitement into more and more sales. The Shop app also features Shop Pay, which is an easy one click checkout button (think Apple Pay, if you’re unfamiliar). Built and improved upon from the Arrive app, Shop keeps all the wonderful package tracking information from the original app that other users loved, which featured easily accessible shipment tracking information, no matter the shipping vendor.
Shopify Doesn’t Disappoint
Once again, Shopify has proven their commitment to putting their customers first by envisioning the most modern and innovative eCommerce platform possible and delivering on that vision. Multiple platforms have tried, but none do it better than Shopify. If you’d like to discuss any of the Shopify Winter ‘23 Edition rollouts and how you can implement them in your own store for maximum success, drop us a note in eCommunity or contact us here! We’d love to chat you through taking full advantage of all that Shopify has to offer.
