Shopify Unite '19: the new features of Shopify

August 27 2019
by Michelle Brouwers
4 min reading time

What a day.. in Toronto @Shopify Unite 2019!

What a week I must say. Monday was a historic day for all of Canada. The Toronto Raptors were celebrated in front of the whole of Canada and more than 2 million people turned out in Toronto alone.

Perfect time for us to arrive in Toronto. Not quite, but it was fun to experience.

Shopify Partner day

Tuesday afternoon I was invited for an exclusive partner interview at Shopify incl Photoshoot.

Amanda, our Dutch partner manager approached us 1.5 years ago to become a partner. Still something we can be a little proud of, so even before we had a large portfolio, Shopify already had confidence in us.

After Mijnwebwinkel, Lightspeed now also Shopify.. this way we can really help every webshop holder to set up their online business and that gives a kick.

Our goal is of course also to make successful webshops, and if a customer's needs go further, it is always nice to have a 2nd option at hand.

It's a beautiful day in Toronto, the shoot is at 1:00 PM but we arrive at the location around 12:20 PM.

A group of other partners is already waiting, but since I urgently need to visit the toilet (about 50 times a day), we decide to go inside. Upon entering, there are about 7 signs with different company names next to the elevator. It later turns out that these are all parts of Shopify, it is more of a joke not to immediately give the impression that the entire building is occupied by Shopify.

We don't know that yet, so we obediently go to the 4th floor where we enter the heart of Shopify. The shoot turns out to be on the 2nd floor, so we quickly drift off again. On the 2nd floor it looks like we are walking into a gallery. (We still have no idea that this is part of the deal.) We sneak into the toilet and walk around a bit lost. I open my mail and see that Amanda is waiting for us outside at 13:00. Just get outside quickly.

More on the details later. Now back to Shopify Unite and the announced updates to the Shopify Platform.

Hold on... it's HUGE!

A new online store design experience

Shopify unite 2019 announcements: online store design experience

Not the first part that was discussed during the 2-hour presentation from Beanfield center in Toronto, but certainly one of the highlights for us. One of the most genius parts of the current Shopify platform is the sections on the homepage. We have already dropped it several times (accidentally) because we too always wondered: why not everywhere. Today, Shopify officially announced that this functionality is coming. Sections can be implemented on every page, yes really every page, by the end of this year.

Sections Sections Everywhere
This update is part of a bigger picture: namely the release of a completely new 'Store design experience'.

The new online design experience makes it even easier and therefore more fun for customers to customize the layout of their shop without using a single line of code.

This means that a number of important things are introduced:

Sections on every page: The sections were launched in 2016, the days when the sections can only be added or modified on the homepage are (almost) over! Shopify will (soon) introduce the possibility to add every section to every page in the shop, so that you can flexibly build every page. Oh My God, isn't that super cool? We can't wait!

Master pages: If you want to make a certain change on multiple pages, for example on all product pages, you simply change the 'master product page'. Suppose you want to show reviews on all product pages, then you do not have to adjust this on every separate page.

Starting points: Of course, a theme still offers a number of 'starting points' or a basis which you as a customer can then design as desired. Of course we still help with the basics, but it is becoming easier and more fun to build truly unique pages from there, fully adapted to your wishes!

Content portability: the content of a shop (the content) is no longer stored in themes. You no longer need to duplicate your theme to make changes, all content can easily be transferred to a new theme. Switching is so easy.

Drafts: Do you want to prepare something or test something. This is possible in the new Draft environment. So you don't have to publish something before you can test something. Hooray!

User experience: all these changes have of course been incorporated into a beautiful interface.