Shopify’s bi-annual major product release optimises mobile commerce, streamlines Checkout to keep Indian retailers on the cutting edge

Winter ’23 Edition sees 100+ product updates designed to help merchants convert better, sell faster, and win consumers
New releases for next-generation Shop app, and one-page checkout to help merchants boost conversion amidst challenging economic conditions
Shopify powers ambitious retailers across India like Duroflex, Colorbar, Borosil, boAt lifestyle, Sugar Cosmetics, Lakmé and Vahdam Teas

India | February 09, 2023: Shopify (NYSE: SHOP), a provider of essential internet infrastructure for commerce, has today unveiled a major set of 100+ platform updates, with new features that unlock the power of mobile commerce, and meet shifting shopping preferences with a seamless checkout experience

A new suite of features for Indian merchants comes as retailers seek new ways to get more from less as they double-down on customer experience in an effort to convert more conscious and considered shoppers in 2023. The new suite of features for Indian merchants comes as retailers seek new ways to build direct-to-consumer (D2C) relationships, with India’s D2C market projected to triple in size from $33 billion in 2020 to $100 billion USD by 2025.”

“Not even a year ago we launched our first Edition, and now our Winter ‘23 Edition showcases over a hundred more products and features we’ve built in the last six months alone,” said Harley Finkelstein, President at Shopify.

“We know we need to be the fastest moving commerce company in the world because our merchants depend on Shopify’s innovation for their own longevity. So with this Edition, we moved quickly to offer tools that help merchants access the promise of mobile commerce, meet customer expectations for fast delivery and seamless checkout, and sell more with AI — it’s the best version of Shopify yet, and will shape the future of entrepreneurship.”

Optimising Checkout to drive higher conversion for Indian merchants
With more than 5.5 billion orders processed, Shopify Checkout is reliable, scalable, and lightning fast. However, with 75% Indian consumers saying that price rules purchase decisions in the current economic environment, we’re launching new levels of extensibility to help merchants optimise for conversion.

Using our learnings from Shop Pay — which converts 72% better than a typical checkout, 91% better on mobile, with 99.99% uptime and processing power of 40,000 checkouts per store per minute — Shopify Checkout now offers:
Drag and drop Checkout Editor so Shopify Plus merchants can install apps to checkout that add greater functionality, like upsells, recommendations, loyalty programs, and more,
Enhanced developer tooling to make it possible for developers to customise their over version of Checkout to curate a brand-specific customer experience,
One-page Checkout to streamline our existing Checkout and adding app-based customisations to create a faster, friction-free, and higher-converting standard for checking out.

More functionality for the Shop app to help merchants win in the mobile era of commerce
Sales in third-party mobile platforms are continuing to rise with social commerce sales in India expected to top $70 billion USD by 2030″ [Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1299967/india-social-commerce-market-size/ ]. While more channels and selling opportunities may seem like a positive, it actually presents a challenge for independent merchants in that they lose ownership of customer relationships at the time they need them most.

Shop is a shopping destination and delivery tracking app that is available to Indian customers on iOS and Android, with more than 100 million users globally. As mobile commerce continues to grow, we’re introducing new functionality to the Shop app to give Indian merchants the tools needed for an out-of-the-box mobile strategy without needing the technical resources and personnel to build an app on their own. This means they can maintain ownership of their customer relationships on mobile, with a customised in-app shopping experience to acquire new high-impact shoppers, and convert browsers to buyers.

New for the Winter ‘23 Edition includes:
Launching Shop Minis, to give developers a new way to build for mobile. The Shop Mini software development kit (SDK) enables developers to extend their Shopify app functionality to Shop, creating innovative in-app shopping experiences.
Shop Store customisation deliver up to a 15% increase in conversion by giving merchants greater control over the look and feel of their Shop Store (a merchant’s storefront on the Shop app) with features like product collections, best sellers, reviews, and branding elements.

Bharati Balakrishnan, Shopify Country Head and Director, India and Southeast Asia highlighted the impact these changes will have on Indian merchants who are navigating significant economic and consumer shifts in 2023, “Commerce looks different this year as consumer behaviour and shopping habits shift in response to the current economic environment. Those who stay on the current edge will win, which is why we’re doubling down on our investment in innovation and product development to keep Indian etailers ahead of the curve and give them an advantage over their competitors that’s built to last. I can’t wait to see the incredible experiences retailers here build with these newest updates.”

In addition to these new releases launching with our Winter ‘23 Edition, we’ve also launched the following in India over the last six months:

Shopify Translate & Adapt, a new app that works with Shopify Markets, to help merchants quickly and accurately translate a merchant’s store into different languages with both manual and machine translations.
Payoneer, PayGlocal and Tazapay partnership helps Indian merchants streamline cross-border commerce on Shopify, with around 1-in-5 now selling internationally to an average of four international markets, reaching more than 70 million shoppers from around the world.

Shopify x YouTube Shopping allows creators and merchants in [Country] to sell their full range of products on YouTube via livestreams, in-video clickable product shelf and store tabs.
Shopify Starter Plan helps merchants that are just starting out and who want to sell to their customers through social media platforms or messaging apps, without maintaining an online store.