[Shopify] An EC cart system that continues to evolve even after production

"Shopify Editions Summer 24" was held the other day!

Even after we created the shopping cart system called Shopify, it has continued to evolve rapidly !

Like many overseas tech companies, they hold large-scale press conferences twice a year (Apple and Google also do similar events), and it has become customary for them to announce a large number of new features at these events!

Shopify announces over 100 updates every time it is held , so to be honest, it's one of the events that even we developers dread. However, the speed at which it evolves means that store owners can always use the latest features !

Changes to the UI are frequent, so the screens you're used to seeing may change, but being able to use the latest technology is extremely important in the IT world, which is accelerating ever with the advent of generative AI, and the system is designed to significantly reduce the costs of modifying the system !

How is Shopify evolving today?

I would like to explain this part!

Shopify is evolving

As someone who makes a living creating Shopify content, the hardest thing is keeping up with the latest Shopify updates.

As I wrote at the beginning, there are about 100 updates every six months, so by the time you get used to them, the next update is already here lol

As an online shop owner, it can be hard to keep up with the changes in UI, but that change is what makes it so great.

This is what is needed now.

The world is evolving fast

The speed of IT evolution around the world is accelerating at an ever-increasing rate!

As you all probably know, the biggest factor behind this is undoubtedly the advancement of generative AI, such as ChatGPT, which has further increased the speed of development.

Because of this, we are now in an era of rapid change, and if we hesitate, we will be left behind. The current situation is that business people have no time to think things through.

The year 2023 was a moment that surprised the world with the release of "ChatGPT 3.5," which could be called the first year of generative AI .

Shopify quickly followed suit.

When ChatGPT 3.5 was released in 2023, Shopify incorporated the feature into Shopify within just a few months!

They added a feature that lets AI generate product descriptions. I think it was about two months after the world was amazed by AI. Of course, it didn't cost users a single yen, it was just a version upgrade!

This level of speed is truly impressive, and it also shows the incredible development capabilities of the company, which employs so many first-rate engineers!

Linkage with GAFA

Shopify is an e-commerce cart system with a significant global market share, so even the so-called GAFA supertech companies do not ignore Shopify!

In fact, there are even aspects where we will develop features together with Shopify.

The overwhelming leader in the world of the Internet is "Google," the "G" of GAFA. Just as the word "google" has become a noun, the act of searching for something on the Internet itself is under the control of Google. Google is also firmly considering collaboration with Shopify.

Facebook (Meta), the F of GAFA, also seems to have a department that manages ad delivery specifically for Shopify, and if you are a Shopify store, the pixel used to place Facebook ads can be connected with one touch.

As a result, although the reasons for things like advertising conversions (CV, in this case meaning number of purchases) are unclear, everyone agrees that "CV is higher when going through Shopify."

I think a big part of this is clearly the close cooperation that exists between the two parties.

Evolution to multi-channel

Nowadays, just creating an e-commerce site is no longer enough to immediately sell products.

We live in an age where attracting customers after creating a website is extremely important, and I think the top three ways to do this are "SNS," "advertising," and "SEO."

GAFA services are at the core of all of this, so collaboration with them is of enormous significance.

Follow Google

What particularly caught my attention in the recent major update was the addition of a new function to product registration that allows you to design your database in line with Google!

When we set up "product categories", we usually tend to create categories based on our own ideas, but in the case of Shopify, they have been using a slightly different concept called "collections" for many years!

This collection itself will remain, so you can continue to use it for your store's unique category settings.

However, the implementation of this new "category" is clearly a revision targeted at Google!

When you search on Google, don't you often see the word "product" appear at the top?

It comes out like this.

This shows a variety of information including malls and the company's own e-commerce site, and it uses Google Shopping's functions!

Naturally, being linked to Google Shopping has a hugely positive impact on your SEO ranking, which is an important factor as it inevitably increases the number of visitors to your store!

Shopify already had a high affinity with Google Market Center because it was easy and reliable to integrate with it, but the enhanced product category function made it even more compatible.

It may not be widely known, but the categories used for this Google shopping feature are decided by Google itself!

It's not something that someone just decided freely; there is a list and the decisions are based on that list.

There is also a place where you can download the table here , so please take a look if you are interested.

Shopify's new category function is based on Google's categories! In other words, by increasing searchability within Google, you can make it easier to sell your products!

We can say that we are aiming for a virtuous cycle.

Becoming multi-channel

It is said that going forward, in the world of e-commerce sites, it will become important to create one store and then use the data to sell in multiple locations, creating a multi-channel approach.

Until now, there was a distinction between mall-type and in-house EC, but now it is possible to search for both together on Google Shopping, etc. This will change consumer search trends, and items that can be purchased in various places will become items that sell .

In the past, EC products would not sell unless they were listed on Rakuten. This was the era when people thought that their own EC sites were fine too, and now it's time for multi-channel.

Shopify aims to become that hub, and is using Shopify data to increase its affinity with Google, and is steadily increasing its compatibility with Instagram and YouTube. It seems like they are doing business in the direction of GAFA.

Although it is not yet very common in Japan, live sales will likely become more common in the future! If you are using Shopify at that time, you can become a hub.

Shopify's policy is not to remain limited to one platform, so they are trying to create a system that will allow them to benefit from such a future in which "you can only sell on Shopify."

The evolution of Shopify

I wrote about evolutionary history, but it doesn't actually have that long a history!

The company was founded in 2004, just after the 21st century, and is still a young company with its headquarters in Canada.

It began to stand out around 2015-2016, and since then has rapidly expanded its market share, growing into the world's largest kart system.

How did it rise from such a small company to become one of the largest?

This is because we have created a system that is easy to implement and can withstand increasing complexity.

Here's some interesting data.

According to built With, a website that shows the market share of e-commerce site platforms around the world, the first pie chart in the table shows the platforms used by the world's "TOP 1 million" e-commerce sites.

"Other" includes full-scratch and other sites, so if you look at the cart system, you can see that Shopify is in first place. Next are WooCommerce and Megento, and ShopifyPLUS is hidden underneath them.

The next table shows the world's "TOP: 10,000" - that is, the world's EC sites.

Here again, Shopify is the overwhelming No. 1. Meanwhile, WooCommerce has dropped significantly, with Amplification coming in at No. 2.

In other words, WooCommace is not suitable for large sites, and Amplification is not suitable for small sites... but Shopify can be used anywhere!

We started off with the idea that "You can easily create an e-commerce site!" and in the early stages, we added all the data analysis functions necessary to run a full-fledged e-commerce site. Next, we went on to create a system that made it easy to change the front end (the look of the site)!

Now that it has evolved to the point where vendors can easily replace images and make minor layout changes, we are moving towards multi-channel!

Shopify continues to evolve in this way, attracting customers from all walks of life and involving GAFA.

To be honest, it will be impossible for Japanese vendors to catch up with this, and the gap will only continue to widen.

summary

From both an engineer's and marketer's perspective, "Shopify's evolution is incredible"

Shopify is continuing to evolve in this way. Although it has only been around for less than 10 years, it is aiming to become the top of the global ecosystem and has a strong affinity with GAFA.

As the trend towards "multi-channelization" is inevitable in the future, I think Shopify is trying to evolve from a "system for creating stores" to a "hub for managing sales," and it's amazing that we can take advantage of that evolution just by using the platform.

In order to evolve, changes to the UI (appearance) are natural, but as long as you can keep up with these, the system will evolve on its own.

It feels like the number of places to sell your store's products is automatically increased !

Shopify makes 100 updates every six months, so the speed at which it evolves is truly amazing, so be sure to take advantage of all of them!

If you can't make full use of Shopify, consult with a partner! A good partner will be able to bring out the best in Shopify.

On the other hand, partners who are not familiar with Shopify may not understand "Why do we need Shopify?" so be sure to ask them lots of questions!