Looking to supercharge your e-commerce shop? Welcome to Shopify 14.0

Per usual, Triumph received no financial compensation from the listed companies for writing this article. Straight from the heart, baby.

The 14th chapter of Shopify

We know your time is valuable, so let’s get right to it: Shopify 14.0 is the most powerful online selling tool in the digital marketplace to date, the end. We’re going to explore things further, but if you need the TLDR, you’ve got it.

At the time of publication, the new Shopify’s full lineup of third-party plug-ins, detailed sales analytics, automation features, and humorously low prices simply blows all the other current E-commerce offerings out of the water (and off the beach).  

What about your previous articles?

We’re fully aware that in our previous articles we’ve usually given the title of top website builder to one of Shopify’s competitors, Squarespace. And we still stand by those endorsements. We are nothing if not consistent. For example: 

But Shopify’s newest build forces us to qualify some of our previous articles.

Where do we go from here?

So yes, Squarespace still holds the gold medal for website builder in the highly competitive Triumph web Olympics. The platform’s low price point & ease of use still command the market. Even with the newest version of Shopify, our old pal Squarespace remains considerably easier to navigate and design, especially for those with limited digital services experience (which would include many of our site’s readers). Just about anyone, even a fool who doesn’t read Triumph, could probably figure out the Squarespace design suite relatively quickly.

The same can’t be said for Shopify. If you don’t know what you’re doing, designing your new e-commerce site through their less intuitive—but extremely powerful—design suite might be a long row to hoe. We’re not saying you can’t do it (especially if you’re reading this article), but it might take a minute. A lot of minutes, actually. But if you have the technical expertise (or sheer determination and time) to master the platform, Shopify 14.0 can change your e-commerce brand’s life. Or at least boost some sales. Whichever comes first.

Oh the places you’ll sell

We don’t have time to rehash the entire list of selling features rolled out in Shopify 14.0—because there are a ludicrous amount—but we will single out a few of our favorites here.

 For starters, there’s simply no current competitor that can match Shopify’s raw analytical per price point. The web platform gives users access to one of the most detailed sales tracking systems on the market, allowing you to track—in real time—massive amounts of sales data, trends, and predictions.

 With customer follow-up automation, Shopify can then, at your specifications, operationalize this data by sending each individual the proper follow-up. It may be a new offer for the product they added to cart and then abandoned, it may a discount to use at checkout, but whatever it is, you can be sure it’ll bring you one step closer to the next sale. Similar types of features cost $20 to $30 extra per month on other E-commerce plans, but on Shopify, they’re all included in the basic package (which is only $1 for the first month, by the way. Yes, you read that right).

 Next up is Shop Inbox, Shopify’s free chatbot feature. Allow customers to chat with your shop in real-time, either by forwarding live messages to an app on your phone or by pre-scripting automated questions and answers. The power of Shop Inbox comes from its understanding of its own limitations.

Unlike annoying AI chat features that try, and usually fail, to solve all the world’s problems without letting you talk to a real person, Shop Inbox focuses on basic pre-scripted questions (where you get to write the script). If things get more complicated, rather send the customer through an aggravating loop of unhelpful options, Shop Inbox simply forwards the question to the next available human on your team. Build brand trust, answer commonly asked questions, and create an interactive atmosphere for your store, all--once again--on the basic monthly plan.

Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the holy grail of e-commerce tools, the Shopify App Store. It’s a magical place (or at least we think so), filled with hundreds of free plugins to bring your shop to the next level—and the level after that. Every web builder has an app store equivalent, but none of them hold a candle to the range and quality of free features available through Shopify.

Need an intuitive customer review platform to add user-generated content to your site? Check. Looking for a very specific promotional pop-up system to entice sales? They have six apps for that. Need to connect a third-party supplier or dropshipper to manage your inventory? There’s a virtual buffet of options. Whatever niche feature you need, you can probably find it for free, or at the very least for a highly affordable tag, in the Shopify App Store.

Those highlights barely scratch the surface of what Shopify 14.0 can do, but hopefully that surface gives you a pretty good idea of how powerful the rest of the pool can be. It’s also worth noting how much easier the checkout experience is on Shopify as opposed to similar platforms, and in the e-commerce business, it truly is a game of inches. Since Shopify is purely built for e-commerce, they design every last digital nook and cranny to promote sales. This meticulous commitment to detail helps get customers across the finish line.

But, nobody’s perfect

We would be remiss to end this article without mentioning a few of Shopify 14.0’s drawbacks, small as they may be. As we said, every fiber of Shopify’s being points to e-commerce. This has its drawbacks. For example, it can be difficult to format content-driver sections of your website. So, if you need a lot of extra content, whether in the form of a blog, a membership subscription space, or expansive brand story-telling, Shopify probably isn’t the platform for you. Nobody does content-driven websites better than Squarespace, and we stand by that. Just like the Beyoncé thing.

Shopify me to the moon

Times change, so do markets, and Shopify 14.0 is the e-commerce king, at least for the time being. So, if you’re looking to upgrade your online selling presence from good to incredible, consider taking the plunge. But remember, it’s not a panacea, and it’s not the right move for every business. But it is the right move for some people, and those people just might be you (inception noise).

You can check out all these features and test pilot Shopify 14.0 for yourself right here.

As always, feel free to Ask Triumph with any additional questions and consider Supporting the Team.

All views expressed in the article are opinions of the author and should not be misconstrued as professional consulting or legal advice. Users are responsible for verifying all information before taking action, and Triumph Group LLC is not responsible for any outcomes. Pursue subjects at your own risk. Seriously, man. It’s your life.