Shopify has released its winter product update report, highlighting product enhancements it made over the last six months as it weathers shifts in retail sales and consumer patterns.
Dubbed ‘Winter Editions ‘23’, Shopify claims in its product update report that it made over 100 product enhancements during the second half of its fiscal year. A number of these product updates put Shopify in even more direct competition with Amazon as it expands its capabilities for mobile commerce and its fulfillment network.
Shopify is set to announce its fourth quarter 2022 financial results on February 15.
Shopify releases a new “Editions” twice a year, highlighting all of its latest product releases with context and guidance. The first edition was launched in Summer 2022.
A good bulk of the new features included in Shopify’s most recent product updates report focus on bolstering ‘Shop,’ its mobile shopping app that is its own version of an Amazon marketplace.
Shopify launched the Shop app in 2020 as part of a bigger play in its mobile commerce strategy. Amazon launched its mobile app nearly a decade prior, in 2013.
According to Shopify, some of the new features it added to Shop within the last year include more customization options for merchants, as well as different channels for customer acquisition, such as a new rewards program for Shop Cash that allows Shopify Plus merchants to target buyers with special deals and offers. Shopify has also introduced biometric sign-in experiences for Shop, such as the use of facial ID or fingerprint.
Shopify also announced new features for its platform’s checkout functionality. Checkouts with Shopify will default to a one-page experience.
Competing with Amazon’s prime-delivery services and an increasing number of e-commerce delivery players, Shopify continues to expand its own fulfillment network. In its winter product updates, Shopify said it has added several features, including an improved self-serve ocean freight booking system, a unified Shopify and Deliverr fulfillment network, and a Loops Returns integration.
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Speaking to Shopify’s over 100 new product enhancements in the last six months, president Harley Finkelstein said that the Ottawa company “needs to be the fastest moving commerce company in the world because our merchants depend on Shopify’s innovation for their own longevity.” Finkelstein said that the company moved quickly to offer more tools for merchants.
These changes come amid shifting consumer behaviour patterns as pandemic restrictions for in-person shopping subside, and the rising cost of goods affect the average person’s spending habits.
In late 2021, Shopify’s growth began to slow. Coupled with a broader tech downturn fuelled by rising interest rates, Shopify’s revenue growth decelerated and its share price plummeted.
Amazon announced over 18,000 job cuts as a result of this retail crunch. Shopify reduced its global staff by more than 10 percent.
Shopify, which is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has seen its stock price decline by over 40 percent within the last year. Its share price is currently at $66.98, a sizable difference to when it was trading at $117 CAD at the same time last year.
Nasdaq-listed Amazon has seen its stock price slashed by almost 40 percent within the last year. Amazon is trading at $100 USD at press time, compared to $161 USD in February 2022.
Shopify is set to announce its fourth quarter 2022 financial results on February 15.
