Best Shopify Features and Benefits You Need To Know About [2024]

In this article, we will take a look at some of the best Shopify features and benefits it provides for online sellers.

For those wondering how does Shopify work, Shopify is a cloud-based, ecommerce platform that helps in starting, running, and growing an online store for any business. According to Store Leads, Shopify is the largest standalone ecommerce website builder – catering to more than 2.3 million merchants from 175 countries across the globe.

Shopify's popularity stems from its ease of use, reliability, advanced features, and various other benefits. The platform offers everything you would need in one place. And it is an ideal choice for people looking to set up an online shop.

The appeal of Shopify is that it requires almost no technical skills to use. There are many store owners who are website design professionals but lack the necessary expertise to create an online store or build a shopping cart. The team behind Shopify has created a platform for them by providing all the tools required to create a beautiful and professional online store.

This is why popular and successful brands like Kylie Cosmetics and Gymshark are in fact Shopify stores.

This ecommerce platform has truly revolutionized the ecommerce sphere and is still continuing to do it!

Let us now start our trip to discover the key features of Shopify, start with a comprehensive Shopify reviews video going through key features of Shopify:

Key Features of Shopify Updated in Summer '24 Edition

The team behind Shopify is aware that ecommerce is progressively evolving. Because of that, the needs of ecommerce merchants continue to evolve as well.

That’s why despite sitting at the top of the ecommerce food chain, they still continue to surpass what they have accomplished. This is evident with Shopify Editions. Every year, Shopify releases two major platform updates or “Editions”. These are released in the Summer and Winter seasons.

This year's Summer Editions ‘24 made waves in the ecommerce world with its revolutionary updates that further expanded the key features of Shopify.

Here’s a glimpse of the newly added best Shopify features:

Unified Markets

Shopify has streamlined global operations with its Shopify Markets feature, a one-stop solution for managing local and international sales, B2B operations, and in-person transactions via Shopify POS. This unified approach eliminates the need to juggle multiple tools, allowing merchants to efficiently expand across borders from within their Shopify admin.

AI-powered Enhancements

Shopify takes AI seriously and it’s taking huge leaps towards implementing it on the workflow of all Shopify merchants.

Below are the key features of Shopify AI that got a huge update:

Shopify Magic

Shopify Magic was one of the Shopify key features that got a major improvement. You can now use it to edit product images right inside your Shopify admin. With Shopify Magic, you can improve product quality, remove background, and even generate creative backgrounds to make your product images more unique. You can also use Shopify Magic in your smartphone app.

Magic Product Creation

Receive intelligent product suggestions with accurate attributes for easier listing and customer discovery.

Suggested Replies

Shopify Magic didn’t just get smarter in terms of product editing. It also got smarter in terms of understanding natural human language. As such, it is context-aware of your customers’ inquiries and it can suggest appropriate responses when needed.

Sidekick (Early Access)

All AI Shopify key features got revamped – including Sidekick (still in early access). Now, you can use Sidekick to ask for insights about your store. It is aware of all the events and data of your business, and as such, it can provide accurate insights. In addition to that, you can even ask it to generate codes when needed, or perform a specific task on your store such as implementing discounts on a certain product collection. Sidekick is definitely our favorite amongst the best features of Shopify.

Simplified In-person Selling:

Shopify POS users for in-store selling now enjoy frictionless checkout courtesy of one-tap digital receipts for customers who are using Shop Pay. Your Shopify store automatically sends receipts to your customer’s email.

Moreover the return process just became easier with staff notifications for return eligibility and reasons.

Revamped Analytics

The last key features of Shopify that got a huge revamp are the analytics. Analytics is a crucial part of your business as this gives you a better understanding of events in your online store, customer behavior, product trends, and more.

As such, Shopify revamped the analytics – making it more intuitive, allowing for easier data exploration and decision-making.

Shopify Features List

Now that we’ve tackled the Shopify key features that got revamped in the Shopify Editions Summer 2024, let’s now talk about more features that helped propel Shopify into becoming the top choice of ecommerce merchants.

Here’s a Shopify features list and the explanation for each one of them.

Pricing For Every Business Size

Source: Shopify (yearly plan for US merchants)

Note: Shopify Starter plan pricing not shown in the image above.

Shopify is designed to cater to all types of business and all sizes of businesses. As such, whether your business is relatively new or it’s been growing for quite some time, Shopify has the right plan for you.

Check out the table below:

It is worth noting that all Shopify plans come with a 3-day trial. More importantly, all Shopify plans (except for Shopify Plus) can be availed for only $1 for the first month of use. As such, you save 1-month worth of subscription for your first year of using Shopify.

One Order Management System For Your Entire Business

The next item in our Shopify features list is Shopify’s order management system.

Shopify is a one-stop shop for ecommerce and is more than just a platform. It's a complete business management solution that includes everything you need to run your online store. Furthermore, the Shopify dashboard is very user-friendly and actionable.

This includes everything from

• Order management
• Secure payments
• Intuitive mobile commerce

Impressive SEO Tools That Deliver

SEO has become a crucial part of any online business in recent years. In fact, 44%  of consumers today begin their online shopping journey on search engines like Google (source: Klarna). This means your store should not just offer the best products but should also be easily discoverable.

However, SEO is much more complex than one realizes. To implement the best SEO practices, including product page SEO, you need the best tools. And Shopify has got you covered even in this department!

The SEO tools in a Shopify store allow you to optimize your store on search engines like Google and Bing. This means that when people search for products similar to yours on Google or Bing, they will see your website appear at the top of the results page in their search results. This will drive more traffic to your site and increase sales.

With their SEO-oriented ecommerce platform, you can add title tags and meta descriptions that make your product information more accessible to search engines.

You can also easily integrate Google Analytics into your Shopify store so you can understand what's happening with your website traffic. This data will help you make better decisions about improving the customer experience on your site.

If you want more SEO tools and automation to your store, you can also choose from more than 800 SEO apps available in the Shopify app store.

Powerful Analytics Tools

Analytics is amongst the most important in this Shopify features list. It is a powerful tool that gives you a detailed view of how your store is performing. It lets you track sales, traffic sources, and customer behavior on your Shopify store.

Shopify Analytics has two main parts:

• Product Insights - Product Insights gives you in-depth information about your sales performance and Shopify store activity. It tells you what products are selling well, which ones are trending, and where they're being purchased from. Product Insights also shows you how many people have visited your site, what they've been searching for, and how they've interacted with your product pages.
• Sales & Customers - Sales & Customers give you data about your customer's behavior in your store. You'll know who's buying what when they're making purchases, where they come from (geographically), and what their cart contains.

Shopify Analytics is included with all Shopify plans, but there are some limitations depending on your monthly plan. Here are some features available on higher-tiered plans:

• In-depth reporting and analysis for every aspect of your store
• Real-time data to see how many people are on your site right now
• Advanced segmentation tools that allow you to break down data by anything you want

Customer Profiles, Accounts, And Groups

Our next key features of Shopify are customer profiles, accounts, and groups. These let you create profiles for each customer, track their purchases and their interests, and send targeted offers based on their purchase history or other information in their profile.

This feature allows you to personalize your store experience for each visitor to improve conversions, retention, and lifetime value. Customer accounts allow customers to log in to their profile from any device so they can view their order history, track their shipments, and more.

Groups let you organize your customers into groups for easy access when creating marketing campaigns or sending out newsletters. You can organize your customers into different groups based on what they buy or how much they spend so that you can send targeted promotions to them specifically.

You can also use these groups for discounts or other incentives to encourage more sales from specific customer segments.

Review And Act On Abandoned Checkouts

A common problem faced by online retailers is the number of potential customers who add items to their shopping cart but do not complete the purchase. In fact, the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is 70% according to the Baymard Institute.

Shopify provides a feature to check who has abandoned their carts, in order to review, strategize and also convince them to return and complete their purchases.

The reminder emails can be customized with your Shopify store’s branding and colors. You can also use the email templates provided by Shopify or create your own. These emails can be sent manually or automatically by setting up your flow.

But that’s not it. You can also get a detailed abandoned checkouts emails report by Shopify that will help you figure out how effective your cart recovery email campaigns have been.

Easy Payment Integrations And Options

Source: Shopify

Next one in our Shopify features list is Shopify Payments. Shopify has partnered with hundreds of payment gateways to provide you with a wide range of payment options. You can choose from different payment gateways depending on your needs, including PayPal, Stripe, and Apple Pay.

You can choose to use Shopify Payments, which allows you to accept credit cards, debit cards, and PayPal payments in your store. For many merchants, Shopify Payments is the best option because it provides the highest level of security and fraud protection.

Additionally, Shopify Payments does not charge third-party transaction fees unlike other available payment gateways on Shopify. However, Shopify Payments is not yet available to merchants worldwide. To see if Shopify Payments is available in your country, read this documentation.

Furthermore, tax calculations are made simple with Shopify's tax tool that automatically calculates taxes based on customer location. You can also use tax exemptions if necessary.

Shopify Dropshipping

Shopify key features for dropshipping entrepreneurs is what made it so popular in ecommerce. Shopify is compatible with a multitude of dropshipping suppliers including:

• DSers-AliExpress
• CJDropshipping
• Spocket
• Printify
• Sup Dropshipping, and 600+ more apps.

Among the key features and benefits of Shopify that makes it a top choice for dropshippers is its easy integration with the above-mentioned dropshipping solutions. This means that you simply have to install the app on your Shopify store and you can seamlessly migrate products to your store.

Moreover, the dropshipping process is entirely automated so you can focus on your marketing efforts.

Shopify POS

Source: Shopify

Among the best Shopify features in this list is its holistic POS infrastructure that centralizes control for merchants with in-store selling operations. In fact, other ecommerce website builders rely on third-party POS apps. Whereas with Shopify, it comes built-in out of the box.

Shopify POS is the fastest and easiest way to centralize your online store and in-store operations.

Shopify POS is a point-of-sale system that integrates with Shopify stores. This means you can accept payments for your products in-store, add inventory, and manage your store from the Shopify dashboard without any hassle.

With Shopify POS, you can manage multiple locations and employees with ease—track sales with real-time reports that give you a clear picture of how your business is performing.

Moreover, Shopify POS can also be used for in-store pickups on items bought online by your customers. With a centralized system for both in-store and online sales, inventory tracking and revenue monitoring is significantly easier.

Shopify POS devices start at $49 for the tap and chip card reader. Or you can even use compatible Android devices or your iPhone for contactless payments – no need to buy hardware. Learn more about Shopify POS here.

Shopify Shipping

Source: Shopify

The last one in our Shopify features list is Shopify Shipping. Shopify truly got all bases covered with their platform as they don’t just provide merchants a medium for selling. Instead, they provide a working, breathing ecommerce mechanism that offers end-to-end solutions. Shopify Shipping is a testament to that.

With Shopify Shipping, merchants in qualified countries no longer have to worry about finding a reputable shipping partner. Shopify has partnered with Shipping partners across North America, Europe, and Australia to provide a logistics solution to merchants.

What’s even greater with Shopify Shipping is that merchants could save up to 88% from shipping costs. Additionally, customers can also opt for shipping insurance on their purchases.

The list of Shopify key features doesn’t end here. Check out the next section for more.

More Shopify Features And Benefits

Aside from the best Shopify features mentioned above that are unique to the platform, Shopify has a lot more to offer.

Here are more Shopify features and benefits that make it a compelling ecommerce platform.

Security

The Shopify platform has been built from the ground up with security in mind. The company has invested heavily in keeping its platform secure from hackers and other threats.

A Shopify store comes with several built-in security features that protect your ecommerce business against hackers and fraudsters. In addition, it offers a robust PCI compliance system that keeps your customers' credit card information safe.

Personalization

When you’re selling online, you need to stand out from the competition. The personalization capabilities of your ecommerce store will make your customers feel like they’re dealing with a business that cares about its customers.

One of the most powerful Shopify benefits is its ability to personalize your website based on what products customers are viewing, which page they are on, where they are located, and more. This allows you to offer your customers exactly what they want when they want it, resulting in higher conversions and increased sales.

Fast Loading Speed

If you're running an online store, you want your customers to be able to browse products quickly and easily.

Shopify has a fast loading speed.

A recent Shopify site study shows that Shopify is up to 2.4x faster compared to other competing ecommerce website builders.

The same study also showed that:

• Shopify’s average site speed is 1.2 seconds, whereas competitors average 2.17 seconds.
• Shopify has the fastest server speed in commerce, reaching up to 2.8x faster on average.
• 93% of Shopify merchants have faster stores when compared to merchants from other platforms.

These numbers goes to show that Shopify is well-optimized out of the box in order to increase your chances of converting website visitors into customers.

Mobile Commerce Ready

Mobile commerce is huge today. It's the fastest-growing medium for ecommerce, and it's a great way for you to get your products in front of people who are ready to buy.

The number of shoppers shopping via their mobile phones is anticipated to keep growing, and we need to understand who those people are and how exactly they traffic into stores.

When people think of ecommerce, they often think of desktop computers. However, the mobile revolution has changed the game, and now it's more important than ever to ensure your business is mobile-friendly.

The good news is that Shopify makes it easy for you to create a mobile-optimized store that looks great on any device. The platform is built with responsive design in mind so that your customers can access your store from any device.

Shopify Theme Store

One might assume that selling online only requires you to have the best products. But the truth is far from that. The execution, look and feel, and user experience (UX) of your website are equally important.

Did you know that 50% of consumers believe that website design is crucial to a business’s overall brand? (Source: Hubspot)

This is why paying attention to your Shopify store design becomes even more necessary. And it’s not just the aesthetics, but also the functionality that counts when it comes to great ecommerce website design.

For that reason, the Shopify theme store is created so that merchants have a choice with how they design their websites. The good thing about the Shopify theme store is that it has themes for all types of Shopify businesses.

And when you choose themes from the official theme store, you are assured that your store will run smoothly with no problems. You can also rest assured that whatever problem you encounter, you’ll be assisted by the theme developers so you can get back on track in no time.

With more than 200 themes (free and paid), you’ll surely find what you’re looking for in the Shopify theme store.

Shopify App Store

Its official app store is arguably amongst the best features of Shopify.

Shopify has the largest app store for a standalone ecommerce website builder – with more than 13,000 apps for all kinds of needs, for all kinds of stores.

This huge volume of apps ensures all merchants that they can find a solution for their needs. This is also indicative of Shopify’s popularity in that app developers from all over the world converge in one platform to create solutions for merchants.

User-friendly interface

Shopify’s interface is easy to use and understand, even if you have no previous experience with ecommerce platforms or coding languages such as HTML or CSS.

It comes with a variety of wizards that help you through each step of building your store and setting up payment gateways and shipping options. If you need help along the way, there’s also a comprehensive online documentation section where you can find answers to common questions about using Shopify.

Quick customer service

Shopify offers 24/7 customer service, which means that you can expect a quick response whenever you have a question or problem. Shopify also has a support community where users can answer each other's questions and post their own tips about managing the platform.

No coding skills are required

Creating an ecommerce store on Shopify is easy. There’s a learning curve required but it isn’t as hard as creating a website using WordPress.

Shopify was designed to be used by both beginners and experts. For that reason, the primary interface of Shopify is very intuitive and easy to comprehend for beginners.

Experts, on the other hand, can easily access Shopify’s code editor so they can perform advanced modifications on the website.

It’s a win-win for all types of users.

With that in mind, if it’s your first time using Shopify, we highly recommend watching YouTube tutorials to make the learning process easier and faster for you.

 Here are the channels that you should consider watching:

• Ecom Learning With PageFly - YouTube
• Learn With Shopify - YouTube

Wrapping up

Shopify stands out as an exceptional ecommerce platform, consistently earning positive Shopify reviews for its user-friendly interface and powerful tools that cater to businesses of all sizes. Merchants frequently praise its ease of use, robust integrations, and comprehensive feature set.

With some of the best Shopify features—like AI-powered Shopify Magic, seamless Shopify POS integration, intuitive analytics, and comprehensive SEO tools—Shopify empowers merchants to build, manage, and scale their online stores with ease. Its robust security, fast loading speed, mobile readiness, and extensive app store further cement Shopify’s position as a leader in the ecommerce space.

Ready to explore all the Shopify key features for your business? Give Shopify a try and make the most of your ecommerce journey.