We know first hand how difficult it can be to stay up to date with all the latest features from your tech stack. With the e-commerce world developing constantly, your Shopify apps are also bringing out new features. It’s natural to feel overwhelmed, but we’re here to help you make sense of it all.
Here at Blend Commerce, our marketing team has been researching, collecting and putting together a new blog series where we take a look at the latest feature updates from our Partners and what these mean for Shopify merchants.
In this blog, we’ll be taking a look at highlights from the past year from:
Gorgias
Gorgias is an e-commerce helpdesk that strives to turn your customer service into a profit centre. Integrating with Shopify, Messenger, Emails, Klaviyo and Reviews.io, you can bring all of your customer service messages into one helpful place.
Throughout 2020, Gorgias has launched updates, changes and new features almost every week. These updates have been made to help increase customer service efficiency for Shopify Merchants and we’ve highlighted two of the best ones we’ve seen this year:
Text Busiest Hours of the Week Statistic
Back from our August blog, the Busiest Hours of the Week Statistic chart was launched and is available via the statistics on the overview section of your helpdesk.
This chart highlights the days and times your customer service is busiest, taking the guesswork of when you need your customer service agents the most.
Using this tool, merchants can find out exactly what days and what times tickets are raised in the Help Desk and can look at how their staffing can be changed or improved to meet these busier times.
Updates to View Sharing
Along with the most recent update in December, one of the other highlights for Gorgias was introducing Public, Shared and Private Views.
In the video below, our Performance Marketer Lauren shows you more about this feature:
Improving the views agents can see, allows Shopify Merchants to increase efficiency as only the relevant views are shown. Accompany this with the latest update of separating views into groups, this update will help improve both customer and agent experience. You can learn more about this here.
What's in store for 2021?
Gorgias has always been a great app for their updates and whilst we don’t know what’s in store for 2021, we do know that Gorgias will continue to provide weekly updates of changes they make to the platform. You can find all of Gorgias updates here: https://updates.gorgias.com/
Klaviyo
Klaviyo is an advanced email marketing platform that uses detailed customer insights to create developed automated Flows and Campaigns. Integrating with Shopify, ReCharge and POS systems, it’s now even easier to create a streamline experience on and off your store.
Whilst 2020 wasn’t the year we all had planned, some platforms became more dependable than ever with Klaviyo being one of these. Throughout 2020, Klaviyo has had the aim of making their platform more accessible for users from new features to additional analytics. Here are our top 2 highlights:
Sign Up Form A/B Testing
A/B testing is available in all Klaviyo accounts and can be accessed when you click on ‘Sign Up Forms’ in the left-hand navigation. There are two ways you can create an A/B test, check out the video below for a Blend tutorial and thoughts on what this means for Shopify merchants:
Along with being able to see how they perform, you can also start testing form appearance, content, and even incentive types to see which one your website visitors like the most.
Bringing their well known A/B testing into Sign Up Forms has been a great addition for Klaviyo, allowing merchants to truly test and optimise everything within their accounts.
Source: https://www.klaviyo.com/blog/signup-form-a-b-testing
Custom Analytics Reporting Tool
In their goal to make information more accessible for customers, Klaviyo has developed a Custom Analytics Tool which allows you to pull out data from your Flows and Campaigns in seconds.
Any updates that allow you to spend less time collecting data and more time analysing, strategising and growing is a big win in our books and this tool has been especially helpful with our weekly performance checks. You can learn more about the tool here.
Source: https://www.klaviyo.com/blog/custom-analytics-reporting-tool
What can we expect in 2021?
From recent Klaviyo updates, we expect to see two main areas of growth in 2021, the custom analytics tool and SMS channel.
The custom analytics tool is expected to expand including more data visualisations with charts and graphs, showing data comparisons to benchmarks and even allowing you to create scheduled reports to make data collection even easier.
We’ve also seen a large growth in SMS, and we predict Klaviyo will continue to expand this and hopefully, we will start to see it is available in more countries. You can find all of Klaviyo’s latest updates here: https://www.klaviyo.com/whats-new
LoyaltyLion
LoyaltyLion is a powerful, data-driven tool for loyalty and engagement. It gives you the power to build strong customer relationships through a customised Loyalty Program that integrates with Klaviyo and reviews apps so you can reward your customers for the actions they take.
In 2020, LoyaltyLion launched eight new integrations, all to help merchants better use of their platform to create an exclusive customer experience.
When it came to big feature updates, two highlights were:
Cross-store Rewards
In our September Blog, LoyaltyLion released Cross-store Rewards. Enterprise merchants using Shopify can now use Cross-Store Rewards to encourage their customers to engage with their other eCommerce businesses or partners.
Cross-Store Rewards enables customers to earn points and claim a reward on one store which can then be redeemed on another store.
This helps merchants in directing traffic across multiple stores and more high-intent customers engaging across your brands
API update
To allow merchants to better leverage their customer data, LoyaltyLion has added a new extension to their API. With LoyaltyLion’s new API Endpoint merchants can collect information around how customer’s points have changed over time and the reasons why without any technical support. Moreover, if their existing marketing tool does not natively integrate with LoyaltyLion, with this new API functionality developers can easily integrate their existing marketing tools and gather further insightful information about customers.
What is in the works for 2021?
Loyalty Page Editor is coming to Magento and BigCommerce
In 2020, LoyaltyLion has launched Loyalty Page Editor that enables Shopify and Shopify Plus merchants to create an on-brand loyalty page without any coding and launch in minutes.
Thanks to Loyalty Page Editor, merchants can create a full-page, on-brand loyalty page experience, customize each section with no need for any technical expertise, and launch in minutes. As a result, agencies don’t need to worry about the implementation time and will be more flexible to further customize directly on Shopify.
LoyaltyLion is thrilled to roll out their Loyalty Page Editor to other major eCommerce platforms like Magento and BigCommerce in 2021.
Offering Free Product to Subscribers with ReCharge
To make subscribers feel like VIPs, LoyaltyLion will be designing an update for subscription-based brands that are using ReCharge. This new update will enable subscribers to buy certain products directly with their points.
The Seamless Free Product reward provides a seamless user experience by allowing subscribers to add the product directly to the cart for $0 with a single click - no voucher is required.
Source: Ipek Su Bolukbasi from the LoyaltyLion Marketing Team
You can find all of LoyaltyLion’s updates here: https://loyaltylion.com/uk/blog/category/new-features
PushOwl
PushOwl is an effective way to convert your one-time visitors into loyal customers with push notifications. Without the need for an email or phone number, you can use your customer’s browser to send them notifications about sales or new arrivals you have on your store.
It has been a great year of growth for PushOwl which is evident through the impressive updates and new features they have been able to announce. Here are our two highlights:
Abandoned Browser Automation
The new Abandoned Browser Automation was a strong highlight for Blend as we knew how long PushOwl had been working on it. This new addition to PushOwl was bound to see high ROI and matched perfectly along with their Cart Abandonment Automation.
This Automation makes it easy to target subscribers who have browsed one or multiple product pages but haven’t yet purchased. In just one click, you can remind your shoppers of a product they viewed but didn’t shop or add to cart.
Source: https://blog.pushowl.com/launched-recover-abandoned-browsers-with-web-push/
New Integration with Alloy
In our December updates blog, we featured PushOwl’s new integration with Alloy, a powerful automation solution that lets you set up and run workflows.
The integration between PushOwl and Alloy allows merchants to set up highly specific web push campaigns and automated notification based on specific triggers like an action taken by a customer or an update on your Shopify store.
Listed below are a few PushOwl-specific use cases for your Alloy workflows:
- Send a notification to your customer when their customer tag is updated or when they earn rewards through your loyalty program.
- If you use ReCharge you can send a web push notification to your shopper when their subscription is renewed.
- Easily inform your customers about their order updates by setting up this workflow on Alloy.
- Alert shoppers of new products or collection with an automated campaign.
How will PushOwl grow in 2021?
Whilst we don’t know any current updates to expect for 2021, we do know that behaviour online is likely to shift and retargeting is going to become very important. Push notifications that don’t require an email or phone number could start to see a lot of traction and it’s well worth keeping an eye on this. You can find all PushOwl updates here: https://blog.pushowl.com/
Reviews.io
Reviews.io is one of the leading review collection platforms and trusted by many big brands in the UK. As a Google Licensed Review Partner, Reviews.io gives Shopify merchants the ability to enhance the power of their customer’s voice to increase brand trust.
Revolutionising the way forward for collecting reviews, Reviews.io have released some exciting new features to their platform this year as well as focusing on how they work with other platforms. Here are our two highlights:
Collect & Request Video Reviews
You can request video reviews from customers who have recently reviewed your company or products by simply clicking on the review and clicking the ‘Request Video Review” button.
As we know from our August Blog, video reviews are a great way to build authentic content. Being able to request a video from customers you know already love your products could be a great way to bring in new potential customers and build an affiliate base.
Source: https://announcekit.app/reviews.io/announcements
Klaviyo Integration
Thanks to the Reviews.io and Klaviyo integration you can now support your email campaigns with relevant user-generated content. This can be done by embedding customer reviews from Reviews.io straight into your emails. As well as this you can also segment your Klaviyo data based on attributes passed from Reviews.io.
You can find out more about the integration here.
Source: Callum McKeefery via LinkedIn
What do we predict for 2021?
Reviews.io has released some great new features that haven’t been seen before on other review platforms which is why we think they will focus on growing and expanding these to create a point of difference. Working as Google Licensed Review Partners, we also believe Reviews.io will lead the way for allowing Shopify Merchants to connect their review with Google to enhance the power of their customer’s voice. You can find all of Reviews.io’s updates here: https://announcekit.app/reviews.io/announcements
SMSBump
SMSBump is a highly developed SMS Marketing Platform that uses Shopify customer data to create a personalised experience through Flows and Campaigns. Integrating with Klaviyo, ReCharge and LoyaltyLion, Shopify merchants can reach their customers in new ways with incredible open rate and ROI of text messages.
SMS Marketing has seen a large increase in use throughout 2020 and we have started seeing our UK clients also want to take advantage of impressive open rates and click-through rates. SMSBump has been working hard to continue growing and improving their platform. Here are our top two key change makers:
New Browse Abandonment Flow
Connecting with your customer at the right moment with the right message is essential for a successful conversion. This is why the SMSBump team released the Browse abandonment flow.
The newest addition to their product helps Shopify merchants reach SMS subscribers that dropped out of the purchase funnel while browsing on their online store. The flow is fully customisable, so merchants can tailor incentives based on the products shoppers last saw.
The combination of flows and advanced segmentation can create a personalised experience for every subscriber allowing you to maximize conversions from some of your most engaged customers.
Source: https://smsbump.com/blogs/recover-sales-with-abandoned-carts-browse-abandonment-flows
Collect Subscribers 2.0
In our November Blog, we went into depth about SMSBump’s revamped Subscription Tools. The new and updated subscriber collection section comes with additional growth options, such as the Instagram opt-in, and many advancements in the form builder to provide businesses with a seamless omnichannel presence and high conversion rates.
Our performance marketer Lauren, has created a video to show you all the latest features:
The new and updated subscriptions tools are going to help eCommerce brands accelerate their subscriber growth and leverage other channels to create a seamless experience. Brands now have a greater variety of forms, designs and targeting to collect subscribers, creating a great platform to accelerate growth.
Source: https://smsbump.com/blogs/revamped-subscription-tools
What does 2021 look like?
It’s likely moving into 2021, SMSBump will continue to grow and expand on their new subscription tools. As we’ve seen, footer collection and social media opt-ins are currently a work in progress. We also do not doubt that SMSBump will continue to create brand new features that keep their platforms leaps ahead of other SMS platforms making it an ideal SMS Marketing solution for Shopify brands. You can stay up to date with their updates here: https://smsbump.com/blog/new-features
Summary
There we have it! Our Partner Updates are all wrapped up for 2020. We’ve seen some great updates this past year and we’re excited to see how they continue to grow and develop into 2021.
If you need any additional information or have any questions, leave us a comment below or email us at hello@blendcommerce.com and we’ll connect you to one of our partners or our customer service team here at Blend.
