Shopify 2.0 serves as an upgrade to the former software. It helps store owners on its platform save more money through its great improvements and the added features and benefits it provides. Details are given below.

Online Store 2.0 was announced during the 2021 Shopify Unite Conference. It’s a giant step by the e-commerce powerhouse to ensure that it stays ahead of its competitors, while making life easier for every store owner on the platform.

The new version adds a whole host of improvements, features and benefits which give store owners the power to edit and personalize their sites, saving them time while making it easier to make more money. It also allows developers more freedom for building custom apps and features on behalf of customers.

Online store 2.0 is not another payment plan or tier (details of which are available in our Shopify pricing blog). Online Store 2.0 is a great improvement from the last. It contains features and enhances great improvement in customer’s experience. Through this, :stores have now become easier to build. They have also come to be more flexible and easier to maintain by virtue of 2.0.

Read on for:

what’s new in Online Store 2.0

the benefits of moving to 2.0

why Shopify merchants should migrate to the latest version of the platform.

Contact Us To Discuss Migration

Summary: Key Benefits of Online Store 2.0

The system has now become so easy to operate that you don’t need any extra knowledge, thereby saving time. This was made possible through revised UI and functionality.

Shopify have their store owners at heart, this is why custom sections which allow merchants to customize not just the homepage, but their site have now being instilled in the system. This way, they get to create unique experiences for their customers.

Easier to scale branded content across your store

It has now become so easy and quick to upload and edit content, through the use of improved metafield functionality.

Once upon a time, visitors left because of a slow system. Now, more people would come because of the speed.

Bottom line, with Online Store 2.0, merchants have been given the key to open the door of unique services to their customers, thereby enhancing great sales made easy by enganced flexibility and ownership. At the end, they get to record tremendous success and speedy growth.

What’s New with Shopify 2.0?

1. Quicker load times thanks to the ‘Dawn’ theme

‘The new standard for Online Store 2.0 is ‘Dawn.’ Dawn is 35% faster than the former theme, ‘Debut.’ Would you rather spend the night with Debut, or rise to to amazing sales with Dawn? You’d website shouldn’t take more than 2 seconds to load. Only Dawn can get that done for you. The probability of bounce rate increases by 32% if the page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds. 

With the extra functionality that has been employed on this upgrade, you’d see that the need to use as many apps on your store is no longer a need. That way you are also boosting the pace of your site.

2. New themes with sections on all pages for more bespoke stores

Shopify sections are customisable areas or blocks that give store owners flexibility in designing pages. In 1.0 these modular blocks were only available to use on the homepage. With 2.0, they can be accessed in the entire store, thus giving room for greater flexibility. 

So what does this mean for you? Well, you can:

create collection sections

push a sale by posting promotional banners

enhance your UX for better by changing where your add-to-cart button, price or product titles sit.

This gives an opportunity every merchant has ways desired; a bespoke store which you can design and as well optimize so your customers have a greater experience, thereby increasing sales.

3. Improved UI on theme editor for ease of use

The theme editor has had a major remake- the new version now makes it much easier to navigate and understand the hierarchy of your site. This means you can go through and edit your site in way lesser time. The new upgrade is a more logical approach to handling your store, as all functions are now being centralized. By this function, your store would now become sleek in opearion- fast, and easier to update. 

4. Modular app blocks = enhanced configuration

Online Store 1.0 left the installation of apps onto it extremely inflexible. This meant that many a thousand excellent apps were integrated into the system, but could not be used optimally.

With Online Store 2.0, merchants are the order of day. Apps are now to be delivered onto pages in blocks, this is to say merchants get to choose where such blocks would appear, thereby making a great difference in editing and customizing Shopify stores. Merchants finally get the chance to maximize their benefits through configuration of apps. All of these made possible, because merchants now have full ownership over stores.

.

5. Improved developer tools so devs can work more efficiently

While this is a benefit to developers, it’s also a benefit to merchants. Improvements to the deployment of the Shopify coding language ‘Liquid’ 

This is a win-win for both developers and merchants. This is a portal to great improvement of Shopify’s coding language. ‘Liquid’ means that speed and efficiency has been greatly enhanced from a dev point of view.

A more straightforward and time saving experience awaits merchants in 2.0, as they can add Liquid directly, via the theme editor.

Working with developer teams to create new branches and merge them to the master branch has now become easier than ever. This is because you can now connect your Shopify theme to Github, as well push code changes from a local dev environment to the Github repository. 

6. Checkout apps rolled out to Shopify merchants

The full customization checkout still remains fixed for Shopify Plus merchants only, but store owners on the normal Shopify plan have been given access to checkout apps. In 1.0, the customization option was not made available to them.

With this improvement, merchants can now encourage their customers to make greater purchase through discounts which they now enjoy.

7. Improved metafields for enhanced store flexibility

Metafields are extra pieces of data that apps can attach to products, customers, orders, and other objects in the world of Shopify. They come in handy, as they are useful for storing information that doesn’t otherwise have a home in the Shopify admin – like part numbers, customer titles, or blog post summaries.

Formerly, using metafields was a bit of a pain, and time-consuming, because developers had to hardcode their displays into themes, or rely heavily on other APIs to enhance changes 

In Online Store 2.0, merchants can make as many changes as they want to metafields, easily. By this progress, items like images can be uploaded with no APIs, coding, or hassle. There are also standard metafields that are good to go out of the box.

Contact Us To Discuss Migration

Shopify has arranged a guide for migrating a theme from Online Store 1.0 to 2.0. Many of Online Store 2.0 features rely on JSON templates. To migrate your theme to add support to these features, you’d have to convert a Liquid template to JSON, then move any required Liquid code or HTML into sections that you can include in the new JSON template.

For a smooth and hassle-free migration, you should contact us at Eastside.co. Our specialist development team, experienced in Shopify would evaluate your store to see what attention it needs before carrying out migration. This way, you get to save time and ensure there is a smooth transition, one without any issue that could affect sakes. If you’d like to explore this option, drop us a line and talk to one of our Shopify experts

.

Shopify Online Store 2.0 FAQS

Is Online Store 2.0 a new tier of Shopify payment plans, like Advanced or Plus?

No – Pricing plans do not relate with Shopify 2.0. Online Store 2.0 is a set of features and enhancements by which shopping has been made easier for merchants on Shopify: stores which are now easier to build, have now come to be more flexible and they are also easier to maintain on 2.0, thereby reducing stress. It has also given developers a chance to be flexible when they operate on sites.

When does Shopify 2.0 launch?

Online Store 2.0 is out now – it launched in summer 2021. When they get on board, new merchants are directly taken to Online Store 2.0, existing merchants are the ones who have to make the upgrade, which I believe is something everyone is considering. 

How much does Shopify 2.0 cost?

To enjoy a free Online Store 2.0, all you need is a Shopify store running on paid plan and a compatible theme. Online Store 2.0 has been programmed to replace 1.0 with greater benefits. Current users of 1.0 might just have to invest to get migrated to the new version. If you need any form of help from a third party in ensuring you have a seamless transition, Eastside.Co is your best bet.

I’m on Shopify 1.0 – how do I migrate to 2.0?

To migrate your theme to get support for these features Online Store 2.0 offes, you’d have to convert a Liquid template into a JSON template, and move any required Liquid code or HTML into sections that you can include in the new JSON template.

Surely, migrating from Online Store 1.0 to 2.0 can be done without any external assistance, however, some steps (such as backing up your theme, moving code from the template into a section, deleting and replacing files, and adding references to sections) are better handled by experts.

Eastside. Co is always there to be contacted if you need help in converting Liquid into JSON. For more information please get in touch.

Will all new stores be built on Shopify 2.0?

The end of 2021 saw all themes becoming compatible with 2.0. Developers are already having new stores ready for use on Online Store 2.0.

I don’t want to migrate to 2.0 – will my current store stop working?

Online Store 2.0 comes with mouthwatering upgrades which every store owner is supposed to take advantage of for higher sales, however, if you choose to remain fixed on the current version, your store would run smoothly- without the new updates that is.

Which plan do I need to be on to get Shopify 2.0?

To get to use Online Store 2.0, there is no special plan. All you need do to enjoy it  is have a paid plan and use a compatible theme.