July has been a busy month for Shopify with several new product and feature announcements.

Last Tuesday marked the ninth time that Shopify released its quarterly results since becoming a public corporation, making July an interesting period for any merchant or partner on the Shopify platform.

This release gives us an indication of how the company is performing, how it is being managed, and the direction it is taking.

But it was also a busy month for new products and updates. So here’s our roundup of the most important news around Shopify in July.

Shopify Now Powers Over 500,000 Businesses in 175 Countries

This press release summarized the progress that Shopify is making and the size it has achieved as a platform. 500,000 businesses are now contributing to the $40 billion in sales that have been made on the platform so far.

What is really interesting about this announcement is its breakdown of how Shopify is changing the demographic of people who are starting businesses. More woman are starting businesses than men, and the biggest age group of people starting a Shopify store is 25 – 34.

Why is this important for merchants? Well, there are fantastic network benefits to having such a large platform. Having more merchants on the platform incentivizes more third-party partners who can create better apps and provide a wider range of services like photography and design.

In fact, developers have published over 1,800 apps in the Shopify App Store, with over 7 million installs to date!

Introducing the New Merchant Overview Dashboard

Your merchant dashboard is getting a fresh, new look. The dashboard, which displays handy data and information to you when you first log in to your Shopify admin section, previously gave you a quick glance at stats like your daily sales and visits to help you perform a quick health check.

But now, you can dive even further into your business without having to spend time setting up custom reports and succumbing to analysis paralysis. These new additions will help people working in your store feel more comfortable interpreting its data and let you keep an eye on interesting trends like repeat customer rates and average order value.

If you’re using Shopify to sell on multiple channels, this handy dashboard also gives you a way to quickly look at all of your sales data from across different platforms.

For merchants on the Advanced and Plus plans, you’ll have access to an even wider range of detailed reports.

Source: Shopify

If you haven’t seen the new dashboard yet, it will be rolling out to your store shortly.

Chip & Swipe Reader Now Available to all U.S. Businesses

While enabling eCommerce is certainly what Shopify is known for, it is increasingly becoming a multi-channel platform that allows you to sell products on third-party sites like Amazon, on your own Shopify store, and in physical retail stores.

In April, Shopify took the next step towards the offline world with the introduction of its first hardware product, the Chip and Swipe reader, to a limited number of merchants who pre-ordered the product.

Now they are rolling out the card reader to all U.S Shopify merchants!

The Chip and Swipe reader allows you to start accepting payments in person anywhere, whether that is a pop-up store, a festival or your own retail location.

Source: Shopify, Product Hunt

You can read more about the Chip and Swipe reader in their announcement post or on Product Hunt.

Checkout on Your Own Domain

Lastly, Shopify has just finished rolling out their updated checkout domain for all Shopify merchants who use a custom domain name.

Previously, customers purchasing from a store with a non-Shopify web address would be redirected back to a Shopify domain when they went to checkout. This domain would look something like this:

https://Checkout.shopify.com

Now when your customers check out, they will be redirected to a checkout on your domain that will look like this:

https://your-store.com/{checkout-id}/checkout

Because the first step of checkout has the highest level of drop-offs, you need to do everything you can to optimize it. Having your own domain at checkout, paired with a free SSL certificate from Shopify to ensure your customer’s information is secure, is certainly a nice improvement to the checkout process.

That’s the major news from Shopify in July. It’s been a month full of product announcements and, with the recent earnings release, an interesting insight into the workings of the company and where it is headed.

What are your thoughts on the recent updates to Shopify? Are you looking forward to the new dashboard? Are you already accepting payments with the Chip and Swipe reader? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

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