We get the scoop from Tom (founder at WIRO agency) on everything that went down at Shopify Unite London 2022…


What were your top takeaways from Shopify Unite?

Shopify’s approach to their recent London Unite was very much developer orientated. The feedback from Team WIRO was that it was great to discuss challenges and understand the ‘why’ behind the features that Shopify are releasing. The main highlights for me were…

• Updates from ‘Editions' and the opportunity brought to Partners, as well as insights around 'how to build better Shopify apps'.
  

• An incredible evening of shenanigans, hosted by Rachel Jacobs of Ecommerce Partnerships sponsored by Klaviyo, Okendo, and Loyalty Lion. It was great to meet so many Shopify partners, agencies and tech partners from within the Shopify and ecom ecosystem!
  

• Checkout, Scripts & Functions - overlapped with current ways to customise checkout with checkout.liquid and Shopify Scripts. The branding API, Web Pixels + Checkout UI extensions are replacing checkout.liquid and Shopify Functions are replacing Shopify Scripts (in time).
  

• Headless with Hydrogen + Oxygen - described by Shopify themselves as ideal for merchants seeking unique CX/huge speed gains and who are willing to invest heavily with a great technical competence.

   

• Direct experience from our agency peers sharing stories of success and challenges is always great to discuss and learn from one another.

What’s your take on the new Markets Pro feature?

It is an upgrade to Shopify Markets, which first launched in Nov 2021, to help manage overseas sales and related complexities; compliance, tariffs, conversion, shipping etc. Built within the admin dashboard, Markets Pro, is an expanded integration with Shopify’s existing partner Global-e, (end-to-end cross-border solution) that makes it possible for customers and merchants to buy and sell internationally.

Would you recommend Shopify Unite to other agencies?

Absolutely. It’s a perfect opportunity to network with the entire Shopify community and chat directly with Shopify advocates and engineers!

How do you think Shopify Unite could be improved?

Perhaps splitting it into multiple events throughout the year. I feel a lot of agencies used it more for the meet-and-greet and social aspect instead of utilising the development angle. So they could host development focused events AND more social networking. A two or three day purely developed orientated event would be awesome!


Thanks, Tom 🙏