Shopify, which allows local brands to set up online stores, is testing a feature on its Shop app to improve the customers’ shopping experience. The new “Search for anything” feature is being tested to help online shoppers search for items across all Shopify merchants.
The new feature will not only make Shopify a complete marketplace but will also help consumers make the wise choice. Universal search feature is yet to be available to all users.
What is Shop App’s New Feature?
With the Shop app, customers can also search for the products they purchased earlier. Also, options from all merchants matching the search keyword would come up in search results. This aims to create a healthy competition among Shopify merchants and maintain a fair price for similar products being sold on different stores powered by Shopify.
A report published by Marketplace Pulse stated that a “cycling jersey” search using new feature resulted in 6,937 results from hundreds of Shopify merchants.
Incredible Feature
It is an incredible feature as Shopify hosts thousands of brands, which might be unavailable on other channels. Earlier, no customer could easily discover products across different websites and compare prices from one store to another. Customers had to reply on social media ads to know about similar products on different websites. With “Search for anything” feature on Shop app, merchants can also save big on advertising costs.
For over a year, Shop app was operating as a marketplace, allowing customers to add items to cart and check out without leaving the app. With new “Search for anything” feature, Shop app can now allow customers complete an entire process of online shopping within the app.
Who’s Testing Shop App Update?
Talking about the testing phase, Shopify has kept the universal search functionality extremely limited. It is yet to be decided when enables this feature for all users of the Shop app.
“Current and former Shopify employees said it was unclear whether the company would ever roll it out to a wider audience, as internal debate continues about whether the feature would hurt merchants,” Madeline Stone told Business Insider when asked about Shopify’s search experiments so far.
The “Search for anything” feature will work on a ranking algorithm. Only time will tell what metrics will be considered to influence ranking. Such algorithms also open up advertising opportunities for merchants, who are willing to pay extra for a higher rank. This is not Shopify’s first initiative aimed to help online shoppers, the Canadian e-commerce giant has earlier launched Shop Pay, Shop Promise and Shop Cash to improve shopping experience.
Shopify’s Intent
In May 2021, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein was asked about the company’s intent for shoppers in an interview with Niel Patel of The Verge. Patel asked: “Do you see yourself headed in that more consumer direction, where you run basically a catalog for lots of independent businesses?”
“No. We have no plans to be a marketplace,” Finkelstein replied. This seems to be opposite of what Shopify is now offering with Shop app and other initiatives mentioned above. Albeit a lot has happed over the year. Shopify suffered huge losses that resulted in 10 percent layoffs. It later admitted to a miscalculated bet on booming e-commerce during the coronavirus pandemic.
No one knows if Shopify is unsure about the Shop app or doing these changes deliberately. However, the results are quite favorable for the Canadian company. The highly downloaded app is expected to draw more of business once universal search is made available to all customers worldwide.
Other Search Apps
In October, Shopify welcomed Vyrill with its In-Video Search app. It allowed Shopify users to deliver on three important key point indicators- page engagement, revenue growth and customer acquisition. Customer video reviews can be captured at scale and Shopify merchants will be able to publish videos to their stores using this app.
In September, Shopify launched a free app by the name ‘Shopify Search & Discovery‘. It enabled merchants to customise their search filters, create and edit products synonym groups and feature products in the search and recommendations of shoppers. With the help of this app, merchants can put options for search, filters and recommendations on their storefronts.
