Contents
Welcome to our July update. Each month we cover the top 5 platform developments you need to know.
Shopify Introduces New Features in Summer 2024 Editions
Shopify’s Summer 2024 Editions introduces a whole host of cool updates designed to make your e-commerce life easier and more efficient. Here’s a quick rundown of what you can look forward to:
- AI Features – Shopify Sidekick is a new AI-powered commerce assistant. It helps with everything from tweaking your site to adding products, aiming to streamline daily tasks and save you time.
- Shop Pay Upgrades – Now available to all merchants, Shop Pay brings new features like instalment plans and saved payment methods, making the checkout process smoother and boosting conversions.
- Marketplace Connect – This tool allows you to sell on big platforms like Amazon and eBay while syncing orders and inventory in real-time, making it easier to manage products and prices across multiple platforms.
- Checkout Enhancements – Shopify’s checkout is now a sleek one-page experience, proven to increase conversion rates. Plus, new customisation options are available for Shopify Plus users.
- Product Bundles – The Bundles app now supports more variant options and real-time inventory syncing. This helps increase average order value and provides a better shopping experience with customisable bundles.
- Subscriptions – Shopify Subscriptions make it easy to create and manage subscription plans, giving your customers the flexibility to pause or skip subscriptions, enhancing overall satisfaction.
These updates highlight Shopify’s commitment to improving the merchant experience through AI, better integrations, and more customisation options. Check out all the details on the Shopify Summer 2024 Editions page.
Google’s June 2024 Spam Update
Google’s last spam update in March 2024 targeted many spammy sites, but some AI-generated content still managed to rank well. The June 2024 update aims to refine spam detection further. While specifics aren’t confirmed, it will crack down on low-quality and spammy content that violates rules, such as automatically generated content, buying or selling links, thin or duplicate content, and hidden redirects. Google says the update will take about a week to complete. If you see changes in your rankings, this update might be the reason. Google recommends reviewing their spam policies if your site is impacted, as compliance could help improve your site’s ranking over time.
AI on Social Media
A new social media platform has launched that blends AI and human interactions. Butterflies, which enables interactions between humans and AI through posts, comments, and DMs, has officially launched after a beta testing phase. The app is free on Android and iOS and allows users to create multiple AI characters, or Butterflies, that can generate photos and interact independently with human accounts. Despite concerns over AI generating odd content, the startup uses fine-tuned open-source models and plans to incorporate various formats, including videos. Each Butterfly is designed with unique backstories, opinions, and emotions, enhancing their interactions on the platform.
Alongside the launch of Butterfly, TikTok has also been embracing AI onto its platform. At TikTok World 2024, Symphony was introduced, a suite of AI-powered ad solutions, including Symphony Digital Avatars, AI Dubbing for global translations, and Symphony Collective. Symphony enables businesses, creators, and agencies to combine human creativity with AI efficiency, enhancing content development and creativity.
LinkedIn Launches Premium Company Pages
LinkedIn is launching its new Premium Company Pages allowing companies to enhance their business profiles on the platform. After months of development, this feature offers various tools to maximize in-app presence. Subscribers will have access to custom CTA buttons for lead generation, auto-invite capabilities for engaging users, insights into Page visitors, testimonial displays, and AI writing assistant tools for posts, among other features.
LinkedIn’s Premium Business subscription begins at $99 monthly, with annual payment discounts.
Google Makes Mistakes Too
When we make mistakes in marketing, it can seem like the end of the world, whether it’s a spelling mistake in a news story or a social post that didn’t go out on time. However, the indexing bug Google experienced this month shows that even large brands can make mistakes.
Google Search appeared to experience a bug affecting its indexing or serving processes, resulting in new content from major sites like the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, CNN, and Forbes not being indexed properly. Despite these sites publishing dozens of stories within an hour, 0 to 10 new URLs were being indexed by Google Search during the same period.
Google released the below about the error:
There was an issue that was briefly affecting indexing in Google Search. We’ve addressed the issue and indexing should be working normally now.
That’s it for now, we hope you found this useful. For more help with your digital marketing, contact us on info@socialb.co.uk or +44 1223258000 for a quick chat to see how our consultants can assist.
