"i only speak liquid" #43: Shopify Editions Winter 2024

Hey all 👋!

This is my third edit of i_only_speak_liquid - hopefully you’re not sick of me just yet! I’m Joe, a Storetasker expert and front-end developer who has worked within Shopify’s Plus Support team, agencies, and as a freelancer for a good few years.Let’s get going!

What I’ve been thinking about:

It’s unlikely you’ve missed Shopify’s latest raft of announcements as part of their Editions series, but if you have, your local reporter Joe is here to fix that.

The biggest announcement came in the form of the updates to the product model Shopify uses, which will now let you list out individual colour variants as products (Plus-only, for now!) and create more rich categorisation. The main headline here though, is that the rollout has begun to allow up to 2000 variants per product - the 100 limit for this has been one of Shopify’s biggest bugbears since I started working on the platform, so this is amazing to finally see change. There’s also support for swatches!

In the world of discounts, free shipping can now be offered automatically and you can take a fixed amount off Buy X Get Y discounts. Shopify is also now finally offering out their first-party Bundles and Subscriptions apps to everyone, which is huge for anyone still relying on janky apps to power essential parts of their business model.

For us developers, there’s some really cool stuff here, including theme blocks, which let you pre-define blocks that can be used across sections so your clients don’t need to duplicate content across their store. This also means support for nesting blocks has been added, which while things might be getting a little confusing from a Liquid point of view, creates a much more robust system of managing content. 

These changes are in developer preview for now, but they work well and I can’t imagine it’ll be too long before they’re pushed out everywhere.

Genuinely, there’s too much stuff to list in one email, so go check out the Editions page for yourself and then come back wowed and ready to read on for some wonderful recommendations!

3 links you can’t miss:

You are never taught how to build quality software - interesting thoughts on how most developers aren’t inclined to consider QA in their work

Creatica - there are plenty of background/artwork generators out there, but this one is very nicely done

Pic Copilot - image generator built with eCommerce in mind, easily lets you put products in all manner of places without having to leave your desk

1 app I like:

Consentmo - one of the only “boring” Shopify apps that doesn’t make me shudder when I see a client has it installed, it’s full of all the necessary features to handle cookie consent without feeling overblown

One learning as a freelancer:

When relying on yourself for work, you should always expect clients to do the unexpected. They may hit you up for a project, spend time scoping with you, and then decide against it entirely, or you may find out they’ve been shopping around for other quotes: thanks for your time, no hard feelings etc but you’re just that little too pricy for them right now! 

While you’re working for someone else, it’s all too easy to forget the sales process that comes before the tasks hit your deck, but as a freelancer you’re obviously in charge of this process, and it can be hard. There is definitely something to be said for the comfort in knowing bringing the work in simply isn’t your responsibility. It can feel like a failure to be told you didn’t make the cut by a client, but if you’re doing good work, the right clients will come to you in time.

This all comes with part of being a freelancer and learning not to take any knockbacks too harshly and as a personal affront to your business is hard, but it’s a key part of being successful. There’s no use in throwing more wasted time into something by worrying about it or agonising over how much thought you put into a project that didn’t work out. Take a breath, and move on to the next one.

Cheers,

Joe