Shopify AI: What the new AI tools for e-commerce can do

As part of the Summer Editions 2023, Shopify introduced the Magic Suite, a more than complex tool that simplifies life for merchants based on artificial intelligence. The new features are primarily intended to increase the productivity and performance of Shopify merchants. This will be supported by the specially developed AI assistant ‘Sidekick’, which is available around the clock.

In the following article, we will show you what the Magic Suite can do and which tools and use cases will be particularly exciting for your Shopify store.

What is Shopify Magic?

Shopify Magic is a collection of free artificial intelligence (AI)-powered features integrated with Shopify products and workflows.

Shopify Magic is powered by OpenAI's GPT3, providing a powerful artificial intelligence platform to help you create text for your store. It combines all the benefits of Shopify with the latest AI technology solutions to provide you with personalized, contextually relevant support for a range of tasks related to building your store, marketing, customer support and back-office management. Shopify Magic is integrated directly into Shopify and is therefore easy to use.

What is Shopify Sidekick?

Sidekick is an AI assistant supported by Shopify Magic that knows all the functions, data and contexts of a Shopify store. The virtual assistant is designed to enable merchants to run their business more efficiently by answering questions, providing helpful information such as store analytics, or implementing entire actions in the store on its own.

Merchants have been able to register for early access since August 2023 - so Sidekick is not yet available to all Shopify merchants.

Shopify AI: How does Shopify Magic support merchants?

Shopify Magic helps merchants speed up everyday writing processes through automatic text generation. The AI-powered tool uses information you provide to generate suggestions for content such as product descriptions, email subject lines, and headlines in your store.

This automatic text generation is based from Large Language Models (LLMs). These are computer programs designed to process and understand human language. To do this, these programs analyze large amounts of text data, such as books, articles, and web pages, and use static algorithms to detect patterns and understand relationships between words and sentences. Tasks that can be performed by LLMs include answering questions, translating language, summarizing text, and creating unedited content.

Text suggestions can be integrated in the following parts of your store:

1. Blog posts

Shopify Magic helps you write and edit blog posts through automatic text generation. However, at the moment, the usage and text output are only available in English.

The feature uses artificial intelligence (AI) to use details you enter, such as the topic, tonality, and other special instructions, to write an article for your blog.

2. Product descriptions

Using automatic text generation, you can also create and edit product descriptions using Shopify Magic. Similar to blog posts, special instructions (prompts) can also be given here, which the AI implements. In addition, you can also rewrite existing descriptions by having Shopify Magic offer suggestions for selected text. Automatically generated product descriptions are already available in German.

3. Shopify email

Shopify Magic can also provide suggestions for your subject line and email texts in Shopify Email. It does this using details you enter, such as campaign type and product keywords. If you have already written drafts for your email subject line, keywords will be automatically generated based on your subject line.

However, at the moment this feature is in the early access phase and is only available for some merchants.

4. Shopify Inbox

Shopify Magic also helps you generate suggestions for instant replies. All these automatic answers are based on Shopify policies and your conversation history. If there is not enough information available, the suggested answers are based on frequently asked questions you receive. You can select these questions and then add an appropriate answer for your store. Currently, this feature is only available in English.

5. Theme-Editor

Additionally, you can generate suggestions in your theme editor based on the details you provide, such as headings and titles. This feature is also currently in the early access phase and is only available for some merchants.

However, Shopify AI also has its limitations. For example, you can't write multiple descriptions at once or write descriptions for products with many features or technical specifications.

In these cases, merchants should look for more specialized tools or other specific copywriting apps.

Tips for text generation with Shopify Magic AI

Below, we've gathered some helpful tips that will help you increase the quality of auto-generated texts. Also, you can use our tips to make sure that the text matches the personality of your brand.

Auto-generated text can help you with some tasks, but you should still keep the following in mind:

1. All texts generated by Large Language Models (LLMs) have different quality. In some cases, LLMs also generate text that is nonsensical or even offensive. So you should always check the generated text carefully to make sure it is correct and meets your standards.

2. In addition, you can give Shopify Magic special instructions to define things like content length or format.

3. Tonality also plays an important role for your generated content. It significantly influences what customers feel when reading your texts. So, check that the text generated by Shopify Magic matches the information, your mission, your values, and customer expectations.

4. When generating automated text for emails, product descriptions, and your theme, you can choose from predefined tones (e.g. playful, professional, persuasive, bold...) or set a custom tone. If you are not sure, you can test the different settings to generate different versions of the text.

What options does Sidekick offer?

Sidekick provides merchants with intelligent answers to questions, can create customized content for marketing emails, for example, and handles various tasks related to running the e-commerce business. Sidekick is fed with countless information about Shopify and can provide relevant support.

The tool is activated by an icon that looks like a small superhero. A chat will appear on the right side of the screen, where the tool will answer all your questions about your business and will be able to quickly and easily perform tasks for you.

When you open Sidekick, a number of predefined tasks will be suggested to you, which you can let Sidekick take care of. These are, for example:

• Creating a discount

• Performing a store analysis

• Editing the theme

However, as already touched upon, that's not all. Let's take a look at some of the use cases that Sidekick can support.

Shopify Sidekick application examples

What Sidekick makes possible is more than exciting. Sidekick can help retailers with the following tasks:

• Segmenting customers

• Conducting product research

• Creating store analyses

• Setting up promotions and discounts

• Changes to the store design up to complete redesigns

• Adding product collections to the homepage

• Suggesting texts and themes for Hero banners

• Creation of different blog post types

• and much more.

Sidekick can therefore take over some tasks in no time at all that would otherwise take minutes, hours or even days. This is particularly exciting for Shopify merchants who are just starting out in their e-commerce career and have less complex implementation requirements. So it's no wonder that Sidekick can be used free of charge for all Shopify plans.

Shopify AI and SEO: How AI improves your visibility

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly central role in search engine optimisation (SEO), helping Shopify merchants to improve their online presence. With Shopify AI tools, merchants can take targeted, data-driven actions to increase their organic traffic and reach customers more effectively.

Automated meta descriptions and title optimisation

Shopify AI can automatically generate compelling and search engine friendly meta descriptions and SEO titles that are specifically tailored to your product pages and blogs. The AI takes into account relevant keywords, search trends and the target audience to create content that is not only informative but also attractive. These optimised meta descriptions and titles help to increase click-through rates (CTR) by highlighting them in search results and making them particularly appealing to potential customers.

Keyword optimisation and analysis

The AI-supported tools identify the most suitable keywords by analysing current search trends and the competitive landscape. Relevant data from search engines and user behaviour is evaluated to provide targeted recommendations. You can suggest not only general keywords, but also long-tail keywords and specific search terms that are frequently used by your target group. In addition, the AI prioritises search terms with high search volume and low competition to maximise your chances of ranking higher in search results. With these insights, you can precisely adjust your SEO strategy and generate more targeted organic traffic.

Content optimisation

Shopify AI analyses existing content by using advanced algorithms to evaluate the structure and quality of texts. It provides detailed recommendations to improve readability, such as simplifying complicated sentences, using active language and optimising text length. This ensures that your content is easy to understand and keeps the attention of your target audience.

Image SEO

Shopify's AI tools can automatically generate alt texts for images that are not only SEO-friendly, but also significantly improve the accessibility of your website. Search engines use alt texts to understand the content and context of images, which increases your visibility in search results. Automated alt texts also save time and ensure that no image goes unnoticed, which is often the case when texts have to be created manually. With this feature, you can optimise the performance of your website from both a technical and user-oriented perspective.

Data analysis and reporting

AI helps to analyse important metrics such as page load speed, bounce rate and dwell time and provides valuable insights into the performance of your website. A slow load time can deter visitors and negatively impact your ranking in search results. By using AI-supported analyses, you can identify and eliminate bottlenecks, e.g. by optimising images or reducing unnecessary scripts.

Shopify AI tools: 5 useful AI apps for your Shopify store

The Shopify App Store contains a number of beneficial apps that you can use to optimize your online store. We have summarized five of them for you:

1. Tabs

Tabs allow you to organize your product pages using tabs and sections. This ensures a better customer experience in your Shopify store and thus offers potential for increasing sales. The tool also enables the creation of AI-based product descriptions and has SEO-adapted product tabs.

2. AI ChatGPT description: ST

The App Store offers several apps for automatic text creation. AI ChatGPT description: ST is another AI tool for creating AI-based product descriptions. The tool works with algorithms and language processing capabilities, enabling effortless generation of product descriptions. This helps customers to better understand the product.

3. Adeagle: Get Traffic - AI Ads

Adeagle allows you to target users who show interest in your products and retarget them through personalized marketing campaigns. Shoppers browse blogs, forums and product videos, search for good deals in mobile apps and explore other stores that offer similar products to yours. These are exactly the places where you can place ads with Adeagle so that customers become aware of your store.

4. SEOAnt - AI SEO Optimizer

SEOAnt supports you with your search engine optimization. The application covers all the key factors in SEO - from technical search engine optimization to keyword research and backlinks to strengthen your position in the search results. It also automates the majority of SEO tasks, saving you time and effort.

5. Tidio Live Chat & AI Chatbots

Tidio is a customer platform that enables online stores to provide active customer service and convert passive visitors into buyers. Thanks to out-of-the-box sales and support chatbots, the most common questions can be answered immediately. With the ability to manage all customer messages in one place, it provides a simple helpdesk solution for your Shopify store.

Conclusion

The launch of the new Shopify Magic and Sidekick AI tools demonstrates Shopify's commitment to boosting e-commerce merchant productivity and performance. Shopify Magic enables automatic text generation, is based on powerful artificial intelligence technologies, and is natively integrated into the platform.

Sidekick, the chatbot-like AI assistant, is another impressive feature that helps Shopify merchants manage relevant tasks and provide decision support.

Overall, the launch of these new AI tools shows that Shopify is continuously working to improve the e-commerce experience for its merchants and provide them with valuable resources.