🪂 Shopify revolutinizing dropshipping?

Good morning! ☀️ This is Shop Pulse the newsletter that fills your brain with e-commerce trends faster than a one-click checkout.

Here’s what we got for you this week:

• Is Shopify Collective just fancier dropshipping? 🚢

• Sections everywhere. Everywhere ✨

• Facebook announces new ad types 🔊

Is Shopify Collective just fancier dropshipping? 🚢

Shopify Collective seems like the mothership’s attempt at revolutionizing the traditional dropshipping model.

Shopify Collective creates a win-win scenario by driving more sales while streamlining their product sourcing for retailers and reducing operational costs for suppliers.

The cherry on top - zero additional cost for either retailers or suppliers.

So what's in it for the two parties?

Retailers
✅ Source products from suppliers at discounted price
❌ Sell at a retail price set by the supplier.
✅ No need for holding inventory
❌ Rely on suppliers for fulfillment and product quality control

Suppliers
✅ Sell more without any marketing investment, through other retailers
❌ Brand dilution - selling through multiple retailers can impact the brand
✅ Reduced operational cost
❌ Have to manage fulfillment for multiple retailers

Shopify Collective app is currently on an invite-only basis for businesses in US and Canada that are using Shopify Payments.

Sections everywhere. Everywhere ✨

Shopify continues on its warpath to make store customization easier.

Before, if you wanted to add a section or an app in the header or footer of your theme:

The latest update introduces "Section Groups", allowing you to create groups of sections.

It might seem Meh at first glance but take another look and you’ll realize it solves a lot of problems.

1/ Simplify theme editing by adding, removing and ordering sections directly in the theme editor

2/ No custom coding is required to add sections to the header, footer and aside groups. This means app blocks will work in these areas as well without needing code injection.

3/ Build more customizable themes and remove repetitive tasks like re-adding sections to each template

Facebook announces new ad types 🔈

If Zuck is to be believed, 52% of shoppers would like to discover new brands and products that are in line with all the data that he has on you.

So Facebook is leveling up its ad game for retailers with 2 new ad types - which they announced at the ShopTalk event in Vegas.

1/ Managed partner ads lite
It’s a mouthful to say out loud. The way it works is it pulls in the CRM data from the retailer to get insights on how to drive demand for its CPG partner brands.
Early results from Walgreens Advertising Group have shown revenue lifts of 3.9% in health remedies and 2.5% in skin care products sold.

2/ Local inventory ads
Businesses can now target users near their outlets with info on product availability and pricing.
I’m expecting this will increase foot traffic at these local stores and help them drive both online and offline sales.

Pulse Check ⚡️

1. Videowise, a shoppable video platform for Shopify, has closed a $3 million seed round led by Slack Fund.

2. Customers can now send gift cards directly to the recipient’s email. Your store will need to be on the latest version of Dawn to use this feature.

3. Customers can now add a tip on Shop Pay payment page. This is available only if you turn it on in your checkout settings.

That's a wrap for this week! Join us over on Twitter to chat about all things e-commerce. It's like attending the coolest virtual shopping party – no long lines, pushy salespeople, or shopping cart collisions in sight (@theshoppulse)