In the backdrop of companies rushing to implement AI into their business processes, Shopify has announced its own AI tool — Sidekick.
Sidekick offers store owners a host of features to better understand their business and rapidly implement site changes without having to work on the theme, let alone enlist the help of a developer.
The tool is designed to make entrepreneurship easier and more rewarding by cutting down on busy work. It could potentially evolve into a singular touchpoint for ecommerce founders to manage their entire site, including the product catalog, content, design, functionality, and more.
While Shopify hasn’t revealed a specific launch date for Sidekick, they’ve announced that it’s “coming soon.” Here’s a quick rundown on everything the tool can do for you and why you should prep your team for its arrival.
Get More Out of Your Shopify Site With Sidekick
Sidekick will work as a chatbot that you can interact with and instruct. The chatbot sidebar can be accessed through an icon that looks like a superhero sidekick (because entrepreneurs are the heroes), positioned to the right of the traditional Shopify dashboard.
Shopify CEO, Tobi Lütke, recently broke the news about Sidekick through a Twitter video, where he delved into some of Sidekick’s capabilities.
For starters, Sidekick has access to all of Shopify’s information about your site and can pull up this data to give you powerful insights about your business. In the demo, Lütke asks Sidekick why his snowboard sales have dwindled. The AI responds that it’s likely because of lesser snowfall and pulls up a graph highlighting a dip in sales figures from March to July.
Lütke goes on to ask the AI to put everything on sale. Sidekick automatically applies a 10% discount on prices and adds a red discount tag to the products.
The tool can also be used to change on-site design and copy. Lütke demonstrates as much when he instructs the AI to add his new surfboard collection to the home page and subsequently, remove all snowboards and change the entire site to look like a surf shop. The Shopify theme immediately morphs to offer a sunny beach feel. He also asks the AI to write new banner copy for the surfboards, which the AI is able to do in seconds.
From this initial preview, Sidekick combines the qualities of generative AI with excellent automation for site controls. With just these features, Sidekick can help budding entrepreneurs significantly level up their site operations while improving time management.
And this seems to be exactly what Shopify is going for. As Lütke says, “[Sidekick] is built for the purpose of helping you with your entrepreneurship journey…It will not question your vision, but if there’s a big change you want to make, it’ll definitely be able to help you with that.”
If you’re a Shopify site owner, it’s worth putting some thought into how you want your team to look with the advent of a multipurpose tool like this. And if you’re on the fence about Shopify, this is an excellent reason to take the plunge.
Head on to the Shopify landing page to sign up for free trials and early access to Sidekick.
Speak to a Digital Strategist Today
So much of ecommerce entrepreneurship is being able to get more value out of your existing setup and being nimble in response to market dynamics. Partnering with an experienced ecommerce agency like Coalition Technologies helps you do just that.
Coalition Technologies has been a certified Shopify Plus Solutions Partner for 12+ years. We’ve built and optimized over 800 websites and generated over half a billion dollars in revenue for our clients worldwide. You can browse through our work or check out some of our client reviews. Reach out to us for a free consultation to level up your Shopify site today.
