Shopify’s mission is to “help people achieve independence by making it easier to start, run, and grow a business.” Its Magic and upcoming Sidekick features promise to do more than ever in achieving that goal. These tools use AI to help merchants create effective marketing copy, understand shop data, and make the most of Shopify’s offerings.
Magic and Sidekick have amazing benefits with some limitations. To make the most of them, merchants must work with the features to learn the most effective prompts, teach the AI about their brand, and edit output to sound more human. Let’s take a closer look at what this means.
What are Shopify Magic and Sidekick?
Shopify Magic and Sidekick work hand-in-hand to help merchants make the most of their Shopify site. In the summer of 2023, Shopify Magic, a suite of AI features, was launched. Designed to make marketing more efficient, it introduced tools like text generation, predicted amount spent per customer, and Shopify app review summaries.
In 2024, Magic continues to expand its offerings, and since its introduction, Shopify has added new features, including AI image generation, semantic search, and Shopify Inbox instant answers and suggested replies, which alleviate the workload of small business owners and optimise productivity. Perhaps its most exciting upcoming addition is Shopify Sidekick. Powered by Shopify Magic, Sidekick works as your personal assistant with an innate knowledge of the Shopify platform. Users can input their prompt, and Sidekick will guide them through the task. We talk about this more below.
Shopify Magic is available for all Shopify customers and is an essential tool to grow your business. Here are the top three ways that ecommerce business owners can benefit from its offerings.
1. Quickly create copy
Shopify Magic’s text generation can help you quickly and easily write blogs, emails, web pages, and product descriptions. Wherever you see a “Generate Text” button marked with a sparkle icon, you can use Magic to write your first draft. This can be especially useful for ecommerce businesses that are seeking more efficient ways to execute their digital marketing campaigns. Whatever you’re drafting, simply input your prompt—including things like the features you want to highlight, target keywords, and word length—choose your preferred tone or customise your own, and generate the text. From there, you can regenerate the text or tweak your prompt until you get what you want. It works similarly to other AI text generators, like ChatGPT, but it integrates with your Shopify store so that it can include information specific to your products. Additionally, the text that it produces can be posted directly onto the site. No copy-pasting is necessary.
Special considerations
You should always edit AI-generated articles. Since it’s an algorithm, it may provide incorrect details or mistakenly write something that lacks nuance or is offensive. As for SEO, Google prioritises content that displays E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). To achieve this, you should consider adding your own firsthand experiences and expertise to help your website stand out. While the Magic tool is available in any language offered through Shopify, it’s important to note that its English text generation defaults to American English. Merchants in other English-speaking countries need to edit the text to align with local spelling and colloquialisms.
2. Generate professional product images
Creating professional product images is a lot of work. The devil’s in the details, and something as seemingly small as the background could make or break a sale. Magic’s media generation tool helps make image editing easy.
With the media editor, merchants can separate the product from the rest of the photo, remove the background, or add an AI-generated background. These features transform a drab product image into something exciting. It’s designed for use by those with little or no photo editing skills. AI does the grunt work; you just have to guide it in the right direction.
The media editor through Magic is currently available for free to all Shopify customers. However, this may change in the future.
3. Automatically handle customer queries
Shopify Inbox is another promising tool offered through Magic. Using AI and data from your shop, it suggests which questions you should add to your FAQs and drafts a response. Once you’ve approved the FAQs and answers, your customers can receive automated responses to their queries.
Currently, Shopify is testing a new Shopify Inbox feature that allows AI to respond to queries that are asked less frequently. For now, these responses must be approved before sending; however, Shopify plans to expand this service to offer human-like conversations in the future.
With Magic handling 24/7 responses to frequent questions, customers can get an immediate response that helps convert a sale.
Your Shopify Sidekick
Still in its testing phases, Shopfiy Sidekick integrates with Magic to assist with all things Shopify. It appears as a chat box on the right side of your desktop where you can make your requests, and Sidekick will respond.Not only will Sidekick intelligently answer general queries about Shopify, but it will also help you create content, gather and understand customer data, and edit your theme. For example, to add a new product with Sidekick, all you have to do is provide your product details, and it will guide you through the rest.
Sidekick won’t post or change anything without your permission, nor will it interact with customers. It exists solely as an assistant that guides you through the Shopify platform and helps you use Magic effectively. Shopify Sidekick is currently only available for early access to merchants with English-language stores in North America. The release date for the full program has not been announced. However, it promises to be a vital tool for ecommerce business owners.
Conclusion
Shopify Magic and Sidekick offer plenty of tools to streamline your marketing and quickly create content, taking a lot off your plate. Effective use of these tools could knock hours off of your marketing efforts, allowing you to focus your energy on other areas of business growth.
