you really shouldn't have pushed this on everyone guys. Dashboard is unreliable, delayed and often just says "broken, try again later (words to that effect)". It's now harder to see, at a glance, what our traffic sources are, or how many pages have been views. Yes yes we can use Google Analytics but guess what, that's another site to log into. Even "Traffic" is an extra click.. why.. why an extra click to see what we all want to see? Lots of stuff we'd assume would be in a major upgrade, like bulk fulfilment, or multiple discount codes... isn't. You can't use the "J" and "K" navigation shortcuts on iPad. BB10 isn't supported, full stop (what happened to Canadians stick together?). Did you ask any of us what we wanted in Shopify 2? Just lots and lots and LOTS of things like this. You shouldn't have forced Shopify 2 onto us, it's just not ready. Sorry to report that, we love Shopify we really do, but this seems crazy. Nearly as crazy as "Catalogue" was... and literally, that was INSANELY CRAZY WTF TYPE STUFF. Joe
Eli here from Shopify; I know that sometime sending e-mails like this, you may not even expect to be responded to, as much of the customer service out there can sometimes feel more like "lip service" than anything. To that end, I'm happy to face each of your points head and on and add to them some discussion of our switch (why now? why to the whole platform? etc.).
Dashboard is unreliable, delayed and often just says "broken, try again later (words to that effect)". It's now harder to see, at a glance, what our traffic sources are, or how many pages have been views. Yes yes we can use Google Analytics but guess what, that's another site to log into.
The dashboard unreliability is something that our Admin programming team has been alerted to, and is actively working on. I can tell you that it's a high priority, and something that takes a lot of effort to stabilize in a growing ecosystem store. I will absolutely forward on your concerns and relay the importance of this data issue, but I can promise you that it's top of mind.
Lots of stuff we'd assume would be in a major upgrade, like bulk fulfilment, or multiple discount codes... isn't.
Concepts like these, and many more, are in fact, the reason we made the upgrade permanent. Shopify 2 - or simply "Shopify" as it's now known, allows us to turn our attention with lazer-focus on one, and only one core product to upgrade, improve, and make better every day. Running two concurrent administrations, as the saying goes, would force us to try to do two things wonderfully, and end up doing both in a mediocre fashion. The cruel, unfortunate, but "had-to-face" reality of Shopify Classic was that it was built in frameworks and on code whose heyday had come and gone, and which simply would not be able to sustain the plans we have for Shopify.
Major updates like Shopify Payments, another huge product announcement you'll be hearing about this morning at 9AM, and, yes, even the things you mentioned, need Shopify to be in an updated state to come to fruition. As the year goes on, expect to hear something very exciting about the way discounts work on Shopify, with more announcements coming in the future, all on the strength of the system's more reliable code base, and the degree to which it has been "future proofed."
You can't use the "J" and "K" navigation shortcuts on iPad. BB10 isn't supported, full stop (what happened to Canadians stick together?).
This is something that is a huge priority for the Mobile team here: making Shopify's backend admin accessible on multiple devices through mobile apps of all stripes. This year we're hard at work plugging away on an iOS app that is truly universal, and an Android compatible app. While there are no dates or times for their delivery, I want you to know that there has been very clear internal discussion that "mobilizing" the backend of Shopify is a big priority, with even devices like BB10 on the horizon (though, keep in mind, all these things take time).
As you can imagine, our priority this year has been ratifying a theme store whose themes were almost all responsive and mobile enabled; if you could choose one focus only for mobile friendliness, would you choose the domain that storeowners visit, or the domain that customers visit?
Did you ask any of us what we wanted in Shopify 2? Just lots and lots and LOTS of things like this. You shouldn't have forced Shopify 2 onto us, it's just not ready. Sorry to report that, we love Shopify we really do, but this seems crazy.
While I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea myself - this is something I honestly had to get used to working at a software company - the motto of Shopify is "do things, tell people." This represents the idea that the best way - the only way - to get reliable feedback for product, improve it, increase its consumer friendliness, and optimize for growth is to put it in front of people. Not when it's been overthought, pored over, and pontificated upon internally to death. Not when it is completely unblemished. But when it is beautiful, functional, and ready to for production use. Will their be imperfections? Will there be things that break? In a system with tens of millions of lines of code, you betcha! But that's why us gurus here: to hear your concerns, to relay them to our developers, and to never let up until your voices are heard, so that we can complete the "tell people" part of that loop I mentioned. Shopify 2 needed to become Shopify permanently now because baking it in our own internal oven and simply hoping for perfection? That would have resulted in just as likely as many introductory foibles! But in that case, it would be without the benefit of active storeowner feedback.
Nearly as crazy as "Catalogue" was... and literally, that was INSANELY CRAZY WTF TYPE STUFF
Agree to disagree here! :) We sunsetted catalogue because it was not something we were prepared to go full throttle on, but don't count it out just yet. It had tens of thousands of users almost immediately, and allowed storeowners to gain a foothold in a curated environment perfectly suited to devices that are increasingly becoming THE places consumers shop. Not bad if you ask me ;)
Cheers, and I look forward to your honest feedback!
you really shouldn't have pushed this on everyone guys. Dashboard is unreliable, delayed and often just says "broken, try again later (words to that effect)". It's now harder to see, at a glance, what our traffic sources are, or how many pages have been views. Yes yes we can use Google Analytics but guess what, that's another site to log into. Even "Traffic" is an extra click.. why.. why an extra click to see what we all want to see? Lots of stuff we'd assume would be in a major upgrade, like bulk fulfilment, or multiple discount codes... isn't. You can't use the "J" and "K" navigation shortcuts on iPad. BB10 isn't supported, full stop (what happened to Canadians stick together?). Did you ask any of us what we wanted in Shopify 2? Just lots and lots and LOTS of things like this. You shouldn't have forced Shopify 2 onto us, it's just not ready. Sorry to report that, we love Shopify we really do, but this seems crazy. Nearly as crazy as "Catalogue" was... and literally, that was INSANELY CRAZY WTF TYPE STUFF. Joe
Eli's response:
Hi Joe!
Eli here from Shopify; I know that sometime sending e-mails like this, you may not even expect to be responded to, as much of the customer service out there can sometimes feel more like "lip service" than anything. To that end, I'm happy to face each of your points head and on and add to them some discussion of our switch (why now? why to the whole platform? etc.).
The dashboard unreliability is something that our Admin programming team has been alerted to, and is actively working on. I can tell you that it's a high priority, and something that takes a lot of effort to stabilize in a growing ecosystem store. I will absolutely forward on your concerns and relay the importance of this data issue, but I can promise you that it's top of mind.
Concepts like these, and many more, are in fact, the reason we made the upgrade permanent. Shopify 2 - or simply "Shopify" as it's now known, allows us to turn our attention with lazer-focus on one, and only one core product to upgrade, improve, and make better every day. Running two concurrent administrations, as the saying goes, would force us to try to do two things wonderfully, and end up doing both in a mediocre fashion. The cruel, unfortunate, but "had-to-face" reality of Shopify Classic was that it was built in frameworks and on code whose heyday had come and gone, and which simply would not be able to sustain the plans we have for Shopify.
Major updates like Shopify Payments, another huge product announcement you'll be hearing about this morning at 9AM, and, yes, even the things you mentioned, need Shopify to be in an updated state to come to fruition. As the year goes on, expect to hear something very exciting about the way discounts work on Shopify, with more announcements coming in the future, all on the strength of the system's more reliable code base, and the degree to which it has been "future proofed."
This is something that is a huge priority for the Mobile team here: making Shopify's backend admin accessible on multiple devices through mobile apps of all stripes. This year we're hard at work plugging away on an iOS app that is truly universal, and an Android compatible app. While there are no dates or times for their delivery, I want you to know that there has been very clear internal discussion that "mobilizing" the backend of Shopify is a big priority, with even devices like BB10 on the horizon (though, keep in mind, all these things take time).
As you can imagine, our priority this year has been ratifying a theme store whose themes were almost all responsive and mobile enabled; if you could choose one focus only for mobile friendliness, would you choose the domain that storeowners visit, or the domain that customers visit?
While I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea myself - this is something I honestly had to get used to working at a software company - the motto of Shopify is "do things, tell people." This represents the idea that the best way - the only way - to get reliable feedback for product, improve it, increase its consumer friendliness, and optimize for growth is to put it in front of people. Not when it's been overthought, pored over, and pontificated upon internally to death. Not when it is completely unblemished. But when it is beautiful, functional, and ready to for production use. Will their be imperfections? Will there be things that break? In a system with tens of millions of lines of code, you betcha! But that's why us gurus here: to hear your concerns, to relay them to our developers, and to never let up until your voices are heard, so that we can complete the "tell people" part of that loop I mentioned. Shopify 2 needed to become Shopify permanently now because baking it in our own internal oven and simply hoping for perfection? That would have resulted in just as likely as many introductory foibles! But in that case, it would be without the benefit of active storeowner feedback.
Agree to disagree here! :) We sunsetted catalogue because it was not something we were prepared to go full throttle on, but don't count it out just yet. It had tens of thousands of users almost immediately, and allowed storeowners to gain a foothold in a curated environment perfectly suited to devices that are increasingly becoming THE places consumers shop. Not bad if you ask me ;)
Cheers, and I look forward to your honest feedback!