Shopify announces Shop Promise, a fast shipping and easy return process

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

Shopify has announced a feature that lets eligible merchants stand out and advertise their commitment to fast shipping and hassle-free returns.

The service, dubbed Shop Promise, is a co-branded product with the existing Shop app and Shop Pay services.

Shop Pay is an accelerated checkout and payment wallet service the company runs as a separate, consumer-facing brand.

Participating merchants will be able to display a Shop Promise badge on eligible products that lets customers know the product is covered by two-day shipping and an easy return policy.

There is no fee to customers for buying with Shop Promise and merchants can also enjoy discounts on shipping and fulfillment services. The service will also allow merchants to insert dynamically calculated arrival dates on product pages.

The service is currently not widely available, but interested merchants can sign up for a waitlist. According to the site, the service integrates with Shopify Fulfillment Network as well as “eligible U.S. merchants.”

Shopify also says that Shop Promise will integrate with Shop Pay and Shopify Protect.

Much of the Shop Promise features will be powered by the company’s $2.1 billion acquisition of logistics company Deliverr, announced May 5, 2022.

The move also comes on the heels of Amazon’s announcement of a “Buy With Prime” feature that will let third-party ecommerce sites let customers check out faster and get access to Prime’s expedition shipping benefits.

In many ways, the two offerings appear to be similar.

Shop Promise represents a continuing evolution of the company’s Shop branding, which is meant as a consumer-facing brand. It has its roots in the mobile app Arrive, which linked to users’ email accounts and allowed customers to track ecommerce orders from a variety of stores — not just Shopify.

In 2020, the app was rebranded as simply “Shop” and got its distinctive purple color scheme that is now being used across co-branded services including Shop Promise.

The new Shop app combined many of the existing features and also added the ability to browse products from across Shopify’s thousands of merchants.

Shop Pay was originally known as Shopify Pay (with the “-ify”) when it launched in 2017, but was rebranded in 2020 as well to use the word “Shop” instead of “Shopify.”

At the same time, the new purple color scheme and a distinctive logotype was introduced, along with a reworked app. Shopify also started pickup in the tab to make shipping for orders placed via Shop Pay carbon neutral.

By adding Shop Promise to the mix, Shopify is clearly building upon its strategy to essentially try to own the word “Shop” — at least in consumers’ minds — as a way to easily and safely buy things.

The name also allows merchants to avoid using the “Shopify” name if they do not wish to and, as more and more people become familiar with the name and look and take advantage of its fast and efficient services, build trust in the brand. This could be seen as a direct challenge to Amazon and its Prime branding.

“Prime” has become synonymous with “free fast shipping” in many consumers’ minds (“I have Prime, so it will be here tomorrow”) and with Shop Promise, it appears Shopify is attempting to go after that same connotation with the word “Shop.”

The Shop Promise badge, meanwhile, is what is commonly known in online commerce as a trustmark, which is a fancy way of a logo, seal, badge or other visual element that is designed to instill trust in the store, especially with first time shoppers wary of providing personal and financial information to a site they’ve potentially never heard of.

In the past, secure shopping, encryption, free shipping and other perks have been common trustmarks, as have the logos of companies such as Authorize.net, Let’s Encrypt and credit card companies.

Ultimately, it’s likely Shopify is hoping to build its Shop brand to the point where most online shoppers will come to associate it as a trustmark that signifies fast and secure way to check out and get items quickly.