Photo Credit: aileenchik / Shutterstock.com
Shopify has released Shopcast. The new tvOS app turns Apple TV into a live dashboard for merchants monitoring their storefronts, and it stands out because new arrivals on the platform are relatively rare. The target here is business owners rather than the usual streaming and gaming audience.
The app is designed to display store performance on a large screen suited to an office, retail space, or team room. “Shopcast turns Apple TV into a dashboard for your Shopify business,” the app listing states.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Shopcast pulls together revenue, transaction counts, the number of items shipped, and what customers spend on average. It maps buyer activity across an interactive globe. Merchants can dig into which items move fastest and which color choices shoppers reach for, weigh web results against Shopify point-of-sale figures, and pinpoint the stores and buyer regions driving the most trade, according to Shopify. The app supports switching between connected shops while keeping each store’s data separate. Light or dark mode matches the room.
Navigation runs entirely through the Apple TV remote. Teams move between Revenue, Overview, Products, Retail, and Geography views. Dashboard totals refresh periodically throughout the day, giving staff a running picture of performance without additional input. What appears varies with a user’s access level. Shopify notes that available information depends on account permissions.
Setup requires authorizing access through Shopify to connect a store. Shopcast is a display tool rather than a management console; merchants continue to handle products, orders, and settings within Shopify itself. To get started, link a live store, authorize the access it needs, and stay connected online. English is the only supported language for now.
Shopcast is available to download now from the App Store on Apple TV. The release has been described as a new way for businesses to put the Apple TV 4K to work. It marks an uncommon expansion of tvOS software into workplace tooling. We are keeping an eye out for whether more business-focused apps follow.