Starting an online store with Shopify is an excellent opportunity, as it’s a convenient way to grow your brand beyond its physical location. But if your brand becomes so successful beyond the average eCommerce story? Do you leave and create your shop?
Shopify understands its users may upscale their businesses and need more advanced features to keep operating. This is where Shopify Plus comes in: an upgrade from the basic features reserved for only larger enterprises.
This article will uncover more details about Shopify Plus, revealing its features, Pros and cons, costs, and more. In the end, you’ll have to determine when to use it and whether it’s perfect for your business
What is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is an upgrade from the basic eCommerce package, providing entrepreneurs with everything they need to operate efficiently online. In other words, Shopify Plus lets you process thousands of orders per minute without your store crashing.
There’s also no restriction on sales volume, number of products featured, storage, and bandwidth. It’s unlimited access to Shopify’s best features to ensure your business keeps up with the influx of users.
Ultimately, Shopify Plus is a user-friendly alternative to similar options on platforms like Magento for Enterprises and BigCommerce for Enterprise.
Who Can Use Shopify Plus?
One can describe Shopify Plus as eCommerce on steroids; these features let high-traffic stores handle orders without hiccups. However, the service isn’t accessible to all users on Shopify.
While not a core requirement, the Shopify Plus plan best suits online businesses with high monthly traffic, resulting in at least €750,000 per annum. Interested sellers will also have to pay the monthly Shopify Plus costs, which start at $2,3000.
Your business may also benefit from Shopify Plus if it needs more advanced features like automation, dedicated support, deep customization, and complex integration.
In reality, there’s no actual requirement to become a Shopify Plus retailer; what matters the most is that you can pay the monthly fee, which can be steep for small businesses that don’t need it.
Features of Shopify Plus
The primary reason why brands opt for Shopify Plus is for the Shopify Plus advanced features that help them fulfill more orders. These aspects include:
1. Script Editor Access
Shopify scripts allow merchants to offer a personalized experience for their customers, especially on the cart and checkout pages. These scripts can also be modified to create functionalities for items like discounts based on percentage, flexible pricing with volume-based price breaks, and even buy-one-get-one-free offers.
2. Multi-channel integration
Shopify understands that most big businesses sell on various platforms, and it allows sellers to manage them using Shopify Plus. Essentially, by subscribing to Shopify’s premium plan, companies can combine their other stores from sites like Amazon and Walmart.
This doesn’t only include stores, as merchants can integrate social media platforms, messaging apps, and online communities. The goal is to make it easier to expand your business while on Shopify.
Businesses can also pick from over 100 payment options like Apple Pay, PayPal, Amazon Pay, and Google Pay for their website. Therefore, people have more familiar order options, allowing for a more comfortable customer experience.
3. Shopify Organization Admin
Shopify admin contains all the information about your business on Shopify and is where you handle all your store’s tasks. On the other hand, Shopify Plus has Shopify Organization Admin, an upgraded version of the basic one.
This feature helps businesses manage several stores on different platforms but on an organizational level. Merchants also get analytics overviews, user management, store management, and Shopify store management for better control.
With Shopify Organization Admin, sellers can complete several store-related activities, like checking the amount of sales and orders across all platforms. They can also add new users to the organization and more.
4. Shopify POS Pro
At some point, customers may want to launch a physical store as an extension of their online presence. However, one challenge is the difficulty of keeping track of their inventory to ensure both customers online and offline are satisfied.
Shopify Plus helps manage this problem with Shopify POS, which lets sellers take orders through the same point of sale. Therefore, they can update their inventory across all stores in real-time, and it works with an unlimited amount of staff and locations.
5. Access To 100+ Themes
Themes allow merchants to customize their stores to give customers a more enjoyable shopping experience. With Shopify Plus, sellers can access over 100 themes, allowing them to play around more freely.
eCommerce entrepreneurs can structure their sites to keep up with the season of festivities. Also, the extra space means these brands can save theme themes, customize some to their taste, and publish later.
Shopify Plus pricing and extra costs
An entrepreneur’s first concern with a business move is its cost since it determines whether the investment is worthwhile. The same applies to Shopify Plus, as it promises an opportunity to improve a store, but is it worth it?
Fortunately, Shopify is very transparent with its pricing system, and the Shopify Plus plan now costs $2,300 monthly for interested merchants. However, this is the minimum as you have to lag a variable fee for selling at a much higher volume or if you have complex business needs.
Let’s dive into the extra costs associated with Shopify Plus!
Development Cost
Your Shopify Plus store is far more complex than the basic version, which takes three hours to set up and start selling. Since you’re a business handling thousands of orders and several employees, you’ll need a professional developer.
This expert will help construct your Shopify store to meet your needs, harness the necessary features, and ensure every aspect works as expected. This cost is difficult to predict as it’s between you and the developer.
Data Migration
Another factor to consider when switching to Shopify Plus is the period it takes to migrate your data from your old store to the new one. This won’t cost money, but it takes around 90 days to complete.
During the data migration period, you must maintain your Shopify Basic and Shopify Plus accounts. The opportunity cost during this phase is relatively high as you may miss some transactions due to a slower store, and you have to pay the developer to maintain the Shopify Plus store.
Shopify Plus License Fee
High-profile sellers require a Shopify Plus license to trade with the advanced store. Afterward, you can buy, sell, and deal internationally with this premium store.
However, the Shopify store license is relatively steep as it starts at €2,300 monthly, but it can go even higher based on your revenue and demands. Regardless, the fee can never cost more than $40,000 monthly.
This high price is why sellers must contemplate whether they need it or can continue with the basic Shopify plan.
Transaction Fees
Transaction fees are another factor you must consider, as they can build up quality if you make a lot of sales. These Transaction fees are charges you pay to keep Shopify integrated with other platforms, and while they’re relatively low, they accumulate quickly.
For example, the Shopify Advanced package requires you to pay 2.4% of every online transaction plus 30 cents for in-person transactions. Shopify also charges 0.15% for the improved security with Shopify Plus.
However, traders can avoid this fee using Shopify’s payment processor – Shopify Payments. This payment method is available with Shopify Plus and helps businesses save on these accumulating fees.
App Fees
Switching to Shopify Plus allows users to enjoy a variety of apps that take the store to the next level. Despite being optional, they’re hard to pass on because some can provide automated email responses, manage order fulfillment, and connect account applications.
However, at the same time, these applications add to the extra costs needed to run a Shopify store. Some may cost a few dollars monthly, while others can go as far as $500 monthly.
Visit the Shopify Plus Certified App Program store for all the details on these plug-ins and their cost.
Pros and cons of Shopify Plus
Overall, Shopify presents worthwhile advantages to successful merchants to further improve their earnings. But at the same time, there are some Shopify Plus limitations worth considering.
Below are some Pros and cons of Shopify Plus:
Pros:
- Better security patches, load testing, point release overheads, and online store hosting.
- Unlimited online storage & bandwidth and a 99.99% average uptime.
- Practical AI tools like Shopify Flow and Launchpad to handle repetitive tasks.
- Continuous updates to improve the Shopify experience.
- Various themes and app integrations for business growth.
- There is a wide variety of customization tools and app integrations.
- A personalized customer service assigned to Shopify
- Easy to use SDKs and APIs.
Cons:
- Limitations in content management
- Require knowledge of web development to build a Shopify Plus store effectively
- Lacks modern multi-store architecture, unlike Magento for Enterprise and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
- Some products are restricted when using Shopify Payments
- Mediocre SEO features
Bonus: When Should You Upgrade To Shopify Plus
Shopify presents interested merchants with three plans – Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Shopify Advanced. The more significant is the most sophisticated and gives you access to more than 15 staff accounts and some excellent t advanced features.
Typically, Shopify Advanced is enough for most big online stores, but if not, then the next phase is Shopify Plus. Upgrading gives you unlimited access to Shopify’s offerings for a relatively steep monthly price.
Other reasons that may qualify you for Shopify Plus are if you:
- Need additional clone stores because Shopify Plus offers 10
- Want to sell in multiple countries with different languages
- Plan to switch from retail to wholesale
- Need to create regulations for promotions, payments based on customers, shopping logic, and more
- Want to automate repetitive tasks and focus on more productive aspects of your business
Bonus: When Should You Upgrade To Shopify Plus
Shopify presents interested merchants with three plans – Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Shopify Advanced. The more significant is the most sophisticated and gives you access to more than 15 staff accounts and some excellent t advanced features.
Typically, Shopify Advanced is enough for most big online stores, but if not, then the next phase is Shopify Plus. Upgrading gives you unlimited access to Shopify’s offerings for a relatively steep monthly price.
Other reasons that may qualify you for Shopify Plus are if you:
- Need additional clone stores because Shopify Plus offers 10
- Want to sell in multiple countries with different languages
- Plan to switch from retail to wholesale
- Need to create regulations for promotions, payments based on customers, shopping logic, and more
- Want to automate repetitive tasks and focus on more productive aspects of your business
FAQs About Shopify Plus Review
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