Shopify Vs Shopify Plus
In case you are new to the platform, Shopify is a complete ecommerce solution that allows businesses to sell online with outstanding order / customer management tools and features that keep your customers coming back. Shopify merchants have access to thousands of trusted third party apps from the Shopify app store - the capabilities of Shopify are continually developing by a network of expert technology partners too. However if your brand's requirements exceed that of a small to medium business then standard Shopify functionality may not be enough. Shopify offers options when it comes to plans, with an enterprise ecommerce solution with access to additional features and customisations aimed towards fast growing global brands. Shopify vs Shopify plus can be a challenge to decide which is best for your business! See also our article on
Shopify Plus vs Advanced plans.
This article discusses the price, features, benefits & when to upgrade to Shopify Plus as the ecommerce platform to power your business. It can be a difficult decision knowing when Shopify Plus is right and needed, but we hope article helps or feel free to drop us an email if you are still struggling! If you do choose Shopify Plus you'll be in great company with leading brands in a variety of industries such as Gymshark, Huel, Tesla & Heinz all trusting the platform. Shopify Plus is a leading enterprise ecommerce platform for leading global brands. So, Shopify Plus community, let's get started!
Introduction to Shopify Plus
Shopify was initially built for small to medium businesses wanting to develop their direct-to-counsumer strategy. But what if your customer base and orders grow to a point where turnover exceeds £1million, and your business's complexity outgrows the standard Shopify offering? Shopify Plus is the answer!
But
what is Shopify Plus? As businesses grow, so does complexity and Shopify Plus is the ultimate flexible solution to allow store owners to build a bespoke ecommerce store around their business. Shopify Plus offers the same core dashboard and features as Shopify but with access to extra features, integrations, dedicated merchant success manager and more. The amount you can do with Shopify Plus is unparalleled to other marketplaces, which is definitely something worth considering to build a competitive advantage over other stores using other platforms. Sales tools and technologies within Shopify Plus help merchants improve order value and volume of buyers like no other.
It is important to remember although Shopify Plus has incredible tools and features such as unlimited access to code, fast execution times and advanced ecommerce features, it is not for everyone and standard Shopify offers more than enough for majority of small to medium businesss. Don't hesitate to get in touch and our expert Shopify and
Shopify Plus Agency team can help you decide which is best for your business.
Shopify vs Shopify Considerations
When deciding between Shopify and Shopify Plus, Scalability is an important consideration for businesses. Shopify Plus offers additional scalability options, allowing businesses to easily migrate their website from one version to another or to another e-commerce platform. Shopify Plus also offers a range of migration and launch manager tools to help businesses seamlessly transition their website to the new platform.
Another key consideration between Shopify and Shopify Plus is the level of customisation that is available. Shopify Plus offers more customisation options, allowing businesses to create a more tailored shopping experience for their customers. This includes the ability to create custom checkout pages, design custom shopping carts, and add custom scripts to their website.
How much does Shopify Plus cost?
We strongly advise considering the ongoing costs and pricing plans available when making a comparison on Shopify vs Shopify Plus. Shopify Plus'
pricing model is based on usage of their services which is measured in monthly sales volume through the Shopify platform. This is based on the principle that the more sales you make, the more support and server resources your brand will need, justifying the price tag. The Shopify Plus service starts at $2,000 USD per month until your revenue exceed $800,000 per month and the pricing switches to a percentage (0.25%) of your monthly revenue. For example, a merchant who makes £1 million in sales per month will pay £2,500, whereas you would need £16 million in sales per month to get hit with the maximum price.
Transaction Fees
In addition to the monthly fee, you do have to pay a transaction fee which varies based on the country the credit card is from - these are usually between 1.6 and 2.3% however we recommend getting in touch for up to date information. With Shopify Plus, merchants are given discounts on transaction fees compared to merchants using the standard Shopify platform, a big advantage in the long-run for high-volume sellers on this Shopify plan.
If you do not use the Shopfy Payments gateway, and instead use a
third-party payment gateway, then transactions will attract an additional 0.5% paymentt processing fee too, as a result, we do advise that store owners use Shopify payments if they can instead of other payment processors. However it is still worth noting - the rates that come with third party payment methods are incredibly competitive so it's not all doom and gloom.
Apps & Third Party Software for Shopify Plus
Although Shopify host a
huge range of free apps, many of the enterprise feature-rich tech does unfortunately attract a monthly fee. Now it's also super important to remember a lot of this won't really matter as some apps will pay for themselves through the increase in sales their features bring, think loyalty, reviews, subscription payments and upselling. It’s hard to place a number on how much each of these apps will cost you - they can range from a few pounds to thousands of pounds per month. It's worth remembering due the increased flexibility of Shopify Plus, your development team may be able to build you tools and features from scratch without relying on third party apps - saving you monthly fees in these areas. In any event, when you’re factoring in your overall monthly cost, it’s helpful to consider what you may be spending on apps.
Maintenance, Security & Servers
Finally some good news, Shopify host all the ecommerce stores on their own extremely powerful servers meaning you don't need experts to worry about server management, customer data, security testing or upgrades - it's all included. Shopify's servers are increidbly powerful and incorporates a content-delivery-network (CDN) - this is a fancy way of saying it has lots of servers all over the world ready and waiting to send your website to your customers at lightning fast speeds. This network allows Shopify to be able to offer unlimited bandwidth and over 10,000 transactions per minute! It's worth remembering competitor platforms such as Magento or Wordpress that require merchants to manage their own servers which can be incredibly expensive and unreliable. With Shopify Plus, staff and partners can focus more on the actual operations of the business such as planning, reporting, shipping, marketing and research of industry trends to take them that step further in reaching their strategic objectives.
Shopify vs Shopify Plus: Other Key Features
Some features are exclusive to Shopify Plus, making the decision of which plan to go for more easy for those merchants wanting more advanced features. For example, the bulk account inviter is a feature that is available in Shopify Plus, which is not available in the regular version of Shopify. This allows businesses to easily invite multiple users to their account at once, making it easier to manage large organisations or groups. Shopify Plus allows merchants to use Shopify Scripts to customise their storefronts and automate tasks. These scripts can help businesses create custom promotions, optimise shipping, and more. Shopify Plus also includes a wholesale channel that allows businesses to create a separate storefront for wholesale customers with custom pricing, minimum order quantities, and other features. Finally, Shopify Plus customers get early access to new features and beta programs that are not yet available to standard Shopify customers. It is clear that from these additional features that Shopify Plus is a more advanced platform vs Shopify, so the higher cost could be seen as worthwhile for larger and more complex businesses.
When should you upgrade to Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is not for every business and the standard Shopify packages exceeds the requirements and more of most brands. Therefore when weighing up Shopify vs Shopify Plus you should consider the specific tools and features you might need that is not achieveable with standard Shopify. However as ecommerce business grow you'll need a bespoke solution that manages your cusomer's demands in the most efficient way possible, in our experience this is usually around the £750,000 annual turnover point. Revenue alone is not a reason to choose the Shopify Plus platform, the decision should be made if functionality required to achieve daily operations in the most efficient way is not possible without it. Shopify and Shopify Plus is an incredibly fast ecommerce solution that doesn't compromise on quality - quite the opposite. To put this into perspective a legacy enterprise website would take around 12 - 18 months to build however with Shopify the average time is just 90 days. We can help you decide if you need the Plus platform or whether we can help you develop a solution that doesn't require the large monthly investment.
Put simply, Shopify Plus is the solution for those merchants currently serving exponentially more customers than expected and looking to scale without the need for large investments of time, money, or resource. Let's dig into the features of Shopify Plus to really show the differences.
Bespoke Shopify Plus Websites