Is Shopify Plus the Right Move For Your Ecommerce business?
And, if so, when should you make the leap?
These are two of the biggest questions facing ecommerce businesses, and they’re questions we get asked a lot as a Shopify Agency.
So, what better way to assess them than to dive into the details right here with you? If you’ve been grappling over whether or not it’s time for your business to take the next step in your relationship with Shopify, you’re in the right place.
As a Shopify Agency, we can help you make the right call and understand whether or not Shopify Plus is the right choice for your ecommerce business.
While upgrading your Netflix subscription or getting rid of ads with Spotify Premium might be an easy level-up, choosing to take your ecommerce empire to the next level with Shopify Plus can be a bit more daunting.
Let’s start with the basics…
What is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is Shopify's enterprise platform built for large-scale businesses. Basically, it's Shopify’s standard plan but with a whole lot of impressive extras.
It’s Shopify with increased capability, functionality, and customisability. If Shopify is the platform for ecommerce brands to sell their products from anywhere in the world, Shopify Plus can do all of that while making it easier than ever before to scale the impact of your brand beyond your wildest expectations.
Simply put, Shopify Plus is the gold standard ecommerce platform for modern brands.
What’s the Difference Between Shopify and Shopify Plus?
Don’t get us wrong, Shopify is an amazing ecommerce platform for brands and agencies who want to take on the world of retail.
But Shopify Plus takes all of those capabilities to the next level. However, that doesn’t mean you need to make the upgrade, as Shopify Plus is not the right solution for every brand, every time.
There are two factors that will determine whether or not you need to make the upgrade:
- Your ecommerce business’ current stage of growth
- Your goals for the future
If you want to scale your ecommerce business further, switching to Shopify Plus gives you much more room to grow.
Here are a few key ways that Shopify and Shopify Plus differ from each other:
Shopify Plus Gets Updates First
Most, if not all, updates announced in Shopify’s bi-annual Editions showcase are rolled out onto Shopify Plus stores first.
A tiered rollout will then take place as the features are gradually made available on other Shopify plans too.
For example, Shopify markets & multi currency were rolled out to Shopify Plus stores first, which meant Shopify Plus stores could take immediate advantage of seamless international selling, scaling their online stores into global markets, and had the opportunity to share that feedback with the platform - pretty impressive VIP status.
Shopify Plus Has an Invite-Only Shopify Plus Group
There’s a lot to be said about getting access to a place for fellow merchants on Shopify Plus to network, collaborate, and share strategies and experiences. The entrepreneurial journey is a long, and sometimes lonely one; access to a private Shopify Plus members group is like a mastermind for like-minded ecommerce leaders.
Shopify Plus Has Additional Support
Imagine that support at a VIP concierge level, that’s what you’re getting with Shopify Plus.
You’ll get access to what Shopify call a “Merchant Success Manager” and your own personal launch engineer to make sure you’re up and rolling in 90 days or less – both act as a priority support function that not only helps in times of need, but can help you optimise your full potential with things like industry trend analysis and predictions.
What Exclusive Features Does Shopify Plus have?
1 - Lower Transaction Fees:
While transaction fees are standard to any ecommerce platform, if you're a merchant on Shopify Plus, your transaction fee is reduced from 2% to 0.5 %. Taking this a step further, if you’re simultaneously using Shopify Payments, you can actually wave goodbye to transaction fees entirely.
For enterprise-level businesses this can mean huge potential savings and is an almost unheard of feature in any other industry.
2 - Wholesale Ecommerce
The benefits of wholesale are clear for any ecommerce brand that means serious business - a higher volume of orders with less time spent on admin and manually entering order details – pretty killer combo, don’t you think!?
The ability to add wholesale-only products to your otherwise business-to-consumer storefront means your store stays neat and optimised for D2C, but you can build better, longer-lasting relationships with your wholesalers using customised invoicing and a more personal touch to receiving orders.
3 - Easier Headless Ecommerce
Headless ecommerce is a coding architecture that separates the customer-facing front end from the back-end functionality, such as checkout and inventory. They communicate via APIs, allowing brands to customise user experiences, improve site speed, and support omnichannel sales without affecting back-end operations.
You don’t need to be on Shopify Plus for headless ecommerce. However, Shopify Plus makes the process of going headless significantly easier. A headless Shopify Plus websites allows you to dramatically decrease page load times and completely own your checkout experience. Faster page loading equals more money when it comes to your checkouts - it’s that simple.
When you’re scaling beyond the early stages of business, these are the nuances that make all the difference.
4 - Shopify Launchpad
Shopify’s Launchpad allows for the easy scheduling of flash sales, product drops and more. These launch events are the lifeblood of successful ecommerce businesses and can generate big sales for any dominating ecommerce empire.
Launching and making a big deal out of the events your customers care about is just as important as the day-to-day experience and interaction with your brand, and can bring in the big cash injections you need when managed strategically and with intention. Shopify’s Launchpad makes it easier than ever to manage and execute launch events and track their success in real time, and is currently only available on Shopify Plus.
5 - Access to Up to 10 Expansion Stores:
With Shopify Plus, you can create up to 9 additional expansion storefronts alongside your main store, meaning you could have 10 Shopify stores all under one plan through Shopify Markets.
Any ecommerce giant knows that people like to shop differently, depending on where they are in the world. What works well in the US, might not work as well in Europe etc. A clone of your existing store optimised for another territory could make for an easy, controlled international expansion.
6 - Shopify Flow
Shopify Flow is a low-code automation platform that enables merchants to automate repetitive tasks, processes, and app integrations within their Shopify store using a visual builder
As a brand owner, chances are you’re looking to offload the more mundane tasks that can interfere with the actual running of your ecommerce business AND buy back more time to actually work ON the business, not be so stuck in it that you stunt your own growth. Shopify Flow has advanced backend automations to make your life, and your customer's shopping experience easier. Leaving you all the time you need to focus on your growth, innovate new ideas and expand your team (and let go of more of the reins).
(Shopify Flow is now available to merchants on the Advanced plan, too).
7 - Advanced Reporting
Shopify Plus gives merchants a wider range of custom reports without too much time invested, giving you a detailed insight into your store’s performance, including an improved Shopify API for more bespoke reporting. While you might love the reports available to you on your current plan, Shopify Plus reporting will give you expert insights for a quickly scaling empire - which can only lead to more profitable and better, data-driven decisions.
8 - Bespoke Checkout:
This is the big one!
A fully flexible, branded checkout experience that looks and feels like your brand, from basket to “bought” to “I love this brand and always shop there”. While Shopify’s checkout process is streamlined and efficient, Plus merchants have the freedom to design their checkout page any way they choose. Which, at certain levels of growth, can mean big increases in returning customers (yes, the experience they have when they give you their money makes all the difference in whether they come back and do it again).
9 - Abandoned Cart Recovery
Did you know that ecommerce brands lose $18 billion in sales revenue each year because of cart abandonment?
Thankfully, even if you’re not using a CRM platform like Klaviyo, Shopify Plus sends automated emails to customers who have abandoned their cart, giving them a gentle nudge to hop back in and get their goodies. And, it’s wildly effective.
How much is Shopify Plus?
Now, to the big question. While we would never suggest that making such a business altering decision like this should depend purely on the investment itself (consider the ROI before you think of the cost), the fee is, of course, important.
It’s hard to define exactly how much Shopify Plus costs, because it varies greatly depending on your store. But, Shopify Plus plans start at $2,300 per month when purchased as a part of a 3-year plan.
However, if you’re considering upgrading to Shopify Plus, we’d also recommend having your own bespoke website that captures the look, feel, and shopping experience your brand is aiming for. An out-of-the-box ecommerce website just won’t bring the results you need when you’re moving up in the retail world.
With this in mind, we believe that Shopify Plus is a must for brands with an annual turnover of, at the very least, £1 million, who can comfortably budget $20k-30k for Shopify Plus website investment and 2-3% of annual turnover for website tech-related costs.
This investment is minimal, considering the potential return every single optimisation and upgrade promises. All of them will keep your brand at the cutting edge of online shopping for at least the next 3 years. Imagine being your customer’s absolute no-brainer, obvious choice above all of your competitors?
Is Shopify Plus Worth It?
Long-standing clients of Cake, P&Co, scaled globally and increased sales month on month with the help of premium Shopify Plus features such as automated discounting and custom checkout (small details, big impact). As a result, they experienced a 50% boost in transactions and a 40% boost in revenue almost immediately after making the switch.
Should you upgrade to Shopify Plus?
Shopify has a user base of 500,000 merchants, while Shopify Plus has a user base of 2,500. A lot of brands struggle with deciding if Shopify Plus is a worthwhile solution for the challenges of online retail. If you’re already on Shopify and looking to scale even further, the benefits listed above could be just what your ecommerce brand needs to grow faster.
If you’re feeling the nudge and starting to visualise the massive potential benefit this switch could have to your overall global impact, contact us. We’d love to hear from you.
We can help you work out whether you’re ready for Plus, make sure you’re fully optimising all the benefits of upgrading or migrating from the get go, and support you through the whole process.
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