Shopify is a massive ecommerce platform that makes launching and growing an ecommerce store quick and user-friendly. Everyone from individuals to massive companies use Shopify, but they often choose different plans to suit their needs.
Shopify Plus is the highest tier and intended for enterprise-level businesses. It has the same core dashboard and features as Shopify, but adds a bunch of features, integrations, and support options.
Essentially, Shopify is for small-to-medium businesses, while Shopify Plus is for large businesses. Check out all this comparison of Shopify vs. Shopify Plus to learn more about the features and benefits of upgrading.
Differences Between Shopify and Shopify Plus
Shopify caters to businesses of all sizes and has a range of plans with different features and price points. Shopify Plus is an all-encompassing plan at the top of the list and includes everything Shopify has to offer to maximize user experience, some of which isn’t available on any other plan.
Here are some of the unique features of Shopify Plus:
Launch Engineer
Shopify always helps its store owners through phone, email, and chat support. If the problem is too involved, you can hire a Shopify Expert to solve it.
Shopify Plus expands on this feature with personalized and dedicated support just for your store, known as the Launch Engineer. This feature gives you a personal engineer to help you through the entire store setup and migration process, third-party integrations, or finding partners.
Theme Customization with Liquid
With Shopify standard plans, you can customize your theme using the editor feature, but it’s more challenging to change the theme completely.
Shopify Plus offers a higher degree of customization with Liquid, Shopify’s theme language. You can make changes at the code level, so you can have control over virtually every aspect of your site.
Checkout Customization
Customization is a great way to make your site appealing to your customers and offer a little personalization to your high-value customers. Shopify Plus makes this easy with customizable checkout experiences, which can be based on shopping cart values or other conditions.
Store owners also have access to Shopify Scripts and Script Editor, which allow you to customize the shipping methods, payment options, and customer fields. With normal Shopify plans, you need special apps to customize the experience.
Unlimited Staff Accounts
As your business grows, you’ll need to add staff accounts to help you manage your store. The basic plan only offers a few staff accounts, while Shopify Plus has unlimited staff accounts and customizable permission settings.
You can grant access to any of your team members and allow them management of your store, but you can fine-tune it with control over the actions staff can take as admin.
API Integrations
APIs allow integrations with third-party apps. Shopify Plus has enhanced API resources, such as Multipass, User, and GiftCard. Multipass seamlessly redirects visitors to the store without login credentials or synchronization, while User lets you add, remove, or edit information in staff accounts. GiftCard is a unique alternate payment method.
Shopify Plus also offers integration with custom apps or gives you an opportunity to build your own private apps and serve your customers better. Most customers expect a dedicated app for the brands they like, and Shopify Plus makes this easier than ever.
Exclusive Apps
Shopify apps are among its best features, but Shopify Plus takes it to a new level with apps that are exclusive to the Plus plan.
These include:
Wholesale channel to process high-volume B2B sales
Launchpad to plan and automate product launches, sales campaigns, or flash sales.
Script Editor to create personalized checkout experiences.
Shopify Flow, which automated customer-facing tasks and processes across apps and stores. The features stores and executes triggers for actions like tagging customers and sending reorder requests.
Bulk Account Inviter, which imports customers from another platform to activate their store accounts.
Transport app to import product, customer, or order data into the store.
Wholesale Channel
As B2B companies make the shift to ecommerce, having a wholesale channel is a necessary feature. It can be cumbersome to handle two individual stores for B2B and B2C customers, however.
Shopify Plus streamlines this process with a wholesale channel with a separate, password-protected storefront. You can offer all the same products, but with exclusive pricing for wholesale buyers, or focus exclusively on wholesale-only products.
You can also offer customized price lists or discount codes, send invoices, or track orders for both stores, all from one platform.
Platform Integration
The apps you can connect with Shopify are virtually limitless, but it may be necessary for high-growth businesses to integrate with platforms instead of apps. Shopify Plus API allows store owners to integrate with platforms for:
Customer relationship management
Enterprise resource planning
Product information management
Third-party logistics
Warehouse management software
Inventory and order management
Global fulfillment partner
Merchant Success Program
Shopify Plus includes the Merchant Success Program, which ensures store owners get the most bang for their buck with the plan. This feature helps with products, platforms, and integrations, along with training to help you maximize your store.
The program has 24/7 support and approved Shopify Plus Partners to keep you current on events and trends in the industry.
Additional Resources
Shopify Plus pulls out all the stops with resources. Some other exclusive offerings include:
A dedicated Facebook community to share experiences and get advice from other Shopify Plus users
Access to beta programs
A partners directory for agency and solution partners
Access to the Shopify Plus Academy training
In-Depth Analytics
Shopify has analytics for viewing stats like top products, page views, landing page hits, customer return rate, and sales. Most businesses can get by with basic analytics features, but Shopify Plus features analytics from top analytics companies to give you deeper insights into your store’s performance.
Centralized Dashboard
With Shopify Plus, you can add multiple stores for retail and wholesale or customers in other countries. Fortunately, it’s all managed on one centralized dashboard where you can track analytics, automation tools, user permissions, and staff accounts.
Adjusted Pricing
Shopify Plus starts at $2,000 per month, which is higher than the rest of the plans. Fortunately, this is adjusted based on sales volume. The price is $2,000 per month OR 0.25 percent of sales volume per month, whichever is greater.
So, if your store hits $2 million in sales each month, you’ll pay $5,000 per month. If you only have $100,000 per month, you’ll pay the $2,000 minimum.
Credit Card Processing Fees
All Shopify plans have built-in Shopify payments credit card processing. If you use a payment processor other than Shopify, such as PayPal, you’ll have a transaction fee. Shopify Payments helps you avoid this fee.
The fees are based on the Shopify plan level:
Basic Shopify: 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction
Shopify: 2.6 percent plus 30 cents per transaction
Advanced Shopify: 2.4 percent plus 30 cents per transaction
Shopify Plus offers lower Shopify Payments rates, which are negotiated based on credit card sale volumes. Typically, stores move to Shopify Plus and get a 2.15 percent plus 30 cents. This may not sound like much, but it adds up over high-volume sales.
For example, if you sold $450,000 per month, the Advanced Shopify plan would be $10,800 at 2.4 percent, while the Shopify Plus plan is $9,675 at 2.15 percent.
Of course, the difference between the plans is $299 per month vs. $2,000 per month to start. But, with all the features and lower fees, it’s a worthwhile investment. Many experts recommend switching when you reach $2 million in sales, but you may want to make the switch sooner. Even on $450,000, the benefits outweigh the costs.
Shopify Plus Pricing Breakdown
Shopify Plus pricing isn’t published, but requires a quote request. Store owners can get a quote based on the percentage of monthly revenue, which is typically 0.25 percent. Otherwise, Shopify Plus starts at $2,000 and caps at $40,000 per month, so you have an idea of the least and most you’ll pay.
The rest of the plans are as follows:
Basic Shopify: $29 per month
Shopify: $79 per month
Advanced Shopify: $299 per month
All of these plans offer and online store, unlimited products, 24/7 support, multiple sales channels, manual order creation, discount codes, and a free SSL certificate. Some of the differences between them relate to the number of locations and staff accounts you’re allowed.
Shopify vs. Shopify Plus: Which is Better?
Shopify Plus is pricey at $2,000 per month, but it’s worth it for how it can boost your sales and growth. However, this may be too much for businesses just starting out or small businesses that aren’t quite reaching those sales numbers.
If you are hitting the big sales each month, the Shopify Plus features pay for themselves in no time.
Author Bio: Sean Richards
Sean Richards is the VP of Strategy & Partnerships for Vincit. Prior to Vincit, Richards provided business development, digital marketing strategy and partnership development at several reputable companies and marketing agencies in both California and Arizona. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Design Management from Arizona State University.
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