Shopify Plus – Worth the Upgrade?

Shopify Plus – Worth the Upgrade?

It’s the main question when it comes to Shopify Plus is – ‘’How is it better than “standard” Shopify. Also, aren’t they the same thing?’’

No, no they are not. “Standard Shopify” is the base version and comes in three plans (“Basic”, “Shopify” and “Advanced”), while “Shopify Plus” is the enterprise product with added features and functionalities. Of course, all of these versions also come with a different price tag.

We’ve written a blog post about the general advantages of Shopify Plus, which you can find here if you’d like to read up on that. But today we want to bring up the added benefits that come with upgrading to Shopify Plus from a standard Shopify plan.

If you'd like to first take things back to basics to refresh your memory, then read of intro blog 'What is Shopify?' here.

Checkout Customization

Gain full control of the checkout experience that you would like to offer. With both Shopify and Shopify Plus, you can provide a tailor made website theme designed to meet your businesses brand image best. In doing so, you will be able to design a site that is uniquely your own and incorporate techniques that are all about optimizing your online store.

The bit you want to make sure is functionally as well as possible is naturally the checkout section of your site. Shopify comes with a highly reliable and functional checkout experience in all plans. In contrast to the general design of the page, the checkout can only be fully customized on the Shopify Plus plan, though.

When it comes to the checkout experience, make things easier for customers by including Shopify Payments as one way they can pay. If you'd like to know more about Shopify Payments, take a read of our blog here: 'What is Shopify Payments?'.

Shopify Flow & Launchpad

Shopify-built tools that automate and therefore reduce administrative tasks for you. With Shopify Flow, you can automate workflows in your store. Whilst Shopify Flow is also availabe to Advanced Shopify merchants, it is nonetheless a very nifty app that Shopify Plus merchants also gain access to. Shopify Launchpad is a scheduling tool that lives inside your Shopify admin, allowing you to schedule product visibility, theme and content changes, discounts, and more with a defined start and end time. Both are there to automate your operations and create ease around your workflow.

Shopify Flow is an example of a tool you can use for Shopify Automation. This is the act of streamlining the processes of your Shopify store. If you would like to know more about this, then take a read of our blog 'Shopify Automation' here.

Merchant success program

Shopify has taken the time to produce a program in the interest of their merchants and their success. Merchants on the Shopify Plus plan get dedicated support. Moreover, they will have access to a dedicated merchant success manager that will help them to get the most out of the platform and keep up with new developments and features at Shopify.

Higher API Call Limit

To ensure that the Shopify Plus platform remains stable and fair for everyone, all Shopify APIs are rate-limited. What is this? A rate limit is the number of API calls an app or user can make within a given time period. Depending on which plan you use, those limits will change. When upgrading to Shopify Plus, your API call limit will be a good bit higher than before (to see more details about rate limits, click here).

Pricing / Transaction fees

Shopify Plus is rather pricey as you can imagine, with all the design features, optimization options and important information that you receive through reports. Shopify Plus starts at $2000 a month. Yet upgrading can also help you save money because if you are using Shopify Payments (Shopifys own payment solution - you can learn more about it in this article), you will benefit from more favorable transaction fees after upgrading.

Unlimited User Accounts

With the most expensive Shopify plan, “Advanced”, you will be able to invite up to 15 unique users to your store. If you have a large team working on your store, this will usually result in shared accounts, which is not an optimal solution. With Shopify Plus, you can create as many user accounts as you need.

Multiple Stores on one account / internationalization

When companies grow, there comes a point where they want to enter international markets and open dedicated stores for them. With “standard” Shopify, this would mean opening a new account. With Shopify plus, you can operate stores under the same brand for multiple countries or currency areas.

Wholesale Channel

Shopify Plus comes with a nifty wholesale channel, which comes with B2B features, like price lists, customer-specific pricing, volume-based pricing rules etc., which allows you an easy start into selling to B2B audiences.

Conclusion

I hope this gives you a good impression of the added features and benefits you can expect from upgrading your Shopify store to Shopify Plus. Of course, these benefits come with a price tag. With a monthly rate of at least $2,000, upgrading is not an easy decision to make. We can’t answer the question of if it’s worth the upgrade, as it is completely up to your business needs and your budget. We can certainly say that the upgrade does come with some really awesome benefits.

If you’re not confident, whether upgrading is worth it for you, you can take a look at this other blog post of ours, which tries to help you decide the correct time to upgrade. Alternatively, you can also consult with us. To do so, just email us at hello@especial.digital or contact us on our website.