Upgrading to Shopify Plus: When and why to make the move
It’s common knowledge that ecommerce is a booming industry—even more so over the past couple of years. The brisk pace of change means the competition among online retailers has never been so intense, as more businesses move to exclusively virtual trading.
Shopify Plus is a sophisticated and advanced cloud-based platform which offers unmatched scalability and selling capabilities to large or rapidly expanding online stores. It is the preeminent SaaS choice for enterprise-level ventures and Shopify’s biggest plan.
This article will discuss why a growing ecommerce business should consider moving to Shopify Plus and outline the benefits of using this platform. In this guide:
- What is Shopify Plus and why does your business need it?
- What are the benefits of Shopify Plus?
- Is it worth it?
- Frequently asked questions
What is Shopify Plus and why does your business need it?
Shopify Plus is a fully hosted ecommerce platform designed specifically to meet the demands of online stores who are outgrowing the functionalities of their current platform. It provides even more opportunities for innovative design with a range of customisation options to suit your customer interests and branding.
As a Shopify Plus merchant, you can expect even more flexibility and growth opportunities than the standard Shopify plan. With Shopify Plus, you will also receive 24/7 support from a dedicated technical and account management team, as well as priority customer service.
It is particularly recommended for ecommerce businesses who:
- Have a consistently high volume of traffic and excellent user engagement
- Have a high revenue of more than €750,000 per annum
- Predict and plan for exponential growth
- Experience regular or seasonal spikes in sales, sometimes several thousand per minute
- Want to focus more on the customer-facing elements of ecommerce rather than the backend development and maintenance of their site
Compared to basic Shopify and alternative enterprise-level solutions, only Shopify Plus can offer the infrastructure, support, customisations and functionalities needed for big online businesses.
What are the benefits of Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus benefits from its reliability and flexibility. It boasts a comprehensive range of features for all kinds of businesses, 99.99% uptime, responsive design and excellent tech support, amongst many other things.
Even compared to Shopify’s most premium non-Plus plan, the benefits of using Shopify Plus are justification enough for the cost. Some of the many advantages to an online store hosted by Shopify Plus are listed below.
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Predictable pricing plan |
A simple, flat-rate which accounts for present earnings, projected growth and site traffic, and only rises with business scale and structure. |
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Unlimited bandwidth, transactions and products |
Limitless capacity of products and sales, with reliable servers built to manage high traffic volumes of up to 500,000 hits or 10,000 transactions per minute during a flash sale, for example. |
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Point of Sale opportunities |
New opportunities for multichannel trading, allowing customers to buy online and pick up in-store. |
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No transaction fee |
Savings from the 0% transaction fee often covers the monthly cost of the Shopify Plus plan. However, this only applies if you use Shopify Payments. |
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Extensive app marketplace and rapid integration |
Higher API limit, Shopify Partners and a large app store covering areas such as marketing, inventory and customer service. Shopify apps are verified, easy to install and regularly updated with enhancements and new features. |
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Better safety and security |
Level 1 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) compliance for hosting and software to keep customer data secure and protect against fraudulent activity. |
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Automated processes, campaigns and discounts |
Shopify Flow automation tool for managing mundane tasks that take up valuable business time. Generate automated discount codes with specific validation periods with the Shopify Launchpad scheduling tool, shipping deals, tiered pricing and more. |
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Extra staff accounts and enhanced admin processes |
Unlimited staff accounts and additional user permissions (e.g. an organisation admin, a store owner and general staff). Better ability to view store performance and manage workflows. |
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Localised stores |
Innovative growth potential with custom domain checkouts and the ability to operate up to nine stores from a single dashboard to target different countries and currencies. Extra stores are available at an additional cost. |
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Conversion optimisation with a customisable checkout process |
Only the Plus plan provides the ability to customise the checkout experience with company branding and UX capabilities by testing how many pages customers have to move through to complete their order, for example. |
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Wholesale and B2B functionality |
Merchants can access a separate wholesale platform with custom discounts and shipping fees that business owners can operate alongside their regular ecommerce website. |
Is it worth it?
So, considering all that has been discussed, is Shopify Plus worth the cost? Absolutely, yes, but that depends on several factors including the current and forecasted size of your business, your budget and your long-term goals.
For a growing ecommerce store, joining Shopify Plus would be an investment that can help your business reach its potential. For a large-scale enterprise, upgrading or migrating to the Plus plan could actually save money thanks to the flexible pricing plan and zero transaction fees.
Frequently asked questions
How do you upgrade to Shopify Plus?
Start the upgrade process by getting in contact with a Shopify expert. Our guide to upgrading to Shopify Plus outlines the main things to consider and provides some helpful advice.
How much does it cost to migrate to Shopify Plus?
Shopify doesn’t request a migration fee, but your current platform may issue some costs, so always read the small print in your agreement.
Can you use an external Shopify theme?
Most Shopify retailers use themes available in the Shopify Theme Store, but you can use a theme from a third-party provider as long as it is built with Liquid, the only code compatible with Shopify.
How does Plus compare to the regular Shopify plan?
Basic Shopify is designed for small to medium-sized businesses whereas Plus is intended specifically for large enterprises. The Plus plan is, therefore, more expensive and has a much more extensive offering.
