In case you are new to the platform, Shopify is a complete ecommerce solution that, sell across different channels, offer localised experiences with currencies, language and currency that allows businesses to sell online with outstanding order/customer management tools and features that help brands acquire, manage and retain customers. The platform allows you to manage every aspect of your business from order processing, content, blog, products and more. Shopify merchants have access to thousands of trusted third-party apps from the Shopify app store and the capabilities of Shopify are continually being extended by Shopify themselves and also by a network & community of expert technology partners. Shopify is one of the most scalable, feature-rich and fastest-growing ecommerce platforms that exist. However, if you are a fast-growth, high-turnover brand then you might want to consider upgrading to Shopify Plus. Almost 40,000 global brands choose Shopify Plus, is it right for your business? We've weighed up Shopify vs Shopify Plus to help you decide with everything we think you should have a think abou alongside our expert insights too!The platform comes equipped with a full suite of analytics to allow you keep track of the details of your business and core KPIs such as conversions, average order value and where you acquired customers from. Shopify acts as a centralised admin for your business storing all the data such as customers, people, name, addresses, order history and even includes both fraud and bot protection.
As businesses grow they become more complex, and if the brand's requirements exceed that of a small to medium business then the functionality included in standard plans of Shopify may not be enough.
Amongst the three main plan options for small to medium-sized businesses, Shopify offers an enterprise plan called Shopify Plus that is tailored toward fast-growing & high-revenue global brands. The exact moment to upgrade through the Shopify plans can be a challenging decision.
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 this article helps. Alternatively, 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, Kylie Cosmetics, Huel & Lululemon all trusting the platform. Shopify Plus is a leading enterprise ecommerce platform for leading global brands.
Considering Shopify Advanced? See our article that compares
Shopify Plus vs Advanced plans.
What is the Shopify Plus Platform?
When Shopify was founded in 2006, it was initially built for small to medium businesses wanting to develop their direct-to-consumer strategy. But what if your customer base and orders grow to a point where turnover consistently grows, and your business's complexity outgrows the standard Shopify offering? Shopify Plus is the answer!
But
What is Shopify Plus? Shopify Plus is an enterprise-level, e-commerce platform designed for larger companies with high sales volumes. As businesses grow, so does the 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 support and enhanced bandwidth for your store. The amount you can do with Shopify Plus is unparalleled to other platforms, which is something worth considering to build a competitive advantage over other stores using other platforms. Tools and technologies within Shopify Plus help merchants improve order value and volume of buyers like no other whilst being scalable for your business.
It is important to remember although Shopify Plus has incredible tools and features such as enhanced access to customise the code of your store, faster development execution times and advanced ecommerce features, it is not for everyone and standard Shopify offers more than enough for the majority of small to businesses. Shopify Plus is best for when there are specific key challenges you face you scale that the platform solves. 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.
Why Choose Shopify Plus for Your Business Needs?
There are many reasons why brands choose to upgrade to Shopify Plus however, you should consider the cost vs benefits before taking the plunge. Shopify Plus comes equipped with additional features including access to specialised apps, the ability to customise the checkout, build custom apps and access Shopify's
B2B platform too. Along with a considerable list of additional features, Shopify Plus also gives an increased bandwidth for checkouts per second, access to priority support and lower transaction fees. Shopify Plus is a powerful platform for brands that are growing fast and also boasts a lower total cost of ownership than its competitors such as
Magento.
How Much Do Shopify Plus Pricing Plans Cost?
We strongly advise considering the ongoing costs and pricing plans when making a comparison between 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 $2,300 USD per month until your revenue exceeds $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 Shopify Payments gateway, and instead use a
third-party payment gateway, then transactions will attract an additional 0.5% payment 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.
When To Upgrade To Shopify Plus Based On Your Business Needs
Shopify Plus is not for every business and the standard Shopify packages exceed 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 are not achieveable with standard Shopify. However as ecommerce businesses grow you'll need a bespoke solution that manages your customer'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 the functionality required to achieve daily operations in the most efficient way is not possible without it. Shopify and Shopify Plus an incredibly fast ecommerce solutions that don'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. Shopify Plus comes with all the features that standard Shopify does such as content management, online store editor, the homepage editor, and the default UI of how the platofrm looks. We can help you decide if you need the Plus platform or whether we can help you develop a solution that doesn't require a 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 resources. Let's dig into the features of Shopify Plus to really show the differences.
Apps, Integrations & Third Parties
Although Shopify hosts a
huge range of free apps, many of the enterprise feature-rich tech does, unfortunately, attract a monthly fee but some ecommerce tools help enterprise businesses manage their store. Now it's also important to remember a lot of this won't matter as some apps will pay for themselves through the increase in sales their features bring, think loyalty, social media, automations, 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 to the increased flexibility of Shopify Plus, your development team may be able to build your 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. Lastly, when you upgrade to Shopify Plus you will be able to access some apps that are exclusive for Shopify Plus only.
Maintenance, Security, Servers & Bot Protection
One of the brain benefits of Shopify & Shopify Plus is that Shopify hosts all the ecommerce stores on their own extremely powerful servers meaning you don't need to independently manage servers, technical infrastructure, customer data, security testing or upgrades - it's all included. Shopify's servers are incredibly powerful and incorporate 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 with the best performance. These servers power millions of websites around the globe. This network allows Shopify to be able to offer unlimited bandwidth and over 10,000 transactions per minute! Shopify's dedicated security teams ensure your store is secure and compliant to the highest of standards. It's worth remembering competitor platforms such as Magento or WordPress that require merchants to manage their 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 sttep further in reaching their strategic objectives.
Customer Service & Support
Shopify Plus builds on the standard Shopify offering with some of the most advanced ecommerce features. Shopify Plus gives brands the highest level of
customer support that Shopify offers this includes priority 24/7 live chat, phone and email customer support to give brands advice and peace and mind for their business. Shopify also gives merchants a wealth of knowledge through the Shopify Plus Academy, courses, online resources, shopify academy, FAQs and forums. The largest of merchants who use Shopify Plus will sometimes be assigned dedicated points of contact called a merchant success manager from the merchant success program within the Shopify Plus team also however note this is not for all Shopify Plus merchants. Merchant Success Managers act a personal support for questions, queries, tips and more for large scale Shopify merchants with things they require direct support with day to day to give shoppers the very best customer experience. Brands can also lean on shopify plus partners & experts to support with services needed for their ecommerce website however these are third parties and will attract an additional charge so budgets should be considered.
Internationalisation for Global Markets
All plans of Shopify allow merchants to sell around the globe using
Shopify Markets however Shopify Plus does offer the most comprehensive suite of features for scaling brands. When using Shopify Markets to sell internationally from one store then non-plus plans typically offer merchants to ability to sell in 3 additional markets and those on the advanced plan can pay an additional fee per market if they need to expand their reach. Shopify Plus allows brands to sell to up to 50 markets from one store great for those with a large international presence. Sometimes, larger brands need the ability to operate each territory from independent and separate Shopify stores. In this instance, Shopify Plus allows brands to have 9 additional expansion stores and can also pay additional fees to expand beyond this. Shopify allows different languages, currencies domain structures and localisation on all plans.
Schedule Automation Workflows
When making a comparison of Shopify versus Shopify Plus, having access to Shopify-Plus-only apps such as Launchpad should be noted. Shopify Flow historically was only for Shopify Plus brands however this is now available to all plans. Flow is an ecommerce automation platform that allows you to automate everyday tasks. The possibilities are huge however some examples include; 'create a support ticket when you receive a negative review' or 'SMS Text a discount code after a customer's second order'. If you can dream it Flow can automate it. Other apps include Shopify Launchpad which allows you to schedule tasks in the future. Tasks include new product releases, promotions, marketing campaigns, discount codes, gift cards, flash sales, content for the Shopify community and more.
Dashboard with Enhanced Analytics Built For Large Teams
With unlimited staff accounts, organization admin, user management & permissions, Shopify Plus now offers a revolutionised interface and admin dashboard to manage all your stores, data analytics dashboard, reports, staff accounts, staff permissions and permission settings in one place. This dashboard allows you and your team to have a complete overview of your business, promote teamwork and improve automation. The dashboard is particularly great when you are managing multiple stores in different locations whilst maintaining one central management system.
Access B2B Selling Features for Merchants
Selling your products wholesale is a breeze with Shopify Plus's dedicated 'Wholesale Channel'. You can offer dedicated accounts for your wholesale customers to give them access to a password-protected view of your store including tiered quantity prices, order quantity thresholds, unique product visibility to different customers and unique payment gateways to specific customers too. The B2B platform also allows unique and B2B-specific payment options such as deposits, net payment terms and unique payment methods. You'll be able to offer your wholesale customers a streamlined, user-friendly and easy way to order your products that is unique to your DTC shopping experience. You can easily offer different content and messaging editing the view for B2B customers within the
store theme editor.
Customise The Checkout With Checkout Extensibility
One of the most attractive features of Shopify Plus is the ability to customise the checkout process. Non-Plus plans only allow merchants to make minor customisations such as the logo and colours. Shopify Plus gives brands access to a feature called
checkout extensibility and checkout extensions, historically this was via the Script Editor or shopify scripts however in recent years the checkout has been transformed to what it is today to improve efficiency, security and how developers use the platform. This feature allows developers to add additional UI components to extend the functionality of the checkout, meeting the needs of diverse workflows and creating tailored experiences. This might include an upsell product or additional inut fields that align with specific themes or branding. Unique logic can be established too for advanced requirements with
Shopify Functions; for example, developers can build custom discounting functionality or behaviours that occur in the checkout, all with the users' choice in mind. Additionally, these features give developers more control, allowing them to make customisations and fine-tune the checkout to match the version of the brand's identity We've helped many clients customer their Checkout with our expertise, so if you require support get in touch or check out our guides.
Additional Features and Integrations of Shopify Plus
Our article has covered the key differentials between Shopify and Shopify Plus; however, there are several additional features that the platform offers that we should share for your consideration. Shopify Plus does offer unlimited staff accounts, meaning you won't hit any restrictions as your team grows. This scalability is crucial for enterprise businesses managing high traffic or complex processes. The plan below, Shopify Advanced, does limit each store to 15 staff members. Shopify allows you to track inventory, fulfill orders, and sell products across multiple regions, countries, and marketplaces, including retail stores, warehouses, and pop-ups—Shopify Plus extends this functionality with up to 200 inventory locations compared with 10 on the other plans. For a fully customizable checkout experience, Shopify Plus gives you 40x the bandwidth of checkout pages, handling high purchases during peak traffic, and up to 10x the standard rate limit for APIs when compared to other plans. If you are looking for a headless store, Shopify Plus allows you to manage up to 25 storefronts compared with just 1 on all other plans. The flexibility that Shopify Plus offers gives developers a much more advanced level of customisation meaning that the checkout experience, unique discounting, advanced scripts, colours / colors, fonts, customization options and specific features can be added to the buying journey. Shopify's checkout is very recognisable however it's hard to get away from this completely - a question that many merchants have asked. Shopify Plus historically offered a migration tool, however this has been depreciated to third party tools now. We've supported merchants to
migrate to Shopify Plus from platforms such as Magento and BigCommerce so get in touch if you need support.
Conclusion: Shopify VS Shopify Plus - A Features Comparison
This article has explored the key differences between Shopify & Shopify Plus and what types of features you might want to consider when deciding whether to upgrade. It's always important to seek professional consultation before making this decision, however, we hope this article has helped enhance your knowledge of the platform.
If you need support in deciding which plan to choose.
Get In Touch
Nic Dunn |
CEO - Charle Agency
Bespoke Shopify Plus Websites