Shopify vs Shopify Plus - When to Upgrade to Shopify Plus
Running a business can easily be compared to swimming with sharks. You need to be at your best and outperform your competition to survive and thrive in an aggressive and dynamic environment. But how can you achieve this?
Today, the world around us is strongly digitized, meaning that most of your potential buyers are actively browsing online for products and services to buy. There are millions of eCommerce websites and your competition is already taking advantage of this opportunity. But not all Ecommerce stores are created equal. It’s a matter of design, concept, customer journey, user experience, and so much more. But it’s mainly a matter of the eCommerce platform you’ve selected to allow you to create an online store that sells.
Shopify is one of the world’s dominating eCommerce platforms and a choice for more than one million online shops. If you’ve already selected Shopify for your business, you’ve probably witnessed the vast potential to grow and scale. However, if your business is rapidly expanding and tapping into different markets, there’s something even better - Shopify Plus.
Let’s see what the differences are and when it makes sense to upgrade your Shopify plan.
Shopify vs Shopify Plus – Overview
Before we can dig into the advanced Shopify vs Shopify Plus dilemma, let’s explore what the two plans are all about.
In a nutshell, Shopify is one of the world’s leading subscription-based software solutions that enables any business owner to create an online shop and sell products or services. In other words, it’s a complete, all-in-one eCommerce solution that can dramatically help you establish and grow your online store. How? By providing top-notch eCommerce features, outstanding themes, and reliable support. It’s very easy to use and most of its features can be used by less experienced users without much technical background.
However, for big players with ambitious goals on the market, there’s an upgraded version of Shopify and it’s called Shopify Plus. It’s a different type of subscription that is mostly suitable for enterprise-level businesses that need the support of a more powerful platform to manage their scale. Shopify Plus offers key features that can make a real difference for high-volume stores.
So let’s see how the two are different in more detail.
What are the differences between Shopify vs Shopify Plus?
Shopify Pricing
The Shopify vs Shopify Plus pricing dilemma is perhaps one of the most fundamental ones when it comes to decision making. Of course, your business expenses will need to be carefully considered before making a choice. The difference in the pricing for the two subscription types is very vivid. While the standard Shopify subscription will cost you anywhere from $29 to $299 a month, Shopify Plus will cost you a whopping $2,000. However, once your online store reaches a turnover of more than $800,000 on an annual basis, this subscription will turn into a revenue-based fee that translates into 0.25% of your monthly turnover.
In short, Shopify Plus vs Shopify Advanced in terms of price looks like $299 vs a minimum of $2,000 a month. But before you turn a blind eye and assume that the price is too high, it’s worth investigating what you’ll be getting in return. For starters, one of the main benefits of the Plus plan is the reduced fee rate (2.15% + 30¢ per transaction where you have 2.4% + 30¢ on the Advanced plan). Whether you can take advantage of this or not very much depends on your average sales amount per month. But there’s more.
Believe us, you won’t be disappointed.
Shopify vs Shopify Plus – Support
As you can imagine, spending so much on Shopify does offer a number of advantages and support is one of them. If we look at an advanced Shopify vs Shopify Plus chart, we’ll immediately notice that although Shopify offers live support 24/7, Shopify Plus has more in store for you. Apart from the full-time live support, as a Plus subscriber, you’ll be able to have access to an expert consultant who can help you resolve any issue or even advise you. In other words, you’ll have access to a dedicated Merchant Success Manager and a dedicated Launch Manager who will help you get your store online faster by assisting with third-party integrations.
How can this be useful?
Well, you don’t need to get headaches from trains to resolve a problem or integrate any apps or solutions to your shop. You’ll have all the answers a click away.
Shopify vs Shopify Plus – Themes & Design Flexibility
When it comes to themes and design, at first sight, it seems like Shopify and Shopify Plus are not all that different. They both have 80+ themes available to users (there are 10 free themes and the rest you’ll have to pay for). When using Shopify, you can make changes to your themes by using Shopify Liquid - a template language that allows you to make code edits including to HTML and CSS. Put in other words, you’ll need some level of coding experience.
On the other hand, on Shopify Plus, the Launch Manager takes over any basic code writing or custom edits. You don’t have to move a finger, hire experts, or worry about a thing. You’ll also be able to gain access to Script Editor to fully personalize and customize your shop’s checkout page to dramatically improve the user experience. Shopify Scripts can help you use three types of scripts:
- Line item scripts
- Shipping scripts
- Payment scripts
These will allow you to set certain discounts to products by percentage or fixed amounts, to set up promotions, provide volume prices, and play around with different shipping options. You can check more Script examples in this Shopify help center article.
Shopify vs Shopify Plus – eCommerce Features
Finally, we’ve reached the Shopify Plus features section. At a glance, here are some of the key features that you can enjoy by upgrading to the Shopify Plus subscription except for the reduced fee rate we noted above:
- You can launch new sales channels very easily
- You can offer an omnichannel experience for users
- You can have international stores with multiple storefronts and languages
- Set up your own wholesale channel for high-value (B2B) customers
- Create unlimited staff accounts for your team
- You can have a customizable checkout
- Additional API calls available to integrate with custom apps.
- Access to some advanced Shopify apps like the Script Editor and Shopify Flow
- You can enjoy bigger Shopify Shipping discounts
- The ability to add up to 100 themes on your Shopify account (limited to 20 for other plans)
And more.
Wrapping up
If your business generates huge amounts of traffic, makes a lot of sales, offers products across different countries, and simply needs a powerful platform that can support all of the vast volumes, Shopify Plus is undoubtedly the way to tackle the future. If you’re wondering about how to upgrade your Shopify Plan, we’re here to help and advise. You can also rely on us for Shopify speed optimization services and more.
Take your business to a future that it deserves and be one step ahead of the pack with the right platform behind your back.