Ecommerce is booming, and platforms are ready to assist both customers and business owners with the launch of ecommerce stores. Dedicated ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify, can help merchants manage their stores more efficiently.
If you need more than what Shopify plans can offer, such as high-volume capabilities during busy sales periods, unlimited user accounts, multiple store variants, or a fully customizable customer experience, an upgrade to Shopify Plus may be just what you need.
Shopify Plus is a big investment, however, so it’s important to know when the upgrade is right for you.
All About Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is the highest plan for Shopify and offers its most robust features. Shopify Plus users can provide a full omnichannel shopping experience with cross-platform abilities, fully integrated features across desktop, mobile, and third-party applications.
The upgrade also offers powerful scaling on an international scale, which is ideal for companies looking to expand or scale in different countries. Numerous features are available to enhance the user experience (UX), including seamless interactions between online storefronts and physical store locations.
When Should You Upgrade?
If your ecommerce business is growing rapidly or you’re doing high-volume sales and looking for more automation, then Shopify Plus may be the right decision for you. There’s a lot to consider in upgrading, however.
Shopify Plus Costs
Price is an important consideration in any business decision. With Shopify Plus, that may be a barrier to upgrading. As a platform, Shopify offers several plans that span from $9 to $299 (plus transaction fees).
Shopify Plus is a minimum of $2,000 to start. If an ecommerce store exceeds $800,000 annually, Shopify Plus becomes revenue-based and assesses a fee of 0.25 percent of monthly revenue. You may also have fees for maintenance, applications, and credit card processing.
It’s clear that Shopify Plus is only a viable option for ecommerce stores that already have high annual revenue, or else the price isn’t worth the extra capabilities. Ideally, an ecommerce store will have an annual revenue of $1 million or greater.
Shopify Plus Benefits
With the price tag, Shopify Plus is designed with every feature you could imagine to help enterprise-level ecommerce stores scale and expand.
Some of the benefits of Shopify Plus include:
- Omnichannel marketing capabilities
- International and multi-currency storefronts operated from one backend
- Functionality across devices and platforms, including third-party apps, desktop, and mobile devices
- In-depth analytics on customers and transactions
- Automated workflow
- Headless Commerce
- Fully customizable checkout experience
- Script Editor to run custom code
- Cross-channel selling on marketplaces
- 24/7 support
- Management and customization of pricing, promotions, product launches, and customer interactions
In addition, Shopify Plus helps business owners with extensive training and support features, including Shopify Plus Experts, which supply end-to-end support. There’s also Shopify Plus Academy, which includes a library of learning resources like videos and workshops, which owners can use at any time.
For scaling and expansion, Shopify Plus has incredible features that allow owners to move across regions and handle high-volume traffic during busy sale periods, such as Black Friday and Christmas.
How to Upgrade to Shopify Plus
Switching from a familiar ecommerce platform can be intimidating. Some platforms take over a year to migrate, which can mean losses in time, revenue, and momentum.
This is another area where Shopify Plus excels. The platform ensures a full migration in 90 days (sometimes less), and it’s free. This makes it simple and quick to transition operations without losing business. Shopify covers the migration services, so setup, testing, and hosting are handled by a Launch Engineer.
In addition, Shopify provides security features and hosting, security patches and upgrades, and other helpful tasks. Store-level customizations and changes can be done by the business owner, eliminating the need for outsourcing.
All data is transferred to Shopify Plus, including inventory and product information, sales data, and order processing. The platform offers analytics of its own, which help operational performance and growth.
Finally, Google Analytics and other data-reporting tools integrate with Shopify for tracking conversions, learning customer behavioral details, and identifying cart abandonment to optimize the checkout process.
Ready for an Upgrade?
Shopify Plus is an enterprise-level platform designed with features for enterprise-level businesses. Ecommerce businesses looking to expand into international territory, open wholesale capability, and scale their business operations will find a lot to like about Shopify Plus.
Still, Shopify Plus starts at $2,000 a month. That’s cost-effective for larger businesses with its many features and integrations, but it’s recommended to be pulling at least $1 million a year in revenue to make it worth the investment.
So, if you’re already looking for an enterprise solution or expecting to scale in the next few months, making the switch to Shopify Plus opens a wealth of features, functionality, and possibilities.
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.