Looking into Shopify and Shopify Plus? What’s the Difference?
Reading Time: 6 minutes If you’ve been using Shopify for your eCommerce store, you may wonder about all the buzz around Shopify Plus. The core service is enough for individual sellers and small businesses looking to break into eCommerce. Still, the experience needs to offer a little more for a massive industry with millions in sales.
That’s what Shopify Plus has to offer. While it includes all the features of Shopify, it adds integrations, features, dedicated support, and other benefits for large, growing businesses.
Want to learn more? Here are the differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus.
Table of Contents
What Is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is the enterprise-level plan for Shopify and designed for large businesses looking to fuel growth.
Basically, Shopify Plus has everything that the core Shopify plans have – plus more. Instead of thinking about what’s the same, let’s consider what the differences are between these two plans and how they translate to advantages for your business.
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Checkout Customization
One of Shopify Plus’s most touted features, checkout customization gives you full control to optimize the customer experience. You have complete license over the entire checkout and cart experience, including the option to create promotions or discounts by triggers like product number, cart total, or volume. You can also customize the payment options and the shipping method to ensure your customers have the experience they expect.
Liquid Access
Shopify theme templates are included for every Shopify plan, but there’s only so much customization you can perform. These are not only shared between everyone on Shopify, but you could find that you can’t customize the theme to reflect your brand the way you want.
But not with Shopify Plus. This plan offers full customization with Shopify’s theme language, Liquid. This feature allows you to make code-level changes to the backend for full control.
Unlimited Staff Accounts
Shopify plans have specific numbers of staff accounts for each one, which tend to correspond to the business size that’s likely to use them. You can do a lot with only a few staff accounts, but if you’re looking to grow, you may need more than the Shopify plans have to offer.
There’s no limit to the staff accounts for Shopify Plus. You can give every team member an account, and if you want certain team members to have less control, you can put limitations on the actions they can perform.
Launch Manager
One of the best features of Shopify is the customer support it offers 24/7, no matter your plan. You can access support through the phone, email, or live chat. If you need more help than support teams can provide, you can contact Shopify Experts.
Shopify Plus adds to the support options with dedicated support through its Launch Engineer feature. The specific Launch Engineer can guide you through the setup and migration process for your website, manage third-party integrations, and find the right partners to help you succeed.
Wholesale Channels
As businesses grow, many want to expand into the B2B or wholesale market to expand their customer base. However, doing so isn’t easy since you have to maintain two storefronts.
With Shopify Plus, you can have a password-protected wholesale storefront that you can control from the same centralized dashboard. You have plenty of features to succeed in the wholesale market, including bulk pricing, exclusive wholesale-only products, and customized price lists.
API Integrations
The API allows two applications to communicate with each other and how Shopify can integrate with third-party apps. While the Shopify plans allow some APIs, Shopify Plus further includes many third-party apps that can enhance the customer experience.
One such app is Multipass, which is a login feature that redirects visitors to your Shopify store. You could also build your own apps and integrate them.
Exclusive Apps
Shopify has many apps, but Shopify Plus offers exclusive apps for only the plan’s users. These include options like the wholesale channel, Shopify Flow, an automation platform, and Script Editor, a feature that allows you to personalize the checkout experience.
Other apps include Launchpad, the Bulk Account Inviter, and the Transporter app, which imports the information into your store with information about customers and products.
Several integrations are available with Shopify Plus that work with enterprise-level businesses, such as:
- Third-party logistics
- React. JS
- Product information management
- Inventory and order management
- Enterprise resource planning
- Warehouse management software
- Customer relationship management
Central Dashboard
Shopify Plus supports scaling businesses by putting everything you need in one place. The centralized dashboard offers all the information about your staff accounts, storefronts, automation tools, and analytics in a comprehensive view.
No matter how many storefronts you have, this one dashboard provides information on all of them. This makes it easy to expand into the wholesale market or grow internally with multiple store variants in different countries, languages, and currencies.
The analytics on the dashboard are excellent on their own and show you information about your returning customers and product views. Shopify Plus also enhances this by partnering with leading analytics companies to get deeper insights about your store and customers.
Merchant Success Program
Shopify Plus has a big monthly fee, but the platform ensures you have what you need to succeed with the Merchant Success Program. This program shows you how to leverage different features, integrations, and tools with guides and training, including your own Merchant Success Manager.
If you still need help, you can consult support and find Shopify Plus Partners for more personalized guidance and tips. This is in addition to Shopify Plus Academy, the Partners directory, and an exclusive Facebook community with other store owners using Shopify Plus.
How Much Does Shopify Plus Cost?
The extra features and capabilities of Shopify Plus come with a steep price tag that requires a quote from Shopify, though it begins at $2,000 per month.
By comparison, the other plans are:
- Basic Shopify ($29/month): Includes all the necessary features, such as an online storefront, unlimited product uploads, 24/7 Shopify support, and two staff accounts.
- Shopify ($79/month): Includes the online store, unlimited products, 24/7 support, and up to five staff accounts.
- Advanced Shopify ($299/month): Includes the online store, unlimited products, 24/7 support, and up to 15 staff accounts.
Shopify Plus takes a jump from Advanced Shopify with pricing that begins around $2,000 per month or a minimum of 0.25% of sales volume per month, whichever is greater. This is capped at $40,000, and you must contact Shopify to get an exact quote.
The more you sell, the more you’ll pay. If you have excellent sales, you’ll pay more each month for Shopify Plus. But if you have slower months, you will only have the minimum monthly fee of $2,000.
Before deciding to upgrade, consider weighing the pros and cons to determine what’s right for your business. Businesses should have the high-volume sales and processes that Shopify Plus enhances to ensure they get everything out of it.
Which is Right for My Business?
Shopify Plus has a lot to offer, but only if you have an enterprise-level business that needs it. The monthly fee is a lot of money if your business is small and not hitting millions in sales, so keep that in mind.
But if you are coming close to those sales and looking to grow, Shopify Plus is just what you need to ramp up your plan to scale. The goal is specifically designed to support growth with its features and capabilities.
Ready to Upgrade?
Shopify Plus is Shopify’s top-tier plan and offers all the features of the other Shopify plans, along with some exclusive features of its own. Though it has a high monthly fee, these features are necessary to fuel your business growth and ensure success. Even if you’re not ready now, Shopify Plus is a valuable option for the future.
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Co-Authored With
Sean Richards is the VP of Strategy & Partnerships for Vincit. Richards provided business development, React-Native Consulting, digital marketing strategy, and partnership development at several reputable companies and marketing agencies in California and Arizona. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Design Management from Arizona State University.
