Why You Should Upgrade your Shopify store to Shopify Plus in 2022?

Being a successful merchant poses new challenges at every level. Whether you are trying to expand your merchandise internationally, scaling down costs, or regionalizing your store to increase conversion. There are obstacles at every step of the process.

To tackle these challenges, you need to upgrade your eCommerce store with the ever-changing market trends and necessities. The same goes for your Shopify store. In the case of Shopify development, it can be a tricky task to manage and develop a completely functional store.

So how would you know if you need to upgrade your Shopify eCommerce store to Shopify plus? There is no exact answer to the question. But there are a few triggering factors that can help you to make a decision. Let’s discuss these factors in detail.

Triggering Factors

• Multilingual Stores: Unlike Shopify, you can have different languages for different regions with Shopify plus. Offering scalability without having to start a new Shopify store, while reducing the cost of production.
• Reduced Transaction Fees: Shopify plus offers lower transaction costs, better basket values, and an improved checkout page to streamline the process.

Script Editor

• Shopify plus provides you with a script editor. This way you can easily run custom code without needing to obtain additional Shopify Apps.
• Customized Checkout: The freedom to customize your checkout page is always a plus. You can add a personal touch that carries your brand’s vision.
• 24/7 Support: With an online store, your business runs 24/7. Therefore, to keep your business running it is critical to have continuous support on all fronts.

How Shopify Plus is better than Shopify?

As the name suggests, Shopify plus offers everything Shopify offers with a plus. So instead of discussing the similarities, we will discuss the plus points that make Shopify plus better for your eCommerce business.

A dedicated Launch Engineer

With Shopify, you get support through email, chat, or call. In case of adverse situations, you have to hire a Shopify Developer or a Shopify Development Company for assistance.

Whereas, Shopify plus offers dedicated support for your store. It assigns a dedicated account manager to help you throughout the process of migration and setup. Moreover, if you want further help regarding third-party integrations or strategic partnerships on projects, the assistant will be there for you.

Unlimited Staff Accounts

A recurring issue with Shopify was the limit of staff accounts. With Shopify Plus you get to add unlimited staff accounts with your basic plan. You can also set different permission settings for individual accounts.

You can grant access to your team members according to their job descriptions. This also provides you with more control over your staff actions.

Improved Theme Customization with access to Liquid

Shopify allows you to customize your theme through the default editor, as long as you stay with the same theme.

On the other hand, Shopify Plus offers more flexibility by giving access to Shopify’s theme language, Liquid. You will have the freedom to edit and customize at the code level for greater control.

More API Integrations

Today customers are looking for all the functionalities on a single platform. It’s the APIs that facilitate integrations with third-party applications.

Shopify Plus enables you to take full advantage of third-party applications. Shopify Plus offers superior API resources such as Order API, GiftCard, Multipass, and User.

All these API resources bring something new to the table and make your eCommerce store more flexible.

Better Control Over the Check-out

For every store owner, it is the end goal to provide a personalized experience to each customer. The most impactful page in this regard is the checkout page.

With complete control through the script editor, you can customize Shopify scripts. With Shopify Plus you can easily customize shipping methods, payment options, and custom fields to optimize your checkout page.

Exclusive Apps

Shopify Plus offers access to exclusive Apps that are not available to regular Shopify users. Some of the most popular apps are:

• Shopify Flow: It is an eCommerce automation platform. You can easily automate all the customer-facing tasks and processes within your App or store through a simple visual builder. You can store and trigger different actions that you specify to do. With processes like tagging customers and sending requests, you can streamline your store without any coding.
• Wholesale Channel: Providing support to users with a high volume of B2B sales.
• Script Editor: With the script editor you can create customized checkout pages. Through minimal code changes, you can personalize your checkout page to reduce the chance of cart abandonment.
• Launchpad: A highly useful app that allows you to create and automate flash sales, product introduction, or sales campaigns. After the event is over you can easily roll back the changes right away.
• Bulk Action Inviter: You can invite customers that are imported from other platforms. This app helps you to import customers and activate their accounts after they have imported.
• Transporter App: You can swiftly transfer customer contacts, data, order history, and records into your Shopify store.

Integration with Existing Platforms

Although there is no shortage of apps that you can connect to your Shopify store. In fact, for large and complex businesses it is more convenient to integrate with their existing platforms. Shopify Plus enables you to carry out the task conveniently without much coding. Some of the most popular platforms are:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Third-Party Logistics (3PL)
• Product Information Management (PIM)
• Inventory Management System (IMS)
• Order Management System (OMS)
• Global Fulfillment Partner
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Merchant Success Program

Shopify Plus offers a Merchant Success Program. Under this program, Shopify helps you through the whole process. They will assist you with third-party integrations, products, maintaining the platform, and training you to grow beyond your full potential.

With 24/7 support, the team also helps you to find and approach certified Shopify Plus partners so that you can keep up with industry trends.

Wholesale Channels

Another major difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus is the availability of a wholesale channel.

As your business grows, it is quite natural that customers will eventually start buying in bulk from you. In all fairness, it is expected from an enterprise-level store to facilitate wholesale channels on their store.

It works by creating a separate password-protected storefront on your online store. This allows you to offer the same products at different prices to wholesale buyers. This way you won’t have to create a separate store or page for wholesale buyers in your store.

Moreover, you have the leverage to create customized price lists and discount coupons and codes. This enables you to send invoices, track order progress, use and modify current product data and integrations. You can simply manage all B2B and B2C tasks from a single place.

Exclusive Access to Community Resources

Alongside the Merchant Success Program, there are other resources available to Shopify Plus users. Some of the resources are:

• Partners Directory: Complete access to technology, partners, and agency solutions.
• Access to exclusive beta programs and guides.
• Facebook Community: A vast community of professionals and industry leaders where you can share your experiences and benefit from other people’s experiences.
• Availability of Shopify Plus academy for guidance on every point of the process of development and implementation.

All these factors indicate how Shopify Plus is far better than Shopify. You have more freedom, the ability to customize, and an exclusive support team. With all that out of the way, let’s discuss the financial side of both plans.

Payment Gateways and their Prices

With Shopify, you have a few choices for payment gateway plans. A basic introduction to the process is given below.

Credit Card Processing Fee for Shopify

• Basic: 2.9% + 30¢
• Shopify: 2.6% + 30¢
• Advanced Shopify: 2.4% + 30¢

Now let’s discuss the payment plan for Shopify Plus for a comparison.

Shopify Plus Processing Fee

Third-Party Integration = Third-Party processing cost + Shopify 0.15%/per transaction.

Shopify payment processing = 2.15% + 30¢ per transaction (Amex/Intel CC = Add 1%)

Shopify Monthly Fees = $2,000 USD/Month or 0.25% of sales.

These prices are not absolute. Depending on your basket value, the number of transactions, and international cards/Amex you can choose from different plans.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

When it comes to payment, Shopify is quite well-rounded on what to expect. The above-mentioned calculations will provide you with three parameters to analyze the cost scenario.

1. Current Costs based on current traffic value. (Ideally, do it after a year). Also, include all the Shopify plan costs and costs of various Apps.
2. The same goes for traffic volume with per average bracket costs. Adding up Shopify payment process scenario + Monthly Shopify Plan Fee + Cost of any App you might need.
3. Similar to traffic volume, third-party payment gateway and its cost includes a 0.15% of additional cost on the same monthly fee.

Through detailed cost analysis, you can identify if you need to switch to Shopify plus or not. It will also help you understand what plan to purchase if you decide to move to Shopify Plus.

Final Thoughts on Upgrading to Shopify Plus

To summarise, Shopify and Shopify Plus have the same core offering when it comes to the dashboard and basic eCommerce features. The key difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus is that Shopify Plus allows you a lot more flexibility, support choices, and access to the underlying code of your site.

While this is fantastic, it is also costly, with a minimum monthly fee of $2,000 per month. Unless you truly require the capability that comes with Shopify Plus and thinks those new capabilities will pay for themselves, you should remain with the original Shopify platform unless your store is currently earning millions in sales.

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