shopify plus

If you’re familiar with Shopify, you’re probably considering upgrading to Shopify Plus. When it comes to ecommerce platforms, it doesn’t get much better than Shopify. But at some point, you may need more support for your business than the standard plans offer.

Shopify Plus is a comprehensive and scalable plan to support a growing ecommerce store. There are numerous features that come along with it, including a customizable checkout, advanced analytics, and virtually limitless educational resources.

All of that comes at a high price, however. Shopify Plus plans start at $2,000 per month, so it’s important to evaluate whether your business is ready for the upgrade.

What Is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus is the highest tier of the Shopify plans and the home of some of the most prominent brands in the world, including Allbirds, Eyewear by David Beckham, and Gymshark.

These major brands use Shopify Plus because of its exceptional and exclusive features that are purpose-built to help a store scale quickly. Store owners have the flexibility to customize and tailor their entire ecommerce storefront to support omnichannel, international, and B2B shopping.

When Should You Upgrade?

If you’re ready to scale and you think you’ve outgrown what Shopify has to offer, it may be time for Shopify Plus. There’s a lot to consider, however:

Shopify Plus Price

Price matters with every business decision. The price you pay for something needs to have a return on investment for it to be worthwhile. Shopify Plus starts at $2,000 per month, which is a considerable difference from the $29, $79, and $299 Shopify plans. If your business isn’t quite there yet, it may not be worth the money.

That said, ecommerce stores that make more than $800,000 annually have a revenue-based fee of 0.25%. You may have fees for applications, maintenance, and credit card processing as well.

When you reach the level of an enterprise business, the Shopify Plus fees will likely pay off in features and functionality. But until then, $2,000 a month is a lot of money for features you may not need yet. With this in mind, the current recommendation for ecommerce stores is to consider upgrading when they have an annual revenue of $1 million or more.

Benefits of Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus has plenty of features that pay off for enterprise businesses, such as:

• Omnichannel marketing capabilities
• International storefronts with independent currencies and events, all from a unified dashboard
• Advanced analytics for customers, transactions, and performance from prominent analytics partners
• Workflow automation
• Optimization across platforms and devices, including desktop, mobile, and third-party apps
• A fully customizable checkout experience with tools for discount triggers and VIP customers
• 24/7 support
• Script Editor to run custom code
• Cross-channel selling
• Lower transaction fees
• Full customization for product launches, pricing, promotions, etc.

Shopify Plus has a lot more to offer, including exclusive educational and support resources to ensure ecommerce store owners maximize the plan’s features, such as Shopify Plus Academy. This resource has a full library of learning tools and resources like videos and workshops that you can access at your convenience. Store owners also have Shopify Plus Experts for more in-depth support.

If you have high-volume sales during busy periods like the holidays, Shopify Plus is a must to support the transactions and avoid a site crash that frustrates customers. The plan can support up to 10,000 transactions per minute, allowing an influx of customers to complete purchases quickly and seamlessly.

Questions to Ask Before Upgrading

Here are some questions to ask before upgrading to Shopify Plus:

Are you making over $1 million in annual revenue? As mentioned, this is important to ensure you’re not overpaying for features you don’t yet need.

Are you bogged down by mundane tasks? Growing companies are demanding, and you may struggle to manage the mundane tasks like order fulfillment and processing. Shopify Plus has automation tools to relieve the burden and free your time to focus on growing a successful business.

Do you need more support for your ecommerce store? There’s a lot to manage with your ecommerce store, and if you don’t feel like you can learn it all on your own, Shopify Plus offers expert guidance. You have the Shopify Plus Experts, the Shopify Plus Academy, and a dedicated Facebook community of similar sellers to learn from.

Are you expanding into the international market? International sales expand your market, but they also add to the workload. Shopify Plus makes this easy and simple with up to nine international storefronts that all operate from a centralized dashboard. You still have the flexibility to use different languages and currencies in each store, however.

Do you want to offer wholesale products? Like the international storefronts, Shopify Plus has an exclusive wholesale channel that you can set up and integrate with your existing storefront in a snap.

Do you need more staff accounts? At some point, you may need more staff accounts to manage your Shopify store. Advanced Shopify tops out at 15, however, which means you may need to upgrade to accommodate your whole team. Shopify Plus offers unlimited staff accounts with access control for each staff member.

Do you want to customize the checkout experience? The customizable checkout is one of Shopify Plus’s most desirable features. You can tailor the experience to your brand and change different aspects to improve the customer experience, such as offering different shipping methods or payment methods.

How to Upgrade to Shopify Plus

If you think it’s time to move up to Shopify Plus, it’s a quick and painless process. You will need to request a quote from Shopify to know exactly what you’ll pay, however.

Once you upgrade, the platform promises a full migration in 90 days, but it may take even less. It’s also free to migrate, so you can rest assured that you won’t lose business while you prepare your operations for the new plan. Shopify takes care of the setup, testing, and hosting via the Launch Engineer.

Shopify Plus has other features that are helpful, such as upgrades, security features, hosting, patches, and more. All of your data will be transferred to Shopify Plus seamlessly, including your product details.

Upgrade to Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is a top-tier Shopify plan designed for scaling enterprise-level businesses. Upgrading is a big decision that you should consider, but if you’re bringing in $1 million annually in sales and finding the lower Shopify plans limited for your business needs, Shopify Plus may be the perfect choice.