Last Updated: 10/21/2021
Without a doubt, Shopify is currently the best platform that businesses can use to set up a high growth ecommerce store. For this reason, more than 800,000+ merchants are now using it. To accommodate the changing needs of your business as it grows, Shopify gives you the ability to upgrade to Shopify Plus to unlock new tools and automations that facilitate scaling and help your team better manage your store’s activities.
Before you make the significant financial commitment of upgrading to a Shopify Plus from the basic or Advanded plan, you’ll want to run through several questions to determine if the ROI makes sense.
Is it affordable?
The number one consideration is cost. Whereas Shopify’s starting plan starts at $29 per month and rise sto $299 per month for the Advanced Plan, upgrading to a Shopify Plus plan will cost you $2,000 per month minimum. After a store’s turnover exceeds $800,000 annually, Shopify Plus converts to a revenue-based fee of 0.25% of monthly turnover. In addition to significant increase in monthly subscription fee, there are also fees charged for items such as maintenance, credit card processing, and applications.
For these reasons, it’s generally recommended that merchants pass the $1 million in yearly revenue to justify the expense of Shopify Plus. Most costs associated with Shopify Plus costs are non-negotiable. However, depending on the sales volumes, some merchants may be able to negotiate down on credit card processing fees.
Although the cost of Shopify Plus is designed for larger players in ecomm, its suite of available tools far surpasses those of other platforms. This is especially true for ecommerce stores expanding across countries and borders. Merchants that ship globally will benefit from the region-specific Shopify Plus features, such as multi-currency transactions.
Are Shopify Plus features worth it?
If you’ve passed that $1M yearly revenue mark and gotten past cost as a barrier to entry, then here are the benefits that make upgrading to Shopify Plus worth your while:
Unlimited Bandwidth. With a high-growth store bringing in $1MM+ in revenue, you can expect a high volume and need to be able to support large traffic spikes, especially during peak events of the year such as Black Friday. With Shopify Plus, your store will be able to handle huge traffic spikes (up to 500,000 hits per minute!) and up to 6,000 checkouts per minute.
Personalized Checkout Experiences. The checkout experience is one of the most vital steps in your customers’ journey. Thanks to checkout personalization, you’ll be able to A/B test different designs to see which formats work best for your store. As a result, you can expect a nice boost in conversions and revenue.
Access to Script Editor. Would your store benefit from all sorts of creative customizations? In addition to custom checkout experiences, Shopify Plus gives you the ability to create personalized customer experiences and write custom code on your store without having to rely on third-party apps. Some of the features you can create with script editor include:special discounts such as BOGO offers and free shipping on customers orders, special pricing and promotions for your best loyal customers, reorder payment gateways, product bundle offers and more.
Lower Transaction Fees. One big complaint among Shopify merchants is the platform’s transaction fees. Shopify’s credit card rates typically range from 2.2% – 2.9% plus an additional 30 cents per transaction. It won’t be the case with Shopify Plus, which doesn’t come with transaction fees for merchants on the platform. You’ll be saving money on your orders that you can reinvest into your business.
Other Factors to Consider when upgrading to Shopify Plus
Brick & Mortar Locations. Has your business expanded to many large brick & mortar locations? Shopify Plus has been developed to address these needs. Merchants that manage an extensive network of locations and need more tools to support logistics. Shopify Plus features tools designed to integrate, automate, and streamline ecommerce processes and transactions—all while managing ongoing business growth.
24/7 Customer Service and Support. As you already know, scaling an eCommerce business fast is very demanding. If you’re serious about growing, you’re going to need the help of experts to help you reach your goals. A very important benefit that comes with Shopify Plus is its excellent merchant support. Shopify has a special customer support team for Plus merchants to make sure that your transition to Shopify Plus goes smoothly and that you get the most out of their Plus plan. Plus, merchants get access to the Shopify Plus Academy, which includes various live workshops and training videos to help you run your store more efficiently.
Expansion to International Markets. If you have plans to expand internationally, than Shopify Plus is a must have. For no extra cost, you can create nine clone stores with different languages and currencies. That way, you’ll be able to adapt to wherever your customers are and boost sales.
Is your team getting bogged down in repetitive tasks? Repetitive tasks (such as order management or shipping) will increase in volume as you grow and you may reach a point where it’s challenging to focus on activities that grow your business while keeping up with the daily to-dos. Shopify Plus has automation options like Flow and Launchpad to help you out with such tasks. More than likely, your company’s team will need to grow too in order to keep up with the amount of work that needs to get done and eventually you’ll max out the 15 staff accounts allowed on Shopify’s main plan. With Shopify Plus, you get unlimited staff accounts.
