Upgrading to Shopify plus – what is Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is an enterprise-class platform dedicated to rapidly growing brands in the Direct to Customer (DTC) and Business to Business (B2B) segments. In short, Shopify Plus is a fully hosted, scalable e-commerce platform operating in the SaaS model. Shopify Plus offers a wide range of advanced features to help rapidly growing brands grow faster by fully controlling the entire customer journey through the digital channel.

Shopify Plus is distinguished by high performance. Shopify Plus allows merchants to handle thousands of transactions per minute while the eCommerce service continues to run smoothly. Shopify Plus has no sales volume or product quantity limitation. Thanks to the open API, it also allows you to build seamless connections between the platform itself and external solutions that go beyond the Shopify Marketplace system.

Why do You need Shopify Plus

If you are an eCommerce business that generates over $ 1 million in revenue per year, chances are Shopify Plus will be a good choice for you. For large companies, Shopify Plus is worth the money. For a relatively low monthly fee, companies get a fully hosted solution in the SaaS model, which works well both in states of lower transaction volume, as well as in times of heavy load, such as Black Friday. 

Shopify Plus is a good alternative to other platforms in the enterprise level software segment. The costs of developing and maintaining the eCommerce website on Shopify Plus are lower than in the case of, for example, Magento 2, BigCommerce or Shopware. At the same time, the high flexibility of the Shopify Plus platform, API access and advanced infrastructure create an environment that allows the development of eCommerce business. 

Shopify Plus is also a good choice for merchants looking to grow even faster using the Shopify platform. Upgrading from Shopify to Shopify Plus is not a big deal and creates a number of opportunities.

Why Should You Upgrade to Shopify Plus?

There are at least a few reasons why you should strongly consider switching to Shopify Plus. Among the most important are the following features:

• Shopify Launchpad – launchpad offers a variety of features as well as offering sales offers, themes, collection pages and discounts across the entire eCommerce site. What’s more, it has a rich analytical panel that gives you at the campaign level.
• Shopify Flow – it is an interesting automation prepared by Shopify Plus. Shopify Flow lets you customize and automate your inventory and ordering processes that were previously done manually, allowing you to automate labor-intensive back-end work. As a result, the use of internal resources is more efficient and smooth, which allows you to eliminate waste and avoid errors.
• Multi-channel integration – Shopify Plus provides over 20 online sales platforms integrations, including a marketplaces such as Amazon, the Social Media platform, and POS points. This allows „that” „omnichannel departments, and therefore sales in the 360-degree model.
• B2B and DTC in one place – Shopify Plus enables B2B wholesale from the same channel as DTC trading. This function allows you to create a multistore. The B2B channel also allows you to sell different products in relation to DTC, at different prices and discounts. In addition, like most multistore solutions, it allows you to hide prices and an advanced login mechanism for wholesale customers.
• Shopify scripts – personalization is one of the most important elements in increasing eCommerce conversion, and Shopify Scripts is great for it. Thanks to the simple use of scripts, we can make any changes to the cart card and checkout. What’s more, you can use scripts to create various functions and discounts, such as „buy one and get free drums”. Scripts also work great with Storefront API.
• Shopify POS Pro – Shopify POS is one of the major competitive advantages of the entire Shopify platform, and the Pro plan further extends POS management capabilities across all channels. With Shopify POS, you can shape the same customer shopping experience across all reach channels as part of your omnichannel strategy.

When to switch to Shopify Plus?

From our experience, Shopify Plus is starting to make sense for merchants when they generate around $ 1-2 million in annual revenue. Of course, not the revenue itself counted as GMV is of key importance here. The most important thing is the degree of business advancement. We have noticed that with such turnover, enterprises will need more support and more dedicated solutions that they will not be able to satisfy in the case of other platforms or lower versions of Shopify itself.

Of course, the most important aspect are the KPIs that you as an eCommerce manager must meet. Shopify Plus offers wide possibilities of personalization and customization of the eCommerce solutions introduced, which affects not only the operation, but above all the conversion rate of the eCommerce website. We have noticed that eCommerce businesses generating $ 1-2 million in annual revenues begin to concentrate their activities very strongly on a unique Customer Experience, technical combination of many applications into one coherent system and website efficiency. Shopify Plus is the answer to these three problems.

Is it worth upgrading to Shopify Plus?

It’s hard to say when this is the right moment to upgrade your eCommerce website to Shopify Plus. Taking into account the volume of turnover, Shopify itself on its website suggests that the volume of eCommerce turnover at which it is worth considering Shopify Plus is about $ 80,000 per month. The volume of turnover itself is not the main criterion for switching to Shopify Plus. It is worth considering the following key aspects which may prove decisive in terms of whether or not it is worth upgrading to Shopify Plus.

• Dynamics of eCommerce development – Shopify Plus is a solution that works great for rapidly growing brands. Rapid development and related changes require a lot of flexibility from the eCommerce platform. Such flexibility is ensured by Shopify Plus, which offers a wide range of possibilities when it comes to personalizing not only the appearance of the eCommerce website itself, but most of all sales and marketing activities. In addition, Shopify Plus also means a high level of security and control. Due to the fact that it is a self hosted platform, we can be sure that even in the case of increased user traffic on the site, it will not fall.
• Conversion Rate Optimization – conversion is a key measure of eCommerce success for most eCommerce managers. Most of them are tasked with generating as much sales as possible for your store from the traffic that has been generated on your website. Such actions are not possible without full access to the platform. Shopify Plus primarily allows access to the Storefront API, which enables front-end activities related to conversion optimization. Thanks to this, conducting A / B tests or implementing changes to the cart page and checkout will not be a problem. In addition, Shopify scripts allows you to even better use the capabilities of the entire system.
• Headless Commerce – Shopify Plus is an environment ideally suited to the implementation of headless technology. Thanks to access to API, we have the ability to implement solutions based on headless technology. Headless Commerce means, above all, benefits related to performance, security and virtually unlimited possibilities of personalizing the eCommerce website. In addition, Shopify has recently launched its own headless storefront, Hydrogen, which has been combined with the Oxygen hosting service, which allowed it to build a complete Headless Commerce support platform in Shopify Plus.

The decision to implement Shopify Plus, of course, rests with the eCommerce team and it is them who, after analyzing all the pros and cons, should decide whether it is worth upgrading to Shopify Plus.

How can you change from Shopify to Shopify Plus

For upgrading from Shopify to Shopify Plus, it’s a relatively straightforward process. It only requires the eCommerce owner to make a decision and follow a sequence of steps. For manual Shopify Plus update, simply contact Shopify Plus Support by filling out the form and following the migration instructions provided.

Of course, it is worth remembering that, as with any migration, you should consider its purpose and the results you want to achieve. Perhaps the migration between Shopify and Shopify Plus will also be a good opportunity to change the front-end part of the eCommerce website. Keeping in mind the differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus, it’s worth using migration to optimize your conversion rate. Thanks to Shopify Plus, you will get the possibility of changes at least in the final part of the purchase process, i.e. in the shopping cart and checkout.

Please note that Shopify Plus provides full assistance and support during the upgrade process. You can count on engineers who provide assistance practically 24 hours a day.

Shopify Plus Pricing – how much it cost to upgrade to Shopify Plus.

The operating costs of Shopify and Shopify Plus are discussed in more detail in our other articles, but it is worth mentioning here a few key differences and the actual costs of running an eCommerce website using Shopify Plus.

Shopify’s service bundles look like this:

• Shopify Lite: $ 9 per month. This is a very good solution for small stores or websites that also have small online sales.
• Basic Shopify: $ 29 per month. This package provides the basic functions of an online store.
• Shopify: $ 79 per month. Thanks to its greater possibilities, it is intended for more mature online stores.
• Advanced Shopify: $ 299 per month. It is especially suitable for brands that are starting their adventure with international sales.
• Shopify Plus: Start at $ 2,000 per month. This is a great solution for rapidly growing brands that value high flexibility, security and platform performance.

Assuming that the eCommerce update from Shopify to Shopify Plus will take place along with the change of the architecture and the front-end layer of the website, the estimated implementation costs are as follows:

• $ 20,000 to $ 200,000 – the average cost of implementing and migrating a Shopify Plus online store by an agency operating on the basis of headless commerce (depends on the scope of the project and the complexity of the website);
• $ 2,000 per month – annual Shopify Plus license cost, starting at $ 2,000 per month; this increases depending on the turnover of the online store;
• $ 4,000 – $ 8,000 per month – costs of maintaining and developing an online store under the SLA agreement with the agency;
• $ 500 per month – average annual costs of applications and plugins extending the operation of the eCommerce website;
• $ 250 per month – other possible fees for extensions and additional services (including e.g. hosting under headless storefront)

Shopify Plus is it for my business – conclusion

If you think this is a good time to take your eCommerce business to the next level, consider switching to Shopify Plus.

The platform offers many tools and possibilities that will prove useful especially in the case of rapidly growing brands. The high level of flexibility and security combined with the possibilities of virtually infinite scaling of activities on the platform give full freedom of action for the business.

When migrating and updating, it is worth using the services of a professional eCommerce agency. As Blue Owl Shopify Headless Commerce Agency, we provide updating and migration services for eCommerce services to the Shopify Plus platform. Contact us and request a free consultation with our specialist.