Today, Shopify is one of the leading eCommerce platforms, providing flexibility to merchants of all sizes with different plans. Many known brands use it due to its user-friendly interface, good customization, and dedicated support. As your business grows, you may need to upgrade your basic Shopify store.
When considering the transition process, it is essential to weigh the unique advantages this upgrade brings, especially if you are a fast-scaling eCommerce store owner. But, navigating the maze of different Shopify plans is extremely difficult for any business. Finding the answer to which Shopify plan fits your growing business needs is crucial.
Here, Shopify Plus emerges with more advanced features and functionalities that can help a business grow effortlessly. From advanced API to dedicated account management, this plan has a lot to offer. It only requires expertise, and working with a Shopify development company can resolve this requirement.
Feature-wise Comparison Between Shopify and Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is a straightforward update to the basic Shopify plan. A clear line of distinction lies in the features among them. Both offer various features suitable for different business needs. Here is a comparison among them that will demonstrate whether or not you should migrate to an upgraded plan. Let’s understand:
-
Customization
You will get access to the Shopify theme store with every Shopify plan, not just with basic Shopify but also with Shopify Plus. Every plan offers different customization abilities. You can change the appearance of your basic Shopify store by using the built-in theme editor. Also, you can change the images and text of your store by using the rich text feature. All in all, you can customize your site, but it is limited to some extent as prescribed by a specific theme owner.
Conversely, Shopify Plus enables you to customize your store completely and build it how you want. You can even create a theme from scratch without knowing much about Liquid (a templating language that Shopify prefers). However, liquid offers more flexibility and development efficiency, so you must understand this well. If not, then working with Shopify Plus partners can benefit you greatly.
-
Reporting and Analytics
Shopify and Shopify Plus both offer reporting and analytics features. Depending on the plan, this feature’s capabilities might vary. Shopify provides standard reporting options and assists you in tracking the things that can help you scale. It offers an overview dashboard with business insights regarding sales, the top products users have searched, and a clear insight into where your store is lagging. For example, you can track sales by products, category, and location.
On the other hand, Shopify Plus offers a more advanced way to track and get reports on your analytics. Having a store built or upgraded on Shopify Plus allows you to gain a more in-depth analysis of user behavior and sales. When you have in-depth data on customer behavior, you have more chances to improve conversions and sales by including the products users want. Also, you can integrate your store with any external third-party tools you prefer for collecting user data.
-
Checkout Pages
Whether Shopify or Shopify Plus, checkout pages are available in every plan this platform offers. If you are using Shopify’s basic plan, a default one-page checkout page is there. However, you can change it from one to a three-page checkout, depending on the requirements of a business. This is highly suitable if you want to gain in-depth information or present multiple upselling or cross-selling opportunities at various stages of checkout.
Users using Shopify Plus can customize their checkout pages from scratch, making them highly suited to their brand’s look and feel. The aim is to reduce buyers’ friction during checkout time and increase conversion. If you want, you can add custom fields to the page to collect additional customer information. Also, this plan enables a store owner to add custom validation rules, like requiring a user to fill in a particular field (name, email, or phone number) to improve the checkout experience.
-
Pricing and Transaction Fees
Pricing is a clear difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus. To be more concise, Shopify is priced lower than Shopify Plus. Features also make this difference. Currently, Shopify is available with a $39/month plan, and you have a free 3-day trial option to test it out. You can check out the official site of Shopify for a clear view of the features you get at what price.
On the other hand, Shopify Plus costs much more than the basic Shopify plan. Its one-year plan costs around $2500/month, while a 3-year plan costs $2300/month. However, the Shopify Plus has no fixed plan. This offers flexibility to those using it, as they can customize the plan based on revenue. This means you can fix the amount you must pay for the plan based on how much you have sold your products. Here is what you can expect to pay.
- If your sales range from $0 – $80,000, you will pay $2,000
- You will pay $2,500/month if you generate $1,000,000
- If sales range from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000, you will pay $12,500
- For sales around $12,000,000, you will pay $30,000
- You will pay $40,000 if it’s $16,000,000 or more
This will help you understand the price Shopify Plus will charge to create an online store. To agree on a suitable price, consider your monthly turnover, business model, and marketing needs.
You must consider one more thing, which is the transaction fees. Shopify Plus has lower transaction fees than Shopify. It charges 0.15% per transaction for third-party payment processors, whereas other Shopify plans charge fees between 0.5 to 2%.
-
Support
One must consider the level of support both Shopify plans offer. The primary difference is that the Shopify Plus plan provides a dedicated team of account managers to resolve all users’ queries. This plan also provides more personalized and high-level support experiences tailored to the needs of large businesses. On the other hand, Shopify provides standard customer support to users through phone, email, and live chat. This makes a basic Shopify plan highly suitable for small to mid-level store merchants.
To be concise, Shopify Plus offers a high level of personalized support to handle more complex and intricate queries of large businesses. In contrast, Shopify provides standard support to resolve the queries of small to medium-sized business owners.
When to Upgrade to Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is one of the most talked-about plans because of the outstanding features and capabilities it offers to businesses. That being said, it does not mean it suits every business type.
- A store owner should consider some essential points while moving to this upgraded version of Shopify. Here are some critical criteria you should understand:
- When the gross sales of a business cross $8,00,000/month
- Suddenly experiencing a high volume of transactions
- If a business wants to expand your business to the international market
- Requiring better or more personalized support
If a business meets any of these criteria, it is high time you upgraded to Shopify Plus.
Conclusion
Shopify is a platform that has covered the requirements of every business type through its varied plans. Every plan is curated by considering different online merchants’ needs. A basic Shopify plan has standard features and capabilities, empowering small to medium-scale businesses to quickly build a web presence. A Shopify Plus plan is highly suited for enterprise-based businesses because of its advanced capabilities and features.
However, upgrading to the Shopify Plus plan is highly beneficial when all the essential criteria are met efficiently. While upgrading to the advanced version, it becomes crucial to hire Shopify experts. The hired team will help complete the upgrade process seamlessly by utilizing the full potential of Shopify Plus, enabling a business to leverage all the benefits this upgrade offers.
Author Bio
Emily White is a project manager at CSSChopper, a top-rated web development company with a wide range of technical expertise. She is not just a manager but also loves writing. In her spare time, she listens to music and composes knowledgeable articles.
AI
Plag:
