Shopify Plus features vary so wildly from retailer to retailer that when asking ten different merchants what Shopify Plus includes, they will all offer up half-true answers such as better checkout, no transaction fees, and it’s expensive. All of which are sort of true but half. The reason for this is that Shopify Plus is not simply a larger version of Shopify with a higher price point tagged onto it. Instead, it’s a completely separate tier designed for use by larger online retailers. When comparing the features and price of Shopify Plus to retailer’s current use of Shopify, it’s helpful to actually read out the features, pricing, and what you get for that price tag rather than just hearing that Shopify Plus is “the expensive version” of Shopify.
What Is Shopify Plus, Exactly?
Shopify Plus is Shopify’s enterprise-grade offering, designed for high volume merchants, larger retailers, and those that require deeper customization than what can be achieved with the Shopify theme editor. Unlike the standard Shopify offering, Shopify Plus is generally managed by Shopify staff and is designed to handle large volumes of traffic, products, and orders. Shopify Plus is not merely an add-on of features to the standard Shopify plan, rather it is an entirely different platform designed to meet the unique needs and operational demands of larger, more complex merchants.
What Features Come With Shopify Plus?
So what exactly does one pay for with Shopify Plus? B2B and wholesale tools are built into the platform, which means that online retail stores can run their direct-to-consumer and their wholesale channels from within the one account. This is in addition to deep checkout customization with Shopify Functions that isn’t available on the standard shopify plans. In terms of operations, there’s POS Pro for online and in-store sales, Shopify’s headless API that allows for custom front ends to online shops without incurring any additional platform cost, and ShopifyQL for advanced analytics of online shops. Online stores with international storefronts can use managed markets for over 150 countries and have currency, tax, and localization managed for them by one account rather than having to set up individual shops for each country.
How Much Does Shopify Plus Cost?
For the basic price, Shopify Plus costs $2,300 per month for a three-year contract or $2,500 for a one-year contract. For very high volume stores or stores with very complex structures, Shopify charges a variable platform fee based on the store’s revenue and business model. While $2,300 is the basic list price for Shopify Plus, the final price will likely be higher for larger stores. As for transaction rates, when you use Shopify Payments, you get the lowest transaction rates available. But for transactions processed through third-party payment processors, you will have to pay the third-party rate plus a 0.20% rate from Shopify for security and other compliance-related reasons. Additionally, there is a fee for the number of stores you have. Basic Shopify Plus includes an unlimited number of online stores and 9 off the shelf stores. Additional stores cost $300/month per store.
Do the Shopify Plus Benefits Justify the Price?
At that price, $2,300 – $2,500 per month, on paper it’s a pretty significant jump over the standard Shopify plans. But in terms of what that actually means for your business, the real question is what you get out of it. If you’re running a single store with modest order volumes, then the vast majority of the Shopify Plus benefits are going to go unused. Yes, you can customize the checkout, and yes, you get multi-store tools and B2B features, but for most small stores, that’s a whole bunch of overhead for features that serve problems that your store doesn’t have yet. It’s only when you start to add wholesale channels to your retail store, or you’re managing to run multiple regional stores that all need to be updated on a regular basis, or you have particularly complex promotions that require particular checkout flows, that you start to see the value in these features as they replace a whole collection of third-party apps and hacked together workarounds. Shopify reports that, for those businesses with revenue between $1M and $500M, they grow at an average of 126% year over year on the Shopify Plus plan. Shopify are no doubt proclaiming this as a marketing message, but it’s directionally consistent with the plan’s design intentions: businesses that already run more than a single simple store.
What Are the Real Advantages Over Standard Shopify Plans?
What benefits Shopify Plus has to offer are very clear at scale, not in individual features. For example, checkout throughput: Shopify Plus was built to handle 10,000+ checkouts per minute, unlimited bandwidth and transactions. This can be important during a flash sale or other scenario where large traffic volumes come through your online store. Multi-store management is another key benefit. Instead of managing individual stores, all of your regional or brand-specific stores can be managed from one back office. Also, checkout customization via Shopify Functions is a benefit not available on standard plans, regardless of the amount of money you throw at the problem with apps.
Is Shopify Plus Right for Your Business?
We filter for volume and complexity, not revenue. A simple storefront with straightforward orders rarely requires Plus, even at high volumes, as the standard plans already cover this adequately. Large retailers with multiple storefronts, wholesale and retail product offered via the same catalog, custom checkout processes and peak volumes that hit the practical limits of standard plans quickly are good candidates for Plus. For more information on the upgrade to Shopify Plus versus Shopify see eBizTrait’s article on the subject. The Shopify Plus development team can also provide a review of a store’s current setup to assist in determining whether or not Plus is right for a particular merchant.
