The Complete Shopify Plus Review
What is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is Shopify’s enterprise offering, providing the power and simplicity of Shopify standard along with the scalability, security, and customizability that enterprises need.
In the past, enterprises would spend several million dollars over the course of 18 months in order to build and launch a custom commerce solution that met their unique business needs and rules. Shopify Plus completely disrupts this model and flips it on it’s head. Now in just a few months at a fraction of the cost (and a fraction of the headache), enterprises can have the commerce solution they need.
Think about it. Traditionally, retail ecommerce companies had to become software companies, in addition to being retail companies.
And this is a recipe for disaster.
Because, simply put, great retail brands are not great software companies. And they shouldn’t be!
But before Shopify Plus, they had to try. Retail brands had to staff up and sweat over fear of their commerce platform going down on hot shopping days like Black Friday due to server overload. They had to have full time team to manage store maintenance and bugs. We could go on and on…
With Shopify Plus, retail companies don’t have to worry about any of that. This software pain in the neck goes away and they can get back to focusing on what they do best: retail.
Shopify Plus handles the rest.
Shopify Plus vs. Shopify
- Shopify Plus offers dedicated server resources vs. Shopify’s shared hosting
- Shopify Plus includes dedicated support. You will have a launch manager to help you through the launch of your store. And then you will have a dedicated success manager as well as a dedicated support contact. If you have any issues or questions on how to improve your store, they are there to help you.
- Shopify Plus offers the increased customizability and functionality that enterprises need.
- Shopify Plus allows you to have a branded checkout. This means that the checkout will be on your own domain (with Shopify, it is not) and you are able to use cart scripts to change the functionality of the checkout.
- Shopify Plus includes more in-depth API access so that you are able to integrate with whatever systems you need or already use (whether or not they are partnered or integrated with Shopify).
- Shopify Plus offers better credit card processing rates, especially if you use Shopify payments. This is a huge cost saver for ecommerce stores at scale.
Who is Shopify Plus for?
Generally, anyone with sales approaching 2 million per year are good candidates. This is near the breakeven point where Shopify Plus will actually save you money, due to the better credit card processing rates you get.
It also is for any brand that needs customization beyond the standard theme customization options (for instance, a custom checkout, increased API access, etc).
In essence, Shopify Plus is for any large ecommerce brand that would traditionally be looking into Oracle ATG Web Commerce, Demandware, WebSphere, GSI, Hybris, SuiteCommerce, Magento, or Oracle’s recently launched hosted solution, Oracle Commerce Cloud to meet their needs.
Shopify Plus Pricing
Shopify Plus cost starts at a couple thousand dollars per month. Now, before you scoff at the price tag and close this browser tab, this is a fraction of the cost of these other platforms. And what’s more, there’s a level of revenue at which it just makes sense. It will actually be a cost saving transitioning to Shopify Plus, even with the monthly fee, due to the reduced credit card processing fees that are lower than what you can typically get elsewhere.
Shopify Plus Features
- Customization, Flexibility, & Automation
- Checkout can be on you own domain (yourdomain.com/checkout instead of redirecting to checkout.shopify.com)
- Access to custom cart scripts & the Checkout API
- 5x the regular API calls for private apps & custom integrations
- Avalara sales tax automation is included free (which typically costs as much as Shopify Plus itself!)
- Sales channel integrations (ebay, Amazon, etc.)
- Support Resources
- Access to a dedicated launch and success manager
- Priority support
- Pricing Advantages
- No transaction fees for 3rd party gateways
- Lower card rates for Shopify Payments (2.15%)
- Discounts on most apps (50% off all Bold apps)
- Multiple stores under a single Shopify Plus account
How is it different from the competition?
Typically enterprises have to self-host, leaving them responsible for the security, stability, and scalability of their platform. This is part of that huge software pain int the neck we mentioned above. Instead, Shopify is cloud hosted, in addition to offering all the features and benefits of a traditional enterprise commerce solution.
Shopify Plus is leading the new wave for enterprise cloud commerce. So much so that Oracle, the longstanding giant in enterprise commerce, has recently followed suit, by launching their own cloud hosted commerce solution, Oracle Commerce Cloud.
