How to Take Your Shopify Store to the Next Level with Shopify Plus
Beginners beware: This is not an article for you.
But if your store is growing rapidly, stick around and read on.
Sales are up, orders are in, promotions are hot.
How do you know if it’s the right time to level up?
At some point as a store grows, it outgrows certain systems and processes. The same things that once worked are no longer sufficient. Just like a toddler growing out of their clothes, stores outgrow their platforms and operations.
When you first started out, you were likely running fulfillment out of your basement…but that can’t last forever (nor would you want it to!). The same thing happens across your entire business as you grow. At some point, you have to upgrade. Is it that time for you?
Below are some of the core triggers that indicate it’s time for you to consider Shopify Plus.
Customization Needs
With Shopify Plus, you get access to additional parts of your site so that you can create a more custom experience. This includes the ability to customize the checkout, which you cannot do at all on a regular Shopify plan. This is essential if you want to create an entirely custom checkout flow, but has several other applications as well (think try-on programs, delivery schedules, retail location integration, and so on). This is a huge advantage of Shopify Plus that is a trigger point for many businesses.
You also get increased API access with Shopify Plus, allowing you to build deeper integrations across the site.
Streamlining Features
When your store is growing rapidly, there are a lot of things happening at once. There are many different teams involved in the daily operation of your business and with growth, the way they work is constantly changing.
Shopify Plus makes it easier for all of these teams to work together through work flows and automations that do some of the dirty work for you. This makes your team more efficient and eliminates the possibility of human error in these processes.
You might not think that you need these things or that they will be very useful, but just wait and see. At a certain point, these automations will become essential, saving you both time and money.
Cost Savings
This is when it’s really a no brainer to level up to Shopify Plus. At a certain point you actually save money by making the switch. You get lower credit card processing rates with Shopify Plus that will reduce your cost more than the increase in your monthly fees. At some point the $2000 monthly Shopify Plus fee becomes worth it simply in terms of dollars and cents.
Check out this blog for more details on pricing.
Peace of Mind
This is hard to quantify, but it’s often the trigger for switching to Shopify Plus. If your online store is your main source of revenue, there is a certain level of stress around the possibility of your site going down or some bug occurring that is not immediately fixed. And as your revenue grows, so does this level of stress.
Switching to Shopify Plus gives you more peace of mind at a relatively low cost. With Shopify Plus, unlike a regular Shopify Plan, you receive dedicated server resources and you have dedicated account managers who will quickly respond in the event that anything goes wrong.
Many people switch to Shopify Plus for this peace of mind.
So, is it time for you to level up to Shopify Plus?
If so, here are a few things to keep in mind as you grow and prepare to make the switch.
Plan for growth.
Do not wait for growth to happen in order to think about what you’ll need to do or what may break when you reach a certain volume of sales. Plan ahead.
Model this growth out and identify the stages where you’ll need to upgrade your processes and platform.
Consider getting investment.
Sometimes growth costs money and it might be more than you can put in yourself. Getting this investment when you need it isn’t easy, so start early.
