TOP 13 QUESTIONS ABOUT SHOPIFY PLUS AND ITS BENEFITS ANSWERED

We get a ton of questions about Shopify Plus.

• What is it?
• How is it different from “regular” Shopify?
• Who is it for?

Below are answers to the questions we hear again and again. We’ll talk about the benefits of Shopify Plus, its drawbacks, and where it fits in the pantheon of ecommerce platforms.

What is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus is Shopify’s enterprise offering. It combines the ease, security, and agility of their small-business platform (“regular” Shopify) — a solution that’s helped hundreds of thousands of merchants — with the scale and customizability enterprise-level merchants need.

Enterprise merchants used to spend a ton of money building and running in-house enterprise ecommerce platforms. But custom, homegrown solutions typically don’t have much agility. Their main concerns are scale, security, and just staying up and running, which requires huge human resource and technology costs.

Shopify Plus solves these problems.

Is Shopify Plus any good?

Yes. Shopify (regular or plus) is one of the best ecommerce platforms out there, and it’s always improving. Especially compared to other traditional enterprise ecommerce platforms, Shopify Plus is stable, secure, low-cost, and trusted by smaller brands and ecommerce giants alike.

How much does Shopify Plus charge per transaction?

Shopify Plus doesn’t charge transaction fees if you use Shopify Payments (their own payment processor). There’s a 0.15% transaction fee if you use an external payment processor.

One of the biggest benefits of Shopify Plus is that, when used with Shopify Payments, you get the best per-transaction rate we’ve seen on the market.

How much does Shopify Plus cost per month?

Currently, Shopify Plus costs $2,500 per month for a one-year term and $2,300 per month for a three-year term.

Beyond a certain level of (high) monthly revenue, more complicated pricing kicks in. The platform then charges a percent fee for monthly transactions above a predetermined cap. In the past, this was a 0.25% fee, but the Shopify website now directs businesses to contact their sales department for specific variable-rate plans.

For more information on Shopify Plus pricing, check out our full guide: Shopify Plus Pricing: A Complete Breakdown of Costs, Fees, and Value.

What are the differences between Shopify Plus and BigCommerce Enterprise?

Shopify Plus and BigCommerce Enterprise are close competitors who, on the surface, have many comparable features.

Looking a little deeper, though, one big benefit of Shopify Plus over BigCommerce Enterprise is market leadership. Shopify Plus pioneered enterprise-level, cloud-hosted ecommerce and therefore has a more mature business. While we like some things about BigCommerce just fine, for the most part, they follow Shopify’s lead. As such, Shopify Plus always seems to be ahead in terms of feature sets.

Additionally, Shopify Plus has BigCommerce Enterprise beat in the following categories:

• Design: With better base themes and design tools, Shopify Plus lets you select an easy-to-build theme that looks great right out of the gate.
• API: The more mature backend of Shopify Plus features an API that allows developers to build on top of what already exists — a big deal for enterprise-level stores that need to integrate with a slew of external systems and build custom functionality.
• Developer Community: Shopify Plus has a more vibrant developer community, continually producing high-quality apps and plugins that help you make the most of your store.
• Admin: Shopify Plus has a much more intuitive admin, a report we hear across the board from people who’ve used both platforms.

Should dropshippers use Shopify Plus?

A better question to ask is, “When should dropshippers use Shopify Plus?”

It doesn’t matter what you sell or how you ship it. Whether or not you should use Shopify Plus depends on your volume of sales and your business’s complexity.

If your business generates over $300,000 per month in revenue and has a high level of complexity, Shopify Plus is a no-brainer. You’ll likely save money by making the switch.

What are the main benefits of Shopify Plus?

While we could go into excruciating detail on the benefits of Shopify Plus, we’ll take a bird’s-eye view here and stick to three broader categories:

1) Cost Savings

If you’re a high-volume store, you’ll save money by switching to Shopify Plus and using Shopify Payments. Not only will you save on platform costs, but you’ll also likely save on human resources. One of the major benefits of Shopify Plus is that you don’t have to employ a full team of developers just to keep your store up and running.

2) Fewer Headaches

Scale and security are major concerns for enterprise stores. Heightened stress plagues ecommerce managers and business owners during high-volume sales periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What if the site goes down? What if there’s a problem with payment processing?

Shopify Plus takes care of scale and security, providing peace of mind to managers and owners and freeing them up to focus on creating the best ecommerce store possible.

3) Market Leadership

As mentioned, Shopify Plus is the market leader, constantly improving its platform and rolling out new features. Whatever the latest and greatest trend in ecommerce is, Shopify Plus can accomplish it. Other, less agile platforms have more difficulty adapting to market trends and changes.

For more benefits of Shopify Plus, check out our full, unbiased review.

What are the pros and cons of Magento vs. Shopify Plus?

Both Magento and Shopify Plus have their benefits. The main tradeoff lies here:

• Magento — complete customizability
• Shopify Plus — scale and security

With Magento, you’re building a completely custom platform from the ground up. However, Magento is typically self-hosted, leaving you in charge of your scalability and security.

Shopify Plus is cloud-hosted and takes care of all scale and security concerns. With that security comes some limitations, though the platform still offers a high level of customizability.

In our experience, Shopify Plus’s scale and security benefits outweigh its limits in customizability. Limitations within a platform can be good, helping you streamline your business and follow best practices.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when you’re building an online store. It takes a lot of time and money, and owners usually discover those shiny new wheels don’t work as well anyway.

What are the benefits of Shopify Plus over a regular Shopify plan?

Shopify Plus is exactly what it sounds like — Shopify, plus benefits. It’s Shopify, but with these additional features:

• Dedicated platform resources for scalability (vs. shared resources)
• Dedicated human resources to help you launch your store and make the most of it
• Increased customizability on the frontend and backend
• A slew of other enterprise features to help you grow your business

How do I integrate an externally hosted application with Shopify Plus?

The Shopify Plus app store includes many prebuilt integrations with commonly used external applications. But if the one you need to integrate with isn’t there, that’s no problem. They have a great API that provides access to almost all areas of Shopify, so you can create the custom integration you need.

What are the most important benefits of Shopify Plus for business owners?

The most important benefits of Shopify Plus for you depends on your unique business. But across the board, these features appeal to all ecommerce business owners:

• It decreases costs. Shopify Plus saves you money on HR costs, platform costs, and technology costs.
• It makes store management easy. And in doing so, it frees up your valuable time to focus on your products and customers rather than store operations.
• It allows you to scale with peace of mind. Shopify Plus handles scalability in its entirety, and they process billions of transactions safely and successfully. You don’t have to wonder whether you can trust them.
• It’s a great marketing platform. Shopify Plus stays at the forefront of every new marketing trend. Apps from trusted developers are ready to go, easily integrating new trends with your store experience.

Does Shopify Plus have good documentation?

Shopify Plus has some of the best documentation we’ve seen. Its strong developer community means that if you have a question, it’s likely already answered in their forums. If it isn’t, you can post your question and get a quick reply from someone who’s faced (and solved) the same issue before.

Can Shopify Plus really carry a major enterprise brand?

It really can! Here are just a few well-known enterprise retailers that have taken advantage of Shopify Plus:

• Nestlé (Nescafé)
• Fitbit
• Staples
• Nine West
• Crate & Barrel
• Heinz
• Spanx
• Allbirds
• Jenny Craig

You can find many more, along with case studies on why each brand switched over and what they accomplished, on Shopify Plus’s customers page.

How to Decide Whether Shopify Plus Is Right for Your Business

To determine whether Shopify Plus is right for you, consider these questions:

Are you growing fast?

If you’re experiencing hypergrowth and on a path to do $300K in revenue or more per month, Shopify Plus might be right for you. You’ll save money on transaction fees alone, even after factoring in the Shopify Plus fee.

Are you an established, high-revenue brand on a homegrown ecommerce solution?

Switching to Shopify Plus will save you a lot of headaches and unnecessary stress.

Does your business have complexities and/or customizations that a regular Shopify plan or another platform can’t handle?

Streamlined handling of complexity and customization are two major benefits of switching to Shopify Plus.

Are you spending a lot of money on your current platform in licensing fees, HR costs, and/or technology expenses?

You’ll save money with Shopify Plus.

Has your store failed recently due to scalability issues, losing you money and creating headaches?

You’ll likely benefit from the reliability and peace of mind that Shopify Plus provides.

Final Thoughts

If you’re interested in exploring the benefits of Shopify Plus, we don’t blame you. It’s a great platform, fantastic for enterprise-level ecommerce and smaller stores alike. Consider the costs and the questions above to determine whether it makes sense for your business. If it does, we don’t think you can go wrong by making the switch.