What is Shopify Plus?

December 1, 2023

Known as a major eCommerce platform, Shopify provides business owners and entrepreneurs with the ability to sell products and goods online to anyone in the world. Shopify is a hosting platform that small business owners can use to promote their products. Users only need to sign up for the platform, and then they can access payment processing and web templates.

Users can choose from three pricing packages or go with the latest and improved, Shopify Plus, which offers many benefits for eCommerce businesses. With the ability to handle more transactions than regular Shopify, unlimited staff sizes, and provided connected IT support, Shopify Plus was built as a more straightforward option for companies with high transaction volume. Let’s dive into what Shopify plus is and how eCommerce business owners can set their business up for success.

Shopify Plus for eCommerce Businesses

With transparent pricing and more scalability, Shopify Plus takes the Shopify platform’s benefits and transforms it. Before Shopify Plus, eCommerce businesses were limited to choosing one of Shopify’s packages (i.e., Basic, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify), which might present to owners a range of add-ons (like Shopify POS Pro and payment processing capabilities) and a custom eCommerce website.

Shopify Plus is yet another option for eCommerce businesses to consider. One of the most significant selling points of the Shopify Plus platform is its scalability and flat-rate cost. A Shopify Plus account supports an unlimited number of staff accounts and can process over 10,000 transactions a minute. At most, the Advanced Shopify account allows 15 staff accounts, and transaction capabilities are limited.

The perk of a flat-rate account allows businesses to be more prepared for their monthly expenses, capitalize on ROI, and improve the bottom line. Plus, members also have access to Shop Pay, which claims to improve the checkout rate and conversion rate by streamlining payment for users. Plus, it also looks to futurized operations, like built-in video, AR, 3D media for product features, and more. All-in-all, Shopify Plus offers drastic improvements for the high volume eCommerce business.

The Shopify Plus plan starts at $2,000 USD but is considered a variable fee. So if your business is more complex than standard setups and requires more integrations or sees more traffic, then the variable fee option flexes.

Benefits of Using Shopify Plus

If you are a medium-to-large eCommerce business, Shopify Plus will handle many transactions at a flat rate. New companies might consider using Shopify Plus as a startup platform because it can scale with your business, saving businesses up-front costs on a custom eCommerce website. Shopify Plus can also assist current businesses with the migration of their eCommerce accounts (and charges nothing to do so), so there are no lengthy delays when switching over to this new platform.

Shopify Plus simplifies much of the confusion associated with other customized eCommerce websites but compromises adding costs like transaction fees. For the Plus member, transactions from a third-party payment processing are only $0.15. This fee is required so Shopify can maintain PCI compliance and payment integrity. There is further incentive to use Shopify Payments as this transaction fee is waived.

Shopify Plus owners also have access to Shop Pay, an accelerated checkout process that encourages more individuals to purchase rather than bail on the checkout.

Other perks for using Shopify Plus are that any size business would have quick access to an eCommerce site, especially one that offers scalability, fast to market times, and streamlined web upkeep. No more managing the security side of your built eCommerce site or in managing payments on your own. Shopify Plus tries to add as many features as possible to streamline business operations.

eCommerce Hosting Considerations

Hosting an eCommerce site on Shopify has its advantages. However, there are vital considerations that should be made before diving into a $2,000 a month fee. The first is that this $2,000 a month fee must be made for the entire life cycle of the business. Your business is also reliant on Shopify’s payment processing, which means that you have less control over how your finances are handled. If you want to use your payment processor, then you are charged $0.15 per transaction, which can add up (and defeats the purpose compared to some of the smaller accounts).

Shopify Plus is still limited to only 10,000 transactions a minute, which means that extremely high volume retailers are out of the question. With jammed transaction processing, businesses will be turning away customers who are less likely to enjoy slow loading times and being kicked out of check out repeatedly.

Shopify Plus encourages customers to switch so that Shopify handles back-end code updates. “Simple changes” to a custom eCommerce back-end would need to be outsourced. If you were to have an eCommerce website built by a software development team, the team would need to manage the site and ensure that site security is maintained. They would likely stay on for a more affordable price.

A software development company would build the eCommerce website and manage it for less of a cost compared to hosting an eCommerce store on Shopify Plus for two to five years. Not only would this save you costs in the long-run, but you would be working with a reliable web hosting management team, which will be able to provide site improvements, updates, and security patches.

Software development teams can improve your website’s performance and handle load testing, things that are necessary for your website functionality but can be time-consuming. So while Shopify Plus suggests that many of these aspects of hosting your eCommerce site are a hassle, this is not always the case.

Software development teams are more available now and can be affordable. They will then work with you to develop your perfect eCommerce website, which will be continually updated and modified to suit the business’s needs. These expenses may be frontloaded to build the website, and even out over time to a lower monthly cost compared to a Shopify Plus account. Moreover, you will own the website, the web design, and the custom-built software.

Getting Started With eCommerce Hosting

If you are thinking about switching from an eCommerce hosting service or legacy program and looking for something that is more in line with your business model, you can choose to go with a one-size-fits-all approach like Shopify Plus. With minimal customizability and the hosting managed by Shopify, you’ll find that managing the shop may be synchronized, but you will be reliant on Shopify and their servers forever.

Instead of making the switch to Shopify Plus, consider hiring a custom software developer to build your business its eCommerce website. Custom software developers do not charge an arm-and-a-large for a new business website, and with a developer team, you can build lasting, long-term business partnerships. This team will know your website inside-out and be there as your business changes, evolves, and updates.

Choosing a custom software developer makes sense, especially since more developers are available to hire from boutique development firms rather than major corporations. See today why working with a custom software developer, such as Rotate, can transform your eCommerce business and give you, the business owner, control over your website and hosting needs.

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What is Shopify Plus?

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What is Shopify Plus?

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