Shopify Plus Advantages: This is what merchants can expect from the enterprise platform

Shopify Plus is a fully cloud-hosted enterprise e-commerce platform for large merchants. But what exactly are the advantages of Shopify Plus - especially compared to the normal Shopify? Since we have a lot of experience with Shopify Plus, we would like to show you the most important Shopify Plus advantages in the following.

What is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus is an advanced version of the popular Shopify e-commerce platform, designed specifically for large enterprises and businesses with high transaction volumes. It's a powerful solution that offers advanced features and tools to meet demanding e-commerce needs and create scalable, customized online stores.

Shopify Plus Cost

The price for Shopify's Enterprise plan depends on the company's revenue. When using Shopify Plus, 0.40% of your turnover goes to the platform. Monthly this is at least 2300 USD.

The Shopify Plus advantages at a glance

1. Merchant Success Manager

Shopify Plus merchants are each assigned their own Merchant Success Manager. This person is not only your direct contact at Shopify, but also acts as your personal Shopify advisor. For example, your Merchant Success Manager could do the following for you:

• Provides expertise and guidance to help you strategize how to grow your business.

• Provides insights on how the top sellers in your industry are using the platform.

• Works with you to help with any issues you encounter.

• Keeps you up to date on the latest features that can move your business forward.

• Provides you with a detailed audit of your site to see where you're losing conversions or where your site's layout and usability could be improved.

2. 10 stores included

With Shopify Plus, you don't just get one store, but 10 stores at once, and you can book additional stores for a fee. This is often used for different brand presences of a company or for different target groups. For example, a B2C for end customers and a B2B store for business customers. But you can also use these stores to create a separate store for each country in the local language or to map different currencies. Up to 15 admin accounts per store then ensure that each site can be managed well.

3. Stability and scalability

With Shopify Plus, you can be sure that your online store will remain accessible even during the busiest times, such as certain holidays or Black Friday. Shopify Plus can process up to 8,000 orders per minute. A number that should be sufficient even for extremely full days.

4. Content Delivery Network

With Shopify, your product data, as well as images, Javascript and CSS files, are not located at a single server location. Because that would mean that depending on how far away you are from the server location, the store loads either very fast or very slow. Instead, Shopify copies all data to a computer network that spans the globe. Therefore, with Shopify, it doesn't matter where in the world your customers are, the store will load anywhere in seconds. Such a worldwide computer network that holds data for quick access is called a Content Delivery Network. Setting up and operating a content delivery network yourself would not only require a lot of technical know-how, but would also be extremely expensive. With Shopify, however, a content delivery network is included at no additional cost.

5. Lower costs

Shopify Plus is a bit more expensive than Advanced Shopify, but it's worth it if you need to manage complex processes. Shopify Plus is worth it if you have a very large, internationally operating store that makes a lot of sales every day. Almost all the advantages of Shopify Plus are designed for size and volume and are therefore very interesting, especially for larger stores.

6. Checkout Customization

With the normal Shopify plans, you can only customize the checkout (payment process) to a limited extent. With Shopify Plus, on the other hand, merchants get full access to the checkout, so they can add different fields in the checkout, for example. This is not possible with Advanced Shopify or in the basic version. Generally, the entire checkout can be customized with Shopify Plus and, for example, trust-building statements about warranty or return policy can be placed at this critical point for purchase cancellations, or the logo of Trusted Shops (provided you are registered with Trusted Shops).

7. Shopify Plus custom interfaces

With Shopify Plus, in addition to the conventional interfaces, you also get access to other Shopify Plus exclusive interfaces. This makes it possible, among other things, for customers who already have a customer account in your external system to log in to your store with the same access data. All Shopify Plus interfaces can be found here: https://help.shopify.com/en/api/reference/plus.

8. Shopify Plus Reserved Apps

Shopify has developed some plug-ins (Shopify Apps) that are only accessible to Shopify Plus customers. With these apps, among other things, a special sales channel for business customers can be established or any marketing campaigns can be implemented - such as giving customers who sign up for the newsletter a one-time 5% discount on their purchase.

9. Launchpad access

Launchpad is an exclusive tool that is only open to Shopify Plus users. With this tool you can, for example, plan discount promotions, automate sales at certain times or change the store at a certain time, for example to reflect trends or to initiate the start of a new season. So it gives you a very clear overview of all the campaigns that are currently running or planned for the future.

10. Shopify Flow

With the Shopify Flow tool, you can set up automations in your store. You can automate work that you would normally have to do manually or even program, without expert help. For example, you can add customers to a list to send them individualized emails automatically.

11. Accounts for employees

While Shopify only allows you to create up to 15 accounts for your employees, Shopify Plus allows unlimited accounts.

12. Shopify B2B - online stores for business customers

Thanks to the extensive B2B feature, which is directly integrated into the e-commerce platform, you can also include dealers among your target groups.Shopify B2B thereby grants access to all the customization options available to you within Shopify and can also be connected to ERP, PIM, CRM or fulfillment systems. The design of your B2B store can be fully customized to match your corporate identity. You also benefit from additional features such as:

• Price lists

• company profiles

• assigned payment terms

• B2B checkout

• customer accounts

13. Headless Commerce mit Shopify Plus

Headless commerce is also possible with Shopify Plus without any problems. For you, this means that the backend and frontend are technically separate. Adjustments to the frontend are thus possible, which have no effect on the backend. Of course, this also applies the other way around. For example, you can also create headless checkouts that are independent of Shopify's standard solution and integrate perfectly with your corporate design, offering your customers the buying process they want.

Here, the Storefront API and GraphQL are particularly convincing with their strong performance. For custom frontends or integrations into other software solutions, they offer all options.

Shopify vs. Shopify Plus - What makes the difference?

Similar name - different functions.

The main differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus are primarily in the areas of target group, pricing model, customizability, access to apps, and B2B commerce. The latter, for example, can only be implemented with Shopify Plus.

When is it worth switching to Shopify Plus?

When asked when the switch to an enterprise solution is worthwhile, many online retailers first think about the level of sales. The rule of thumb here is an annual turnover of at least 800,000 US dollars. However, more than just sales should be considered when making a decision. Transaction costs, internationalization, customer service, traffic, automation and a personalized shopping experience are also factors that make a switch from Shopify to Shopify Plus worthwhile.

The switch to Shopify Plus

You can easily make the switch to Shopify Plus via the settings in Shopify. To do this, click Settings -> Plan -> Change Plan and then select Shopify Plus. Within 24 business hours, your store will now be upgraded to the Shopify Plus plan. When the switch is complete, Shopify will send you a confirmation email.

These Latori customers use Shopify Plus

Sennheiser (Sonova)

Sennheiser, the well-known manufacturer of sound systems, soundbars and headphones, decided to switch to Shopify Plus back in 2018. The decisive factors here were above all the wide range of functions and the intuitive backend. The ease of use and the fact that problems can now also be solved independently were further convincing arguments.

Live Fast Die Young

Live Fast Die Young, also known as LFDY, was looking for a powerful alternative to Shopware to accommodate the company's tremendous growth. The decision came down to Shopify Plus as the perfect solution. The store on Shopify Plus is now able to withstand the high volume of visitors.

Hunter und stylecats®

The brand's project could not have been realised without Shopify Plus and Headless Commerce. The special feature of the two shops is that they share the same backend, but each shop has its own storefront. Customers can switch seamlessly between the two shops and the shopping cart is always synchronised.