Shopify is one of the best platforms to build your e-commerce store. The platform provides a range of sensational tools that do not require special coding and development. Over 1,75 million merchants use Shopify to manage and sell products online. The online store platform is a complete package with domains and hosting, a store control panel, customisable product pages, coupon codes, and direct purchase and payment processing support.
In 2014, Shopify launched Shopify Plus, an enterprise e-commerce platform that has all of Shopify's features while also increasing scalability, effectiveness, and support to meet the needs of businesses and corporations.
Let's compare Shopify and Shopify Plus to help you find out which platform suits you best. But before we start, is it important to mention that Shopify and Shopify Plus are not two separate platforms. They are built on the same technology, have an identical interface, and use the same Shopify themes. Apart from minor differences, the only crucial distinction between the two solutions is the “enterprise-grade” features available for Shopify Plus users.
Shopify helps small businesses with commerce, while Shopify Plus is for the bigger ones with around 1M$ or more in annual revenue. Shopify has three different pricing options. Meanwhile, Shopify Plus price is negotiable and starts at $2000 per month.
Shopify plans
The “Basic” Shopify plan costs $29 per month, and it provides you with such possibilities:
- You can create an online store and sell as many products as you want, but you can only have two staff accounts
- 24-hour support to assist you with any questions about the online store or sales
- A sales channel to sell your product on various online platforms or social media
- Manual order generation, gift cards, abandoned cart recovery, discount codes.
"Shopify" is the next price option for $79 a month that includes the same features as "Basic" plus a few extras.
- Instead of two staff accounts, you'll have access to five
- A monthly report on your company's sales.
“Advanced” Shopify costs $299 per month.
- It provides all of the capabilities of “Basic” and “Shopify” and an “Advanced” report builder and third-party calculated shipping prices, allowing you to choose whether to set your shipping rates or use third-party rates
- Access to 15 employee accounts under your store.
The plans have different payment rates.
Shopify Plus features
Unlike the above mentioned Shopify plans, Shopify Plus does not have a fixed price. However, pricing is tailored to a business's annual revenue or turnover. Pricing starts at around $2000 per month. It may seem like a high fee to pay to go into e-commerce, but given all of the benefits, it appears to be well worth it.
• Shopify’s Merchant Success program
A merchant success program is available to assist you with your ongoing e-commerce strategy when you sign up for a Plus subscription. Shopify claims to be able to get enterprise users up and operating on Shopify Plus in "less than 90 days."
• “Organisation Admin”
The Shopify Organisation Admin tool allows managing many stores from one account. This feature lets you access analytics, manage users, edit stores, and create automation (later on) for any of your stores from the same Shopify admin panel.
• Advanced apps
Although the standard Shopify provides access to many applications and integrations — about 7,100 — Shopify Plus expands your options in digital marketing, fulfilment, content management, shipping methods, customer rewards, and job automation for your Shopify Plus store.
Shopify Flow, for example, is a code-free automation tool that makes it easy to create "if this, then that" (IFTT) type rules. These allow Shopify to do certain actions automatically in response to specific occurrences (for example, if your inventory runs short, it can send an email message to a supplier, etc.
The Wholesale channel is for businesses that sell to other businesses and have many wholesale customers.
Script Editor – this feature allows you to design personalised shopping cart/checkout experiences.
• Improved multi-currency capabilities
If you use Shopify Plus, your e-commerce store will automatically adjust the country and currency for your consumers based on their IP address. Instead of selecting a currency manually, your users will see product prices in their local currency right away. This makes your store more user-friendly, eliminates client fears about purchasing from a "foreign" e-commerce website, and can result in increased sales.
• Extra stores
A basic Shopify account allows you to create only one store. However, a Shopify Plus subscription will enable you to set up to ten, thanks to its “expansion stores” limit. You can use these additional stores to expand sales prospects, internationalise operations, or accommodate stores with several physical locations. You can add more expansion stores than the usual Shopify Plus limit of ten (for a monthly fee of $250 per store).
• More inventory locations
You can store and manage your merchandise in more locations with Shopify Plus than with the other Shopify options. The “Basic” Shopify and ”Advanced” Shopify plans limit your inventory locations to four, five, or eight; the comparable Shopify Plus limit is twenty.
• More POS features
POS features allow you to sell online (through card readers and other selling gear) and in physical locations while keeping track of your inventory. Although the standard Shopify plans provide many POS functions, getting access to premium ones (like working with an endless number of salespeople, easier 'Buy online, pick up in store', facilitate communication, personalised receipts, purchase orders, attribute sales to specific employees, etc.) costs $89 per month for each location. You'll get extra POS capabilities included in your membership on a Shopify Plus.
• Additional API calls
You may use the Shopify API (“Application Programming Interface”) in additional ways with the Shopify Plus plan. An API allows two programs to communicate with one another. You can 'call' it more frequently (i.e., let an application utilise the API more regularly) and construct more advanced integrations with other tools on Shopify Plus plans (or develop your custom apps for Shopify).
The table below illustrates the variations between the regular restrictions and those offered by Shopify Plus.
• Bot protection
It is available on Shopify Plus plans to prevent product stocks from selling to auto-checkout bots. Bots won't be able to buy your things to crash your site.
• Advanced user management
Compared to ordinary Shopify subscriptions, Shopify Plus gives you more security and user management control. It enables you to use, for instance,
SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) - allows users to log into various online apps with a single set of credentials.
SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) - enables companies to manage user access privileges across numerous applications easier.
• Exclusive sales and marketing resources
If you have a Shopify Plus plan, you'll have access to information and capabilities that standard Shopify users don't have.
These benefits include:
- The Shopify Plus Academy — a library of self-guided training resources covering critical topics related to growing a business.
- The Shopify Plus Community on Facebook — a place for Shopify Plus merchants to network, collaborate and share online business strategies.
- technology, agency, and solution partners via the Shopify Plus Partner Program.
- BETA programs allow Shopify store owners to preview new features and influence the platform's direction.
Consider using Shopify Plus if you:
- Have a large number of physical stores for which POS functions are required.
- Have advanced API requirements and the need to construct new Shopify tools/apps.
- Have a vast, international customer base.
- Require the use of a large number of inventory locations.
- Desire complete control over the checkout process, need to manage a large number of Shopify sites in one place, and have a large staff that requires access to many Shopify stores.
For more information on developing a retail business, you may visit our Merchant Hub page. There we share informative content to assist you in your commerce journey so you can provide the best experience for your current customers and win new ones.
