How Shopify Plus is Disrupting the Shopping Cart Services Industry

Shopify is one of the leading ecommerce solutions on the market today. It’s easy to navigate, which attracts new sellers, but it has a plethora of features that draw huge brands as well. On the whole, Shopify powers more than one million ecommerce stores and is clearly a popular choice. But for brands that need a bit more oomph, there’s Shopify Plus. This platform has everything you know and love about Shopify, but its true power comes from its additional functionalities.

If you don’t already know, Shopify Plus has disrupted the shopping cart services industry by simplifying the complexities of ecommerce and making powerful technology accessible to growing brands. Here’s a breakdown of the platform and how it’s changing the game.

What Is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus is the enterprise-sized ecommerce platform powered by Shopify. Launched in 2014 to give brands a customizable platform for supercharged growth, Shopify Plus has all the features of a standard Shopify account with added features and support. This means Shopify still handles the technical maintenance, security and scale, and agents are available 24/7 to help sellers. Shopify also provides a multichannel integration so sellers can list directly in marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.

The essence of the Shopify Plus platform is that users have far more control over their online stores than they do while using standard Shopify. Sellers get unlimited staff accounts and up to 10 stores at no additional cost. Shopify Plus stores can also handle high traffic volumes and 10,000 transactions per minute.

If Shopify is the commuter vehicle, Shopify Plus is the sports car upgrade. It’s an intuitive, reasonably priced platform that is disrupting the shopping cart services industry.

What Are the Benefits of Shopify Plus?

The Shopify platform supports more than one million ecommerce businesses in total, and 7,000 of them choose Shopify Plus. Massive companies like Nestle, Pepsi and General Electric all use the platform; as do high-growth startups like athletic apparel brand Gymshark and DTC mattress maker Leesa. Why do all these brands gravitate toward Shopify Plus? Look at the benefits:

• 90-day launch time. Other proprietary software options take months—or a year—to create, implement and train with. The average Shopify Plus merchant, on the other hand, will launch in just 90 days. Easily create and customize the customer journey within your Shopify Plus site and be ready to go by the next quarter.
• Migration support. Shopify Plus merchants work alongside a migration specialist when prepping for launch. Seamlessly take your data with you to Shopify Plus so you and your customers don’t even notice an interruption.
• Ongoing guidance. Along with your migration specialist, you’ll also get access to a team of ecommerce experts who continually work with you on strategy and execution. Whatever your goals, they’ll help you achieve them.
• Priority support. Shopify Plus sellers are the MVPs of Shopify’s customer base, so they get priority when contacting support with any platform questions.
• Ecommerce automation. As a Shopify Plus merchant, you can automate some of your day-to-day tasks like promotions and sales campaigns. It’s part of Shopify Flow, which aims to help sellers get more done in less time.
• Wholesale capabilities. Shopify Plus has its own wholesale solution built into the platform, saving merchants time and money by letting them run a separate wholesale operation from their same Shopify account.

Clearly, there are a ton of perks of Shopify Plus. Shopify is a solid platform as well, so brands deciding between the two are often torn. Here are some key differences.

Should I Choose Shopify or Shopify Plus?

Though Shopify and Shopify Plus are similar, there are five key differences between the two: customization capabilities, features, reporting, support and fees. Both platforms work the same way, and merchants use the same dashboard and Help Center, but it’s these differences that help sellers pick one or the other.

Customization capabilities are a major difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus. Both platforms offer 10 free themes and 50+ paid themes, which cost roughly $150 each and can massively upgrade your digital storefront. For further customization of these themes, developers need to know Liquid, Shopify’s own coding language. The migration specialists (that Shopify Plus merchants get to work with) help the sellers write code so they can get their existing sites integrated into a Shopify custom theme. The result is greater customization—you can even change up your checkout page with Shopify Plus.

Ecommerce features separate Shopify from Shopify Plus even further. Both platforms have a multichannel integration, giving merchants the power to list directly to marketplaces and social media sites. They use abandoned cart emails, which can recover up to 25% of those lost sales. Shopify also automatically adjusts pricing to show in the shopper’s native currency. These are all powerful features, but Shopify Plus does even more. Plus, merchants can use Shopify Flow, the platform’s automation service, to tailor the customer experience to each shopper. Merchants also get more use out of the script editor and can customize their payment methods, shipping and more.

Analytics is another key area when selecting your ecommerce platform, and Shopify certainly delivers. The custom reports give you a real-time look at your store’s performance and a wealth of detailed data. What more could you want? Shopify Plus seems to have the answer: insight. They’ve partnered with data experts to give merchants insight into what all their analytics mean and how best to move forward with growing the business.

When it comes to customer support, Shopify knocks it out of the park. Support reps are available 24/7 via phone and live chat, and Shopify has a massive library of help articles for those who want to DIY. Shopify Plus merchants, as you probably expected, get all of this and more. You’re first assisted by your launch manager and then transitioned to your dedicated merchant success manager. The one-on-one support can really help your brand thrive.

Finally, pricing sets Shopify and Shopify Plus apart. Standard Shopify plans come in three tiers geared toward novice, growing and established sellers. The top tier Advanced Shopify plan is priced at $299/month but interested parties must contact Shopify Plus for custom pricing quotes. Merchants can expect to pay roughly $2,000/month for the platform and numerous perks. If you’re interested in migrating to a Shopify shopping cart, take advantage of Shopify’s 14-day free trial. You won’t get to test out Shopify Plus, but you can dig through the core features that make Shopify such a widespread platform.

While Shopify is a fantastic ecommerce platform on its own, Shopify Plus is simply in a different league. It took the best features of its “younger sibling” and other shopping cart competitors and kicked things up a notch. The result? A powerhouse platform that’s disrupting the shopping cart services industry. If you don’t believe us, keep reading to learn how Shopify Plus is the answer to your ecommerce woes.

The Shopify Brand Is Growing

Shopify’s market share surpassed 20% last year, and it keeps growing! The platform offered a 90-day free trial to merchants who were bringing their businesses online due to COVID-19 and saw a surge in Q2.

Shopify Plus Is Built for Scalability

There’s no wonder why the world’s largest brands choose Shopify Plus. The platform boasts a 99.9% uptime, can handle four million visitors (and thousands of transactions) per second and gives its merchants 200TB of storage. No matter how quickly your business is growing, Shopify Plus can handle it.

Extended Customization Is Easier than Ever

Shopify Plus merchants can utilize any of Shopify’s free or premium themes to build their online stores, but you’re not limited by these options. Additional customizations are as easy as adding code to your backend, which your team can do with help from your launch manager and merchant success manager.

Whether you’re an Enterprise business that uses shopify with extensive customization, like Shop Liquid Rubber does with their shopify store, or you’re a smaller business that wants to create an attractive storefront for customers like RV Flex Repair is doing with their store, both of these examples serve to demonstrate the the multifariousness of customization options this shopping cart has to offer.

Sellers Can Customize Discounts

Shopify’s scripting feature gives merchants the power to create, apply and manage customized discounts. These can be discounts on product categories, percentage-based discounts, product bundles and much more. VIP customers can even see their own pricing tier if you’re using a custom script.

Product Event Management Is Seamless

Prepping for a big product event can be a hassle, especially if you want to change up your digital storefront for the occasion. What is the secret to Shopify Plus merchants’ success around product events like launches or sales? They get the Launchpad tool, which lets you schedule bulk changes to your online store that coincide with the event.

Each Merchant Gets a Success Manager

We’ve mentioned this a few times, but every Shopify Plus merchant is assigned a dedicated merchant success manager to help them navigate the Shopify Plus platform and use it for business growth. Your MSM is a valuable resource who can do everything from advocating for platform features to assisting with custom integrations.

All Apps Are Verified by Shopify

Like other ecommerce platforms, Shopify has an “app store” of extensions that merchants can use to boost their stores’ functionalities. There are thousands of apps in Shopify’s marketplace, and each has been tested and verified by Shopify. These apps can help Shopify sellers with:

• Shipping
• Returns
• Inventory management
• Customer service
• And so much more!

App verification isn’t unique. In fact, most ecommerce platform providers have a vetting process for all app developers want to list in their marketplaces. However, Shopify Plus stands out because it has a high API limit, which lets merchants run several apps at once without hitting the limit.

Shopify Pay Improves Conversions

While other ecommerce platforms rely on third party payment services like PayPal and Stripe, Shopify has its own payment service: Shopify Pay. Shoppers who have purchased from a Shopify store in the past and opted to save their payment information can use this service to breeze through checkout. It even saves shipping information, so there is one less step from adding items to cart and completing the purchase.

Wholesale Operations Run in Tandem

In the past, ecommerce sellers had to run two separate operations if they had a wholesale business along with their B2C stores. The additional site meant additional upkeep and fees, neither of which are advantageous to busy e-tailers operating on thin margins. Shopify changed this a few years ago when they announced that merchants could run both their B2B and B2C stores from the same account. The new wholesale program was a game changer, and it was another instance in which Shopify disrupted the shopping cart services industry.

Supercharge Your Shopify Plus Store with Shopify CRM

The extensive features and capabilities of Shopify Plus make it a no-brainer for many enterprise brands that sell online. It’s a powerful platform that remains accessible to growing companies, and it has disrupted the shopping cart services industry.

We’re going to let you in on a tip to really make the most out of your Shopify Plus store: Shopify CRM. It integrates directly into your Shopify store and starts working in seconds to build a digital address book using your shop’s order history. You’ll be able to see which customers are regulars, which are serial returners and so much more. Use that data to build better relationships and extend your average customer lifetime.

All Apps Are Verified by Shopify

Like other ecommerce platforms, Shopify has an “app store” of extensions that merchants can use to boost their stores’ functionalities. There are thousands of apps in Shopify’s marketplace, and each has been tested and verified by Shopify. These apps can help Shopify sellers with:

• Shipping
• Returns
• Inventory management
• Customer service
• And so much more!

App verification isn’t unique. In fact, most ecommerce platform providers have a vetting process for all app developers want to list in their marketplaces. However, Shopify Plus stands out because it has a high API limit, which lets merchants run several apps at once without hitting the limit.