Both Shopify and Shopify Plus can be useful tools for business owners big or small, but what exactly is the difference between Shopify vs Shopify Plus? When thinking about this, it’s vital to consider all the differences and what those differences mean. Those answers will determine which platform is best suited for you and your business. If your business is on the larger side and you need a website that handles a large amount of traffic, Shopify Plus might be for you. For a newer business that doesn’t anticipate large amounts of traffic, consider using Shopify to establish your website. In this article, we’ll explore this difference, alongside the many others between Shopify and Shopify Plus, more in-depth for you.
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The Difference Between Shopify and Shopify Plus
Of the differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus, one of the largest is the price point. The cheapest version of Shopify costs $9 per month, while the most expensive costs $299 per month. Shopify Plus starts at $2,000 per month and can cost more depending on the size of your business and the volume of traffic your website receives. Because of the vast difference in pricing, Shopify recommends Shopify Plus for larger businesses and standard Shopify for growing businesses. Included with Shopify is their optimization services, which allow you to optimize and grow your business regardless of the size. Below we’ll break down the Shopify vs Shopify Plus dilemma and thoroughly explain what’s included with each plan. Part of this difference is a variant in Shopify’s merchant fees for the seller, which vary depending on which plan you choose to use.
Shopify Lite
As Shopify’s cheapest plan at $9 per month, Shopify Lite allows for the buyer to sell in person via POS or add a Buy Button to an already existing website. This is ideal for those with an established website rather than an online store. With this plan, you can view financial reports, customer profiles, orders and product management, in-store inventory, and more. You can test out Shopify Lite for 14 days for free, and then if you find you want to upgrade or cancel, you can do that at any time. Shopify Lite is a great option for those venturing into selling their products and opens the door for more possibilities.
The Basic Shopify Plan
The Basic Shopify Plan, the second cheapest of the standard Shopify plans, costs $29 per month. Shopify recommends this plan to new businesses or online stores that are very new to selling products in person. This plan allows 2 staff members to have admin access alongside access to Shopify POS. Other features of this plan include managing inventory for up to 4 retail spots like stores, pop-ups, etc., and up to a 77% shipping discount for standard shipping. In regard to credit card rates and fees, the Basic Shopify Plan uses 2.9% + 30¢ USD rates for online credit purchases, and 2.7% + 0¢ USD for in-person credit card purchases. Shopify also takes a 2% transaction fee when Shopify payments aren’t used. These fees are lower with the Shopify Plan and the Advanced Shopify Plan.
The Shopify Plan
When thinking about the standard Shopify Plan, the Shopify vs Shopify Plus discussion gets interesting. This is the middle ground for those who want more than what’s offered in the Basic Shopify Plan but don’t want to spend too much. For $79 per month, the Shopify Plan comes with the same features as the Basic Shopify Plan and more. With the Shopify plan, you can have 5 staff members with Shopify admin and Shopify POS access and access to professional reports from Shopify. The credit card rates for the Shopify Plan are 2.6% + 30¢ USD for online credit purchases and 2.5% + 0¢ USD for in-person credit purchases. Alongside this, the rate for non-Shopify payments is 1%, as opposed to 2% for the Basic Shopify plan. It comes with more global selling options, including global SEO optimization, alongside customization for product pricing in different countries.
The Advanced Shopify Plan
For $299 per month, this plan is the second-most expensive plan that Shopify offers. Recommended for growing businesses with two or more retail locations, this plan includes 15 staff accounts to Shopify admin and POS alongside managing inventory for up to eight locations. With this, Advanced Shopify also features an advanced report builder, third-party calculated shipping rates, and varying international pricing for your products. Fees for the Advanced Shopify plan are less than the two prior plans. There’s a 2.4% + 30¢ USD credit card fee for online purchases and a 2.4% fee for in-person credit purchases. To top this off, the transaction fee for not using Shopify payments is only 0.5%. Aside from these differences, the Advanced Shopify plan comes with everything the Lite, Basic, and standard plans come with.
Shopify Plus
Now that you know the basics of the Shopify standard plans, we can really dive into the difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus. Shopify is built for accommodating smaller businesses with lower amounts of traffic, employees, and retail spaces. Meanwhile, Shopify Plus is built for large companies looking to standardize their online retail presence. Over ten thousand brands work with Shopify Plus to manage their businesses, including Gymshark, Dressbarn, and even Heinz. This many notable brands and organizations utilizing Shopify Plus says a lot about what they have to offer and their reliability.
Shopify Plus Features
Let’s dive into the specific features that make Shopify Plus great for managing large businesses. Shopify Plus showcases three pillars of its ideology: Sell, Manage, and Integrate. Each pillar details areas of Shopify Plus that standardize the business experience, from managing inventory to customizing the checkout experience. Shopify Plus connects with these three goals by emphasizing productivity and efficiency in all areas of business management. Specifically, Shopify Plus tackles the issue of shopping cart abandonment by promoting higher conversion rates and encouraging easy checkouts.
Shopify Plus: Selling
The first pillar of Shopify Plus’ model, Selling, standardizes the customer experience to improve retention. To do this, Shopify Plus features customizable checkouts where you can add promotions, discounts, and shipping rates on any of your items. They also offer a variety of ways to ease the checkout experience by accepting local payments, digital wallets, and one-click checkouts. All of these are done through automated tools to improve retention and conversion rates for your business. The goal is to make it easier and more efficient to sell more of your product. Specifically, Shop Pay offers a 60% faster checkout for customers with Shopify Plus. Overall, the Sell Everywhere pillar emphasizes unity within selling and giving the customer a unique and efficient experience.
Shopify Plus: Managing
The management pillar of Shopify Plus is grounded in automation and functionality within managing your business. Specifically, Shopify Plus features Shopify Flow as a tool for turning manual actions into automatic workflows. Doing so saves you time and money. Shopify Flow comes with a variety of workflow templates you can choose from, or you can modify them and make your own. You can do this across all of your stores and manage them all from one place with Shopify Plus. Similar to Shop Flow, another feature called Launchpad enables you to schedule sales, product releases, and campaigns to run automatically. Another added bonus is the fraud risk automation that eradicates potential human error in fraud activity.
Shopify Plus: Integration
The final pillar that Shopify Plus showcases the ease of transitioning into using Shopify Plus. This is one of the most important things to consider for the Shopify vs Shopify Plus debate. Shopify Plus notes that their “Plug and Play” Platform enables brands to utilize the variety of tools Shopify Plus has to offer, all from one convenient place. To aid in this, Shopify partners with third-party applications and makes sure that these apps are easy to use within the Shopify Plus program. These third-party applications include Multi-channel Management, Conversion Optimization, and more. There are many more to choose from, and you can play around to see which third-party applications that Shopify Plus offers are best for you. These features, alongside customization and efficiency make this a great option for large businesses looking to expand into e-commerce.
Shopify Plus Benefits
To get the full scope of the Shopify vs Shopify Plus comparison, let’s talk about the Shopify Plus benefits. One of the most notable being the launch time that Shopify Plus markets against their competitors. Unlike other e-commerce applications that can take upwards of a year to launch, with Shopify Plus you can launch your business within four months. This way, you gain traction faster with the ability to make custom changes at any time. Shopify Plus also emphasizes the ease of migration into their program, with over two thousand engineers ready to help. Another attractive benefit from Shopify Plus is the merchant success services they offer, with the goal of growing and expanding their clients’ businesses. The benefits of Shopify Plus aim to help other businesses grow in productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. With this information, you can decide whether Shopify vs Shopify Plus is really for you.
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