Explaining The Difference Between Shopify And Shopify Plus

Shopify is a well-known leading eCommerce solution. Made up of over 1,400 fantastic themes, hosting over 2,297 Million websites as of 2021, and available in 175 countries - Shopify offers eCommerce solutions to any business with their easy-to-use interface, bulletproof security, and site speed that keeps shoppers happy. As a result of their dedicated online support, Shopify has grown into one of the biggest tools on the market for anyone looking to open an online store today.

But which Shopify plan should you go for? Is the $29 Basic plan enough? Or should you be choosing the Enterprise-level plan?

We Shopify Plus Experts and Shopify Plus Developers in Singapore will be covering this for you today.

Shopify merchants go from small dropshipping stores to famous brands like Pepsi, Gymshark, Unilever, WaterAid, Redbull GmbH, and Tesla Motors. (Source: Shopify) 

So what matters is the size of your business. 

Apart from the massive price difference where a Shopify Basic plan costs you $29 while the Shopify Plus (enterprise-level) starts at $2000, there are a whole lot of features that are being offered to you by Shopify Plus that are simply not there in the Basic plan. These include:

• Launch Manager - for the proper launch of your store right from day one.
• Script Editor - for customizing those checkout zones just the way you want it.
• Flow - for all your automation needs, you can focus on business while the system automatically handles repetitive tasks.
• Launchpad - for gearing up for any major sales event weeks or months ahead of time instead of at the last moment.
• Access to Liquid - for giving you access to Shopify’s theme language, Liquid. Thus providing you with greater customization control from the backend.
• Unlimited Staff Accounts - for all your employees having their own access and roles. You still retain complete control.
• Exclusive Apps - for making business easier. Like the Bulk account inviter for importing customer accounts from another platform or from another store upon migrating.
• Merchant Success Program - for helping users get the most value out of the platform. They’re ready to help you with third-party integrations, products, and platforms, as well as training to help you tap your full potential. You’ll work with a Merchant Success Manager who’ll help you with everything you might need.

Granted, that's a mouth-watering deal and all of those pointers are a must-net for any brand’s success. But what must be taken into account is whether you need all of them. 

A lot of the pointers you read above can still be incorporated into your Basic plan with the help of a Shopify Expert or Shopify Developers such as the Launch Manager and Script Editor. 

To recap, Shopify and Shopify Plus have the same core offering when it comes to the dashboard and basic eCommerce functionality. The main difference is that Shopify Plus gives you a lot more flexibility, more support options, and more access to your store’s underlying code.

This is why the Shopify Plus agency in Singapore will always suggest that you consult with a Shopify Plus Expert when planning on opening your eCommerce store. 

Connect with us and we’ll go through all the details regarding your Shopify Store, whether it's in planning or already exists. We can conduct a site audit and tell you what plan works best for your eCommerce store.

Note: There are a lot of requirements to become a Shopify Plus merchant. The idea must be sustainable so don't hesitate to find out more about what are the prerequisites for becoming one if that's what you have in mind.

Get in touch or connect with us at hi@mswebinternational.com. Hire Shopify Plus agency to leverage the true potential that you deserve - more customers and more sales!

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When Should You Opt for Shopify Plus

Shopify has made a name for itself as a trusted, secure, and reliable eCommerce platform; one that allows merchants to focus on their business rather than having to experiment with tricky technology and risky security concerns.

This is partly because this has to do with its hosted nature - all of the upkeep, troubleshooting and security are managed by Shopify.

As Shopify merchants grow, their needs become more complex. They want a platform that will support them on the journey in more ways than one; one with more functionality and customization opportunities than what regular Shopify offers them. 

Shopify Plus is Shopify's enterprise solution for rapidly growing businesses. This plan offers higher limits than Shopify's lower-tier plans, and many merchants may find that their business will outgrow the basic plan. If your company is planning on expansion then you may want to consider upgrading to this plan. 

It’s time for something different for your business. It’s time to focus on service. It's time to partner with a Shopify Plus Expert who will tell you all about Shopify Plus.

So, when should you opt for Shopify Plus?

We as Shopify Plus Experts from Singapore have been taught to answer that same question by Shopify themselves. This is what we have to say:

• Touched the 1 Million mark?
  Shopify recommends that your business touch the $1-2million mark in revenue. This is when Shopify Plus turns out to be a good choice. Don't consider upgrading if your revenue is anything below $800,000.

• Looking for an omnichannel solution
  Omnichannel retail is a fully-integrated approach to commerce, providing shoppers a unified experience across all channels or physical touchpoints. Omnichannel retail allows merchants to reach customers from where the customer chooses to buy their products. This could be through Physical stores, Online, Mobile, Social Networking, etc. All of these points are integrated thus making the business process easier for the merchant and customer.

• If you're a legacy brand
  Many large enterprises function on legacy software even today. This poses a huge security risk in addition to incompatibility with the new evolving technology. Shopify Plus offers an enterprise solution that needs no updates and offers great flexibility from an integration perspective.

• When your business is in a hyper-growth stage
  The other Shopify plans work like a charm in the nascent stage for any business. But as the growth momentum hits, complex technological challenges involving functionality emerge.
  
  Let's say for example your store was well suited for 100 customers per month. The same speed and functionality won't work when you have over 100000 customers visiting you monthly.

• On-premise platform crashes during high-volume periods
  Never worry about crashing again with unlimited bandwidth and SKUs, 99.99% uptime, 500,000 hits per minute, and over 7,000 CPU cores. A fully hosted SaaS platform with automatic scaling during peak times.

• Need more stores for international expansion, so they can display local languages, currencies, and taxes on each store
  Spin up to 9 custom clone storefronts for each market you sell in with localized languages, currencies, product catalogs, taxes, and domains if you choose to expand and localize your store for a particular customer base. At no additional cost. These storefronts come under your main domain as a subdomain.

• Need percentage-based discounts, fixed-amount discounts, or free shipping on select items
  Unlock the power of promotions with customizable logic-based discounting from Shopify’s Discounts API and Shopify Scripts. Choose the kind of discount you wish to give specific customers and who the delivery partner will be.

• Complex Customizations 
  Take advantage of the customization options, such as the headless commerce customization where the front end of your store can be customized by 3rd party Apps while the backend works seamlessly even though separate from the front end. Create 1-page checkouts or 2-page, or even 3-page checkouts, as per your desires. All thanks to the powerful tool called Scripts.

• Need advanced support to assist with their complex needs
  Get access to 24/7 priority support, the merchant success program, launch engineers, solution engineers, and a network of certified Shopify Plus Partners and App Partners to help you with any issues that you might face.

Shopify is the ideal platform for merchants to concentrate on and expand their other ventures. The reliability of the platform, from maintaining product pages to handling customer insights and sales, offers merchants great comfort throughout the entire process, especially if they are handling large volumes.

Get in touch with a Shopify Plus Partner or Shopify plus experts like MS Web International - Shopify Plus Experts based in Singapore to tell you more about the advantages of switching to Shopify Plus. Or message us directly at hi@mswebinternational.com. Hire Shopify Plus Experts to leverage the true potential that you deserve - more customers and more sales!

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7 Most Powerful Features Of Shopify Plus That Will Be A Game Changer For Your Enterprise Business

Shopify Plus is a premium Enterprise level eCommerce platform that provides you with extra features and benefits than the normal Shopify subscription. This premium version of the platform comes for large-scale enterprise users who are generally a global presence and typically with annual multi-million-dollar revenues.

Some of its features include custom scripting, flow, and fraud recommendations during sales. It’s a resourceful platform that will help your business grow at twice the speed of any regular online store. If you have an increase in traffic, the platform can automatically handle it by scaling the website.

Here we talk about 7 of the most powerful features of the Shopify Plus platform that we Shopify plus experts and Shopify Plus Partners in Singapore feel are important enough for you to know. This is what sets Shopify Plus apart from the rest:

1. Scalability

Shopify understands that enterprise-level commerce requires a robust infrastructure that’s capable of serving exponentially more customers, along with more complex operations, integrations, and support. That’s why Shopify Plus has been designed for high-growth businesses that are about to scale.

No need to bother about server requirements anymore as Shopify automatically does that for you. No extra charge.

2. Handling High Volume Orders

When the whole world is waiting for Black Friday and Cyber Monday bargains, Shopify makes sure that all of your eCommerce needs are met by handling surges in traffic without causing you to crash.

In fact, Shopify Plus supports over 10,000+ transactions every minute at peak and maintains an impressive uptime of 99.99%.

3. 0% Transaction Fees

If you’re using Shopify Payments (Shopify’s own payment gateway powered by Stripe), there are no transaction fees.

Generally using an external payment gateway costs 0.5% in transaction fees, plus whatever fees the payment gateway charges you. This saves a lot of money for customers in the long run.

Plus, Shopify Payments provides a 4x faster checkout than standard experiences and a 91% conversion rate on mobile devices as per Shopify.

Presently there are over 100 Million global Shop Pay users.

4. Launchpad

Are our sales events becoming a daunting task for you to complete at the last minute?

Launchpad is a scheduling tool that is found inside your Shopify admin allowing you to schedule product visibility, Shopify Scripts, themes, discounts, and more with a defined start and end time. You can now prepare your Shopify store for any event well in advance, without all the headaches.

5. Script Editor and Shopify Flow

Shopify flow, Another feature that Shopify Plus customers can take advantage of is Scripts and Flow. You can use scripts to create discounts that are applied to a cart based on the items in that cart as well as other cart properties that are unique to the customer while Flow automates repetitive tasks for you thus reducing the need for more staff when scaling is required.

6. Customer Support

A responsive customer support system is crucial for any eCommerce business. Shopify Plus offers 24 hours of support from a dedicated agent. No matter what the problem is, considered it solved.

7. Increased API Access

The Shopify Plus plan also has an API (Application Programming Interface) extension for increased API access. This feature is useful for those who sell products from different countries or have many international orders. Shopify's API allows a developer to improve upon and extend the existing features that are built into the platform. This gives the merchant more control over both how they interact with their store and what the experience of their customer is likely to be. In fact, it is available for all Shopify users.

In a mid-2020 press release, Shopify announced that its platform “powers over one million businesses in more than 175 countries” across the globe. There are over 10,000 Shopify Plus stores in 2021 (Source: Shopify). 

Even though we are  Shopify Plus Partners and Shopify Enterprise Solution Experts, we take an unbiased stand in informing our customers that Shopify is the best platform for them to be on. No matter whether new or old to the eCommerce industry. 

As a Shopify plus partner and Shopify plus developers in Singapore, we will help you to leverage the true potential of your business with advanced customizations like 2-step checkouts, ERP integrations, Headless commerce customizations, Borderless eCommerce, presetting activities, and much more. To know more, feel free to get in touch with us at hi@mswebinternational.com. We are here to solve all your Shopify Plus concerns and queries.

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