Do you own an e-commerce store? Are you confused between choosing Shopify vs Shopify Plus? This blog discusses the significant differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus and explains which is the right choice for your e-commerce business.
According to Kinsta, online sales are expected to grow to $4.5 trillion by 2021. In the US alone, online shopping accounts for 10% of retail sales and is expected to grow at a year-on-year rate of 15%. Such stats manifest that the e-commerce market is expanding bigger and brighter than ever and a holy grail of retail.
As the demand for e-commerce businesses is rising rapidly, the need for a reliable e-commerce web development service and platform is also crucial and cannot be ignored. Talking about the best e-commerce platforms presently, Shopify’s name pops up. It is the best all-around e-commerce website builder on the market today, which also comes with an upgraded version called Shopify Plus that confirms 10,000 checkouts per minute.
Benefits of Shopify and Shopify Plus
Shopify is built for small to medium-sized businesses, whereas the newer Shopify Plus is designed especially for large enterprise businesses. Today, more than half a million merchants worldwide use Shopify and Shopify Plus. Shopify development offers a myriad of benefits for your e-commerce store. Let’s explore them:
- Easy to Set Up and Use – Shopify is a no-fuss platform that is easy to set up and use. It allows you to set up your store even if you have no technical knowledge about development or website hosting.
- Security and Reliability – Security is crucial for any website, especially e-commerce stores. Thus, Shopify offers security and reliability to keep the customers’ personal and financial information confidential.
- Faster Loading Speed – Today’s consumers want everything faster. Shopify’s well-optimized hardware and software make it very responsive, and each e-commerce site loads in a matter of seconds.
- Scalability – Shopify Plus is designed specifically for a larger enterprise. This means the platform has unlimited scalability to match the needs of growing e-commerce brands, such as Nestle, Bombas, MVMT, and others.
- Extended Customization – Shopify Plus has hundreds of premium themes that come with extended and easier customization for enterprise brands and give a unique look and feel to the online stores.
- Greater Functionality with Ease of Use – Despite all the added functionality with Shopify Plus, the platform remains incredibly easy-to-use, making it one of the major draws for online merchants.
Shopify vs Shopify Plus – 7 Significant Key Differences You Need to Know
After researching hundreds of products and tested thoroughly, we can now talk about all the significant key differences between Shopify vs Shopify Plus. Read on to find – Is Shopify the right choice for your e-commerce business? Or should you go with Shopify Plus?
Theme Customization
In standard plans, Shopify allows for theme customization using the editor. However, Shopify Plus enables you to have a higher degree of customization and gives you access to Shopify’s theme language, Liquid. It lets you build and customize themes faster with component-based Liquid that ensures proper function and compatibility and gives your online store a gorgeous look.
Customer Support
Both Shopify and Shopify Plus offer customer support to a greater extent through phone email and live chat. If you need extended and personalized support, you can hire Shopify Experts. Shopify Plus merchants get priority attention; each Shopify Plus account is assigned with a dedicated ‘Success Manager.” that offers personalized and dedicated support to an e-commerce store and takes care of your store setup/migration process.
Staff Accounts
Staff accounts are another great feature you’ll get with Shopify vs Shopify Plus. The standard Shopify plan permits only a few limited staff accounts, whereas Shopify Plus allows you to add unlimited staff accounts and enables additional permission settings. With Shopify Plus, you can grant access to multiple team members to work on your e-commerce store.
Checkout Experience
Every e-commerce store owner strives to create the best possible checkout experience. You can seal the deal with Shopify Plus by optimizing it for better conversions, and it can handle up to 10,000 checkouts per minute, which can be crucial during high sales periods, such as flash sales, holidays, and others.
API Integrations
APIs are responsible for facilitating integrations with third-party apps on any website. With Shopify Plus, you can take full advantage of third-party apps with improved resources, such as GiftCard, User, and Multipass. Besides, Shopify Plus also lets you integrate with custom apps or build your private apps.
Analytics Options
Shopify provides a detailed analytics dashboard where you can view stats related to sales, products, landing pages, customer rates, and more. Shopify Plus works with leading and in-depth analytics that help companies keep up with the latest trends and stay ahead of their competitors.
Pricing
Pricing is an essential factor when it comes to comparing Shopify vs Shopify Plus. Predictably, Shopify pricing comes in at a lower cost than Shopify Plus. Shopify’s pricing is given on the website; however, Shopify Plus only provides custom quotes. Moreover, Shopify Plus has lower transaction fees in comparison to Shopify.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, Shopify and Shopify Plus have the same core offering in terms of functionality, dashboard, and others. The main differences between Shopify vs Shopify Plus are Shopify Plus comes up with more scalability, extended customization, dedicated success manager, extensive integrations, and a lot more.
We hope all the key differences mentioned above will help you choose the right platform for your e-commerce business. So, which one are you going to choose, Shopify or Shopify Plus?
