Shopify vs. Shopify Plus: What's the difference?

Shopify Plus encompasses everything that is included in the basic Shopify plan and offers even more. Therefore, instead of highlighting the similarities, we will focus on the unique features and benefits that Shopify Plus offers. This will allow us to illustrate the key differences between Shopify vs. Shopify Plus and help you understand which platform is best for your business.

While Shopify offers support to its users via phone, email, and live chat, Shopify Plus goes one step further with personalized and dedicated support for your store. A launch engineer is assigned to your website to guide you through the entire store setup and migration process. Whether it's third-party integrations or finding partners to work on projects tailored to your business, the Launch Engineer will be there to provide help every step of the way.

When considering the differences between Shopify vs Shopify Plus, another notable aspect to consider is staff accounts. While Shopify's basic plan only allows a limited number of staff accounts, Shopify Plus offers the ability to add an unlimited number of staff accounts and provides additional permission settings.

With Shopify Plus, you can give access to any number of team members to work on your online store, and you'll have greater control over their actions in store administration. This means that you can expand your team without worrying about hitting a limit on the number of accounts or losing control over the actions taken.

As a business owner, it's essential to provide personalized attention to high-spending customers and their actions on your checkout page. With Shopify Plus, you can customize the checkout experience based on cart value or any other condition.

In addition, Shopify Plus users have access to Shopify Scripts, which offers additional control over the checkout process. Script Editor allows you to customize shipping methods, customer fields, and payment options with finer control, unlike the regular version of Shopify where you would need special applications to achieve the same level of customization.

APIs are the backbone of third-party application integrations on any website. Shopify Plus offers enhanced API resources such as GiftCard, User and Multipass to help users take full advantage of third-party applications.

GiftCard is an alternative payment method, while Multipass login seamlessly redirects website visitors to the Shopify store without requiring separate login credentials or synchronization of any customer database. User allows you to add, delete, edit and retrieve staff account information.

Shopify Plus also allows for integration with custom applications or the ability to create your own private applications offering more flexibility and customization options.

Shopify Plus users have access to exclusive apps through their app store that regular Shopify users do not. These include:

• Wholesale channel: Designed to help companies achieve high-volume B2B sales.

• Shopify Flow: An e-commerce automation platform that automates many customer-related tasks and desktop processes in your store and on your apps. It stores and executes triggers, conditions, and actions that you specify without requiring coding.

• Launchpad: Useful for planning and automating flash sales, product launches or sales campaigns. You can roll back all changes instantly once the event is over.

• Script Editor: Allows you to create personalized shopping cart/checkout experiences using small pieces of code to apply discounts or customize shipping and payment options for customers. This helps reduce the number of abandoned carts.

• Transporter app: Imports customer, product and order records into your Shopify store, making it easy to send customer records between stores.

• Bulk Account Inviter: Bulk Account Inviter: Invites your customers, imported from another platform or store, to activate their accounts for your online business. This application is useful once you have imported customer accounts from another platform or store.

When it comes to integrating your Shopify store with existing platforms, the possibilities are endless. This is especially beneficial for complex businesses experiencing high growth. Shopify's API allows for seamless integration with a variety of platforms, including but not limited to:

Inventory management systems

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems

Accounting software

Shipping carriers

Marketing automation platforms

One of the key elements to consider when comparing Shopify and Shopify Plus is the wholesale channel.

As your business grows, you'll likely encounter customers who want to buy your products in bulk. An enterprise-level platform should facilitate wholesale sales, and that's where Shopify Plus comes in.

The wholesale channel allows you to create a separate, password-protected storefront based on your online store. This means you can offer exclusive prices for the same products to wholesale buyers or offer products only in wholesale. Additionally, you can create custom price lists or discount codes. In short, Shopify Plus merchants can manage both B2C and B2B businesses, send invoices, track orders, use existing product data and integrations, all from one place.

Shopify Plus comes with a Merchant Success Shopify Plus program that offers users comprehensive support to maximize the benefits of the platform. The program offers support for third-party integrations, products and platforms, as well as training to help users unlock their full potential. A dedicated Merchant Success Manager will work closely with you to provide guidance and support whenever needed.

In addition to 24-hour support, the team is always available to help you find Shopify Plus Partners partners to keep you up to date with industry trends and help you with events such as flash sales.

In addition to the Merchant Success program, Shopify Plus users have exclusive access to other valuable resources, including a Facebook community where they can share experiences with other users, a partner directory offering access to technology, agency and solution partners, and early access to beta programs. In addition, the Shopify Plus Academy is available to provide guidance on using the platform to its full potential.

Shopify Plus has introduced a unified dashboard that allows users to manage all of their stores, analytics, staff accounts, user permissions, and automation tools like Shopify Flow in one centralized location. This dashboard provides a complete overview of your business, promotes collaboration, and improves automation, especially when managing multiple stores or locations.

While Shopify offers a comprehensive analytics dashboard that displays important metrics such as sales, top products, landing pages, referrers, and customer return rate, among others, this may not be enough for fast-growing businesses.

Shopify Plus offers a range of options to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and make informed decisions. They collaborate with leading analytics companies to provide more advanced features that allow users to drill down into their store performance, monitor customer behavior, track marketing campaigns, and more. This helps merchants make data-driven decisions that can further improve their business.

While not a new feature, one of the significant differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus is the pricing structure. Shopify's basic service offers fixed pricing plans, regardless of your sales volume. In contrast, Shopify Plus pricing varies based on your sales volume and requires a consultation with a sales representative to obtain a specific cost.

Pricing starts at a minimum of $2,000 per month or 0.25% of sales volume per month, capped at $40,000. For example, if your store does $2 million in sales per month, you would pay $5,000 per month. However, if you only make $100,000 per month, you would have to pay the $2,000 minimum instead of 0.25% of sales.

To summarize the comparison between Shopify and Shopify Plus, both platforms offer similar basic eCommerce features via their dashboards. However, Shopify Plus offers more flexibility, additional support options, and access to your store code.

Nevertheless, Shopify Plus is a more expensive option with a minimum monthly cost of $2,000, which may not be feasible for small businesses unless they need the specific features provided by the Plus version. For most businesses, the basic Shopify platform is sufficient. If you are interested in using Shopify, you can follow our Shopify tutorial to set up your store.