At Rainy City Agency, we specialise in Shopify design and development. Shopify has over 1.2 million live stores around the world and is growing year on year with more compatibility, flexibility and enhanced features to scale your eCommerce brand. But sometimes your business needs that little bit extra.
Shopify introduced Shopify Plus in 2014, since then, some of the world’s biggest brands have joined Plus. From Kylie Cosmetics, Gymshark and Nike. Whilst Shopify and Shopify Plus work in the same way, Plus comes with more impressive new features that work perfectly for high-volume orders and more scalability (here's our full comparison of Shopify vs Shopify Plus).
Here’s everything you need to know about Shopify Plus:
What is Shopify Plus:
Shopify Plus is a SaaS eCommerce platform. A completely customisable alternative to other eCommerce platforms. Used by some of the fastest-growing companies in the world due to its scalability, easy integrations, automation and much more.
Its core features build upon what other eCommerce platforms have and supercharge them:
- More customisation and control
- Greater automation
- Improved multichannel and omnichannel functions
- Much faster speeds
- The ability to reliably handle massive amounts of traffic and sales
Ready to scale your Shopify store? Trusted by over 280 brands with years experience in eCommerce, we’ll help you grow faster using Shopify Plus.
Shopify Plus Pricing:
Shopify Plus pricing is tailored depending on your requirements. This can start with a variable monthly fee depending on your requirements, plus transaction fees once the site is live.
Ready to take your brand to the next level with Shopify Plus?. Book a free strategy session with us.
Shopify Plus Features:
Shopify Plus is a cloud-based eCommerce platform, and here’s what makes it so attractive;
- Easy integrations. Shopify Plus integrates with thousands of systems, allowing you to connect with platforms that best suit your business.
- Low maintenance. One of the main reasons many brands make the move to Shopify Plus is due to how low maintenance it is. When you do need to carry out a bit of maintenance, you’ll have an account manager and 24/7 support team who will help with minor development work.
- No need to worry about hosting. With Shopify Plus being a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, you don’t have to manage the hosting yourself.
- Global storefronts. Global storefronts and localised customer experiences make it easy for you to show off your brand around the world.
- Customised Checkout Experience. If you do need to make any changes to your checkout experience, with Shopify Plus you can.
Shopify Plus limitations
Every eCommerce platform, even Shopify Plus, has its own set of constraints.
The fact that you can’t customise the core product, which is owned and maintained by Shopify, is either a positive or a terrible thing, depending on your organization’s demands.
This is great from a security point of view, reduces the total cost of ownership, and minimises the site support you need. However, you do not have platform control and do not have access to the coding or database that powers your online store.
Shopify Plus doesn’t offer as many features out-of-the-box as the likes of Salesforce Commerce Cloud or BigCommerce, so some fairly standard features can only be added with a plug-in (app).
For example, customising filters with what’s offered out-of-the-box is tough, and the design options on the normal checkout are limited. While there is a robust app ecosystem accessible, the expense of adding a large number of different apps can quickly pile up.
The limitations all depend on who you’re working with. Most brands tend to work with an agency like ourselves who can guide them and give them the best practices for certain apps and can help with Shopify Plus Integrations and features.
How does Shopify Plus compare with Magento?
Hosting: Shopify is fully hosted, so the merchant is essentially freed from the management of PCI compliance. A brand using a non-cloud-based version of Magento would need to be sure that its server configurations meet compliance regulations.
Security & encryption: Unlike Magento Commerce customers, who must additionally handle patches to the core software, Shopify Plus customers do not have to worry about server security. Your Shopify Plus store is SSL-encrypted across the site.
Pricing: Shopify Plus has a reduced total cost of ownership because it requires less support/maintenance, BAU development, and hosting expenses.
Core functionality: Magento has a considerably more comprehensive collection of fundamental features than Shopify Plus. Shopify Plus provides a lot of features that are ideal for many mid-level retailers, but Magento has a lot more in terms of promotions, multi-store management, complicated merchandising needs, internationalisation, B2B capability, and so on.
Account management: As part of their monthly licence cost, Shopify Plus users get 24/7 account management. Frontend development and any significant development require developers, although there are fewer overheads and agency expenses than with a Magento site.
Platform control: Because Shopify Plus users don’t have access to the codebase or database that powers their online store, Magento gives them more control. This means that things like security patches and keeping the codebase up to date aren’t a worry, but it does mean that the platform is no longer under your control.
Ready to take your e-commerce brand to the next level? Book a quick chat.
