Which Shopify Platform is Best for Your Business? 5 Differences Between Shopify and Shopify Plus

If you are looking for the overall best eCommerce site builder, then Shopify is what you need. Not only has it helped more than 2,000,000+ merchants to build stores today but also generated a $175 billion profit at the end of December 2020.

There are two plans, Shopify and Shopify Plus. Small to medium-sized enterprises rely on Shopify, whereas bigger businesses find Shopify Plus more suitable. These plans function similarly. The only difference is that Shopify Plus is more powerful than Shopify. For instance, Shopify Plus handles more than 10,000 transactions every minute.

Well, having been a Shopify Partner for years now and worked with clients and their Shopify plans, we’ve identified what these versions can do. Therefore, no need to worry; we’re going to tell which of the platforms is best suited to meet Your Business’s needs.

At Seibert Consulting Group, we’ve sifted through many products and verified them diligently. We’re confident that we understand the thin line that separates Shopify from Shopify Plus.

Therefore, stay with us as we take you through how these two function as well as their upsides and downsides plus five significant differences.

Upsides and Downsides: Shopify Versus Shopify Plus

Here, you will learn the benefits and limitations of the standard plan, Shopify.

Shopify Benefits

An outstanding inventory management system
Ability to sell on many channels, social media, and Amazon.
Excellent eCommerce functionalities

Shopify Limitations

No specialist integrations
Charges transactions on other payment solutions unless you use Shopify Payments
Have to reformat content for switching themes

Now you know about Shopify’s good and evil, hence let’s look at Shopify Plus’s upsides and downsides.

Shopify Plus Upsides

Ability to handle 10,000+ orders a minute
Allows for any number of staff accounts
Help and support are more personalized.

Shopify Plus Downsides

Only manageable by businesses at an enterprise level
No standard price with monthly costs done in quotes
You need to give a lot of attention to your eCommerce site.

Now that you know the differences between Shopify and Shopify good and evil, they understand how they function.

How Shopify and Shopify Plus Function

The first thing you should know is that both plans work similarly.

Therefore, you’ll find the same dashboard, editor, and help center on both platforms. Most of the praise Shopify Plus gets is not based on how it works but because of its capability.

From the dashboard on Shopify, you get to control your shopping store. You will also get all you want to create a great online shop. But with Shopify Plus, you get to the next level. How?

We’ll use an example here. Shipping using Shopify can be free or pay for live calculated rates of flat rates. However, Shopify offers a shipping script hence allowing you to link to more specific qualities. So what happens? Well, you are in control of shipping options and can alter them using cart contents, customer tags, or minimum order values.

Do you see how much Shopify can do? More freedom setting up and customizing Shopify Plus.

All that said, the next question may be, who can use these Shopify plans. Well, the answer is easy. Anyone running an online shopping business can use Shopify. It should cost you any amount from $29 to $299 every month.

You will find Shopify Plus a good fit for your flagship store (your large store), as it is a proven platform for respected brands like Nestle and Red Bull.

1. The flexibility of Store Design

Creating your store on Shopify starts with a theme. On both plans, Shopify and its Plus platform have 60+ themes. Ten of those themes are free of charge, while the 59 you will get for a fee ranging from $140 to $180.

We know this fee looks a lot but remember it will be a one-time payment on your store appearance. That’s all.

The themes available for you are in many languages. So what does this mean to your business? If you put up a store for specifically targeted customers, you are free to do it in the place’s native language. Languages to expect are Spanish, German, French, English, Brazilian Portuguese, and Italian.

Shopify themes are common because they allow you to preview your store, browse for products, and organize items into categories.

If you need more control over the platform, then some coding will do the trick. Shopify themes come with their coding language known as Liquid. Do not worry if you lack programming know-how because there are many resources to help you out with the coding.

Earlier, we talked about how Shopify is meant for businesses at the enterprise level. What this means is, you already have a website.

This means that you need to link your site with Shopify. That should be easy because Shopify Plus offers you a dedicated launch manager. This manager will assist you by doing lines of codes allowing your store to operate on a custom Shopify theme fully.

This brings us to the difference between Shopify Plus and Shopify. Whereas Shopify Plus allows you to tweak checkout and offer customers a better checkout experience, Shopify does not allow you to alter your checkout.

The bottom line regarding Shopify and Shopify Plus agility in design is you get 60 themes on both plans. But this does not change the fact that Shopify Plus has more edge; significantly, you can change the way the customer feels at the checkout end.

It is necessary to go through the differences in eCommerce features on Shopify versus Shopify Plus.

2. A Comparison in Ecommerce Features

The two Shopify plans that exist are made distinct by their features. Here you’re going to come across some essential features found on both platforms and then talk about some unique to Shopify Plus.

Shopify and Shopify Plus Sales Features

Multiple channel integrations

What this means is that you can sell in multiple spaces. By space, it means marketplaces like Facebook and Instagram (Social Media) and online shopping stores (Amazon and eBay).

One thing you are almost sure about is that if the customer is kept on the site, there is a chance they will buy. You get to rely on multiple revenue streams and get customers to purchase from you although they have not been to your site—quite brilliant.

Recovery on Abandoned Carts

A case is where your customers were shopping in your store and even added items to the cart but never checked out. Shopify deals with this by sending the customer an automated email following up with the customer whether they are interested in buying the product.

Some studies show that this approach could win 25% of sales that could have been lost without a follow-up. Well, this is something you do not want to miss. Note, Shopify has an abandoned cart built-in.

Selling on multiple currencies.

The question here is whether you need to use Shopify’s payment option, Shopify Payments. If that is the case, then your Shopify hosted store automatically switches currency on your items concerning the customer’s location.

Therefore, expect changes in currency exchange rates to be in play if you wish to sell your products globally. Supported currencies to expect include EUR, USD, GBP, SGD, NZD, JPY, HKD, and CAD.

Shopify Plus-Specific Sales Features

Shopify Flow

An excellent first impression is essential in eCommerce. So what’s unique about the way Shopify Plus handles this? Well, when a customer signs up to your store, you can monitor how and what they buy, then tweak the individual homepages they see to show the products they are usually interested in using Shopify Plus’s Shopify Flow.

So how does this happen? A case will be you have this customer that frequently buys dresses any time they visit your store. So what you do is to ensure you put out your latest dress offers. If you do this on your site entirely, then you could hugely improve your sales.

Script Editor

Script editor helps you with shipping and assists you in developing scripts for payment methods and line items. Therefore, you have the chance to gain control over your platform because the editor allows you to change anything you want about the store.

Moreover, you have the option to choose whether you want your site precise or detailed.

Based on features for your eCommerce site, Shopify Plus triumphs. Shopify may share a lot with Shopify Plus, but the Plus option has more advanced capabilities, like the Script editor.

We cannot talk about eCommerce without mentioning something on Analytics. So what differences are there between Shopify and Shopify Plus when it comes to data analytics?

3. Analytics

First, Shopify has a dedicated analytics board where you view store sales and reports. Even more impressive, you get a live view with minute-by-minute data.

So what does this mean for your online enterprise? Well, first, you get almost all the critical data good for your business. But if you use Shopify Plus, you will be surprised at the next level of analytics it has.

Shopify collaborates with top analytics companies such as Looker and Glew, who will always provide the latest expert data and guidance. With what you get from the data, you can make significant business moves quicker than usual.

The bottom line, Shopify Plus wins it all when it comes to analytics differences. Of course, Shopify has the analytics tool built-in allowing you to monitor your data. On the other hand, Shopify Plus gives you not only data but also expert updates and more in-depth information to make the right choices in a split second.

As we’re getting close to the end, we have to tell you that these two plans, Shopify and Shopify Plus, are different based on the help and support you get.

So, let’s get to it.

4. Shopify Vs. Shopify Plus Help and Support

It is not a good feeling to get stuck while working on your Shopify store. However, Shopify shouldn’t be that bad because the support team is available 24 hours, seven days a week, on email, live chat, and mobile phone.

You may also look up available solutions to the issue of Shopify’s great help center.

Also, you get the same experience with Shopify Plus, only this time, the support is more dedicated and personal. This is not usually a big issue for many enterprises, but if your business is a larger one, you will find this support critical.

So what happens? A launch manager is assigned to you—this one helps with connecting your original site to Shopify. You will then get a merchant success manager (MSM) whose job is to help you succeed. The MSM guides you on applying Shopify Plus and keeping you up to date on what is new in the industry. Moreover, they offer some strategic guidance with your online business.

You can agree that Shopify Plus’s personalized support is an impressive feature. Well, you’ll get full-time support with the Shopify plan, but the Plus plan is the next level. For example, it gives you a dedicated launch manager to help you get started and a support manager to help you succeed.

We are almost there, but one more thing you need to understand is the pricing and transaction costs. Let’s cover that in this next section.

5. Pricing and Transaction Charges

There are three pricing plans on Shopify, namely:

Basic Shopify that goes for $29 a month
Shopify going for $79 a month
Advanced Shopify at $299 a month

On all the plans, you have access to the abandoned cart and multiple channel integration. However, there are some things you will get only on Shopify and Advanced Shopify plans.

For instance, Advanced Shopify offers you more insight, namely professional reports, and third-party shipping rates. These two items are essential, especially when you want to grow your business fast.

Anyway, hold on. There is a chance to use Shopify for free. However, it is a fourteen-day trial at no cost. The fourteen days should be enough to tell you whether you need to invest in any plan, after all.

The pricing for Shopify Plus is not visible. Here, you have to contact the Shopify Plus team, then you will talk about your business model, the month-on-month turnover, and marketing requirements to arrive at a price ideal for you.

To keep you in the loop—if your sales are between zero dollars and $800,000, the Shopify Plus plans should be near the $2000 a month mark. Sales above that range could mean you could pay up to the highest level, which is capped at $40,000.

Shopify and Shopify Plus seem to work similarly; the fees per transaction are fixed. For Shopify Plus, the charges are negotiable.

Probably it could cost you about 1.6% plus 30 cents a transaction.

A feature you’ll find necessary in both Shopify, and the Plus platform is the 3D Secure. This feature protects from fraud, especially during credit card transactions. What does this mean? Any time you’re getting into a tricky payment, the bank will take responsibility.

Therefore, your transaction fees relate a lot to the plan you subscribe to.

Finally! Shopify wins when it comes to processing and transaction charges. First, Shopify Plus is quite expensive, and its plans are not transparent. You will get an individual quote based on the needs of your business. On the other side, Shopify’s programs are open for you to decide which one works for you.

Final Judgment on Shopify vs. Shopify Plus

Well, these two platforms are almost similar. The difference is there is some edge in what Shopify Plus has for you at every step.

Shopify is perfect for small and medium-level online businesses that need a more decisive stage to grow if we’re honest. On the other side, Shopify Plus is ideal for enterprise-level companies that want to sell lots of goods each day.

To be precise, it is prudent to note that Shopify Plus runs over 2,500 stores. On the other side, Shopify handles over 500,000+ stores.

If it worries you that you aren’t among the big fish in eCommerce, you do not need to fear it. At Shopify, you will have all you need to make your medium-level store and a bigger store. Well, use the free Shopify today, and see, let’s see what happens.

Commonly Asked Questions

What can you sell on Shopify?

Well, both Shopify and its Plus platform allow for the selling of digital and physical items. For instance, you can do dropshipping, which implies you can sell anything on Shopify.

Which companies compete with Shopify?

Well, there are many. You will see companies like Weebly and Wix. However, Shopify’s biggest rival is BigCommerce. A similarity between these eCommerce site builders (Shopify and BigCommerce) is they are a unique creation for online businesses.

Are you allowed to use external Shopify themes?

Many sites out there are selling themes assumed to be for Shopify that are not available on Shopify. We recommend that you keep them off. The main reason being you will not get assistance with any functionality problems unless you can code. Therefore, stick to themes provided by Shopify.

In case of an issue or a need for some support, we at Seibert Consulting Group are ready to offer the help you require. We do our study and have what you need to take your online enterprise to the next level on Shopify. Contact Us!