In a nutshell: Shopify is an e-commerce software that allows you to create an online store.
When you think of Blogs or Websites, WordPress might cross your mind. Similarly, Shopify is built for store owners to create their e-commerce store. Shopify is a widely used platform that can help you get started or scale your existing e-commerce business.
As you start selling virtually, you'll need to set up a storefront, show your products, stay in touch with consumers, manage payments, and more. With Shopify, you get access to all the tools you might need for your business operations. From customer support to finance to infrastructure, Shopify helps you manage it all.
When you get started with Shopify, you have the option to sign-up for a free 14-day trial.
During your trial, you can create your online store and try free Shopify apps. After your 14-day free trial, you could use their Shopify Plan starting at $79 (614.82 HKD) per month. However, Shopify's Basic plan, which costs $29 (225.52 HKD) a month is a popular choice amongst first-time store owners just getting started.
It's easy to get started with your existing Shopify package that could have initially supported your small business, but as your business grows, you might find its features limiting. That's where Shopify plus knocks on the door.
Shopify Plus monthly pricing is a big jump from the $299 Advanced Plan. Monthly fees start at $2,000 USD per month or a variable fee for higher volume businesses. So it's fair to say you would need a sizable store or online business to even consider the monthly fees.
Upgrading gives you instant access to merchant tools that can help you scale and sell. One of the main selling points of a Plus plan, include:
Picture this:
Your potential customer is at the final step in their purchase journey.
They made their mind about purchasing your product or services.
But as they pull out their debit or credit cards to hit the 'buy' button, they don’t understand where to put in their CVV or Expiry date.
They get frustrated, close the browser window and leave.
Sounds like a silly problem but with the ever-decreasing short consideration spans, your customers won't wait too long. And if they decide to leave with an unsatisfactory experience, they might not return in future. This problem is rare but a personalized checkout page built by you would ensure an easy experience for your customers.
Shopify’s Checkout.Liquid Tool allows you to customize your checkout page as per your desire.
Chances are, you must have heard of Google Analytics, even if you're not in the marketing or analytics field. This globally used tool from Google helps businesses track the source of their users, check their website performance, users' behaviour on the website, and a lot more. As powerful as it is, it's not the easiest to set up and get the hang of if you don't have the time to spare on learning about it.
Shopify Plus provides reports on areas like your store performance and real-time views of users' activity within the Shopify experience.
Shopify Plus has you covered if you sell on other platforms like eBay, Etsy, or Pinterest. It includes interfaces with a wide variety of channels for marketing your products and allowing you to control everything from the backend. As they say,
“More channels, more shoppers, more sales".
When you use the Basic Shopify plan, you are allowed to keep only a limited number of staff accounts to manage your E-commerce business. Shopify Plus plan offers unlimited accounts with additional permission settings. This helps you provide all your team members with easy access to your online store. In addition, in your store admin, you'll have additional control over worker actions.
To sum up, here are a few Shopify Plus features:
Well, we could talk about more advantages but we're not here to run promotion campaigns for Shopify Plus. We aim to make sure you take the right decision to help you scale your business. Which brings us to the next question, When are you eligible to open a Shopify Plus account? To answer that questions you must think about these points:
Usually, merchants who choose Shopify Plus are categorized into Enterprise Level Businesses. This is the reason for a huge price gap between Shopify and Shopify Plus.
Plus plan is specifically designed to fuel big enterprises as they cannot afford to lose value over inferior features. So, to stay more flexible and secure, they choose to not make any compromises and pick Shopify Plus.
If going global is your goal, you might want to consider a Plus plan.
With Shopify Plus, you can create 9 different stores with different languages and currencies without any extra cost. This way your stores would be flexible to customers internationally, or any specific countries you are targeting for business expansion.
The regular Shopify plan allows a maximum of 15 staff accounts. If you think that number is not enough for you and your team, then Shopify Plus has got you covered with their unlimited staff accounts. So, if you have or are planning on hiring more than 15 staff members, Shopify Plus could be your pick.
Some tasks like shipping or order management could be repetitive, which keeps you from focusing on your other business goals. Shopify Plus helps automate repetitive tasks with its tools. One such example is Shopify Flow which is a smart tool that helps to manage buyer experience, promotions, and order management. Another example is Launchpad: a tool that helps you with product launches and marketing campaigns.
Shopify hasn't limited its services to B2C but has in fact also built a home for B2B. It has a wholesale channel that is fairly quick and easy to set up. You can use your existing data to create a separate store for your wholesale customers.
Picking the right plan depends on what your business currently looks like. If after considering all these points, you feel like you need to get a hang of Shopify and then take a call, you could start with a regular Shopify subscription and upgrade to Shopify Plus as your business grows. If you're an enterprise that's ready to scale while being secure, you could pick Shopify Plus already.
Have a look at your current revenue and future projections, team expansion plans, automation requirements, and other business needs. If you have any questions, our team is right here to help you make the right decisions to fuel your growth. Message us here to get started!
Tiffany is a Biochemistry graduate from CUHK. After graduation, she worked as a Digital & Analytics intern at L'Oréal APAC for more than a year before joining Butter as part of the Graduate Programme. Tiffany now works closely with the Strategy and Business Development Team to meet output expectations and contributes to managing client projects within Butter.
