The benefits of Shopify Plus to scale online businesses
Shopify Plus is a powerful eCommerce platform that offers a suite of features designed to meet the needs of fast-growing businesses. It allows brands to create an online store with advanced customization, scalability and security. In this blog post, we'll discuss some of the benefits of using Shopify Plus and when it makes sense for brands to switch to the Shopify Plus plan.
Advanced customization
Shopify Plus offers advanced customization options that allow brands to create a unique shopping experience for their customers. Brands can access APIs, webhooks, custom fields, and more to customize their stores. This allows them to give customers more control over how they shop and what products they buy. Additionally, by utilizing these advanced personalization capabilities, brands can better differentiate themselves from their competitors.
One of the main features of Shopify Plus, unlike other plans, is the flexibility to customize the checkout, where through developments you can customize checkout steps showing optimized content on different devices.
Scalability
Shopify Plus is designed for scalability, so businesses can quickly adjust their stores as needed without worrying about downtime or system slowdowns. This makes it easier for businesses to handle sudden spikes in traffic or large orders without having to worry that their systems won't be able to handle the load. Plus, because Shopify Plus is hosted in the cloud, businesses have access to unlimited bandwidth and storage space so they don't have to worry about running out of resources as they grow.
Automation
Thanks to Shopify flows included in your Shopify Plus plan, you can automate tasks and processes within your store and in all your applications that have a native integration with Shopify.
B2B
The B2B function is only available for stores in the Shopify Plus plan and we consider it very important to mention it as one of the benefits of this plan since the B2B channel is increasingly gaining strength in business.
B2B on Shopify is a set of features that allows brands to sell B2B, or business-to-business, through their online store, without needing to use third-party applications or alternative solutions to implement B2B complexity. With Shopify plus B2B functionality you can set customer-specific price lists, payment terms, and currencies and connect multiple buyers and locations into a single business profile.
Plus, B2B lets you use all of the most customizable features available for your Shopify online store, including:
- Discounts
- Custom themes
- API
Brands can choose to use these features in a combined store that serves both B2B and D2C, directly to consumer customers, or a dedicated expansion store that only serves B2B customers.
Access to advanced Shopify apps
Merchants on the Shopify plus plan have access to advanced apps that are designed for high-growth merchants. Only Shopify Plus merchants can use the following channels and apps:
- Wholesale/wholesale channel
- launchpad
- Script editor
- Bulk account inviter
- Transporter application which is part of a set of tools that facilitates the migration of online stores from other platforms to Shopify Plus. To import customer, product, and order records from the other platform to your Shopify store.
Security
Shopify Plus is PCI DSS compliant, meaning all transactions are secure and confidential. Additionally, Shopify Plus provides merchants with enterprise-grade security features such as two-factor authentication and fraud detection tools that help protect against malicious activity. These features provide peace of mind for merchants who want to ensure their customers' data is safe at all times.
API integration for custom apps
Shopify Plus supports additional APIs that allow you to integrate your online store with custom applications. Only Shopify Plus merchants can use the following API resources:
REST
-
Gift Card: A gift card is an alternative payment method. Each gift card has a unique code that is entered during checkout. The balance can be redeemed in multiple payments. Optionally, a gift card can be assigned to a specific customer.
- Multi-pass login: Multi-pass login is for store owners who have a separate website and a Shopify store. It redirects website users to the Shopify store and seamlessly registers them with the same email address they used to register on the original website. If an account with that email address doesn't already exist, one is created without needing to sync any customer databases.
-
User
The User resource allows you to retrieve information about staff in a Shopify store, including staff permissions.
Permissions determine the level of access staff have to a merchant's store. From the Shopify admin, merchants can give each employee individual permissions that control access to a portion of Shopify. The API only allows you to retrieve information about personnel.
ChartQL
- publishablePublish:
Publish a resource to a channel. If the resource is a product, then it is visible in the channel only if the product status is active. Products sold exclusively by subscription (requiresSellingPlan: true) can only be listed in online stores.
-
publishableUnpublish: Allows you to Unpublish a resource from a channel. If the resource is a product, then it is visible in the channel only if the product status is active.
More themed templates
With Shopify Plus, you can add up to 100 themes to your Shopify account to test any new themes, keep seasonal versions of your published theme, or test changes to a copy of your published theme.
Shopify POS Pro
Shopify Plus offers Shopify POS Pro for up to 20 locations in your organization at no additional charge.
Expansion stores
Shopify plus supports 9 expansion stores for the internationalization of brands, with separate physical locations
As we can see, Shopify Plus is a tool that supports the growth of brands thanks to all its functionalities focused on scaling businesses.
Below we will comment on the big question that many brands ask themselves. When to upgrade to the Shopify Plus plan?
As we have mentioned previously, Shopify Plus is designed to support businesses with high sales volumes that may have problems scaling their business, offering more advanced functions than those offered by basic plans such as Shopify Basic or Advanced Plan. Brands should consider upgrading when they need greater flexibility in terms of customization capabilities or if they need a platform with greater scalability options to accommodate large spikes in traffic or orders due to sudden growth or seasonal trends. It's also worth considering whether you need additional security measures such as two-factor authentication or fraud detection tools due to the higher risk associated with your type of business (e.g. jewelry stores).
Likewise, those brands that have physical stores with a large sales volume need to integrate the POS pro system to have their product catalog synchronized, as well as their customer data, so they can offer an omnichannel experience.
Brands that seek to expand internationally, and want to create an architecture that they can replicate in different countries, with local currencies and languages and want to create a 360 strategy in their different channels, the Shopify Plus platform is the best option.
Overall, with Shopify Plus brands will be able to achieve their most ambitious growth goals, offering an agile solution with advanced customization capabilities along with robust security features that offer peace of mind when handling online customer transactions even cross-border. If you think your business needs these features, it may be worth considering upgrading from your current plan type to take advantage of the many benefits Shopify Plus offers.
At Webmefy, we are a certified Shopify Plus agency, which supports us with our expertise and experience with the platform, which means that we can transfer all that expertise and knowledge with any eCommerce brand that seeks to scale its business to get the most out of the benefits that Shopify Plus offers and take your online business to the next level. Talk later?