Shopify powers over 4.61 million online stores globally. However, more than 50,000 brands with high growth rates have gone even further – they have migrated to Shopify Plus. This is not a mere change of platform, but it is a strategic one that puts the market leaders on a different level from the rest. Just think of processing more than a thousand orders per minute while running flash sales or doubling your conversion rates at a personalized checkout. a doubt why the demand for Shopify Plus Developers and Shopify Plus Development Agencies has sky rocketed.

These are not dream numbers anymore – they are the real deal for Shopify Plus merchants. So if your sales are already soaring or if you’re planning for advanced customization options for your eCommerce store, stay tuned. Because in this guide, we will discuss the signs that your online store needs a boost from Shopify Plus.

1. Signs It’s Time to Upgrade to Shopify Plus

1. Rapid Growth in Sales Volume

Whenever you are ready to scale up your website traffic, orders and revenue OR already experiencing a high traffic volume in your Shopify store, you should consider switching to Shopify Plus. It will enable you to cope with a large amount of traffic and sales. You’ll see these signs that your store is outgrowing the standard Shopify plan:

• Handling high-volume traffic and transactions: Shopify Plus is made to scale your store to receive thousands of orders daily. The platform can process as many as 10,000 transactions per minute, so the loading time is not an issue even with high traffic.
• Scalability during peak seasons and flash sales: If your business has a high season or uses flash sales, then Shopify Plus becomes a necessity. The platform is designed to provide extra server resources when the traffic on the platform increases.

For example, Gymshark, a fashion retailer, experienced 197% growth in its revenue during Black Friday sales, thanks to the company’s move from using Shopify to Shopify Plus. Everything was managed so well by the Plus store and Gymshark was able to launch a successful campaign.

2. International Expansion

Shopify Plus offers robust features to support international growth.

• Localization features: Shopify Plus allows creation of up to 20 localized storefronts from a single account including support for multiple languages, currencies, and payment gateways. These features have been leveraged by Brands like Bulletproof Coffee to expand into international markets seamlessly. Studies show that 75% of consumers prefer to buy products in their native language, making this feature crucial for global success.

3. Need for Advanced Customization

As your brand evolves, so does your customization needs. Shopify Plus Customization offers advanced options that extend beyond basic themes and layouts:

• Enhanced Checkout Process Control: Shopify Plus allows for comprehensive customization of the checkout process. This level of control can significantly impact conversion rates. For instance, watch brand MVMT utilized Shopify Plus to create a custom checkout flow, resulting in a 20% increase in conversions.
• API Access and Custom Integrations: With Shopify Plus, merchants gain access to more robust APIs, facilitating deeper integrations with existing systems.

4. Complex Business Operations

With your business model evolving and growing, you require a platform that can handle the complexity of your operations.

• B2B and wholesale capabilities: Specifically, Shopify Plus provides B2B and wholesale selling functions to enable businesses to sell both to consumers and businesses. This feature helped Leesa, a mattress company, to grow their B2B sales and increase their wholesale business by threefold.
• Multiple storefront management: Shopify Plus allows you to operate up to 10 shops from one control panel. This is particularly suitable for companies having different brands or for companies targeting different markets. The Inditex group of fashion uses this feature to deal with all their companies like Zara and Pull&Bear and their work has been greatly simplified.

5. Improving security and compliance measures

The more established your business becomes, the more important it becomes to have strong security protocols and adherence to regulations.

• PCI DSS compliance: Shopify Plus meets Level 1 PCI DSS compliance, which means it meets the highest standards in the field of payments. It also saves you time and other resources that may take to work towards and sustain such compliance on your own. This feature is very important for businesses that process more than 6 million card transactions per year.
• Fraud prevention tools: Shopify Plus customers have access to a wide array of antifraud features, including Shopify Protect, which shields 100% of the eligible orders against charge backs.

2. Key Features and Benefits of Shopify Plus

1. Unlimited Scalability

At the heart of Shopify Plus lies its unparalleled scalability, engineered to accommodate businesses experiencing rapid growth or handling significant traffic volumes.

• Dynamic Load Balancing and Server Redundancy: To ensure your store maintains optimal performance and responsiveness, even during periods of peak demand, Shopify Plus utilizes a global network of servers with automatic load balancing. Using the same system fashion brand Gymshark successfully managed a 300% surge in traffic during their summer sale, experiencing zero downtime.

2. Advanced Customization Options

Shopify Plus provides tools that, when utilized, make it possible for the users to customize the flow of the store.

• Script Editor for checkout customization: The Script Editor enables you to write scripts that change the way customers proceed through your checkout process. Bulletproof Coffee utilized this feature for multiple discount rules leading to 17% uplift in average order value.
• Shopify Flow for workflow automation: Shopify Flow is a tool that can be used to automate activities in Shopify Stores and it is a visual workflow tool. The skincare company, Kylie Cosmetics, has integrated Flow for automatic identification of valuable customers for its loyalty program; it has gained a boost in customer retention of 25%.

3. Dedicated Account Management

Shopify Plus offers a team that is committed to your success.

• Launch managers and merchant success program: Every Shopify Plus seller gets their own Launch Manager to guide them through the store creation and transition process. After the launch, you have a Merchant Success Manager, who continues to help you with strategic decisions. This level of support helped the fashion brand Fashion Nova increase annual sales by 4x in only two years.
• Priority support: Shopify Plus store owners are provided with 24/7 priority support which means that any arising problem will be addressed immediately. This came in handy for Leesa Mattress when they received a traffic surge; the company was able to promptly increase the infrastructure and achieve record breaking sales.

4. Multi-Channel Selling

Shopify Plus helps to sell across multiple channels and increase the number of sales that a business makes.

• Marketplace connectivity (Amazon, eBay, etc.): Companies can connect their stores with other major marketplaces if you are a Shopify Plus user. Death Wish Coffee employed this feature to increase its availability on Amazon and experienced a major boost in off-site sales in the first six months itself.

5. Advanced Analytics and Reporting

Shopify Plus provides users a host of data and analytics to make the right decisions.

• Shopify Plus dashboards: These customizable dashboards include in-depth Sales Reports, Customer Insights, Financial Reports and many Custom Reports which provide you with a real-time view of your store performance. Pura Vida, the jewelry brand, employs these dashboards to track flash sales, using the information to make instant inventory decisions and boost profits.
• Custom report builders: Make reports for specific business needs that allow you to get into detail with your information. Tatcha Skincare utilizes this feature to understand the customer’s behavior as they purchase different products, and this insight helps in the product development process.

6. Wholesale and B2B Capabilities

Shopify Plus has many important features suitable for companies that want to venture into wholesale or B2B operations.

• Dedicated wholesale channel: Create a wholesale store that is password-protected and available with your retail store. This feature was utilized by the Athletic apparel brand, Rhone, to open their wholesale channel, which generates 30% of their total sales.
• Customer-specific pricing and catalogs: Develop automated price lists and product catalogs for different customer segments weather Retail or Wholesale. Staples Inc., an office supplies company, utilized this element to provide its B2B customers with a customized pricing plan, and this led to a 40% B2B sales improvement in the first year.

7. Advantages of Shopify Plus as a SaaS

• Automatic updates and maintenance: Being an online platform, Shopify Plus takes care of all the updates, security patches, and other maintenance works on its own. This means your store is always up to date with the latest version and most secure, with little or no input from you.
• Scalability on demand: Shopify Plus can go up to thousands of users at a snap for big events or if your business is expanding. You do not have to worry about the server space for your data or about having to expand the servers to accommodate more data.
• Reliability and uptime: Some of the features that have been associated with Shopify Plus include the following; It has a 99.99% uptime, meaning your store will always be available to the customers whenever they wish to make purchases. This reliability is very important for sustaining customer confidence and ensuring the best sales chances.

3. How Shopify Plus Improves Your E-commerce Operations

Ask Shopify Plus Store Development Experts like us, and we will be all praising about how it Shopify Plus helps our customers:

1. Streamlined Inventory Management

Stock control is an essential part of e-commerce, and Shopify Plus duly provides robust features to help you manage your inventory effectively.

• Multi-location inventory tracking: A Central System to Track and monitor inventory of products in different stores. This centralized Omnichannel system gives real-time information on stocks and enables the seller to decide on the right time to restock or distribute.
• Automated reorder points: As a general rule, the use of reorder points can help you avoid running out of stock unexpectedly. This feature makes it easier to manage inventory, including minimizing the occurrence of overselling and enhancing the overall customer experience due to the constantly available products.

2. Enhanced Customer Experience

Shopify Plus offers features to make your customers’ experience unique and fun.

• Personalization tools: Make the shopping experience as unique as the customer by delivering targeted product recommendations based on their browsing and purchasing activity. Such personalized service may greatly improve the shopping experience and make the customer feel appreciated and acknowledged.
• Advanced customer segmentation: Develop your customer database and divide it according to certain parameters to run specific promotional strategies. This means that you are able to come up with messages that are appealing to different customer segments to encourage them to buy from you.

3. Improved Conversion Rates

Shopify Plus now has features that can increase your conversion rate and increase your sales.

• A/B testing capabilities: It is easy to set up and run A/B tests to help enhance your store’s performance. This means that you can make proper decisions regarding the site design, product descriptions, checkout process, and so on; optimizing your store.
• Optimized checkout process: Use checkout design to create a strong and unique brand image, as well as to optimize the purchasing process. A streamlined and well-designed checkout process with a company’s branding will go a long way in improving the conversion rate and customer loyalty.

4. Efficient Order Processing

Optimized order management to ensure faster order processing, providing your customers with the best buying experience.

• Automated order routing: Introduce standards to automatically direct orders to the right fulfillment center. This intelligent routing can cut down the time of delivery to the extent of making it faster than it would have been if normal routes were used.
• Integration with fulfillment services: Easily link multiple services to fulfill orders and put the entire fulfillment process on autopilot. This integration saves time on data entry, reduces errors, and enables you to expand your operations without necessarily increasing your workload.

4. Cost Considerations

1. Pricing Structure of Shopify Plus

It is important for businesses to know the pricing structure of Shopify Plus before considering the upgrade. Of course, it is more expensive than standard Shopify plans, but the difference is compensated by the expanded functionality and capabilities that are provided.

Monthly fees vs. traditional Shopify plans: Shopify Plus is available at $2,000 monthly, and this is much higher than the $299 required for the Advanced Shopify plan. This fee, can, however, go up to $40,000 once you surpass the magical figure of $800000 in monthly sales.

The premium monthly fee comes with all of the additional features that Shopify Plus offers, such as more staff accounts, higher API call allowances, and priority support. These features alone make it possible to justify the cost for those businesses that need them.

Transaction fees and payment gateways: Another advantage of using Shopify Plus is that the platform does not charge transaction fees for Shopify Payments. This makes it possible to have massive savings for high-traffic merchants in the industry.

Shopify Plus also has broader choices of payment gateways as compared to the regular Shopify store. The platform also allows you to retain Shopify Payments at better rates; however, you also can negotiate the rates with other payment solutions to save more.

2. Return on Investment (ROI)

Although it is as expensive as other quality eCommerce platforms, many companies agree that the benefits that Shopify Plus offers overshadow the costs.

Potential increase in sales and efficiency: Shopify Plus has features that can influence your sales without any intermediary steps. The use of advanced features on the platform can enhance conversion rates, average order value, and customer retention. For example:

• The freedom of allowing the buyer to change or even remove items at checkout can help to minimize the cart abandonment rates.
• Marketing communication and promotion can be more specific with the use of advanced analytics tools and this could extend customer value.
• When you automate your tasks, you can free up so much time that would otherwise be spent completing these tasks by hand.

The latter can cause the overall sales to grow by a considerably large margin. Of course, outcomes differ from case to case, but many businesses report their revenues growing up to double-digit percentages after switching to Shopify Plus.

Cost savings from consolidated services: One more advantage of Shopify Plus is that it can help you save money because you can use several services at once, which are integrated into the platform. Consider the following:

• The built-in features may be more comprehensive and powerful than several third-party applications, which are likely to cost extra money.
• This is an advantage because as you expand your business, you will not have to look for a new platform on which to build your company, which can be costly.
• The included 24/7 priority support can help you save money on hiring additional IT personnel for the management of your e-commerce platform.

Besides, the time that has been freed up through automation and other efficiencies, has a tangible value in terms of money. If your team is spending time on administrative tasks, it can be redirected to concentrate on core activities that create value.

Conclusion:

So, that’s it. You might have come to know that Shopify Plus provides an amazing set of features that can really take your basic store to the next level. Whether it’s for unlimited scalability, customizable features, efficient processes, or personal assistance, it is easy to see why expanding companies are choosing it. If you are experiencing rapid growth, expanding to international markets, or feeling constrained by your current platform Shopify Plus could be the next step for your business.

This is not an easy decision for any e-commerce store, but for many, it is an essential choice that will help them change for the better. This however might require a relatively large investment in the beginning but the benefits of increased sales, optimised operational processes, and better customer satisfaction are enormous. When you feel like your e-commerce business is ripe for the next level, you must consider whether Shopify Plus is suitable for your company.

Do look out for Agencies who provide Shopify Plus Development Services, to enable your vision into reality.