The release of Shopify Plus a few years ago was a major move in this direction as the platform went the extra mile beyond the conventional benefits of Shopify for e-commerce development. Now that the new decade is here, you can take a new perspective towards embracing innovation for your business.
Online selling is a challenge, considering the hard work it requires for acquiring customers and generating revenue. And there are not the only things that you need to bear in mind while choosing an e-commerce platform. The most common yet significant problems that need to be addressed include customer engagement and retention, conversion optimization, omni-channel integration, SEO, scalability, and long-term growth.
With tens of e-commerce platforms to choose from, finding one that is just the right solution to match your business model and objectives requires serious thought. Those who have already invested in Shopify website development will probably know how amazing this platform is. It is easy to set up and use and offers security and scalability along with a range of customization features.
Moreover, the fact that Shopify has millions of stores running on it speaks enough about this platform. More amazingly, this number is growing at a booming pace. Beyond the incredible range of features and great popularity, one more thing that makes Shopify stand apart is the fact that it constantly focuses on getting better.
Reasons Why You Should Choose Shopify Plus for eCommerce Development (2024)
Reason #1: Extended customization
With Shopify, you already have a wide array of attractive themes that are ready to use out-of-the-box. Additionally, there are plenty of customization options that empower you to make any theme your own. The Plus version takes these customization abilities a step further for brands that want enhanced functionality and aesthetics with Shopify design and development. It offers fully-responsive themes that assure seamless mobile experiences. Further, it brings a new feature called “Sections”, a simple drag-and-drop editor that renders ease into the customization of the look and feel of your e-commerce store. Switching to Shopify Plus, therefore, seems like the smartest thing to do right now.
Reason #2: Greater functionality
Despite the availability of greater functionality with customization features of Shopify Plus, the platform still remains incredibly easy to use. This is the prime reason why online businesses have always loved Shopify. The new version offers everything that you need to manage your store, which obviously eliminates the barriers to processing the orders and keeping your store up and running smoothly. The vital features, such as products, orders, customer records, apps, reports, and more, are accessible on the dashboard. So you can easily add products, handle orders, and manage settings, all with just a few clicks.
Reason #3: Amazing scalability
Shopify Plus platform is tailored specifically to the needs of larger enterprise and growing e-commerce brands, which is the reason why unlimited scalability has been prioritized. It is a fully-hosted SaaS platform, with powerful servers that are capable of handling millions of hits per second along with thousands of orders per minute. You can be assured with the guarantee of 99.99% uptime and lightning-fast performance of your web store. Additionally, you will get unlimited bandwidth in addition to a storage capacity of up to 200 TB. If you plan to scale up at a rapid pace, this is a platform you can trust.
Reason #4: Myriad integrations
Shopify Plus is revered for its ability to integrate easily with other platforms. Additionally, it has an extensive app marketplace where you can find a large number of Shopify Plus apps that you can use to enrich the shopping experiences delivered by your store. There are apps that serve in diverse aspects of operating your business, from customer service to marketing and promotions, inventory control, and more. So you can open up a world of opportunities by choosing to develop with this new version.
Reason #5: Custom checkout page
With Shopify, you get the benefit of customization of the shopping experience but you cannot do much about the actual checkout in this context. While the platform does offer an array of visual customizations in the checkout process, customization of functionality is not possible with the standard Shopify accounts. Shopify Plus resolves this problem as it allows the customization of the standard two-page checkout so that merchants can explore variations such as a single page checkout, 3-page checkout, or more. You can invest in a fully-branded checkout experience for your store and even leverage A/B testing for maximizing conversions.
Reason #6: Mobile Store Builder
As mobile becomes the prime selling channel, creating a mobile-first e-commerce experience for your store does not remain a choice. Conventionally, you will need to hire a Shopify expert to ensure mobile responsiveness, along with good speed and excellent user experience regardless of the device used to access the store. With Shopify Plus, however, you get the Mobile Store Builder that facilitates the creation of native iOS and Android apps even without technical knowledge or coding experience.
Reason #7: Globalization
If you want to take your business to the international market in 2024 and beyond, Shopify Plus comes ahead as a relevant choice. It lets you run nine additional stores on subdomains, that too, for no extra fee. Each of these stores serves a personalized experience, which is tailored for a different currency, language, and even seasonal trends that are associated with localized marketing. Obviously, you have better chances of conversion if you are able to connect with the audience in a personalized way.
Reason #8: Wholesale Management
One of the biggest challenges in e-commerce domains come for B2B businesses as their administration process differs as compared to that for a regular online store. At the same time, the expectations of B2B customers differ and they are to be reflected in your store’s look and feel. With Shopify Plus, you get a specialized wholesale platform that lets you launch a separate B2B ecommerce website from the existing Shopify account. You can enable features such as custom pricing per buyer, shipping rules, and bulk discounts in this store. It is also possible to add wholesale-only products in the store and review and edit the orders before invoicing.
Reason #9: Smart promotional tools
By opting for a Plus store, you get exclusive access to Launchpad, the smart promotional tool that lets you plan and automate the entire activities needed to execute campaigns such as a flash sale, or product launch. Further, Launchpad helps you in scheduling bulk changes to your e-commerce store that coincide simultaneously with the start to end of the desired campaign. You can even use it for monitoring and managing the promotional campaigns and creating invitation-only and limited-edition product collections.
Reason #10: Operational automation
E-commerce processes such as inventory and order management can be a major challenge for evolving enterprise brands. As the business scales up, automation does not remain a choice. The new Flow feature that comes with Shopify Plus introduces simple and time-saving e-commerce automation for customer, inventory, and order management, in addition to a seamless integration with the key external tools. While Flow enables you to construct, configure, and import automation processes and business logic, it also offers the agility needed to create backend customizations that can boost productivity instantly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is Shopify’s enterprise-grade e-commerce platform that is specifically meany for large and evolving online stores and brands. A hosted platform, this one has a host of features that takes the potential of Shopify to the next level.
What is the difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus?
The main difference between Shopify and its Plus version lies in the power of the features these offer. Obviously, you get more features and higher-level tools with Shopify Plus. If you have already built a fair-sized e-commerce business and now need to come up as a big brand, moving to Shopify Plus is a smart decision.
When should you consider a Shopify Plus upgrade?
Here are some good reasons to upgrade your existing e-commerce store to Shopify:
- Your annual revenue reaches a million-dollar mark
- There are too many repetitive tasks preventing you from concentrating on new growth opportunities
- You need to customize your store’s checkout to enhance the shopping experiences
- You are ready to expand as an international e-commerce brand
- You are facing challenges while running a wholesale e-commerce store
How can you upgrade to Shopify Plus?
Though Shopify is an easy to use platform, the best advice for upgrading to Shopify Plus is by seeking expert services. There are several technical aspects that need to be handled during the upgrade and it is best done by professionals with the right skills and expertise.
Conclusion
Now that you know all about the amazing benefits that Shopify Plus serves, you can consider it as a choice for creating your start for scratch or migrating an existing one to this version. Whether you compare Shopify Plus with Magento or any other development platform, this one definitely deserves a closer look. The features will definitely give your business a head start with a store that is future-ready and delivers excellent shopping experiences.
The best way to get started is by collaborating with Shopify Partner in India that know the platform and can leverage its features to your advantage. At OrangeMantra, we are a leading eCommerce development company that specializes in a complete range of e-commerce platforms. You can connect with us to hire a Shopify developer or team and get started with your Shopify Plus journey.
