Why Shopify Plus is a Game-Changer: The Top 10 Ways it Can Grow Your eCommerce Business and Drive More Sales

Wondering what the fuss is all about with Shopify Plus?

Selecting the right eCommerce platform is critical to the success of any online business, as it can provide the necessary tools, features, and flexibility to thrive in the competitive world of online retail. The top eCommerce platforms help businesses manage their online stores, from inventory management and order fulfilment to payment processing and shipping. They also provide tools to optimise the user experience and a marketplace of 3rd-party integrations. 

Over the past few years, many eCommerce companies have chosen to migrate to Shopify or Shopify Plus from their current platforms. Shopify vs. Shopify Plus comparison and related questions are very common. While both platforms offer the same dashboard and editor, Shopify Plus offers more advanced features and is tailored to high-volume businesses — offering enterprise-level tools to support growth and scalability. 

1. Scalability and Flexibility

Is your business growing quickly? 

Shopify Plus excels in scalability and flexibility, making it an ideal solution for rapidly growing businesses. It can seamlessly handle high-volume sales and sudden spikes in traffic or orders without compromising performance or speed. 

• Scalability
  Shopify Plus is built on a cloud-based infrastructure that can adapt to changing business requirements. This means you can easily add new product lines, expand into new markets and handle large order volumes without worrying about infrastructure limitations or downtime. With Shopify Plus, businesses can customise their online store infrastructure to meet their specific needs, allowing them to scale quickly and efficiently.
• Flexibility
  Shopify Plus offers a range of APIs and development tools that make it easy for businesses to customise their online store and integrate with third-party applications — giving them complete control over their growth and evolution. This level of flexibility is a significant competitive advantage for businesses requiring a platform to keep up with their changing needs.
• Handling traffic spikes and large order volumes
  Shopify Plus is designed to meet the demands of high-volume sales, providing businesses with the infrastructure and tools to handle large spikes in traffic and orders without slowing down or crashing. The platform can handle millions of visitors and orders daily, ensuring that it remains stable and always available. Additionally, its scalable architecture allows businesses to expand and contract their resources as required, enabling them to handle sudden surges in traffic and orders during peak seasons without any performance issues or downtime.

2. CUSTOMISABLE CHECKOUT PROCESS

Looking to improve your buyer experience and conversion rate?

Shopify Plus allows businesses to customise their checkout process and improve the user experience — leading to higher conversion rates and increased sales. By customising the entire checkout process, businesses can create a seamless and intuitive experience for their customers, reducing cart abandonment rates and increasing customer satisfaction.

One way to customise the checkout process is using the one-page checkout feature. This allows customers to complete their purchases on a single page without having to navigate through multiple steps, simplifying the checkout process and reducing the likelihood of cart abandonment. 

Another feature is adding custom checkout fields, such as gift messaging or engraving, which can be especially useful for businesses that offer personalised products or services.

Shopify Plus also offers a wide range of payment options, including credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe and others. This allows businesses to cater to a wide range of customers and provide a convenient and secure checkout experience. Additionally, Shopify Plus allows for custom payment gateway integrations, which can be useful for businesses with unique payment processing needs.

3. ADVANCED MARKETING AND SALES FEATURES

Shopify Plus is a game-changer for businesses looking to boost their eCommerce sales and revenue. The platform offers a range of advanced marketing and sales features that can help businesses to better engage with their customers and drive more sales.

One helpful marketing feature of Shopify Plus is abandoned cart recovery, which automatically sends reminder emails to customers who have left items in their cart without completing their purchase. These emails can include incentives like discounts or free shipping to encourage customers to return and complete their purchases.

For businesses not running their email marketing through a tool like Klaviyo — Shopify Plus also offers a range of email marketing capabilities, including creating and sending newsletters, product updates, and promotional emails to specific segments of your customer base. Additionally, businesses can create and manage discount codes to incentivise purchases or reward loyal customers with exclusive discounts.

Moreover, Shopify Plus seamlessly integrates with third-party marketing tools such as Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, Klaviyo and many others. By integrating these tools, businesses can gain deeper insights into their customers’ behaviour and tailor their marketing efforts accordingly. This includes tracking conversions from social media ads, analysing website traffic, and creating personalised email marketing campaigns based on customers’ past purchases and browsing behaviour.

4. ROBUST REPORTING AND ANALYTICS

Shopify Plus’s advanced reporting tools and analytics features can help businesses make data-driven decisions to boost sales and drive growth. Businesses can track their performance, monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), and gain valuable insights into customer behaviour and sales trends.

The platform allows businesses to generate reports on various metrics, including sales, customer behaviour, and inventory levels. Shopify Plus also offers customisable dashboards that allow businesses to track KPIs and monitor the health of their online store. By using these tools, businesses can identify areas for improvement, optimise marketing and sales strategies, and increase conversion rates.

Shopify Plus enables businesses to gain insights into how customers interact with their website, what products are popular, and which channels drive the most sales. With numerous different report templates, businesses can generate custom reports tailored to their specific needs and receive them daily, weekly, or monthly. The platform also offers the ability to create custom dashboards that consolidate data from various reports, allowing businesses to gain a holistic view of their performance.

5. MULTI-CHANNEL SELLING

Shopify Plus offers several benefits to businesses looking to expand their reach and increase their sales. One of the platform’s key features is its integration with social media platforms. With Shopify Plus, businesses can easily create and manage their social media accounts and connect them to their online store. This allows businesses to sell products directly through social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, reaching a wider audience and driving more traffic to their online store.

Another advantage of Shopify Plus is its ability to sell through multiple channels, including popular marketplaces like Amazon, eBay and Etsy. This feature allows businesses to expand their reach and tap into new markets without investing significant resources into building new sales channels from scratch. Shopify Plus seamlessly integrates with these marketplaces, enabling businesses to manage their product listings and orders from a central location and providing tools to help manage inventory across all sales channels.

Centralised inventory management is another significant benefit of Shopify Plus. With this feature, businesses can track inventory levels across all their sales channels in one place, eliminating the need for manual updates and preventing overselling, out-of-stock items, and order cancellations. Shopify Plus also offers an advanced inventory management feature that allows businesses to track their inventory levels in real-time, set up automated reorder points, and manage their suppliers. By having a clear overview of their inventory, businesses can make informed decisions about their stock levels, reduce their storage costs, and prevent stockouts.

6. ENHANCED SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE

Shopify Plus is a platform that takes security very seriously. Being certified as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Level 1 compliant, which is the highest level of certification available, Shopify Plus ensures businesses comply with industry standards and provide the highest level of security for handling credit card data. This means that Shopify Plus is protected against credit card fraud and data breaches. By using Shopify Plus, businesses can be confident that they have a secure and reliable payment processing system that uses advanced encryption and security measures to protect customer payment data during transactions.

Another way Shopify Plus protects customer data is through SSL encryption. SSL encryption is a standard security technology that establishes an encrypted link between a web server and a browser, ensuring that all data passed between the two remains private and integral. This feature is important for keeping customers’ personal information safe and building trust and credibility. By displaying the SSL padlock icon in the browser’s address bar, businesses can show their customers that their website is secure, which can go a long way in boosting customer confidence and encouraging them to purchase.

To further ensure the security of its users, Shopify Plus provides a dedicated security support team. This team is available 24/7 to assist with security-related questions and provide guidance on best practices for keeping customer data and transactions secure. The team is made up of experts in the field of security and compliance who work closely with businesses to ensure that they are meeting industry standards for security. They also ensure that they have the necessary safeguards in place to protect customer data.

Shopify Plus also offers compliance with various industry standards, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR is a set of regulations implemented by the European Union to protect personal data privacy and ensure that companies handling such data are transparent about their processing activities. Shopify Plus offers GDPR compliance features such as data portability, data access, and data erasure, which help businesses meet the requirements of the regulation. In addition, Shopify Plus provides features such as cookie consent banners, GDPR-friendly form builders, and privacy policy generators to help businesses comply with the GDPR.

7. CUSTOMISABLE APIS AND INTEGRATIONS

Shopify Plus’s customisable APIs and integrations can greatly benefit eCommerce businesses by helping them streamline their operations and improve efficiency. By using these APIs and integrations, businesses can easily connect with third-party tools and services that they may already be using, such as marketing automation platforms, accounting software, and shipping providers. This allows businesses to automate repetitive tasks and reduce manual data entry, freeing time for growth and revenue-generating activities.

For example, integrating Shopify Plus with accounting software like QuickBooks or Xero can automate financial tasks such as invoicing and expense tracking. This saves time and reduces the likelihood of errors that may occur with manual data entry. Similarly, businesses can integrate their Shopify Plus store with shipping carriers to automate the fulfilment process, reducing the time and resources required to ship orders and ultimately improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Shopify Plus also offers pre-built integrations with popular third-party tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk, among others. These integrations are designed to work seamlessly with Shopify Plus, providing businesses with a unified view of their data and a more holistic approach to managing their online store.

8. DEDICATED SUPPORT AND RESOURCES

With Shopify Plus, merchants enjoy exclusive priority support. This includes:

• 24/7 Priority Technical Support
  One of the most significant benefits of Shopify Plus is its 24/7 priority technical support. This feature enables Shopify Plus customers to access expert help whenever needed, regardless of location or time zone, with support via phone, email, and live chat. This ensures that businesses can quickly resolve any issues or technical difficulties they encounter without having to wait for the next business day. This is especially important during peak periods, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Christmas when businesses are more likely to experience high traffic and increased sales.
  Shopify Plus users also have access to a dedicated support team with a named Account Manager who can help with any questions or concerns. This team is specifically trained to handle the unique needs of enterprise-level businesses and can provide advice on everything from site optimisation to app integrations. With this level of support, businesses can ensure they are maximising the potential of the Shopify Plus platform and driving sales growth.
• Access to Exclusive Resources and Training Materials
  Shopify Plus offers its users exclusive resources and training materials to help businesses learn and develop their skills. These resources are designed to help users get the most out of the platform and maximise their potential for success. The platform’s community of experts, developers, and partners are also on hand to provide advice and support.
  Shopify Plus users can access webinars, workshops, tutorials, documentation, and best practices on various topics, including marketing strategies, design tips, and technical support. They can also access the Shopify Plus Academy, an exclusive online learning portal offering training courses, certifications, and many other resources to help users build their expertise and advance their careers.

9. PRICING AND FEES

In contrast to Shopify’s defined pricing plans, the pricing for Shopify Plus varies based on factors such as your business model, monthly turnover, and marketing needs. Also, Shopify sets fixed fees per transaction for both platforms, but transaction fees for Shopify Plus are negotiable during the quote process.

10. THE SHOPIFY PLUS PARTNER PROGRAM

Shopify Plus is a game-changer for eCommerce businesses, providing a powerful platform and support system to help businesses thrive and succeed in today’s highly competitive eCommerce market. But there is one more amazing benefit that merchants can access for growing their stores and taking their business to the next level — the partner program

The Shopify Plus Partners program supports merchants by linking them with trusted world-class service providers (such as LION Digital) that have the platform expertise to help brands grow. By utilising the platform efficiently with the help of one of the Shopify Plus Partners, merchants can benefit from a complete eCommerce solution and tailor it to their specific needs and goals.

LION Digital has successfully applied the platform’s best practices and generated online growth for brands like Ledlenser, OneWorld Collection, Nutrition Warehouse, and Havaianas, to name a few. We encourage eCommerce businesses to consider Shopify Plus as a tool to grow their brand, increase customer loyalty, and drive sales. In June of 2022, our agency was recognised for its long-term partnership with Shopify, and LION Digital has achieved the very exclusive Digital Marketing Partner status with Shopify Plus.

Article by

ASSELYA Sekerova –
MARKETING & PROJECT MANAGER