“Start an online store,” they said.
“Once it gains traction in the market, it’ll be so much easier to manage and grow,” they said.
But here you are, with more customers, more technical processes, more complex campaigns, and more things on your plate. Tired yet?
If you want to stay motivated (without a caffeine drip), something needs to change.
What if we told you there’s a tool, native to the Shopify ecosystem, which will act as Fairy Godmother to your Business Cinderella--automating processes, supplying comprehensive data, seamlessly integrating your shop with the most impactful tools, and overall readying her for the ball of a lifetime...without that whole magic-wearing-off-thing? (OK, this metaphor was a stretch, but you get it.)
Enter: Shopify Plus. Ahead: what it is, and how it can boost sales and run your Shopify store like clockwork.
What is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is a fully-hosted, cloud-based, enterprise eCommerce platform designed for high-volume merchants.
Translation: it’s Shopify on steroids for merchants who need a lot of horsepower to serve a large customer base. Brands like Staples, Heinz, Magnolia, and Lindt process billions of dollars annually through Shopify Plus.
If you’re on your way to the big leagues, Shopify Plus can help you get there faster. If you’re already there -- what are you waiting for?!
Noteworthy Shopify Plus Features
It’s no secret that Shopify has cornered the market in untangling the complexity of eCommerce, making it accessible to most people, most of the time. Shopify Plus is no exception.
If you’re looking for an enterprise solution -- but don’t have the technical genius of Grace Hopper, nor the business savvy (capital bloodthirst?) of Jeff Bezos -- it’s a no-brainer. Plus’s out of the box functionality paves the way for uncomplicated configurations, automation, and management.
Here’s a short list of the Plus features we think are most essential for Shopify merchants.
Customize Your Checkout Experience
None of the 3 standard Shopify plans let you modify the checkout page. (Whomp whomp.)
Shopify Plus, on the other hand, allows you to customize everything by editing the checkout.liquid file.
You can do things like:
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- Plaster your branding all over the checkout experience (including the URL; none of that “checkout.shopify.com” stuff)
- Use auto-complete to make it easy for customers to add their address
- Allow logins via social media platforms
- Enable customers to pay with their loyalty points
- Implement live chat with Gorgias
- Show personalized product recommendations with Rebuy
In short, you’ll be able to create an end-to-end, fully-responsive, branded experience.
Take Peepers, an eyewear retailer, for example. By upgrading to Shopify Plus, Peepers was able to experiment with several intriguing features at checkout:
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- Displaying a custom ‘free shipping motivator’ showing how much more the customer had to spend to qualify for free shipping.
- Up-selling and cross-selling eyewear accessories
- Breadcrumbs to make the checkout appear less overwhelming
The result: A 20% growth in average order value and 30% increase in conversions.
The more control you have over a checkout experience that delights your customers, the more growth you can expect in your bottom line.
Automate Tasks With Shopify Flow
With Shopify Flow, you can automate the laborious, routine tasks which consume a big slice of your time. Shopify Flow lets you:
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- Automate repetitive processes
- Build connectors that integrate third-party tools, like Slack*
- Create conditional logic to trigger certain events
*"Why would I want to integrate my Shopify store with Slack?" This integration is fa-bu-lous for real-time alerts about your shop. For example, you can set it up so that you receive an immediate alert via Slack whenever a product's inventory drops below 0; or if Shopify identifies a fraudulent or incomplete payment.
The best part: none of these customizations require an ounce of coding.
Shopify Flow comes with ready-to-use, customizable templates that will synthesize recurring activities and build automations that operate on a set of pre-defined criteria. That means workflows can be up and running in the blink of an eye, freeing you up to focus on more important tasks (or, you know...take a nap).
Schedule Sales Events With Shopify Launchpad
If regular flash sales and new product launches are a big part of your sales strategy, you’re going to fall head over heels in love with Launchpad.
As great as flash sales are, they also require you to plan each event manually and process thousands of transactions at once.
We’re pretty sure science says that kind of stress can lead to hair loss.
To save your sanity (and your flowing locks), Shopify Launchpad allows you to make changes and schedule customizations to go live only for a certain period of time, before switching back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Here’s a glimpse of what you can change to accommodate a one-time event:
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- Channel visibility and available inventory
- Pricing for the products that are part of the promotion
- Style and components of your theme
- Creative assets like banners and graphics, to call attention to the event
- Temporarily locking the site to build anticipation
Once the party is over, bippity boppity boo! Your Shopify Plus store will automatically revert to its original status, like Cinderella after the ball. (Maybe the metaphor is better here. ...No? LET US LIVE.)
Customize User Experience
With Shopify Plus you get access to Shopify Scripts*, as well as better integration with apps that let you tailor user experiences.
With the Shopify Script Editor you (or, let’s be real, your team) can add amazing features that would not have been possible otherwise. These include:
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- Creating percentage or fixed discounts on products
- Developing discount tiers based on order volume, purchase frequency, or spending threshold
- Offering BOGO deals that are simple or complex: buy one get one free, buy two get 10% off, buy four get 20% off, etc.
- Cross-selling/up-selling products without an app
- Offering free shipping to VIPs
*Scripts are micro-customizations that let you write your own code to address the complex needs of enterprise-level merchants. Unlike apps, Scripts run custom code on Shopify's servers – letting you focus on delighting your clients without having to worry about a lot of support or maintenance headaches.
These changes are not just reflected at checkout, either. They can be applied across the entire customer journey.
Need proof? Look no further than Jungalow. The company customized their collection pages, introduced a loyalty program, and implemented a click-add feature, which allowed visitors to add products to their carts and move to checkout faster than before. (Giving them less time to deliberate on their potential purchases...ahem.)
The bottom line: these changes led to…
Beloved Tako client, Orenda International, leveraged Shopify Scripts to seamlessly segment customers into a tiered discount system at checkout based on amount spent.
For example: if a customer spends $200, they are automatically sorted into the 10% discount category for the lifetime of their account. If they cross a spend threshold of $500, they’re promoted to a 20% discount on all future orders.
All of that with no manual work for the folks at Orenda and no annoying pop-ups for their customers. (You know the ones...“dO yOu WaNt A dIsCoUnT?? Simply provide your email, great grandmother’s maiden name, blood type, and first born child!”)
Just good, clean incentive to increase their order value.
What’s more, this process can integrate with email marketing powerhouse Klaviyo to automatically segment customers based on their discount tier and items purchased, so you can offer more targeted campaigns and flows.
This is not to say that everything you decide to implement will need custom development. There are a number of apps that can be integrated as-is with Shopify Plus to put more money in your pocket:
Consider DoYouEven, for example. The company used Octane AI to incorporate Facebook Messenger and SMS into their marketing strategy--a decision that helped generate $155,000 in 30 days.
When it comes to growing your revenue with Shopify Plus, the sky's the limit!
Go International...With Local Stores
Whether it’s swearing, asking where the bathroom is, or buying something online, people prefer their native language. Case in point: Neil Patel was able to increase his traffic by 47% simply by translating his website to other languages.
Until now, setting up and managing stores with different languages and currencies was a complicated experience reserved only for big, global brands. Shopify Plus has leveled the playing field, allowing you to run multiple stores that cater to different currencies, languages, and parts of the world, all at the same time.
Want a little icing on the cake? You can do it without paying an extra dime, a la QuadLockCase.com.
Visit the website and click the country name in the top right corner to see all available regions. Once you select one, you’ll see prices will switch to that area’s native currency.
You, too, can leverage this type of customizability with Shopify Plus, which allows you to create up to 9 clone stores to sell your products in additional locations and currencies.
Get Great Value For A Low Cost*
*Relative to the benefits, for the right merchant
We won’t try to fit you with rose-colored glasses here--Shopify Plus ain’t penny candy. Many merchants experience sticker shock, but considering all you can do with the platform compared to the alternatives, it’s a really sweet deal for those looking to scale.
Starting at $2000/month, Shopify Plus provides hosting, performance, security, automation, and more. That means a significant decrease in manual labor, greater conversion (for new and repeat customers), and more flexible customization...all leading to increased revenue (and happiness). The investment is worth consideration.
Using the Shopify Payments gateway snags you zero transaction fees, but if you do need to use an additional third party gateway, you’ll enjoy a 0.15% transaction fee (compared to up to 2% on non-Plus plans). On top of that, there’s an intriguing potential for up to 18% higher conversion rates with Shop Pay, specifically.
If you’re looking for a solution that takes your Shopify store to the next level with the least hassle, Shopify Plus is your best bet. Feeling squeamish about the transition or still skeptical of the benefits? Let’s Tako ‘bout it. (Sorry.)
