Is Shopify Plus the Right Platform for Small and Medium Enterprises?
Is Shopify Plus the Right Platform for Small and Medium Enterprises?
Shopify Plus is a popular e-commerce platform used by all kinds of businesses. Find out if it's good for small and medium enterprises here.
Keyword(s): shopify plus
According to a 2018 industry report , American consumers spent about $517.36 billion online. Retaining sales hit the $3.628 trillion mark. Such statistics could provide an answer to why E-commerce platforms have become very popular with most online entrepreneurs.
Platforms like Shopify Plus have allowed retailers to grow their businesses in a cost-effective manner. Our article below will explore the pros and cons of Shopify Plus. At the end of it, you should be able to decide whether it is something that you'd like for your business.
Understanding Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is an improvement on the initial Shopify. It started operating in 2014, and it allows small and medium-sized enterprises to scale. Some of the Shopify Plus features include 24/7 customer service support, 70+ payment gateways, seamless integration, over 1000 apps, among others.
Let’s explore in detail the pros and cons of using the platform.
Pros and Cons of Shopify Plus
The digital space has led to the transformation of the business world. It is, therefore, becoming a requirement that every business takes advantage of what it opens. Finding the right platform is, therefore, essential. It has thus become imperative that you decide on whether or not to use the Shopify Plus platform.
You will want to know the pros and cons. We’ll simplify the process for you below.
Benefits of Shopify Plus
There are several advantages to using the Shopify Plus platform, and these include:-
1. You Will Save Time
The Shopify platform is easy to use and does not require you to be tech-savvy. You do not have to employ a large team of experts to manage the platform for you. You even have the option of only bringing in an expert when you need to.
You, therefore, save quite a bit of money; money that you would spend towards hiring a resource to take care of your e-commerce store.
Running the website will also be very easy, because the developers take care of things such as featured limitations, bugs, and file storage, among others. You can customize the platform as you wish, and add functionality at the Check-out level.
Other platforms will allow for customization at the check-out, but not much. You, therefore, have the chance to give your customers a good user experience by adding certain features.
2. Shopify Plus Cost
The cost of the platform is $2000 per month. While the figure may seem prohibitive for a small business, the benefits you get are many. You don't have to fret about hosting fees or paying a retainer to your web developer. You also do not have to budget for bandwidth, cloud hosting or servers.
Do note; you’ll need to pay additional fees for apps, maintenance, and payment gateways.
3. The Platform Is Reliable
If you're running an e-commerce store, you have to get a platform that allows for many visitors to transact at the same time. The type of experience they get should also be top-notch at all times. It's very easy to lose customers if they experience delays, slow loading and hard to navigate pages.
You also want the convenience of knowing that the system you have another to process orders efficiently. Shopify Plus has the right infrastructure to help you deal with such processes. You can, therefore, spend time on other aspects of the business, thereby allowing you to scale faster.
4. Optimize for Mobile and Multiple Sales Channels
One of the Shopify Plus benefits is that you have many sales channels you can use. Such include Amazon, eBay; Buzz Feed, Lyst and Facebook Messenger. You, therefore, get access to a broad customer base.
The Shopify themes allow for mobile optimization. With so many people using their mobile phones for commercial purposes, you cannot afford not to be on these platforms. Your customers can access your e-commerce platform store from whatever device they are using.
The Shopify mobile SDK will streamline your native mobile apps, thus making it easy for you to optimize for mobile.
5. The Platform Is Secure and Allows for Scalability
When you start a business, one of the goals is to scale in the shortest time possible. Your platform should allow you to do this without having to migrate to another system. Shopify Plus can process up to 10000 orders every minute.
Retailers who Run Black Friday and other promotions have had great success on the platform due to its ability to handle large orders.
The Shopify Plus is also a secure platform which will allow you to keep customer data safe. It has level 1 PCI DSS certification meaning that it meets the relevant security standards.
Disadvantages of the Shopify Plus Plan
Nothing is perfect. Some of the Shopify plus disadvantages include;-
1. Content Management System
You’ll get many inbuilt tools to manage your website pages. However, you may not enjoy too much functionality with regards to publishing. You may, therefore, require to have a sub-domain for your blogs. If you focus a lot on content creation as one of your marketing tools, it may frustrate you a little.
2. The Expertise to Run the Platform
The developers have taken time to make sure that the platform is easy to use. However, certain features will require a certain level of expertise. The platform does not use common programming languages like Ruby or JavaScript. They have their Liquid programming, which may require some getting used to.
The developers have taken the time to assist the customers with their easy to follow prompts. For the bigger jobs like layout changes or excitement over, you’ll need to get someone who understands the language.
Ready to Scale Your Business With Shopify Plus?
We’ve shared with you the pros and cons of being on the Shopify Plus platform. We feel that it is a platform that is worth checking out. You get many benefits while having a system that is of low maintenance and cost-effective.
The millions of customers who are currently using it can't be wrong. It's, however, crucial that you have a good understanding of what you need. If you're a start-up, it may not make financial sense to go onto the platform due to the high monthly cost.
Other aspects to it could also impact on your bottom line; for example, you'll need an app developer to handle some of the functionalities.
Contact us for more information if you are struggling with whether or not the system is right for you.