– Lower costs and higher ROI compared to self-hosted or enterprise solutions
– Unlimited bandwidth and reliability to handle any amount of traffic and sales
– Access to exclusive features and functionalities, such as Shopify Scripts, Shopify Flow, and Shopify Launchpad
– Ability to sell across multiple channels, such as social media, marketplaces, and physical stores
– Dedicated support and account management from Shopify experts
But how do you know if your business is ready for Shopify Plus? How do you determine if Shopify Plus is the best fit for your needs and goals? Here are some of the factors that you should consider before making the switch to Shopify Plus:
Your current solution
One of the first things that you should consider is your current ecommerce solution and how it compares to Shopify Plus. If you are using a self-hosted or enterprise solution, you are likely paying more for maintenance, support, updates, and changes than you would with Shopify Plus. You may also be dealing with technical issues, security risks, and performance limitations that affect your online store’s functionality and user experience.
With Shopify Plus, you can save time and money by letting Shopify handle all the aspects of hosting your online store, such as speed, uptime, bandwidth, and backups. You can also enjoy a secure and PCI-compliant platform that protects your online store and your customers’ data from hackers and cyberattacks. You can also benefit from regular updates and improvements that Shopify makes to its product, adding new features, functionalities, and integrations.
Your overall budget
Another thing that you should consider is your overall budget and how it impacts the solutions that are available to help you solve your problems and requirements. Shopify Plus has a flat monthly fee that starts at $2,000 USD per month, which includes a lot of out-of-the-box functionality and unlimited bandwidth. However, if you need to extend beyond the default features and functionalities, you may need to invest in custom development and/or additional applications.
Therefore, it is important to have a clear idea of your overall budget and your priorities early on, as this will affect the scope and complexity of the project. You should also set realistic expectations and communicate them with your Shopify partner or developer, as they will help you find the best solutions for your online store within your budget.
What to consider for Shopify Plus
Besides your current solution and your overall budget, there are other factors that you should consider for Shopify Plus, such as:
– Business goals and vision: What are your short-term and long-term goals for your online store? What is your vision for your brand and your customer experience? How do you measure your success and growth? These questions will help you define your strategy and direction for your online store and how Shopify Plus can help you achieve them.
– Technology landscape: What are the existing tools and systems that you use for your online store and your business operations? How do they integrate with Shopify Plus and each other? How easy or difficult is it to migrate or replace them? These questions will help you understand your technology landscape and how Shopify Plus can fit into it or improve it.
– Pain points and problems: What are the main challenges and frustrations that you face with your online store and your business operations? How do they affect your performance and efficiency? How do they impact your customer satisfaction and retention? These questions will help you identify your pain points and problems and how Shopify Plus can solve them or alleviate them.
– Business, team and individual impact: How will switching to Shopify Plus affect your business, your team, and yourself? What are the benefits and risks involved? What are the costs and resources required? What are the changes and adjustments that you need to make? These questions will help you assess the impact of switching to Shopify Plus and how to prepare for it.
Business size
One of the factors that you should consider for Shopify Plus is your business size and how it affects your online store and your business operations. A large organization with many employees managing orders may need a more robust solution than Shopify Plus to handle their entire sales and support operations.
For example, if your business takes sales orders over the phone, you may need a more advanced solution to manage inventory sold through phone orders, in addition to online orders. While Shopify Plus is very flexible and customizable, you may need to use custom development or third-party solutions to integrate your online store with your other sales channels and systems.
Therefore, it is important to understand how your business operates and what are your specific needs and preferences. This will help you determine the amount of custom work or third-party solutions that you need to run your online store smoothly and effectively.
Business complexity
Another factor that you should consider for Shopify Plus is your business complexity and how it affects your online store and your business operations. Some businesses may not be large in size but can still be very complex, depending on their business model, sales and pricing strategies, shipping and fulfillment methods, and so on.
For example, if your business sells products with multiple variants, options, or customizations, you may need a more sophisticated solution to manage your product catalog, inventory, and pricing. While Shopify Plus offers a lot of features and functionalities to handle complex products, you may need to use custom development or third-party solutions to enhance or optimize your online store.
Therefore, it is important to gather as much information as possible about your business complexity and how it affects your online store and your business operations. This will help you estimate the cost and the technical challenges of the project and how to overcome them.
Business location
Another factor that you should consider for Shopify Plus is your business location and how it affects your online store and your business operations. Depending on where your business is based and which regions you service, you may need to consider different aspects of your online store, such as payments, shipping, inventory, tax, and languages.
For example, if your business operates in multiple countries or regions, you may need to consider if you want to have one online store for all regions or separate online stores for each region. You may also need to consider how to handle different currencies, payment methods, shipping rates and options, tax rates and rules, and languages and translations. While Shopify Plus supports multiple currencies, payment gateways, shipping carriers, and languages, you may need to use custom development or third-party solutions to customize or automate your online store.
Therefore, it is important to know your business location and your target markets and how they affect your online store and your business operations. This will help you choose the best solutions and strategies for your online store and your customers.
Response to change
Another factor that you should consider for Shopify Plus is your response to change and how it affects your online store and your business operations. Switching ecommerce platforms is a big decision that involves a lot of time and money and can be risky for your business. Some businesses may be more comfortable and familiar with their current ecommerce solution and may not want to change their existing processes and systems.
For example, if your business has been using a self-hosted or enterprise solution for a long time, you may have a lot of staff who are trained on that platform and may not want to learn a new system. You may also have a lot of legacy systems that you rely on for your online store and your business operations, such as an outdated email marketing system or a third-party logistics provider. You may not want to replace or migrate these systems to Shopify Plus, as it may be too costly or complicated.
If your business is not ready to embrace some changes in your online store and your business operations, then moving to Shopify Plus may be a difficult and painful process. Shopify Plus is a very flexible and adaptable platform that many businesses have successfully switched to, but it also requires some time and effort to learn the new system and onboard your team.
Therefore, it is important to understand your response to change and how it affects your online store and your business operations. This will help you set the right expectations and communicate them with your Shopify partner or developer, as they will help you make the transition as smooth and easy as possible.
Existing tech stack
Another factor that you should consider for Shopify Plus is your existing tech stack and how it affects your online store and your business operations. Your tech stack refers to the existing tools and systems that you use for your online store and your business operations, such as your ecommerce platform, your CRM, your ERP, your email marketing, your analytics, and so on.
Your tech stack may affect your online store and your business operations in different ways, such as:
– Integration: How well do your existing tools and systems integrate with Shopify Plus and each other? How easy or difficult is it to connect them and share data and information? How reliable and secure are the integrations? You may need to use custom development or third-party solutions to integrate your existing tools and systems with Shopify Plus and each other, depending on their compatibility and functionality.
– Migration: How easy or difficult is it to migrate your existing data and information from your current ecommerce platform to Shopify Plus? How much data and information do you need to migrate and how long will it take? How accurate and complete is the migration? You may need to use custom development or third-party solutions to migrate your existing data and information from your current ecommerce platform to Shopify Plus, depending on the amount and the quality of the data and information.
– Replacement: How easy or difficult is it to replace your existing tools and systems with Shopify Plus or other alternatives? How much time and money will it cost to replace them and how will it affect your online store and your business operations? How beneficial or risky is it to replace them and how will it
The Odd Wave team can guide you through this process , get in touch with our friendly team https://theoddwave.co.nz/contact-us/
