If you want to upgrade Shopify to Shopify Plus, it’s as easy as clicking a button to switch your plan. But if you switch without taking advantage of the features it provides, you’re essentially paying $2,300 a month for the exact same store you had for $29 yesterday.
When you upgrade to Shopify Plus, you have access to a more powerful enterprise experience that you can’t get on regular Shopify or other eCommerce platforms. But you still have to set up the features before Plus can start paying off.
This is why many brands that want to migrate to Shopify Plus get frustrated. There’s an illusion that starting is as easy as clicking a button. In reality, there is a lot of heavy lifting involved in building a custom checkout experience, syncing your enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, and importing historical data.
If Migrating is So Difficult, Why Do It?
Migrating to Shopify Plus (or upgrading from a standard Shopify) is a lot of work, but there are a lot of reasons to make the switch.
| Variable | Standard Shopify | Shopify Plus |
| Plan Cost | Standard plans range from $29 (Basic) to $299 (Advanced) per month. | Plans start at $2,300 per month. See more on Shopify’s pricing page. |
| Processing Fees | For stores accepting Shopify Payments, Credit card fees start at 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.
Third-party transaction fees start at 2% for stores that do not accept Shopify Payments. |
Shopify Payment transaction fees are often negotiable.
Third-party transaction fees drop to 0.2%. |
| Checkout Experience | Stores on standard plans must use the default checkout and cannot customize it (except to change the logo or colors). | Plus stores can create a fully customized checkout experience with upsells, custom shipping rules, and product-specific terms & conditions. |
| B2B and Wholesale Capabilities | Standard stores need to use third-party apps or rely on a coupon-based system for business customers. | Plus has a native wholesale functionality, letting you sell to wholesale and retail customers with custom catalogues, payment terms, and pricing. |
| Tools & Automation | Most automations require third-party apps. | Plus stores gain access to Shopify Flow (a backend automation tool) and Launchpad (a tool for automatic sale scheduling and price changes). |
| Storefronts | 1 store per subscription. | Up to 10 stores per subscription (1 primary + 9 expansion stores)* |
| API Capacity | Standard API limits can cause bottlenecks during flash sales or high-volume inventory updates. | 10x higher API capacity gives you much more bandwidth. |
| Staff Accounts | Basic plans don’t let you have any staff accounts. You only have one login for the owner.
Grow plans allow up to 5 staff members, and Advanced plans allow up to 15. |
Unlimited staff accounts. |
| Support | Support requests go into a standard queue and are answered by a random agent each time. Much of the support you receive directs you back to self-serve help articles. | You receive priority support, bumping you to the front of the line. You also have access to expert-led courses through the Shopify Plus Academy. |
* Expansion stores must be the same brand. You cannot have multiple different brands under the same subscription, even for Plus.
How Brands Save Money Switching to Shopify Plus
Glancing at the comparison above, Shopify Plus can seem more expensive. However, enterprise-level brands often save money by switching.
- Brands with complex ERPs or inventory systems can’t afford downtime that might happen when trying to update 10,000+ products at once on a Standard plan, only to get shut down by API limits.
- Shopify’s checkout experience has a 15% higher average conversion rate than other eCommerce platforms. Customizing your checkout with upsells, custom fields, and a tailored Shop Pay experience can boost your average order value (AOV) and conversions even more.
- Some brands must use third-party payment processors either because of the advanced security features they offer or because the brand sells items prohibited by Shopify Payments. For those brands, the drop in processing fees alone (from 0.6% to 0.2%) often covers the $2,300 monthly subscription fee.
Case Study: True Shot Ammo
Sometimes, industry regulations and technical limitations make a Shopify Plus migration the next logical step for business growth. Because ammunition is highly regulated, merchants must follow complex shipping rules to remain compliant. Brandography developed a first-of-its-kind checkout app that allowed True Shot to sell ammunition on Shopify while still meeting complex Federal Firearms License (FFL) shipping requirements.
Read more about how we helped True Shot grow on Shopify.
How Do I Know When to Upgrade to Shopify Plus?
Upgrading your Shopify store or deciding to migrate takes a lot of planning. It’s a major business decision that requires significant investment.
For many brands, upgrading is ultimately the best choice. But when do you make the switch? The complexity of a Shopify Plus upgrade often makes many businesses hesitate.
Calculating the investment is extremely challenging, especially because many brands underestimate the time commitment required to build a truly powerful store on Shopify Plus.
That’s why we created a tool to make it easier. FetchMigration is a free tool that audits your website and calculates the investment you’ll need to make to switch to Shopify Plus. It goes beyond surface-level projections and generalized figures to provide an estimate based on your website.
How to Use FetchMigration
- Visit fetchmigration.com.
- Type in your eCommerce store URL.
- View your customized migration audit.
- Optional: click Export PDF to download a copy of your report.
You do not need to have a Shopify store to use FetchMigration. The tool provides calculations for upgrading from Standard to Plus and for migrating from another eCommerce platform to Shopify Plus.
How to Interpret a FetchMigration Audit
If you have an existing Shopify store, the report will include two options:
- Full Shopify Plus Migration
- Shopify Re-Theme
Full Shopify Plus migrations are more complex and involve a higher investment but offer more customization options. Your audit will include an estimated number of hours and cost based on the complexity of your migration.
If you do not currently have a Shopify store, you will only see an option for Full Shopify Plus Migration.
Alternatively, a Shopify re-theme includes custom theme design, development, and optimization to enhance your current design system and branding as you move to Shopify Plus.
Whether you have a Shopify Store or not, you will also see a 7-Phase Analysis that provides a breakdown of each step involved with a migration. Expanding each section gives you a more detailed explanation of migration considerations.
The remainder of your report analyzes your brand identity, SEO, integrations, and other considerations important for migration.
Get Help Migrating to Shopify Plus
Switching to Shopify Plus is a big lift, but it’s worth it for many brands. Whether you’re migrating for a better checkout experience, higher API limits, or limitations on your current eCommerce platform, Brandography can help. As a Shopify Plus Preferred Partner, we take the complexity out of migrating so you can keep your business running without skipping a beat.
Ready to get started with a Shopify migration?
Let’s Talk
