Key Difference Between Shopify and Shopify Plus

More than 1.75 million merchants rely on Shopify to sell their products, and according to data from Backlinko, Shopify processed over $79.5 billion in total order value in the first half of 2021 alone. Shopify is undoubtedly one of the best software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms available for ecommerce. It is a robust all-in-one solution with a wealthy reputation of offering the best ecommerce features, superbly-designed themes, and unmatched customer support. Statista reports that 20% of all ecommerce websites used Shopify.

For small to mid-sized e-commerce companies using affiliate marketing programs, Shopify's three small company plans are perfect. Shopify even provides a more economical, scalable Shopify Lite plan. Shopify offers an enterprise version of its e-commerce platform, Shopify Plus, for large and high-volume businesses.

To help you choose

the ideal option for your brand's affiliate marketing program, we'll go over the main advantages and distinctions between Shopify and Shopify Plus plans below.

Shopify Plans Explained

Shopify is by far among the most desirable ecommerce platforms for businesses looking to get their online stores up and running quickly. But, first, off-the-bat, a common question businesses are looking to get started needs to ask and adequately addressed. Which Shopify pricing plan is best for me and my business?

Plan #1: Shopify Lite

At a mere $9 per month, Shopify Lite offers one of the most affordable ways for businesses to sell their products online with their affiliate marketing programs. But, note that this affordability comes at a cost. Shopify Lite is a scaled-down version of its Shopify plan that provides a low-cost entry to getting started with selling online.

It is perhaps best suited for businesses who have already created their site on another platform and want to add simple ecommerce functionality to it since Shopify Lite doesn’t provide you with a standalone, fully-functional online store. Instead, Shopify Lite allows you to sell an unlimited number of products by embedding your products on an existing website with a Buy Button. This feature is similar to PayPal but more sophisticated. With it, you add a snippet of code to your website, and your products automatically appear on your site, ready to be purchased.

With Shopify Lite, you can also sell your products on Facebook and even use Shopify as a Point of Sale (POS) system for selling products in physical locations like retail outlets. In addition, there are no transaction fees with Shopify Lite if you opt to use Shopify Payments as your payment gateway option, which is Shopify’s payment processing option.

Credit card fees are dependent on the payment gateway provider you choose. For example, with Shopify Payments, the credit card fees in the U.S. are 2.9% + 30c for purchases made online and 2.7% + 0c for purchases made on a mobile device using Shopify’s Point of Sale card reader. On the other hand, if you opt for a third-party payment gateway, there’s a 2.0% transaction fee on each sale made, plus the credit card fees your payment gateway provider charges. Keep in mind that Shopify’s credit card fees vary by country.

Shopify Lite also includes Shopify Shipping, which is a service Shopify offers where Shopify partners with a variety of local postal companies to provide real-time shipping rates. It also allows you to use up to three inventory locations, such as retail stores or warehouses, to track inventory and fulfill orders. Shopify Lite also offers basic reporting functionality to track sales and manage inventory.

A relatively new inclusion to Shopify Lite is the inclusion of Abandoned Cart Recovery, which allows you to identify shoppers who get to the checkout phase but abandon their cart and leave your store.

Lastly, 24/7 support is included in the Shopify Lite plan but is limited to email and live chat only, without the option to speak to a Shopify representative over the phone.

Plan #2: Basic Shopify

At $29 per month, Basic Shopify is the most affordable Shopify plan that offers everything in Shopify Lite, plus a standalone, fully-functioning online store. Basic Shopify includes a blogging functionality for your online store, crucial for generating traffic for your affiliate marketing efforts. The basic tier also comes with a variety of templates for your online store, 13 of which are free, while 71 must be purchased.

With Basic Shopify, you get both 24/7 support and the phone support that Shopify Lite comes with. However, transaction and credit card fees are the same with Basic Shopify as with Shopify Lite.

Shopify Shipping is also offered with the Basic Shopify plan, with up to 74% discounted shipping rates with Shopify’s shipping partners. You also have the option to use up to four inventory locations.

Plan #3: Shopify

At $79, the Shopify plan offers everything offered in Shopify Lite and Basic Shopify, but with more added benefits. One significant benefit is access to more professional and robust reporting, such as detailed sales, customers, and profit reports. Another selling point is lower transaction and credit card fees, 2.6% + 30c for online transactions and 2.5% + 0c for point-of-sale transactions (US rates). You also get a lower transaction fee of 1% if you opt for a third-party payment gateway.

You also get the ability to sell in multiple languages, using multi-currency selling international domains for your online store. You get the benefits of USPS Priority Mail Cubic pricing, as well, which are discounted rates on priority mail for packages that weigh less than 20 pounds. The Shopify plan also allows you to use up to 5 inventory locations.

Plan #4: Advanced Shopify

At $299, Advanced Shopify offers three key features — advanced report building, real-time shipping quotes from third parties, and the option to use individual product prices for different countries. You also benefit from lower credit card rates of 2.4% + 30c for online transactions, 2.4% + 0c for point-of-sale, and a lower transaction fee of 0.5% if you opt for a third-party payment gateway.

Plan #5: Shopify Plus

At a $2,000 standard monthly cost or a variable fee that consists of a negotiable percentage of monthly sales, Shopify Plus is an enterprise-level solution best suited for businesses with an extremely high sales volume. It offers all of the Advanced Shopify plan features plus advanced features involving security, automation, multi-currency selling, APIs, and fulfillment. Although the list of added features is quite extensive and specific, we’ll cover the main ones here.

Shopify Plus enables ecommerce automation via a visual workflow tool that utilizes ‘if this then that’ (IFTT) style rules called Shopify Flow. In addition, Shopify Plus features fully automatic multi-currency selling that uses the IP address to automatically detect what country a user is browsing from to present your product prices in the appropriate currency. You also benefit from dedicated ‘white-glove’ account management and support and get to use up to 20 inventory locations.

The One Key Difference Between Shopify Plus and the Four Other Shopify Plans

The list of differences in features between Shopify’s four available plans and Shopify Plus is rather extensive. Still, it mainly boils down to one key difference: the enterprise-grade features unlocked with Shopify Plus.

The majority of companies who operate affiliate marketing campaigns can profit from any of the four Shopify plans since they all have features that are helpful for affiliate marketing campaigns to be successful. The Shopify Plus subscription is recommended for large organizations that require fully automated enterprise-grade ecommerce capabilities and have substantial sales volumes.

Whichever Shopify plan you select, you should look for strong affiliate marketing-focused platforms to go along with your Shopify approach in order to get the most out of your affiliate marketing program.