How much does a Shopify Plus project really cost and in what case is it interesting for e-merchants to migrate to Shopify Plus?
For most traders, regardless of their size. Whether we are talking about retail brands or multinationals, the change of e-commerce solution is never experienced as good news. More like an extremely daunting and disruptive project. It's the same when you want to switch to Shopify plus and yet, let's see together what it really costs.
What is the real price and cost of ownership of Shopify Plus?
In the event of an e-commerce site migration from Magento to Shopify , for example, the amount of work to be done is indeed colossal! Among other things, it must be ensured that the required functionalities are present, that the platform is reliable and robust and that the transition to the new platform is carefully prepared. Each merchant understands that this represents significant costs to incur.
Some of these expenses will be up-front costs and others will be regular, ongoing costs that will need to be planned for over a two- or three-year period.
With the growing popularity of Shopify Plus in the business sector, more and more merchants are choosing to incorporate this platform into their online store redesign tenders.
Many brands use Shopify Plus: Gymshark, Good American, Simba, Sofa Club, Jungallow etc…
Shopify plus , despite its monthly license, can indeed turn out to be much cheaper than other e-commerce solutions like Magento 2. To do the calculation we will add all the costs (BUILD + RUN) over 3 years and calculate the cost of e-commerce ownership. Total cost of ownership in English.
But what are the costs of switching to Shopify Plus? Of course there are the basic license costs but not only! Other ancillary costs related to the project are encountered when using the platform.
For example, it will certainly be necessary to add modules, payment fees, a little maintenance or evolution.
So let's try to draw a complete picture so that merchants who are considering switching to Shopify Plus can clearly assess the suitability of this product, at least from a budgetary point of view.
Approximate average annual costs of a Shopify Plus eshop
The figures below are assumptions based on the data we have accumulated.
A typical Magento site that wants to migrate to Shopify plus contains a few thousand products, a warehouse, sells mainly in France (even if the multistore is on the coast with Magentos), uses a payment system, 3 carriers and manages orders in one ERP.
This type of project can typically cost between €50,000 and €200,000 with a web agency. This varies greatly depending on the design and the number of integration and recovery of the existing.
- Annual Shopify Plus license cost: from $24,000 per year. I will simplify in euros and count €24,000 for ease.
- Shopify plus also charges fees based on turnover above €800,000 turnover / month.
- Purchase of third-party services (Lengow, Nosto, Algolia etc…) Count approximately 500 € / tool / month or 6000 € / year. This number is inherently wrong as it varies greatly depending on sellers and your size but you can use your current numbers if you have them.
- Costs of apps (average) about 300 € / month, or 3600 € / year
- Cost of the first year of the Shopify Plus program ~ €150,000 - €300,000
- Three years Shopify Plus Cost of Ownership between $250,000~$450,000
- You have to add to that the payment fees (CB and/or Shopify commission fees) but you now have a good idea of the real cost of a Shopify site.
How much does the Shopify Plus license cost?
To fully understand the overall cost of migrating to Shopify Plus, the first step is to review how the Shopify Plus license works. Before that, if you don't know what to expect with Shopify Plus, you can read our article " What does Shopify Plus look like? "
As is the case with many e-commerce platforms, it can be difficult to find detailed information on exact pricing on the Shopify website, as Shopify wants to be contacted to negotiate directly with a potential merchant. .
Luckily, it's possible to calculate or at least get an idea of the fees Shopify charges for using the Plus platform, without having to talk to Shopify's sales team.
The price of Shopify Plus is based on the CA charged by your store. Since Shopify Plus is a hosted SaaS platform, this seems consistent because the larger your store, the more resources and bandwidth it uses.
So there's a minimum license fee of $2,000 per month (Shopify charges everything in dollars) and a maximum monthly fee of $40,000.
If you calculate well, the fees applied once you exceed $2,000 in a month are quite competitive compared to other e-commerce platforms.
But what happens if you exceed €800,000 in turnover / month (i.e. 9.6 million turnover / year all the same)?
With revenue of $1,000,000 per month, Shopify plus is going to charge you $2,500 in license fees. To reach the maximum monthly licensing fee of $40,000, an e-merchant would need to reach $16 million in revenue per month.
Admittedly, $40,000 in license invoicing is not cheap, but to manage $16 million in receipts, you need the facilities opposite. Not sure that full open source + hosting is really cheaper for this size of online store.
We even tend to see merchants save money by switching to Shopify Plus! This is one of the things to know about Shopify Plus that may seem counterintuitive.
To be exhaustive, there are also advantages to mention in completely migrating to Shopify plus.
What's included in the Shopify Plus license?
When discussing Shopify Plus with SMBs or retailers, license fees may seem high to them. They may have doubts whether it is worth migrating to the platform due to the cost of $2,000 per month, especially in comparison to Magento Community Edition.
But let's compare what is comparable with the TCO (total cost of ownership). Including Magento servers, technical costs, TMA, updates and evolutions, we can have a technical budget of much more than $2000/month. These fees are included in the Shopify plus license.
But Shopify Plus also means having an account manager at your service who is there to provide assistance in using Shopify. As part of the monthly license, e-merchants are added an account manager but also a launch manager when creating the site to assist them.
Most of the time, it can help in the following areas:
- General help on Shopify for the administrative part
- A bit of front end dev (~3 hours of adjustments or module installations, etc. per month)
- A few tips to get your e-commerce off the ground
- Support to make the best use of Shopify (onboarding)
- General advice on Shopify Plus solutions and popular or partner Apps.
As we have already said, in addition to the presence of an “account manager”, the Shopify Plus license also includes all hosting costs, which are often very expensive for many e-commerces.
Generally, standard hosting for an e-commerce site under Magento will cost between 500 and 5000 € / month. Please note, this does not include the more specialized costs for load balancing, replication, backups, management of exceptional traffic peaks, etc. The actual price at the end of the year may be much higher.
Some Shopify Plus features, like the ability to easily add sales channels, can significantly reduce the cost of using third-party apps. With Shopify POS, Shopify has its own point-of-sale solution and integrated solutions for selling in-store. There's still a lot to do with Shopify POS, but the integration between Shopify plus and Shopify POS is a real plus.
Payment processing fees (via Shopify Payments)
In addition to the license costs per transaction of Shopify Plus, e-merchants will have to take into account the processing costs of payment gateways (ogone, Payzen etc…) Since Shopify Payments is not yet available in France for the moment.
Shopify App Costs
Finally, we must not forget the cost of Apps. Like most other e-commerce platforms, Shopify Plus has a solid basic feature list, but usually requires additional third-party apps to provide features like improved SEO, more comprehensive merchandising, customization, or better on-site research, etc.
Unlike applications for other platforms such as Magento or Prestashop marketplaces where applications are paid for in “one shot”. Third-party apps from Shopify Plus are very often available for less but on a monthly license basis.
This offers the advantage of a low entry cost for each application you need, but these costs can quickly add up.
Be careful to choose the applications carefully and to delete those that have become useless.
Regular careful examination is therefore necessary. Some are indeed used in the initial design of the project but become less important thereafter.
Yes, there are free and very cheap apps available in the Shopify app store, but like everything in life, you get what you pay for, and business apps usually cost between $50 and $500 per month. .
A functional assessment should be undertaken at the start of a migration project to determine which elements of required functionality are provided by Shopify Plus, and which elements will need to be provided by third-party applications or custom development work. An evaluation of the different applications available should then be carried out in order to determine the best solution and the best value for money.
Of course, one of the advantages of a monthly license for third-party applications is that the initial launch costs are much lower than if the application were purchased under a standard license. Also, if it later turns out that the app is not working as expected, or its functionality is no longer needed, the monthly license can simply be terminated.
If a merchant discovers that their store needs a specific feature that is not available through the Shopify Plus platform or through a third-party app, the only way to obtain that feature is to have a custom solution developed, preferably using a Shopify Plus Partner who will develop a specific app for you.
As with any e-commerce platform, any bespoke feature is probably the most expensive solution, but in some cases it's the only solution.
As an e-tailer, you need to determine if the functionality is actually needed, thoroughly investigate third-party apps, and determine if a change in operational procedures or other elements of the eshop might eliminate the need for custom development.
If a bespoke solution is required, the costs depend on the level of complexity of the code, as well as the size and scope of the functional requirement. Typical development costs are between €90 and €175 per hour, and traders should be clear that bespoke solutions will always mean that any future maintenance or expansion of bespoke code will be just as expensive to get up and running.
What about the initial design and build costs by a Shopify Plus agency?
As with any online retail project, a budget should be allocated for the design and construction of the store, to ensure a professional and well-planned launch.
Although there are "ready-to-use" graphic templates that can be purchased for Shopify Plus, most professional e-commerce sites require you to design a unique graphic charter, created for example with the Figma software, to give a unique look and feel that matches their brand.
Of course, every Shopify Plus project is different, and each retailer's requirements and catalog sizes vary wildly.
However, enterprise-level project launches are typically much shorter for Shopify Plus than for other e-commerce platforms, and this is reflected in the total project costs.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this breakdown of the typical costs of using the Shopify Plus platform will give potential e-merchants a much clearer idea of what it entails.
For merchants currently handling sales volumes of less than €50,000 per month, the numbers should explain why Shopify Plus generally isn't doing so well at this point unless the company is planning considerable growth. For larger traders, however, it should present a clearer picture of the likely costs, both for the basic platform and all the supporting elements needed to establish a business on that platform.
It must be understood that each project is unique, but I hope that this article will have demystified Shopify a little more for you.
Do not hesitate to contact our sales team to make a tailor-made quote for your E-commerce site under Shopify plus.
