Shopify/Shopify Plus analysis through the eyes of AbleSense, Lucid Fusion, and Growth Spark. Part 3: Why Shopify and Shopify Plus
Friday, July 27, 2018Lauren Macdonald
Hello,
Welcome to the 3rd and final part of my partner series and analysis of Shopify/Shopify Plus. It’s been so great chatting with AbleSense, Lucid Fusion, and Growth Spark and sharing their thoughts on Shopify/Shopify Plus with you all. To wrap things up, I wanted to share their opinions on why and when a seller may select Shopify/Shopify Plus as their platform of choice, and what they like most about working on this platform.
When might Shopify or Shopify Plus be a fit?
In your experience, what stand out features have helped merchants make the jump?
AbleSense
“When we work with clients that need international sales or start moving into wholesale, it’s a natural fit. If you’re selling in the United States, Avalara is included with Shopify Plus, which basically pays for itself. On the backend, you can use included tools like Cart Scripts to hard code in discounts, or special cart rules or apps like Flow to create customizable workflows to help run your company smoother. “
Lucid Fusion
“The ability to sell where consumers are browsing from Instagram, Facebook, 3rd party sites is something that all merchants want. In a nutshell, Shopify Plus allows merchants to focus on growing their brands and increasing revenue not worrying about infrastructure and scale. “
GrowthSpark
“It really comes down to how you’ll benefit from the unique features that Shopify offers, including automation, diverse checkout options, data migration, and more. If you’re looking for a platform that really offers a lot of options, Shopify is the leader.
Additionally, for brands that maybe don’t have a huge tech team supporting them, or they want that support, Shopify is great for merchants of all technical abilities. They’re there to help if you want to be walked through each feature, but then the platform also allows for ultimate levels of customization. A lot of times, within a larger company especially, you’ll have employees who run the full gamut of technical expertise, so knowing you have those contacts ready and waiting to help is key in keeping your business productive.
As far as Shopify Plus, I think it’s time for your brand to take the jump when you feel ready to really utilize those tools and offer that functionality. If you love Shopify as it is, but want to do more, then it’s time to upgrade.
Compared to other platforms, it’s also important to note that Shopify’s cost structure is much more friendly to businesses that are growing. We generally see either merchants moving from another
platform motivated, at least partially, by the cost savings, or businesses that have always been a part of Shopify and are able to rapidly upgrade as their brand thrives.”
Finally, to recap everything above, why Shopify?
What made you choose to work with this platform?
AbleSense
“Shopify handles hosting and key aspects of security at scale. These are not easy problems, and must be handled by a sophisticated platform and world-class team like Shopify’s. This lets us focus on customization for merchants, and solving the right problems to delight their customers. If you can think it, we can build it. Shopify's liquid templating system compliments our in-house expertise in modern standards for web design and development. This lets us create beautiful responsive websites that will create a lasting impression on customers. The Shopify API let’s us build private and public apps that extend the solid foundation provided by Shopify and the app + integration ecosystem.”
Lucid Fusion
“In 2015, we were hesitant in adopting Shopify Plus because we had a number of preconceived notions such as the fact that Shopify Plus stores are limited in how they look, that merchants don't have access to critical API endpoints, that Shopify is for startups. Within a few months, all of these were proven false and we quickly realized the power of the platform. With the exception of a few edge cases, Shopify Plus is a platform that will exceed the needs of most merchants.”
GrowthSpark
“For us it was, first, a decision to move into e-commerce, and then it was a decision to specialize in Shopify. We first started working with Shopify in 2010, and by 2012 we were Shopify Experts, even though it was only a small percentage of our projects. By 2013 we made the decision to become an e-commerce specific web design firm.
There were a few motivators for specializing in Shopify. The first is the same reason why anyone specializes in anything: niche to get rich. We wanted to focus on a platform that was obviously going to grow quickly while it was still young, and we’re very happy that we were right.
We had such a great experience working with it that we said ‘hey, if we’re going to work with a specific platform, let’s pick the one that makes it easy, supports Partners, is growing, and has a long term plan for the future of commerce.”
A big thank you to our contributors in this series! Find out more about each company via the links below:
Aaron Whitman / Jeff Harper – AbleSense : https://ablesense.com/
Zubin Mowlavi – Lucid Fusion : www.lucidfusion.com/
Ross Beyeler – Growth Spark : https://growthspark.com/
Have questions about ERP integration? Or need some help connecting with an agency for your next project? Reach out anytime: mdarmon@ebridgeconnections.com
What platform would you like to see an in-depth analysis of next? Are you a web agency that would like to be included in an upcoming partner series? Give me a shout!