People in Dubai love to buy things online, and this is the reason why the online retail market in UAE is rapidly growing. The official estimate related to the ecommerce sector in the UAE accounts at AED 27.5 billion in 2023, and the forecast suggests that it will exceed 48.8 billion by the year 2028.
These figures show a promising future for the UAE stores operating on Shopify Plus. If you are looking forward to scale your business in Dubai, these are the ways Digital Marketing Agency in Dubai adopt to scale a Shopify Plus agency too.
What Is Shopify Plus? Shopify vs Shopify Plus
It is an enterprise level ecommerce platform which is designed for high-volume businesses. It offers features which cater to advanced businesses, including scalability, robust integration, and customization that is needed to build and grow a brand. Whereas, the standard Shopify provides a robust platform for all different business sizes.
Businesses choose the enterprise-level platform to enjoy the Shopify plus features, offering:
- Unlimited staff accounts
- Customizable checkouts
- Dedicated support
- B2B selling capabilities
- Advanced analytics
- Lower transactional fees
5 Ways To Use Shopify Plus Features To Scale Their Business in UAE
If you are looking forward to running your business in the cosmopolitan city of UAE, you must keep your options of scalability open. You can leverage the key features of the tool to achieve scalable growth.
1. Automate workflows with Shopify Flow and Launchpad
Shopify Flow is an exceptional feature that allows the user to create custom, automated workflow. It helps in streamlining repetitive tasks such as coding. Launchpad, on the other hand, is yet another exclusive tool that helps in scheduling and execution of the campaign, product releases, and sales.
- Flag and review the high-risk orders: For the UAE, you can use Shopify Flow to automatically tag high-risk orders for manual review. It also reduces fraud without delaying legitimate purchases.
- Segment VIP customers: You can automatically assign VIP customer tags based on spending thresholds. This enables you to send targeted marketing campaigns to your most loyal customers.
- Schedule seasonal promotions: You can utilize the premium feature called Launchpad to schedule and automate sales events during key regional periods like Ramadan and Eid. It can automatically change themes, update pricing, and launch products, then revert the changes when the event ends which makes it an ideal tool for seasonal promotion.
2. Expand across the GCC with Shopify Markets
One biggest factor of scaling is going global. Shopify Markets allows you to take your business to another level. It enables businesses to centralize their international operations, allowing them to expand across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) from a single admin.
- Customize for each market: You can create expansion stores for different regions, such as Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, and configure localized pricing, languages (including Arabic), and payment options through Shopify Markets.
- Manage multi-currency: Though Shopify Payments is not available in the UAE, you can integrate with local third-party payment gateways like Checkout.com, Telr, or PayTabs. With multi-currency support, you can display prices in your customer’s local currency to build trust and increase conversions.
- Set up local taxation and shipping: For the UAE and other GCC markets, you can configure region-specific VAT, shipping zones, and return policies.
3. Personalize the checkout experience
With Shopify Plus, you can access the powerful checkout customization features that are not available on standard plans. It helps immensely when it comes to optimizing your shop for higher conversion rates.
- Add custom fields: Collect specific information needed for B2B transactions, such as a purchase order (PO) number or a VAT registration number. You can do this by adding custom fields to the checkout process.
- Implement dynamic discounts: Use Shopify Scripts and Functions to apply custom pricing logic, such as volume-based discounts or free shipping for orders over a certain threshold. This feature can significantly boost average order value.
- Optimize for mobile: More and more people are preferring mobile commerce in the UAE. With Shopify Plus, you customize your checkout flow to be fast and friction-free on mobile devices to reduce cart abandonment.
4. Integrate B2B and DTC into a single platform
The native B2B suite on Shopify Plus allows you to manage wholesale and retail customers from one unified backend. With this single feature, you can avoid the need for separate platforms and simplify operations without hiring more resources.
- Offer custom pricing and payment terms: Set up company profiles for B2B customers, assign custom price lists, and offer net payment terms (e.g., Net 30, Net 60).
- Create password-protected portals: Provide B2B buyers with a self-service portal where they can manage their account, view purchase history, and place repeat orders easily.
- Streamline large-volume transactions: With higher API rate limits, Shopify Plus can handle seamless integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and order management systems (OMS). This is crucial for managing high-volume B2B orders without operational overload.
5. Ensure high performance for peak traffic
Shopify Plus provides a robust, enterprise-grade infrastructure that can handle massive traffic and transaction volumes. It has emerged as an essential tool for major promotional events in the UAE.
- Leverage unlimited bandwidth: You can leverage the platform offering unlimited bandwidth to ensure your store remains fast and stable during peak sales events, such as Black Friday or large-scale product drops.
- Improve site speed: Use Shopify’s global content delivery network (CDN) and optimize your templates and images to provide a lightning-fast browsing experience for customers throughout the UAE and beyond.
- Guarantee uptime: With a 99.99% uptime SLA, Shopify Plus provides the reliability needed to confidently run high-stakes campaigns during key festive seasons.
Shopify Plus Pricing
If you want to scale the business, you need to purchase it. The Shopify Plus Pricing starts at around $2,300 for each month for a 3-year term and $2,500 for each month if you want it for 1-year term. The cost is potentially shifting to a variable platform fee based on revenue for complex, high-volume businesses.
For high-volume support, there are more complex businesses with high revenue that may switch to a variable platform fee which is based on their business model and sales. You can also contact Shopify sales to get specific pricing details. This is highly recommended to run a high-level Shopify Plus e-commerce in the country.
There are other potential costs as well, including:
- You may need a budget for Shopify Plus Partners for custom work
- One-time purchase costs for pre-built themes from the Shopify Themes Stores
- You need to purchase and subscribe to the additional apps from the Shopify App store.
Final Thoughts
In the era of digital transformation, you need to stay on top of the game to scale a business without losing out on anything. You can leverage the high-volume B2B and D2C features to expand regionally and internationally. You can also implement the powerful automation with Shopify Flow and Launchpad to customize the checkout experience. It helps in reducing the friction, and uses the Organization Amin for centralized multi-store management.
The key features of Shopify Plus include the enterprise-level features, high-volume support at competitive prices and waived third-party transaction fees. You should choose the tool to sell wholesale/B2B to sell from the online stores and staff accounts.
