Shopify Plus for B2B: calculate your ROI before you decide

Every year, dozens of B2B companies in Slovakia and the Czech Republic decide to switch to a new ecommerce platform. Some follow industry recommendations, others the experiences of colleagues, while some merely suspect that their current solution isn't growing along with their business.

Few people sit down with a specific spreadsheet of numbers before making a decision.

The result? An investment that is mainly backed by belief – not data. Shopify Plus is not a cheap affair: the license costs €2 100 per month, and implementation starts at €20 000. Without a precise calculation, the investment becomes just a bet.

This is why we've created a free B2B ROI calculator for Shopify Plus. Not to convince everyone to migrate – but to help each company know if migrating actually makes financial sense for them.

Why the ROI calculation must precede every migration

The transition to a new platform involves three groups of costs that can easily be overlooked in the decision-making process.

1. The first is direct costs – license, implementation, data migration. These are usually well estimated by most companies.
2. The second is indirect costs – team time during implementation, temporary slowdown of processes, training. These are systematically underestimated.
3. The third and most important group is costs saved and new revenues post-migration. These are usually not calculated at all.

Without the third group, you don't have ROI. You only have a list of expenses.

A good ROI calculation doesn't take long – if you have the right tool. Our calculator works in real time and updates results instantly with every input change. You only need to know basic numbers about your business.

Four levers that determine return on investment

Shopify Plus generates value from four sources. Each has a different weight depending on how your business is currently operating.

1. Automation of manual processes

This is the biggest lever for most B2B companies. If your staff manually processes orders – verifying them, entering them into internal systems, confirming by email or phone – every hour of their work has a cost that can be calculated.

The calculator works with the number of B2B orders per month, the proportion of manual orders, and the time to process one. The calculation assumes a 75 % automation rate post-migration – a conservative estimate. In practice, Shopify Plus B2B (with native order management, automatic pricing and a self-service portal for business customers) achieves much higher figures.

2. IT infrastructure and maintenance

Every platform has different operating costs. WooCommerce or a custom solution requires dedicated hosting, security updates, plugin management, and an external developer for every major change. All of this comes at a price – and after switching to Shopify Plus (a SaaS model with hosting, CDN, security, and updates included) most of these costs are eliminated.

The calculator accounts for the platform you are migrating from. The weights are set realistically:

• WooCommerce, Magento, custom solution: 70 % of IT costs eliminated
• Shopify Basic / Advanced: 30 % (hosting and developer dependency remains similar, the difference is mainly in scalability)
• Shoptet: only 10 % (Shoptet is also SaaS, operating costs are naturally lower)
• Email / Excel: this lever practically plays no role here – IT costs are minimal

3. Transaction fees

This is a specific and significant lever exclusively for companies on Shopify Basic or Shopify Advanced.

Shopify Basic charges 2.0 % per transaction when paying through an external payment provider, Advanced 0.6 %, Shopify Plus only 0.2 %. With a turnover of €3M per year, the difference between Basic and Plus is €54,000 per year – this single saving can cover the entire annual license of Shopify Plus and still leave you a profit.

For companies on WooCommerce, Magento or a custom solution, this lever doesn't apply – you don't have Shopify transaction fees to leave.

4. Conversion potential of the checkout – a special case

We discuss the fourth lever in a separate section below, as it deserves a different treatment than the first three.

Example in numbers: A WooCommerce B2B company with €3M turnover

Let's look at a specific case. The company sells B2B exclusively on WooCommerce:

Step by step calculation:

Automation of processes

• 195 manual orders × 40 min = 130 hours per month = €2 860/month = €34 320/year Savings at 75 % automation → €25 740/year

IT infrastructure

• €36 000 × 70 % (WooCommerce weight) → €25 200/year

Transaction fees

• €0 — WooCommerce doesn't have Shopify transaction fees

Gross annual savings: €50 940

Annual license of Shopify Plus: − €25 200

Net annual saving: €25 740

Payback period for implementation: €32 000 ÷ €2 145/month = 15 months

Net profit over 3 years: €152 820 (gross 3-year savings) − €32 000 (implementation) − €75 600 (3 × license) = €45 220

ROI over 3 years: 42 %

An investment of €107 600 (implementation + 3 years of license) will return with 42 % profit. For a company with this profile, migrating makes clear financial sense.

Another company – with lower turnover, lower IT costs or low manual order rate – may see negative numbers in the same calculator. That is also a valid response. It's just for a different profile.

Why we show conversion uplift separately

Shopify's checkout is among the most optimized on the market. Data from Shopify and benchmarks from the Baymard Institute show that companies migrating from WooCommerce typically see a +8 % increase in online checkout conversions, from Magento +6 %, and from custom solutions as high as +10 %.

In the example above: A WooCommerce company with €3M GMV and an 8 % conversion uplift at 30 % gross margin = €72 000 annual additional potential.

Why don't we include this in the main ROI?

Because it's not a guaranteed saving — it represents potential. And its realization depends on one key condition: your B2B customers must make purchases through online self-service checkout. If most orders go through email, phone, or EDI, the conversion uplift simply doesn't apply to you.

That is why the calculator handles the conversion potential:

• allocates it to a separate section with a clear disclaimer
• displays it only if you input an uplift greater than 0 %
• never counts it in the main ROI

This transparency is intentional. The calculator is designed to show real numbers — not the most pleasant ones.

When the calculator shows negative ROI – and why that is a correct response

Shopify Plus is not the solution for everyone. For small businesses with low turnover, minimal IT costs or orders exclusively via email, the calculator may show negative numbers.

And that is the correct result.

This is where the philosophy of the tool lies: trust is built on concrete numbers, not optimistic projections. If the ROI for your profile doesn't add up, the calculator won't end with showing "Schedule an audit". It will show: "Advise me on the right platform" – because sometimes the right answer is an alternative path.

All inputs and formulas are verified directly from sources — shopify.com, shoptet.sk, Baymard Institute. No hidden assumptions, no inflated numbers.

Try the calculator for free

The calculation takes 2 minutes. You only need to know the basic numbers: annual turnover, number of orders, IT costs and salaries of the people who process orders.

→ Launch ROI calculator

If the result shows a positive ROI and you want to move forward, we'd be happy to look at your specific situation as part of a free audit. If the calculator shows red numbers, we can discuss what platform would really make sense for your needs.