Shopify Pricing - How to choose the right plan?

With Shopify giving you a non-committal 14-day free trial, you get to chose your plan after you started experiencing their tools and you have up to 4 plans to choose from. Interestingly, three of the 5 offerings are obvious, however, there are 2 options that are “not mainstream” and have a very specific purpose compared to what’s understood as mainstream online stores.

Choosing Shopify as your eCommerce Platform

If you are looking for a shopping cart cloud solution with tens of thousands of Apps to help you sell your goods or services, Shopify is the leader in this space and is growing at a phenomenal pace in market share gains compared to other eCommerce Platforms. Its features to ranging from integrations with social media platforms, social media marketing, and SEO with google analytics, whatever your monthly plan, it can take your existing website to new heights.

Shopify not only offers a superb first-time experience but also has migration tools and the ability to match your marketing tool-set from your current platform and offer you new and additional tools to take your business further.

The power of a cloud-based solution and its customization abilities give you enhanced reliability, lower management, and maintenance upkeep all the while being able to scale your eCommerce store to the next level effortlessly.

Shopify is tiered by your business size/needs and increases its tools/support as you grow larger and need greater control during growth and seasonal peaks. Below we will go into details on the Shopify Pricing plans to highlights how their offerings make good sense for your business.

Shopify Pricing Plans

Shopify Pricing Plans for Mainstream Stores:

You will see by default 3 mainstream plans being offered, with Shopify Lite being the fourth offering and being the lowest cost of $9/mo – however, Shopify Lite is not meant for a traditional eCommerce site build. Shopify Plus is the 5th offering aimed at Enterprise/Large Business which has its own team working with your business. VAT may be applied if you are in a country where VAT is imposed. Below is a breakdown of Shopify Pricing Plans and their terms/features

Shopify Lite

Price: $9/mo (+VAT if applicable)

Type: Subscription Fee

Applicable Store Revenue: $0 - $2,500

Features: Basic tools for online sales and in-person via Point of Sales (POS).

Key Tools: Buy Buttons embedded on a Website. Shop tab on your Facebook Page. Facebook Messenger directly in the chat. Invoices in Email or keyed-in. Shopify Card reader and POS App.

Main Considerations: With a Basic Website/Blog/Facebook Page, adding a "Buy" button to sell your goods/services. Aimed for "Under $5,000/mo" revenue stores.

Basic Shopify

Price: $29/mo (+VAT if applicable) + Online credit card rate 2.9%+30c USD

Type: Subscription Fee

Applicable Store Revenue: $0 - $5,000

Features: Full eCommerce website & Blog; in-person via Point of Sales (POS).

Main Features: 2 Staff access, 4 Inventory Locations, 64% Shipping Discount, Sell in 133 Currencies.

Key Tools: Single Language, fully-featured with a library of Apps – see Below plans for enhanced features in different areas.

3rd Party Gateway Fees: 2%

Main Considerations: Looking for a new Website/Store or taking your business into a Storefront and requiring all the SEO tools. Aimed for "Under $5,000/mo" revenue stores.

Shopify

Price: $79/mo (+VAT if applicable) + Online credit card rate 2.6%+30c USD

Type: Subscription Fee

Applicable Store Revenue: $5,000 - $10,000

Features: Full eCommerce website & Blog; in-person via Point of Sales (POS).

Main Features: 5 Staff access, 5 Inventory Locations, up to 72% Shipping Discounts, Sell in 133 Currencies.

Key Tools: TWO Languages, fully-featured with a library of Apps – ADDS: Support International Domains, Manual foreign Exchange rates, USPS Priority Mail Cubic Pricing Support, Professional Reports, Abandoned Cart recovery.

3rd Party Gateway Fees: 1%

Main Considerations: Steady traffic and needing to expand to a second language, optimizing shipping cost, manage your inventory/cost/marketing further with additional reports. Aimed for "Between $5,000/mo to $10,000/mo" revenue stores.

Advanced Shopify

Price: $299/mo (+VAT if applicable) + Online credit card rate 2.4%+30c USD

Type: Subscription Fee

Applicable Store Revenue: $10,000+

Features: Full eCommerce website & Blog; in-person via Point of Sales (POS).

Main Features: 15 Staff access, 8 Inventory Locations, up to 74% Shipping Discounts, Sell in 133 Currencies.

Key Tools: Up to FIVE Languages, fully-featured with a library of Apps – ADDS: Advanced Report Builder, Third Party calculated shipping rates.

3rd Party Gateway Fees: 0.5%

Main Considerations: Growing further internationally, requiring additional shipping logistics, custom reports. Aimed for "Over $10,000/mo" revenue stores.

Shopify Plus

Price: $2000/mo (+VAT if applicable) OR Variable fee based on higher volume – Free Migrations. No CC Fee but Intl Rates change, or 0.15%/purchase using your Processor.

Type: Subscription Fee OR Variable

Applicable Store Revenue: $25,000+

Features: Full eCommerce website & Blog; in-person via Point of Sales (POS).

Main Features: 15 Staff access, 8 Inventory Locations, up to 74% Shipping Discounts, Sell in 133 Currencies.

Key Tools: Unlimited Languages/Stores Capability (10 stores inc. in the base price, $250/store beyond), fully-featured with a library of Apps – ADDS: Your needs will be profiled by their team and Shopify Plus will come back with solutions.

3rd Party Gateway Fees: 0.15%

Main Considerations: Large business requiring an eCommerce partner. Aimed for "Over $25,000/mo" revenue stores.

Note: The above Shopify Pricing plans support Shopify POS, which has its own pricing of $89/mo and lower credit card rates.

Using your own payment provider: There is an additional fee applied when using your own provider from 2% (Basic), 1%, 0.5% (Advanced), 0.15% (Plus) respectively to cover PCI compliance and SSL/Security costs. Considering a 3rd party gateway requires to analyze your cost/benefit analysis between Shopify Payments costs vs. your Shopify Pricing Plan 3rd Party Gateway fees, your Payment Gateway fees, and the revenue being considered monthly. If a 3rd Party Gateway can save you costs including the fees imposed, then it should be considered. If your Gateway offers additional currencies outside of Shopify Payments, then it also should be part of your consideration.

Choosing the 'Shopify Lite' Pricing Plan

Shopify Lite is aimed for small businesses that have a website and a social media page and are looking to enhance them with the ability to purchase goods. It is not a traditional store, but more of an enhancement to your current online presence, as well as being able to sell in-person at kiosk/markets/shop with their POS offering. It’s a great way to get your business started and keeping your costs down.

Choosing the 'Basic' Shopify Pricing Plan

If your intent is to start your business online and have plans for your online store to be fully featured, yet still need to scale your sales first – this is a great starting point. You have all the tools at your disposal to get up and running, while the costs are still manageable given you are leveraging a full eCommerce infrastructure, receive support, and Shopify Payments have very reasonable rates compared to other online marketplaces.

The Basic Shopify Pricing scales with your sales, all the while when you reach a steady state of revenue where it makes sense to upgrade it takes no effort to do so.

Choosing the 'Shopify' Pricing Plan

For a running business, the Shopify Pricing Plan is the place to go, especially if you are migrating your store from another platform. Not only you will get the ability to run Professional Reports to do your analysis, but more importantly, be able to do Abandoned Cart recoveries and promote to customers that almost checked out. This improves your marketing’s efficiencies with the addition of lower transactional rates from the Basic Shopify Pricing Plan.

Additional features like a Bi-lingual store may cater better to your audience or might be the first step to an international presence.

Choosing the 'Advanced' Shopify Pricing Plan

For medium businesses that operate their online merchandise, where your team needs access from various departments (IT, Marketing, Analysis, Accounting, etc.) and your desire is to keep infrastructure cost low but must have it reliable. The Advanced Shopify Pricing Plan is worth your consideration when it comes to outsourcing vs. in-house your eCommerce store.

With Advanced Report Builder you have the ability to customize your reports for various departments and categories, giving you greater visibility of your customers’ activities. Opening up to different countries/languages as well as other marketplaces will push your business to new opportunities to leverage your marketing and scale your costs.

Choosing the 'Shopify Plus' Pricing Plan

When you are a large business, migrations from one platform to another can take up to a year or more – not with the Shopify Plus Pricing Plan and Team. The Shopify Plus team will profile your business, the features of your store and help you migrate in 4months or less. Sure, there is a lot of work in a migration, verifications and ensuring all the URL SEO links are transferred over, but the burden of legacy software, security updates, PCI compliance will be in the past.

You get speed where it counts at checkout, better conversion, and industry-leading tools at your disposal with premium 24/7 Support.

Considerations when choosing your Shopify Plan

With the above-mentioned differentiation and positioning of the various plans and their intended industry-leading features, the following variables are worth considering:

1. Choosing your Apps: The store will require the additions of various Apps to complete the features you are looking for – a lot of the Apps are in the marketing department to get your word out or promote your products and services to your audience, however, there are Apps for every business department, ranging from finance, logistics, maps, your imagination can run wild here. Doing your research and looking at the library of Apps is key to ensure you find their cost (a lot of them are free) to get a good understanding of the total monthly cost of your online store.

2. Selecting your payment gateway: Shopify Payments is not the only way to get your customer’s cards processed – Shopify has integrated a wide variety of payment gateways, and keeps them updated with any changes they receive as updates. All this with PCI compliance and secure connections in place – however, this does come at a price. If you have a better deal than Shopify Payments, then the cost of connecting and using that gateway may lose its advantage due to its connectivity cost per transaction (2% for Basic Shopify, 1% for Shopify, and 0.5% for Advanced Shopify). The cost incentive is of course to move up the Shopify Plans, pushing your revenue and transactions up to reach that advantage.

Shopify Plan Discounts

Shopify Pricing Plans can be paid up-front, with a 10% discount for the 1 Year, and 20% for 2 years.

Conclusion

Shopify is an amazing eCommerce platform. By navigating the Shopify Pricing Plans and the features associated with each plan will help identify which one is most appropriate for your business. When assessing your Shopify costs, one has to include the Apps and payment gateway options chosen. Shopify Payments will be itemized in your Shopify invoice with your associated Shopify rates.

Quick Facts summary about your Shopify Pricing Plans

What are the Shopify Pricing Plans?

5 Plans in total: Shopify Lite, Basic Shopify, Shopify, Advanced Shopify, and Shopify Plus

How much are the monthly Shopify Pricing Plans?

As a base monthly subscription fee:

· Shopify Lite - $9/mo

· Basic Shopify – $29/mo

· Shopify - $79/mo

· Advanced Shopify - $299/mo

· Shopify Plus - $2000/mo but price may vary based on requirements.

What are the Shopify fees per transaction?

There is no transaction fee for using Shopify Payments within your Shopify store, other than the Shopify Payments fees. If you are using a 3rd party gateway, the following per-transaction fees apply.

· Shopify Lite – Shopify Payments only

· Basic Shopify – 2%

· Shopify – 1%

· Advanced Shopify – 0.5%

· Shopify Plus – 0.15% (covers PCI requirements)

Can you add Shopify POS to my Shopify Plan?

Yes, you can add Shopify POS to any of the 5 Shopify Pricing Plans for an additional $89/mo.