Shopify Fees 101: Which Shopify Plan Is Best In 2023?

Fees, fees, fees. Just a lot of fees to be paid here and there.

When you decide to begin a business, you may feel overwhelmed by the fees and charges that come with the things that can make your enterprise move forward. Some charges are incredibly high, and some are low but, unfortunately, the corresponding services prove to be inadequate for your business to truly benefit from. 

Ultimately, you must take some serious time learning the fees that you have to pay and determine which best suits your current budget and capital. We do not want to waste money on things we do not quite need at the moment. Always make sure you spend money for things where you can get their worth in return. 

We know you might be interested in upscaling your online store but there are also worries that constantly bog your mind if the price ranges are really worth it. As someone who considers Shopify, you certainly want to be well-oriented about what features and benefits are included in your monthly payment to the platform. So take a look at this guide on Shopify Fees, and let us help you in choosing to maximize what you spend for your online store and avail of the plans and pricing that best suit your needs. 

What Is Shopify?

Shopify is a leading e-commerce platform that enables businesses of all sizes to create and manage their online stores. Founded in 2006, Shopify has grown into a comprehensive solution that simplifies the process of setting up and running an online business.

At its core, Shopify provides businesses with the tools and features needed to create an attractive and functional online store. Merchants can choose from a wide range of customizable themes and templates, allowing them to create a unique brand presence and user-friendly shopping experience. Shopify’s intuitive interface makes it easy for users to manage inventory, process orders, and track sales.

One of the key strengths of Shopify is its scalability. The platform is suitable for businesses at different stages of growth, from small startups to large enterprises. Shopify offers various pricing plans that cater to different needs and budgets, ensuring that businesses have the flexibility to scale their operations as they expand.

Shopify also provides a wide range of integrations and apps through the Shopify App Store. These extensions enhance the functionality of online stores by offering features such as advanced analytics, marketing tools, inventory management, and customer support.

Furthermore, Shopify offers a secure and reliable hosting infrastructure, ensuring that online stores are protected and accessible to customers. The platform also supports multiple payment gateways, allowing businesses to accept various payment methods and currencies.

The Impact Of Shopify In SEA

Shopify, the popular e-commerce platform, has made a significant impact in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region, revolutionizing the way businesses operate online. With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, Shopify has empowered entrepreneurs and small businesses to establish and grow their online presence.

One of the key impacts of Shopify in SEA is the democratization of e-commerce. The platform has lowered the barriers to entry for individuals and small businesses, enabling them to easily set up their own online stores without the need for extensive technical knowledge or resources. This has fostered a vibrant ecosystem of online entrepreneurs, driving economic growth and creating job opportunities.

Furthermore, Shopify has provided a seamless and reliable infrastructure for e-commerce operations in the region. Its robust platform offers secure payment gateways, flexible shipping options, and multilingual support, catering to the diverse markets and languages in SEA. This has facilitated cross-border trade, allowing businesses to reach customers beyond their local markets and tap into the rapidly growing e-commerce landscape in the region.

Overall, the impact of Shopify in SEA has been transformative. It has empowered businesses, created employment opportunities, facilitated cross-border trade, and fostered innovation in the e-commerce space. 

The Subscription Plans Shopify Offers

To begin, Shopify gives you three primary options for your subscription plan (and another two for those with either a tight or extra budget: Lite and Plus). Below, we will delve into more details about each of these subscription plans, what’s included and how they differ. 

To know more definitive details on costs and features, you might want to check out Shopify’s pricing page on their website. By the way, Shopify lets you try and test its features during a 14-day free trial period, during which you don’t need to pay any subscription charges. This comes in handy when you want to test the waters first before you completely dive in.

Shopify subscription plan rates for Basic, Shopify, and Advanced including credit card rates for both online and offline transactions.

1. Basic Shopify

Basic is not necessarily bad. The Basic Shopify Plan is the most affordable plan among the three primary options. True to its name, it comes with the basic features that you need when starting to build your online store and website. With the Basic Plan, you already have access to your very own branded eCommerce website. This is the perfect plan for those who are just starting their online business.

At $29 per month, the essential management tools for your online store are already available to you. Your online store is readily customizable, and you get to have two staff accounts you can use to manage the store. The Basic Plan also gives you unlimited product listings so you can lodge as many items as you can imagine onto your online store. Sales channels and 24/7 customer support are also included in the plan. 

Other features included in Basic are abandoned cart recovery emails, the ability to create discount codes for customers, manual order creation, and SSL certificates to safekeep the personal and financial information that are input into your account.

2. Shopify Plan

Just a small price bump can give you a lot more. The Shopify Plan, which is priced at $79 per month, is arguably the most popular among online store owners. With some more money in, it gives you access to a significantly greater number of features to help you manage your online store. Consider upgrading to this plan when your order volume is greater, or when you plan to expand the reach of your business.

In addition to the Basic Shopify features above, the Shopify Plan notably increases your staff login accounts to five, from Basic’s two. You also will be able to assign your product inventory to five separate warehouses or retail stores. The Shopify Plan also provides you with metrics and reports on sales performance and customer behavior. This feature will greatly help you in pointing out areas of improvement, and in drawing out appropriate solutions to these concerns.

The abandoned cart recovery feature in the Shopify Plan can also be used to communicate with customers who added to the cart but have not checked out their orders. Proper and efficient use of this feature can help you convert these potential buyers into actual sales. The Shopify Plan also comes with lower transaction fees compared to Basic, and some added perks such as gift card payment options and the Shopify POS feature. 

3. Advanced Shopify Plan

Bigger businesses need bigger attention. Advanced Shopify comes with a relatively higher price tag at $299 per month, but it is something you can maximize when your business grows larger and has a vast inventory and variety of products. Because the price might be heavy for smaller businesses, this is recommended for businesses that earn $10,000 in revenue monthly. 

Aside from the basic features present in the Basic and Shopify plans, the transaction fees now come at a way lower rate compared to those in the cheaper plans.

Best for when you want to expand to shipping internationally, the Advanced Shopify plan offers a third-party calculated shipping feature, wherein you get to integrate third-party shipping providers and they do the calculations for the shipping costs at customer checkout.

The reports and analytics are also more comprehensive with Advanced Shopify. Aside from the routine reports from Shopify, you can also set up customized reports if and when you want to monitor a specific aspect of your business. Virtually, everything is unlimited with the Advanced Shopify Plan and that includes your storage, product listings, and room for your digital assets such as videos and photos. Staff accounts are also increased to accommodate 15 of them, while your store/warehouse limit is increased to 8. 

Comparison Between Shopify Lite And Shopify Plus

Factors	Shopify Lite	Shopify Plus
Price	$9 per month	Starting at $2000 per month
Customizable Store	Not included	Included
Shopping Carts	Not included	Included
Integration	Can integrate with existing website or social media platform	Enhanced integration and third-party software support
Buy Button	Can add a Buy button and link it to Shopify	Included
Shopify POS Lite	Included	Not specified
Advanced Features	Limited to basic features	Advanced security, automation features, enhanced support, multiple store management
Order Processing	Basic order processing	Can process 10,000 orders in a minute
Suitable for	Individuals or small-scale businesses	Large eCommerce enterprises

Additional Shopify Fees To Look For

Aside from the Shopify subscription plan costs, there are several other fees that are worth your attention and need to be taken into account when planning your online store budget and deciding on the overal  pricing strategy for your products. Here are some of them:

1. Website Setup and Maintenance Fees

Although a one-time payment, you would still need to shell out a few dollars when you buy your  Shopify-integrated domain name, buy your theme template, or add an application to your store. Take note also that the theme template purchases are non-refundable so choose something that you truly like.

2. Shipping label fees

Shipping labels contain information pertinent to your delivery such as the name of the customer and seller, address of origin and destination, and other extra details. Although you can order shipping labels through Shopify Shipping, which basically lets you partner with a third-party shipping provider, the payments for this are not included in your subscription. Thus, they will appear as additional costs that will be reflected in your Shopify account’s billing section.

3. Taxes

In some countries where Shopify holds business, you will be required to pay taxes on top of your subscription costs. As soon as you sign up for a subscription plan, these taxes will be reflected in your invoice. You might want to check it just to be sure how much you have to pay, and so you can factor them into your budget. There are also corresponding Goods and Services Taxes (GST), or Sales Services Taxes (SST) in some countries in Asia, Europe, and South America. If you want to check out the rates, you may refer to this list.

4. Shopify Email

All Shopify subscription plans actually include the Shopify Email feature at 10,000 emails per month. If you happen to exceed this limit, you will then be charged on a per-email basis. Each email beyond the initial plan-included 10,000 will charge you $0.001, which means you pay a dollar for every 100 additional emails.

5. Shopify Third-Party Transaction Fees

You can opt to enroll in the Shopify Payments feature and use Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments, and Paypal Express as payment providers free of charge. But should you choose to use third-party payment providers to handle your payments, Shopify has to charge you a percentage fee per transaction.

The rates are as follows:

Basic – 2.0%

Shopify – 1.0%

Advanced – 0.5%

The higher your subscription plan, the lower these Shopify Third-Party Transaction Fees get.

6. Shopify Credit Card Rates

Due to the higher risk of loss when accepting credit card payments, Shopify charges a higher percentage fee whenever a seller accepts payments via credit cards. Much like the third-party provider transaction fees, these rates go lower as your subscription plan gets higher. These rates applied to transactions vary for online and offline credit card payments.

To guide you with the Shopify Credit Card Rates,

Basic – 2.9% + $0.3 (online); 2.7% (offline)

Shopify – 2.6% + $0.3 (online); 2.5% (offline)

Advanced – 2.4% + $0.3 (online); 2.4% (offline)

7. Shopify POS Payment Fees 

Should you want to offer in-person payments to your customers, there are two options for you via Shopify Point-of-Sales (Shopify POS). You can choose between Shopify POS Lite and Shopify POS Pro. Shopify POS Lite is readily available to you when you subscribe to any Shopify plan, allowing you to manage orders, products, and customer profiles for in-person transactions. The Shopify POS is also used for in-person credit card payments.

If you want a more beefed-up version of the Shopify POS, you can subscribe to Pro for $89 per month and per location. Credit card payment rates apply on top of these costs.

How To Budget Shopify Like A Pro

There are a lot of costs associated with starting your online store. Just a few words for you before we part, do not get overwhelmed. You do not have to allot all your money to all these features at once. 

Our parting piece of advice is to take some time to thoroughly study your business, set your objectives realistically, assess your needs and from there, decide on which products and features are needed at the moment. It is easy to get lost in this sea of fees, but knowing where to go and what you need to get there will get you to steady sailing in no time. And once your hard work and your solid marketing strategy pay off, you can always choose to upgrade your plan, add more features, and expand your offerings. Take it slowly, but surely.

Conclusion

Understanding Shopify fees and pricing is crucial for businesses considering or already using the platform. Shopify offers a range of pricing plans to cater to the diverse needs and budgets of merchants. The fees encompass various aspects, including monthly subscriptions, transaction fees, and additional costs for add-ons or services. By evaluating their business requirements, sales volume, and desired features, merchants can choose a suitable pricing plan that aligns with their goals and budget. 

It is essential to consider the potential growth and scalability of the business when selecting a plan. Additionally, merchants should factor in transaction fees and any additional costs associated with integrations or customizations. By understanding the intricacies of Shopify pricing, businesses can make informed decisions and maximize the value they receive from the platform while building and growing their online stores.

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