Shopify Fees Guide: All Cost For Operating a Shopify Store

Do you have plans to enter the eCommerce world and want to know how much it costs to launch and maintain a Shopify store? If so, this comprehensive guide about all Shopify fees is specifically for you.

For this article, BSS Commerce Shopify would like to explore a complex maze that represents Shopify fees structure and understand what factors mainly affect the total costs. We will move through everything about Shopify fees from the beginning costs of choosing pricing plans and other add-ons.

Therefore, if you are keen to comprehend the financial aspect of doing business in Shopify, let’s dive right in!

Shopify Pricing Plans

The expenses associated with the pricing plan you subscribe to. Shopify provides a selection of 3 different pricing plans, namely:

• Basic Shopify
• Shopify
• Advanced Shopify

Before committing to any of these plans, you’re afforded a valuable grace period: a 3-day trial period. This trial period is an opportunity for you to check out the platform’s features, use its myriad of tools, and essentially decide which pricing package is ideal for your specific business purposes.

Now, the pivotal question arises: Which of these Shopify pricing plans can suit your particular business and how do you come into it? As a way forward, we need to look into all Shopify packages giving their special attributes. Here, it presents a broad picture that equips you to make a shrewd decision that fits smoothly into the direction of your business.

Basic Shopify

The Basic Shopify plan, is priced at $25 a month. It has several functionalities for small business owners.

One of its remarkable features is the provision of an eCommerce website that is brandable. You’ll also have access to essential tools required to manage your online store effectively, including:

• A customizable online store
• 2 staff accounts
• 24/7 customer support
• Support for various sales channels
• Allow unlimited numbers of product listings.

In addition, it contains abandoned cart recovery emails, discount codes, manual order creation, as well as a free SSL certificate under the Basic Shopify plan. Following this plan, administration of a land-based shop is easy regardless of how many shops exist.

However, the Basic plan has only limited features, for instance, no performance reports. However, it provides sufficient space for developments thereby it is suitable for startups.

If you are starting your new e-commerce with a small budget, the basic Shopify plan is just made for you.

Shopify

The Shopify plan, priced at $65 per month, is the most popular choice, albeit a significant step up from the $25 Basic Shopify plan. However, it includes nearly all of Shopify’s features.

Businesses requiring more substantial resources can opt for the standard Shopify plan.

This plan encompasses all the features in the Basic Shopify Plan and more:

• From 2 to 5 staff logins.
• Managing inventory across 5 locations.
• Easy monitoring of sales performance and visitor behavior with a view to making proper decisions.
• Also provides add-on services such as Shopify POS and an effective abandoned carts recovery feature.

Many Shopify store owners using the standard Shopify plan find the abandoned cart recovery feature very appealing as it can greatly increase sales and conversions, capturing those customers that would otherwise have been lost for good. Automated Email follow-ups on abandoned shopping carts allow you to reach buyers who place an item into their shopping bag only to fail to complete the purchase at checkout.

The standard Shopify plan is an excellent choice for expanding businesses seeking rapid growth.

Advanced Shopify

The Advanced Shopify plan costs $399 a month and targets big enterprise e-commerce companies handling huge inventory.

It encompasses all the components of the Basic and Shopify packages and hence offers unmatched functionality. Advanced Shopify offers unlimited features, including:

• Allows up to 15 staff accounts
• 8 location inventory allocation.
• Storage of products, listings, media posting, and much more.
• Abandoned cart recovery emails

The plan might be expensive but the advanced features and lower charges will soon help cover the expenses. Particularly, it is a great fit for large companies looking to boost order delivery in stores. For companies generating more than $10,000 per month, it is advisable.

Apart from the primary three pricing plans, Shopify presents 3 unique pricing alternatives that differentiate it. They include Shopify Starter, Shopify Retail, and Shopify Plus.

Shopify Starter

For someone starting in e-commerce, Shopify’s Starter plan is affordable, costing only $5 USD for the first 3 months. With this plan, casual sellers can have cost-effective and strategic selling options be it for pop-up markets or online outlets.

This plan provides essential features for smooth selling, including:

• 1 admin account
• 1 POS login
• A straightforward online store setup
• A single location, in-person transaction ability with POS Lite feature.

Shopify Starter meets an economical requirement for entry-level e-commerce by individuals and small businesses. And it is a wonderful option when one has just begun street selling and wants to make a website.

Shopify Retail

For retailers looking for an all-in-one solution, the Shopify Retail plan is designed specifically for this purpose. Beginning with the first three months at only $89/month, this is an economical means of improving in-store and online sales. Use this plan as your ideal guide to help you standardize staff management, stock control, and interactions with customers.

The Shopify Retail Plan stands out with its array of essential features:

• 2 admin accounts at your disposal,
• Unlimited POS logins
• Making a simple online shop.

It is best suited for retailers who seek to exploit the in-store as well as online trade. They are a great choice for people who require strong employee management, inventory control, and engagement with customers.

Shopify Plus

When you need a special e-commerce platform for big companies and want more than the ready-made packages offered by other providers, simply opt for our best option – Shopify Plus. Shopify Plus pricing begins at $2,000/month and can be adjusted for individual needs.

• Its advanced features make it stand out among others.
• Automation
• Robust security
• Multi-currency support
• Seamless third-party software integration.
• Personalized support services
• Processing 10,000 orders per minute adds to efficiency.

There are multiple benefits of using Shopify Plus in cases where several shops need to be centrally managed and artificial intelligence features will be used for higher user experience. With Shopify Plus being the ultimate solution for efficient scaling for global enterprise e-commerce – it has no comparison anywhere in this aspect!

If you plan to open an eCommerce store with Shopify Plus and wonder how much will it cost for all, this tool will help you quickly – Shopify Plus Store Development Cost Calculator.

🎁 View all about Shopify Pricing Plans

Shopify Merchant Fees

Being in the same league as PayPal, Shopify has a captivating mechanism of its payment gateway that allows internal processing of payments. The difference lies in Shopify but brings about possible surcharges on the platform termed as extra fees.

Shopify imposes two basic charges named the Shopify merchant fees, which include transaction fees and credit card charges. However, you will have to pay whichever one applies to your decision. One has to pay transaction fees in case of using a non-Shopify payment gateway but in case of utilizing the Shopify gateway, one incurs Credit Card fees. Both these charges are proportionate to the volume of sales that you generate via your website.

Shopify Transaction Fees

Here transaction fees are applicable for organizations that do not prefer the native payment system of the platform called the Shopify Payments. Such fees are necessary for bearing costs concerning the incorporation and maintenance of third-party payment providers in the Shopify platform. It supports continuous development and maintenance towards an always enjoyable seamless and secured payment.

It’s important to note that Shopify transaction fees vary by subscription plan:

• Basic: 2%
• Shopify: 1%
• Advanced: 0.5%
• Shopify Plus: 0.15–0.30%

Nevertheless, these fees do not apply to in-person POS orders or manual transactions. The rationale behind this exception is driven by the fact that electronic commerce transactions involve unique payment dynamics in contrast to in-store purchases; hence, making them less expensive and conducive.

Shopify Credit Card Fees

Every time you make a sale through a credit card, thereby adding additional expenses to your operations, shopify charges a fee. Merchants need also to take into account as risks and fees of credit card payments by considering them in overall pricing and profitability.

Such variable rates account for varied needs and risk profiles related to different types of merchant activities so as to offer a flexible payment structure to merchants at different levels of their eCommerce growth path on Shopify.

• Basic: 2.9% + $0.30 online and 2.7% in person
• Shopify: 2.6% + $0.30 online and 2.5% in person
• Advanced: 2.4% + $0.30 online and 2.4% in person
• Shopify Plus: 2.15% + $0.30 online and 2.15% in person

Additional Shopify Fees

There still exist some fixed costs as you venture into the launch of your Shopify store. Here are a few of these essential costs:

Shopify Website Fees

There are costs associated with setting up a Shopify website. Costs are usually associated with domains, themes, and apps.

• Domain name: Using Shopify means that store owners never have to handle their own domain installation and hosting. The platform provides its plans with this platform which comprises some free myshopify.com domains that are available to the sellers. Other than that, people could buy a customized domain at approximately around eleven dollars annually depending on the particular type of domain. Since you already have this address in your account, it would be added to your store for free of cost if linked to your Shopify store.
• Theme: Shopify Theme Store has more than 100 Shopify themes that are available for free or at a charge which makes it possible for traders to personalize how the store looks according to their products and brand. On this point, free themes include essential functions that allow you to set up an online shop. Paid themes provide greater design freedom and advanced capabilities allowing more control over the appearance of the store and its performance. Installation of premium themes usually varies from $150 to $350.

✅ Discover: 15+ Best Free Shopify Themes

✅ 15+ Best Premium Shopify Themes for Professional Stores

Shopify POS Payment

Businesses need to be aware of the costing structure that will determine the price to make the sales using Shopify online or in traditional stores. These include various monthly subscription plan options, each with basic but necessary POS functions which would come in handy especially when an entity occasionally engages in face-to-face transactions. Such attributes are flexible as they effectively make it possible for enterprises to shift from an internet-selling environment to a physical market.

Shopify introduced its Shopify POS Pro package for brands with physical retail outlets for $89 per month per location with an additional ten dollars discount whenever paying on an annual basis which makes it only $79 per month. It comprises an entire feature set, which caters to all aspects of the store, including sales, stock control, CRM, and multi-channel sales integration among others. This enables retailers to deliver to their customers a seamless shopping experience of purchasing both online and physical stores.

Third-Party Apps

The platform’s potential is so huge that many businesses prefer to combine multiple functionalities offered on over 8, 000 Shopify App Store applications for ultimate optimization. This large range comprises applications where some are free while others cost once and come as additions to the regular Shopify billing.

They can also opt for creating custom applications for those who seek targeted solutions specifically compatible with their specific business requirements. Through this, businesses can incorporate very specific elements in their Shopify admin. Nevertheless, developing such specialized applications might require an investment in the range of $5,000-$20,000, sometimes more. This enables an enterprise to customize its Shopify experience, but at a price – that of app development.

Tips For Saving Shopify Fees

Choosing the Right Plan

Upgrading your Shopify plan is a straightforward way of reducing your costs by leveraging cost savings from payment processing.

Over the long term, a choice of getting better packages like Advanced Shopify would arguably be more plausible as compared to maintaining the Basic Shopify plan. Features such as pro reports, and script editor come with the Advanced Shopify plan. Keeping this in mind should guide one’s decision, which one may choose to take as related to their specific business needs. Nevertheless, on decreasing costs of processing the decision should be made; the move as such.

Nevertheless, one should bear in mind that while choosing a low processing rate minimizes your monthly costs, you have to pay more for a monthly subscription, whose rate stays constant. However, with that said, if you are conducting transactions that total over $2000 per month; the extra monthly fee will not be of much significance when compared to the possible savings from processing fees.

Here is a comparison table of Shopify pricing plans to help you make the right choice:

Utilize Shopify Payments

For starters, Shopify Payments is the in-house payment processing service for Shopify with some significant benefits. Its main advantage is that it usually involves cheaper processing fees compared to online payment gateways of third parties. Using Shopify Payments as your main payment processing solution will lead to a significant reduction in processing costs.

In addition, it perfectly integrates with your Shopify store and ensures clients have an easy, safe check-out through shopping at your store. Shopify Payments also makes sales and financial reconciliation for an e-commerce business easy to integrate with business management.

Regularly Review Expenses

It is crucial for running efficient, lean, and mean e-commerce operations to undertake periodic expense audits. The components include fees such as subscription costs, app fees, transaction fees and more. Auditing regularly will alert you on how expenses can be slashed without compromising the quality of services and products.

You can evaluate whether certain applications are essential, dropping those that appear redundant with no clear value added. You will also be able to optimize spending on advertising and marketing to ensure that they flow towards the best channels and tactics at hand; hence using the available funds most efficiently.

Consider Pausing Your Store

Holding on to your Shopify store is a budget saver if you decide to scale down activities at some point. Temporarily shutting down your store during off-seasons or when stock-up inventory becomes necessary provides an advantage in flexibility. This may entail some charges but it is comparatively less expensive than having an operating shop at all times that requires regular monthly dues.

You can keep your online presence but avoid the expensive costs of running an online store. In addition, it allows for better allocation of your resources during off-peak season, enabling a more sustainable budget.

By implementing these strategies, you can not only save on Shopify fees but also optimize your e-commerce business’s overall financial health and profitability. These practices help you strike a balance between cost efficiency and effective operations in the competitive online marketplace.

The Final Words

In conclusion, understanding all Shopify fees for operating a Shopify store is pivotal for e-commerce entrepreneurs. Whether you’re just starting your online business or looking to fine-tune your existing operation, the right pricing plan and cost-saving strategies can make a significant difference in your overall profitability.

As the e-commerce landscape continues to evolve, staying informed about the latest pricing updates and cost-saving techniques will be key to thriving in this competitive environment. By leveraging the knowledge and resources available, you can make well-informed decisions and keep your Shopify store running smoothly while optimizing your costs.

So, for more in-depth insights, don’t forget to explore the wealth of information on the BSS Commerce Shopify, helping you navigate the ever-changing world of e-commerce with confidence and success.