How Much Does It Cost to Start a Shopify Store?

One of the fast-growing ecommerce platforms that offer businesses the opportunity to set up an ecommerce store at affordable rates. Many businesses start with a shoestring budget and with little more than a dream. Thus with Shopify, businesses can get an opportunity to acquire required features they need at minimum fees, and the basic plan starts from $39 USD/mo. 

When opting for the Shopify plan for the business, the key is finding the optimal plan based on the sales and transaction number. In this blog, we cover Shopify pricing plans and their features. But more importantly, it details how much Shopify truly costs—including setup, add-on, and recurring fees you may incur managing a Shopify store.

How Much Does a Shopify Store Cost to Launch and Maintain?

There’s no specific amount that you can pay to operate your Shopify store. Let’s elaborate on it. 

How much does it cost to have a shopify store? The cost of developing a Shopify store depends on the type of business and niche. However, an estimated cost starts from $2,000. 

Basic Shopify pricing plans charge $29 per month, Intermediate costs $79 per month, and Advanced one charges $299 per month (we will discuss each plan in detail later in this post). 

The cost for Shopify store maintenance relies on the plan you choose and the add-ons you opt for. 

The estimated launch and maintenance cost for:

• Basic Shopify is around $500
• Shopify Lite is around $270

Regular maintenance of the Shopify website and store is essential for keeping your business up and running. 

Also, each plan decides the added cost to operate your online store; if you choose the basic plan, it takes a 2% transaction fee, while the other charges a 1% amount. 

The best part is that Shopify offers a 3-day trial with no credit card required. You can opt for this and plan accordingly which plan will suit you the best per your business size, stage, and other aspects.

Subscription Plans of Shopify to Consider for Your Business

1. Basic Shopify Plan

The basic shopify plan is the best option for businesses who are just starting out, as it is the cheapest option available in the landscape of shopify. The monthly subscription fee is $29. 

However, it comes with the highest processing fees of 2.9%+30 cents per transaction. As the plan is very affordable, it does not include sophisticated features like reports, gift cards, and abandoned card recovery. Even then, the basic Shopify plan is still a great place to start; the businesses that begin to grow can eventually change the plan and move to the higher one. 

Subscription Fees: $29

Credit Card Online Fees: 2.9%+30 cents/ transaction

2. Shopify Plan

The shopify plan works best for ecommerce businesses looking to scale up their operations and is growing, as it includes gift cards, reports, and abandoned cart recovery. These features help businesses to sell more with the usage of gift cards while also offering them the opportunity to recover lost revenue through abandoned cart recovery. With the usage of reports, they can have valuable insights into the purchasing habits of customers to help you make better business decisions. 

$79 subscription fees are paid for this plan. The businesses enjoy saving on credit card rates with lower processing fees of 2.6%+ 30 cents per transaction. 

Subscription Fees: $79

Credit Card Online Fees: 2.6%+ 30 cents/ transaction

3. Advanced Shopify Plan

If you are going for the Advanced Shopify plan, there’s a high chance your business has already gained good growth in the market. With the help of an advanced report builder, you can create custom reports that can filter by dimensions to show you the biggest opportunities for your business when looking to scale up your business.

There is also real-time carrier shipping information that ensures you offer customers carrier-based shipping prices at the checkout. This can help prevent cart abandonment. Pricing of this is $299 monthly and 2.4%+30 cents per transaction. 

Subscription Fees: $299/month

Credit Card Online Fees: 2.4%+30 cents/ transaction

4. Shopify Starter Plan 

This is a plan where the merchants want to sell to their customers through social media posts or messages. Starter plans are simplified online stores that let you create product links to share. This plan starts at $5 per month, and transaction fees is 5% when using shopify payment.

Shopify Lite & Shopify Plus- More Plans to Know About! 

Apart from these three, there are two other pricing plans that stand out from the rest. These are shopify plus and shopify lite. 

1. Shopify Plus 

Shopify Plus plan is designed for large-scale ecommerce enterprises. It has all the features that are available in the advanced plan, plus additional features such as automation that saves you lots of time. There are also features like third-party integrations, support for currencies, and advanced security. 

On this platform, the business can process 10,000 orders in 1 minute and manage multiple stores from one spot. with the help of AI, you can customize your shipping process and even the user experience of the store. It costs at least $2000 and increases based on the specification. 

2. Shopify Lite 

The shopify lite plan is not available for new merchants; a business that wants to switch to any other then they can revert back to the shopify lite plan. It is for anyone who wants to sell the products without maintaining an online store. Additionally, they can embed a buy button on your personal website or blog with a plan.

The Lite plan comes with standard features such as an analytics page, buy button sales channels and finance reports. It did not contain an online store sales channel. 

Which Shopify Pricing Plan Is Best For My Business?

You should connect to a Shopify Consulting company to get the right answer to this question. 

However, you can use the basic Shopify plan if you own an established business with a large inventory. The Shopify and Advanced Shopify plans best suit high-volume online stores with many active customers. 

Let’s discuss this deeper. 

1. Starter Plan

If you want a simple store in minutes, start selling your products by sharing links via social media, email, WhatsApp, or email. 

2. Basic Plan 

You can pick this plan to create a professional e-commerce website. Besides, this pricing plan includes value-added features, such as theme editing, and allows adding many extra store pages.

3. Shopify Plan

If your online store is already catching up with boosted sales and wants to expand with lower credit card rates, easy access to professional reports, and support of around five staff accounts, you can choose this plan. 

4. Advanced Plan

If your business already makes $1+ million in sales yearly and needs robust features, this plan would be best for you. It includes advanced features, such as custom pricing by market, advanced report builders, and more. 

5. Shopify Plus Plan

This plan is best for you if you already run an enterprise-level business. This custom plan offers almost everything that comes with the Advanced plan with extra features, such as unlimited staff accounts, high-volume APIs, and dedicated success support.

Understanding Different Shopify Costs- Monthly vs. Annual vs. Biannual 

So we have seen all the different plans rate that shopify offers to businesses. But do you know if you purchase a Shopify annual plan, biannual or three-year plan, you can get good offered discounts? 

You can get up to 10% off on the annual plan, a 25% discount on the biannual plan, and 30% on the three-year plan. This can be a good way to save costs for creating an ecommerce store on your subscriptions. It is not necessary to take the pack at the start of the subscription if you are new; you can take a monthly subscription and decide if decides to continue can switch to these long-term plans. 

What Extra Costs Does Shopify Have?

Other than the plans, there are also certain costs that are almost constant when getting your shopify store off the ground. Some of them are mentioned below- 

1. Website Building Costs 

Setting up a website with shopify costs businesses. You have to spend money on branded themes, apps, and domains. 

• Themes and Design 

When it comes to an e-commerce store, a good design is one of the key things. With Shopify, you can get themes with tools that let you customize your website style, layout, and style. In Shopify, you can select over 100 free themes or about 70 premium themes. These themes cost between $150- $350. 

• Apps 

Shopify obviously cannot give you all the business needs in one, thus requiring some add-ons and integrations. With the help of these apps, the things which Shopify cannot give can be overcome. Shopify has almost 3000 apps that can be used to enhance your store functionality. 

• Domain Name 

Shopify does not require store owners to install or host their own domains. The site includes the domain names as part of all its plans, and store owners can choose from any of the fee myshopify.com domains it offers. Or else you can choose to pay for a custom domain. This will cost around $11 per year and can go up to $81 based on the domain type. 

2. Shopify Transaction Fees 

Another category that affects your running costs is transaction fees. You are subject to pay transaction fees on every transaction made using third-party payment service providers. However, the percentage depends upon the plan that you got your subscription to. Starting with the basic plan, you will be charged 2%, 1% on standard shopify plans, and on advanced plans 0.5%. To avoid these fees, you can opt for Shopify’s own payment gateways.

3. Shopify POS Payments 

There are also two options available if you like to receive in-person payments via Point of Scales (POS).

• Shopify POS Lite 
• Shopify POS Pro 

Shopify POS Lite is available on all the plans. For the basic plan, you should pay $29/ month, for shopify, $79/month, for advanced plans, it is $299/month. It manages the customer profiles, orders, products, and orders. Here in person, credit card fees are applied to the transaction. 

You can access Shopify POS Pro on all the available plans by providing the extra cost of $89 per month and per location. But are still charged on each transaction made. 

Cost-Saving Tips – Follow the Best Practices

You can follow the below unique tips to witness Shopify as a cost-effective option for your business. 

1. Use Multiple Payment Accounts

While using Shopify, you can set up varied payment accounts to expand the processing load across various processors and gateways. 

2. Automate Repetitive Tasks

Streamlining your business operations can save effort and time and boost profitability. 

3. Diminish Shipping Cost

Explore how customers interact with every channel and plan your network of online retail stores to support their shopping preferences and behavior. 

4. Leverage Business Relationships

Startups and small businesses can opt for Shopify to experience it as a cost-effective solution. 

5. Reward Loyalty

While operating your Shopify store, you can consider a VIP program for loyal customers and make money from them. It’s best to earn a profit despite finding new customers.

6. Grow Your Email List

You can link with your website offers to grab more email signups. 

7. Cross Promote Your Brnad with Complimentary Ones

You can partner with relevant businesses on Shopify using the cross-promotion feature and let them market your products or services in exchange for marketing for them. 

8. Choosing The Right Plan And Apps

As we have discussed, you can choose the right Shopify plan for your business. Besides, you can integrate Shopify apps that suit your business and increase the functionality of your store.

How Can We Assist You in Choosing the Right Plan? 

We understand that, as a business owner, you have many important tasks to handle, and choosing the right plan can be a time-consuming process. As a Shopify development company, we at Emizen Tech can assist you in simplifying the decision by providing information and guidance and information on various factors to consider. Here are some ways we can help you, like understanding your needs, customized recommendations, cost analysis, plan comparison, user reviews and testimonials, scalability and flexibility, and we will also provide you with after-support and answer any questions you may have regarding implementation process, ensuring a smooth transition to the new plan. By utilizing our expertise and resources, we aim to make the plan selection process as efficient and convenient for you as possible.

Summarizing

Starting your business with Shopify offers an accessible and affordable option for businesses. The basic plan starts from $39 USD per month. In the blog above, we have covered different cost plans that cater to different budget ranges and help you in selecting one according to your needs and preferences. However, if you have any queries regarding plan selection, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to answer all of your questions.

Frequently Asked Questions