Introduction

As an ecommerce business, you need to know what tools are available and how they can help you grow and succeed. Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms, and understanding its costs, fees, themes, and app subscriptions is essential when considering this platform for your business. In this blog post, we will provide a comprehensive reference guide to everything you need to know about these aspects of Shopify.

Although the content and examples are rooted in Shopify pricing for Hong Kong, they can be adapted to other countries or regions. Any variations in local prices will be explicitly noted.

This article has been updated as of 2023.

Overview of Shopify's Pricing: What are the different subscription options?

Shopify offers five different subscription plans to suit businesses of all shapes and sizes.

The "Shopify Starter" plan is the most affordable option at $5 per month. It's perfect for those who want to sell their products through social media or messaging apps without needing to maintain an online store.

The "Basic Shopify" plan costs $33 per month (or $25 if billed annually), which comes with an online store, blog, unlimited products, inventory management tools and basic reports; up to 2 staff accounts included.

The "Shopify" plan costs $92 per month (or $69 if billed annually) and provides up to 5 staff accounts so that you can easily manage your store, as well as additional orders, sales, profit and customer reports.

Advanced Shopify costs $399/month (or $299 if billed annually) and comes with up to 15 staff accounts along with the most comprehensive suite of reports, allowing you to automate the collection of duties and import taxes for customers and set product prices based on country or region.

Finally there's Shopify Plus which is tailored towards high volume sales or enterprise level organizations. It includes 24/7 email and phone support, a dedicated success manager and full customization capabilities; starting at $2000/month.  For full details of the comparison of each Shopify Plan, you can read further from Shopify: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/plans-features

You can begin with the "Basic Shopify" plan – either $33 per month or $25 when paid annually. As your business grows, it's worth considering upgrading to one of their higher plans as soon as you can afford it.  Each of these offers better tools and support to help boost your chances of success.

Transaction Fees: How much will you be charged when you accept payments?

When you accept payments in Hong Kong, the transaction fees vary depending on the plan you choose. For those using Shopify Payments, the Basic Shopify Plan charges 3.3% + HK$2.35 per transaction, while the Shopify Plan and Advanced Shopify Plan charge 3.2% + HK$2.35 and 3.1% + HK$2.35 respectively. If you use a third-party payment gateway such as PayPal, then there is an additional fee of 2%, 1%, or 0.5%, depending on your plan.

When you use Shopify Payments to accept payments, the transaction fees are:

• Basic Shopify Plan: 3.3% + HK$2.35
• Shopify Plan: 3.2% + HK$2.35
• Advanced Shopify Plan: 3.1% + HK$2.35

However, if you use another payment gateway (such as PayPal), Shopify has a 3rd party fees on transactions not processed through Shopify Payments. The fees for this are:

• Basic Shopify Plan: 2.0%
• Shopify Plan: 1.0%
• Advanced Shopify Plan: 0.5%
• Shopify Plus: 0.15%

Foreign Exchange Fees: How do they affect international transactions?

When making international transactions, currency exchange fees can have an impact on the amount you receive from a payout. The currency conversion rate is the market rate at which one currency is exchanged for another and usually does not include any markup – e.g., a conversion rate of USD/EUR 0.8788 means that $1 USD is exchanged for €0.87 EUR.

Shopify charges a currency conversion fee when payment is captured; this fee varies by country, but in the US it’s 1.5%, while in all other countries and regions with Shopify Payments, it’s 2%. This fee will not be borne by your customer - instead, you must either pay for it or set the manual currency exchange rate higher to cover these costs.

Cost of Shopify themes and apps

Shopify offers a wide range of themes for your ecommerce store. 11 free themes are available, along with 108 paid themes that range from $180 - $350. It's only necessary to purchase a theme once, and all future updates are then included free of charge. You can buy a theme through the Shopify Theme Store or any open market such as Envato; however, keep in mind that third-party themes may be less expensive but will not have been vetted nor code reviewed by Shopify, so it's best to stick to the official store if you wish to receive the best level of support from Shopify team.

Shopify apps are designed to provide additional features and functionality for your store; these apps may be published either by Shopify itself or by third-party developers. Apps published by Shopify itself tend to be free of charge and offer basic features, while those from third-party developers come with more options but will cost between a few dollars up to thousands per month depending on the scope of their features and how often they're used.

Get Started with Shopify

This article offers a thorough overview of costs associated with using Shopify for your business. It's cost-effective and a great way to build an ecommerce business, but if you have any questions before committing to Shopify, don't hesitate to reach out for a consultation.