Which plan to choose in Shopify?

jaki-plan-shopify-wybrac

03/01/2024

16:00 min

Bartosz Lewandowski

Which plan to choose in Shopify?

03/01/2024

16:00 min

Bartosz Lewandowski

jaki-plan-shopify-wybrac

Sure, here's the translation of the markdown content into English:

Table of Contents:

  1. Features available in all plans
  2. Shopify starter
  3. Shopify Basic
  4. Shopify
  5. Shopify Advanced
  6. Shopify Plus
  7. Comparison of All Plans
  8. Summary and FAQ

Understanding the different plans offered by Shopify is crucial for anyone considering creating an online store and entering the world of e-commerce or planning to grow their existing online store. Choosing the right plan not only affects initial costs but also the long-term success and scalability of the business.

Is it better to start with a basic plan and gradually expand, or invest in more advanced options right away? This article aims to clear up any doubts and help make an informed decision that best suits individual needs and business goals.

Let's take a closer look at the available Shopify plans, their features, pricing, and how they differ from each other to facilitate the choice of the optimal solution.

Features available in all plans

All plans offered by Shopify, which can be found on the pricing and plans page, include a range of features that make running an online store easier. Here is an overview of these features:

Unlimited products

The ability to offer any number of products in the store. Whether you're selling a few specialized items or thousands of diverse goods, Shopify places no restrictions on the number of products in your offering.

Unlimited bandwidth

No charges for bandwidth; regardless of how many people visit your store or the amount of data transferred on your site (including product images), Shopify does not charge additional fees.

Brand customization

Shopify offers tools to create a consistent brand image, including the ability to add a logo, apply personalized color schemes, and implement your own tagline. This allows you to fully control how your brand is presented to customers.

Fraud risk analysis

For Shopify Payments users, a built-in fraud analysis feature is available. The system automatically identifies and flags orders that may be suspicious, helping to avoid fraudulent transactions and associated costs.

Manual order creation

The ability to manually enter orders into the system through the Shopify admin panel. This useful tool allows for adding orders generated outside the standard shopping process, such as by phone or email.

Discount codes

The feature allows the creation and management of discount codes (except for the Shopify Starter plan), which can attract new customers and increase the loyalty of existing ones. These codes can be applied to specific products, categories, or the entire assortment.

Custom pricing by market

You can set different prices for different markets, which is particularly useful in international trade. This allows you to adjust prices to the purchasing power in different countries and facilitates sales in local currencies.

Abandoned cart recovery

This feature (except for the Shopify Starter plan) allows sending automatic emails to customers who added products to their cart but did not complete the purchase. It is an effective way to increase conversions and reduce the number of abandoned carts.

Employee accounts

The ability to create employee accounts with different levels of access to the admin panel. This allows task delegation and tracking of employee activities while maintaining control over sensitive data. The number of available employee accounts depends on the chosen plan.

Store analytics

Access to an analytics page containing key metrics about the store's operations, including sales data, orders, and website traffic.

Financial reports

The ability to view and analyze important financial data, which allows for better cash flow management, understanding sales trends, and monitoring store performance.

Customer support

Access to Shopify technical support around the clock, seven days a week. Assistance is available through chat with an assistant in the Shopify Help Center, providing quick and effective help in solving problems and answering questions.

Shopify Starter

The Shopify Starter plan is an option for those who want to sell products online without the need for a full-fledged online store. It is particularly useful for those who want to add e-commerce functionality to an existing website or blog, as well as for direct sales via social media.

Distinctive features of the Shopify Starter plan

Subscription price: It is the most affordable Shopify plan, with a monthly subscription set at $5. This is a significant reduction compared to the previous version of the plan, known as Shopify Lite, which cost $9 per month.

Transaction fees: The plan charges a transaction fee of 5% for each sale made through the Shopify payment system. This is a higher rate compared to other Shopify plans, which offer lower credit card transaction fees.

Focus on social media: The Starter plan is ideal for those who want to sell products directly through social media, such as Instagram or Facebook. It allows adding product links and managing them through the Shopify platform.

Sales tools: The plan includes tools such as Linkpop, which help create shortened product links and monetize them, and Shopify Inbox for managing customer communication.

Order management: The plan allows for order management and fulfillment, although it does not offer advanced automation features available in higher plans.

Limited features: Compared to other Shopify plans, Starter does not offer some features such as abandoned cart recovery, discount codes, or custom domain support.

Who is Shopify Starter for?

The Shopify Starter plan is particularly recommended for:

  1. Content creators and bloggers who want to sell products related to their activities.
  2. Individuals who primarily sell through social media.
  3. Small business owners who want to add e-commerce functionality to an existing website without creating a full online store.

Shopify Basic

The Shopify Basic plan, costing $39 per month, is recommended for new sellers on Shopify. It is the first of three main Shopify plans and provides full e-commerce functionality, allowing for the creation of a comprehensive online store.

Key features of the Shopify Basic plan

Online store: This plan allows for the creation of a full-scale online store with an unlimited number of products. It offers access to over 150 themes available in the Shopify theme store, including 11 free ones.

Blog: Shopify Basic also enables the launch of an e-commerce blog, allowing for greater customer engagement and building a community around the brand.

Security: The plan includes SSL certificates, ensuring the security of customer data and transactions.

Reports: The Basic plan provides basic financial and analytical reports, allowing for tracking store performance.

International trade: This plan offers access to Shopify Markets, enabling sales in multiple currencies and languages, paving the way for global expansion.

Transaction fees

Using Shopify Payments: The transaction fee is 2.9% + 30 cents per sale. By using Shopify Payments, you avoid additional transaction fees that may be charged by external payment gateway providers.

Without Shopify Payments (using external payment gateway providers): The Basic plan charges an additional transaction fee of 2%. This is in addition to transaction fees charged by the chosen payment gateway provider.

Who is the Shopify Basic Plan for?

The Basic plan is suitable for Shopify stores that:

  1. Have annual revenues of approximately 240,000 PLN.
  2. Have only 2 team members with access to the store.
  3. Do not require advanced reporting.
  4. Do not have a large base of international customers.

Shopify

The Shopify plan is designed for growing businesses that need more advanced features than those offered in the Basic Shopify plan. It is an ideal solution for those seeking greater flexibility and deeper analysis of their e-commerce operations.

Main features of the Shopify plan

Competitive transaction fees: The Shopify plan offers lower credit card transaction fees and other transaction fees compared to the Basic plan, which can be beneficial for businesses with larger sales volumes.

More employee accounts: The Shopify plan provides access to up to five employee accounts, allowing for better store management and task delegation.

Advanced reports: This plan offers access to advanced reports that help analyze business performance.

International trade: The Shopify plan supports international business development through the Shopify Markets tool, which facilitates cross-border sales management and allows configuring specific settings for each international market.

Who is the Shopify Plan for?

The Shopify plan is intended for:

  1. Companies with a medium level of sales that require lower transaction fees.
  2. Organizations that need more employee accounts for effective store management.
  3. Annual revenues are in the range of 1,200,000 PLN - 9,600,000 PLN.

It is therefore suitable for companies that have outgrown the Basic plan and are looking for more advanced management, analysis, and development options. With lower transaction fees and advanced reporting tools, this plan allows for more efficient management of a growing e-commerce business.

Shopify Advanced

The Shopify Advanced plan is aimed at larger companies and enterprises that need more advanced features and capabilities than those offered in the Shopify plan. It is an ideal solution for those who want to take advantage of lower transaction fees, better reporting capabilities, and more employee accounts.

Basic information about the Shopify Advanced plan

Price: The Shopify Advanced plan costs $399 per month. There is a discount available for annual payment, reducing the monthly cost to $299.

Transaction fees: In the Advanced plan, transaction fees are 2.4% + 30 cents for each online transaction and 2.4% + 0 cents for in-person transactions. By using Shopify Payments, you can avoid additional fees for using external payment gateway providers.

Reporting: The plan offers advanced reporting capabilities, allowing for customization and creating unique reports from scratch. Tools for analyzing products, finances, and customer behavior are also available.

Employee accounts: The plan allows for adding up to 15 employee accounts, which is a significant increase compared to the Shopify plan.

Shipping discounts: The plan offers Shopify shipping discount calculations and the ability to integrate with external services for calculating shipping rates.

Who is the Shopify Advanced plan for?

The Shopify Advanced plan is the best choice for:

  1. Companies generating significant revenues, in the range of 9,600,000 PLN to 18,000,000 PLN annually.
  2. Enterprises requiring advanced reporting and analytical tools.
  3. Organizations needing more employee accounts for store management.

Shopify Advanced is a plan for those who need more than a basic online store. It offers advanced tools and features that are key to scaling large e-commerce enterprises. This includes both better financial conditions and greater control over store operations. For companies achieving significant revenues and needing deep data analysis, the Advanced plan is the optimal choice.

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is an e-commerce solution designed for large enterprises and rapidly growing companies that need more advanced features and greater scalability than standard Shopify plans. It is a platform intended for businesses with a large scale of operation, providing a wide range of tools and customization options to meet specific business needs.

Key features of Shopify Plus

Organization settings: Allows for central management of all stores in the organization, enabling easy management of billing, stores, users, and analytics from one place.

Specialized apps and channels: Access to advanced apps and sales channels available exclusively for Shopify Plus users, such as B2B, wholesale sales channel, Launchpad, Bulk Account Inviter, ShopifyQL Notebooks.

Customizable checkout page: Customizing the checkout process by editing the checkout.liquid file, increasing control over branding and the shopping process. It is worth noting that this functionality will be changed to Checkout Extensibility in 2024.

Increased API capabilities: Shopify Plus offers extended API capabilities, including additional calls and increased API rate limits for integration with custom apps.

Unlimited employee accounts: Allows for creating an unlimited number of employee accounts, which is particularly useful for growing companies.

Permissions: Additional permission settings for staff, providing greater control over actions in the Shopify admin panel.

Additional store instances: Support for additional expansion stores and an unlimited number of development stores for internationalization and different locations.

Shopify Plus Partner Program: Access to a network of partners offering services supporting business development.

Templates: The ability to add up to 100 templates, allowing for testing new layouts and seasonal template versions.

Shopify POS Pro: Inclusion of up to 20 POS Pro locations within the Shopify Plus plan, which is important for companies with physical retail locations.

Who is Shopify Plus for?

Shopify Plus is particularly suitable for:

  1. Companies with annual revenues exceeding 4,500,000 USD.
  2. Businesses requiring advanced features and individual support.
  3. Enterprises seeking scalable solutions and custom integrations.

Shopify Plus offers a rich set of tools and features essential for large, dynamically growing e-commerce enterprises. With its help, companies can easily manage large sales volumes, take advantage of advanced analysis and reporting features, and customize their stores to meet unique business requirements. Support for international sales makes it an attractive option for companies with a global reach.

Summary and FAQ

Choosing the right Shopify plan is crucial for the success and scalability of an e-commerce business. Shopify offers a variety of plans that differ in features, pricing, and purpose, allowing for customization to individual needs and business goals.

All Shopify plans include basic features necessary for running an online store, such as unlimited products, no bandwidth fees, brand customization tools, fraud risk analysis, manual order creation, discount codes (except for the Starter plan), custom pricing by market, abandoned cart recovery (except for the Starter plan), employee accounts, and store analytics and financial reports.

Shopify Starter: The cheapest plan, ideal for selling through social media or adding e-commerce functionality to an existing website. It is limited to basic sales and order management tools, with higher transaction fees.

Shopify Basic: The first of the main plans, offering full e-commerce functionality with the ability to create an online store, blog, SSL security, basic reports, and support for international trade. It is suitable for new stores with annual revenues of about 60,000 USD.

Shopify: A plan for growing businesses, with lower transaction fees, more employee accounts, and advanced reports. Ideal for stores with annual revenues in the range of 300,000 to 2,400,000 USD.

Shopify Advanced: For larger companies and enterprises with annual revenues from 2,400,000 to 4,500,000 USD. It offers the lowest transaction fees, advanced reporting capabilities, more employee accounts, and shipping discounts.

Shopify Plus: The most advanced plan for large enterprises and rapidly growing companies with annual revenues exceeding 4,500,000 USD. It provides extended API capabilities, unlimited employee accounts, advanced permission settings, additional store instances, exclusive apps, and support for international sales.

In summary, the choice of a Shopify plan should be tailored to the size of the company, the needed features, budget, and development plans. For small business owners and social media sales, the Starter or Basic plan will be best, medium-sized companies may choose the Shopify plan, and large enterprises and those with significant revenues will lean towards the Advanced or Plus plans.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Can I change my Shopify plan after activation? Yes, you can change your plan at any time in Shopify. The process is simple and can be done directly from the store's admin panel.

2. Does the Shopify Starter plan allow for a full-fledged online store? No, the Shopify Starter plan is mainly intended for sales through social media and on existing websites, it does not allow for creating an independent online store.

3. Do all Shopify plans include customer support? Yes, all Shopify plans offer 24/7 customer support via chat, email, or phone.

4. What are the main differences between the Shopify and Shopify Advanced plans? The main differences are lower transaction fees, advanced reporting capabilities, more employee accounts, and better conditions for international trade in the Shopify Advanced plan.

5. Can I sell digital products on Shopify? Yes, all Shopify plans allow for the sale of digital products.

6. Is the Shopify Plus plan suitable for small businesses? The Shopify Plus plan is mainly intended for large enterprises and rapidly growing companies due to its advanced features and higher cost.

7. Does Shopify offer a trial period? Yes, Shopify usually offers a free trial period, allowing you to try out the platform before deciding on a subscription.

8. What are the transaction fees in Shopify? Transaction fees vary depending on the plan. They are lower in more expensive plans and can be further reduced by using Shopify Payments.

9. Can I run multiple stores on one Shopify account? Yes, but only in the Shopify Plus plan, which allows for managing multiple stores from one account.

10. Do Shopify plans include hosting and a domain name? Yes, all Shopify plans include hosting. A domain name can be purchased through Shopify or an existing one can be connected.

Bartosz Lewandowski

Bartosz Lewandowski

CEO

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