Question 1

Is Shopify free to use?

Accepted Answer

Shopify offers a 14-day free trial but no free plan.

Question 2

How expensive is Shopify?

Accepted Answer

Shopify's cheapest plan, Basic, starts from $29 per month. This plan includes your domain and all of Shopify's excellent accounting, tax, and inventory tools. In fact, it's easier to say what you don't get with the Basic plan rather than list everything you do. You won't be able to issue gift cards for your store and it doesn't include hardware peripheral support — this is essential if you want to run a bricks-and-mortar store as well as a website. You'll also find that credit card processing rates are slightly more expensive than on Shopify's other plans. The next plan up is simply called Shopify. It costs $79 per month, which might seem like a big jump but you're getting a lot more bang for your buck. You get access to gift cards and hardware peripheral support — both of which could easily cover the $50 per month price bump. It's important to remember when choosing an ecommerce platform that you will be making money as a result of using the service so it pays to think of Shopify and its rivals as overhead business costs rather than unecessary services. Shopify's final plan is Shopify Advanced and it costs $299 per month. Again, this is a big jump from the $79 per month Shopify plan. However, if you're investing in this plan its likely that your business will have several employees — you really don't need it if you're just starting out. You'll be able to set up 15 staff accounts and you'll get access to an advanced report building tool which can be useful for optimizing sales performance. There's also the Shopify Lite plan which costs $9 per month. This restricts you to selling on Facebook and using Facebook Messenger to communicate with customers. There's also the Shopify Plus plan — a bespoke pricing tier for large, enterprise level businesses. You'll have to go to Shopify directly for a quote.

Question 3

Does Shopify charge a transaction fee?

Accepted Answer

The first thing to know about Shopify's transaction fees is that you will be charged unless you use its Shopify Payments processing system. Shopify Payments does away with the need to set up a third-party payment provider or a merchant account.

If you don't choose to use Shopify Payments, you'll have to set-up with a third-party payment provider. This third-party company will charge Shopify a fee for managing payments, and Shopify will pass this cost onto you — fees vary by payment provider so make sure you size-up your options before committing.

Question 4

Does Shopify pay instantly?

Accepted Answer

Nope, and you'll be hard-pressed to find an ecommerce platform that does. There are simply too many steps for the process of selling, collecting the payment, processing the payment, etc. to be completed in one business day. If you're using Shopify Payments, the time it takes for you to get paid varies from country-to-country. If you're in the US or Australia, you'll get paid in two business days. If you're in other countries you might paid within three to four days. You can find out how long it'll take you here. If you're not using Shopify Payments, the time it takes you to get paid will vary according to your payment provider.

Question 5

How often does Shopify payout?

Accepted Answer

With Shopify payments, you'll get paid every time a transaction happens. It might take a little while – don't expect instant money transfers – but you will reliably get paid per transaction.

Question 6

Can you use PayPal with Shopify?

Accepted Answer

You bet. In fact, PayPal is one of Shopify's default payment providers. As soon as you open a store, you're given a PayPal Express Checkout account linked with the email you used to sign up for Shopify. If you use PayPal as your payment provider, rather than Shopify Payments, you will be charged transaction fees sadly.

Customers will still be able to check out using PayPal regardless of which payment provider you use, as long as you have it set up as an option.

Question 7

What are the benefits of using Shopify?

Accepted Answer

Shopify is one of the easiest ecommerce platforms to set up and use for businesses of any size. It's slick, simple UI makes setting up an online store super easy for novice or experienced entrepreneurs alike. Plus, its platform allows you to sell your wares across an unrivalled number of sales channels ranging from Instagram to eBay and Amazon. You can even set Shopify up to work with your bricks-and-mortar store, as well.

Shopify also has some of the best back-end functions of any ecommerce platform. Its accounting and reporting tools, for example, are powerful but extremely easy to use.

Shopify has excellent support options, including 24/7 phone and live chat support. Plus, it has a huge knowledge base and forums to help users fix their own problems quickly and easily.

It might be a touch more expensive than some of its rivals, but we think that Shopify's quality more than makes up for its slightly more expensive plans.

Question 8

What is the cheapest Shopify plan?

Accepted Answer

Shopify's cheapest plan is technically the Shopify Lite plan. It costs $9 per month but you'll need an existing website to sell products through — this means you (and your customers) won't get access to the full Shopify online store experience.

Shopify's cheapest plan that we would seriously consider is Shopify Basic. It costs $29 per month and gives you a full online store, a free website domain, and gives you access to the Shopify point-of-sale app for in-person selling. The Shopify Basic plan is comparable in price to many of its ecommerce competitors but we think Shopify has the edge when it comes to features and ease of use.

Question 9

Which Shopify plan is best?

Accepted Answer

We would say the best Shopify plan is the cheapest plan: Shopify Basic.

It gives you all the features you'll need to start an online store and grow your ecommerce business. You could opt for the middling Shopify plan straight away, however we feel that most small businesses won't be able to make the most of the extra features on offer — initially, at least.

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