Shopify Fees and Pricing: How Much Does It Cost in Australia?

When it comes to establishing an ecommerce store or launching an online storefront, online merchants eventually face the same dilemma: determining the ideal shop system and platform that aligns with their specific requirements. It takes many businesses months or even years to establish a profitable online merchandising solution.

Hence, with over 4 million merchants selling their products using the global phenomenon, Shopify can be a logical solution.

To the entrepreneurs seeking an ecommerce platform, Shopify offers a wide range of features and functionalities that can help create a professional-looking online store. Building an ecommerce website from scratch can be both expensive and time-consuming, making Shopify the ideal choice for simplifying the process.

Now you might be wondering how much it will cost to launch and run a store on Shopify. But before we delve into Shopify fees, let’s see what Shopify is.

What is Shopify?

Undoubtedly one of the biggest ecommerce platforms on the internet that allows you to build your own online store to promote, sell and ship products. It allows you to sell both online and in-person with your own website or using a point-of-sale app.

By offering a diverse range of customisable templates with integrated marketing features, secure payment solutions, and a robust security system, this platform allows users to breathe life into their website design and online store without any hassle.

Shopify pricing plans available to you

Determining the costs involved in operating a Shopify store involves considering various elements, including the initial investment needed to launch your store, the specific pricing plans offered by Shopify that you select, any supplementary features you seek to integrate, and other relevant considerations.

Let’s look at the available Shopify plans first to pick the best pricing plan for your budget. It has three pricing plans, Basic, Shopify and Advanced.

Shopify pricing table

Basic

This Basic version of Shopify is one of the cheapest Shopify plans that starts at $56 AUD per month. This plan requires a fee of 1.75% + 30¢ AUD on online Australian credit card transactions, 2.9% + 30¢ AUD on online international credit card transactions and 1.95% + 0¢ on in-person debit or credit card transactions. Third-party transaction fees for using third-party payment providers is 2.0%.

You get an array of top features, including a sales channel, 24/7 support, abandoned cart recovery, discount codes, marketing automation and all the essentials you need to launch a new online business like the other plans. You can sell an unlimited number of products through your Shopify store, and also, two separate logins or seats are available.

Shopify

The Shopify plan costs $149 AUD per month and is one of the most popular ones. There is a sizable price difference between the Basic and Shopify pricing plan. However, the extra cost is worthwhile if you run a small business that is growing rapidly.

In order to process online Australian credit card transactions, a fee of 1.6% plus 30¢ AUD will be levied. For online international credit card transactions, the fee will be slightly higher at 2.8% plus 30¢ AUD. On the other hand, for in-person transactions using either debit or credit cards, the fee will be 1.85% with no additional charges.

Alongside advanced features, including standard reporting to ecommerce automation, this plan incorporates all the features of a basic plan, like unlimited products, an online store, 24/7 support, Shopify POS lite and more.

Advanced

This one is an expensive option and offers the perfect features for businesses with robust needs from medium to large. The pricing of the Advanced plan is $575 AUD per month. Compared to other plans, the transaction fees are low in this plan. A fee of 1.4% + 30¢ AUD is charged on online Australian credit card transactions, 2.7% + 30¢ AUD on online international credit card transactions and 1.75% + 0¢ on in-person debit or credit card transactions.

With the Advanced plan, you get some key features that are not included with other plans- advanced reporting to third-party calculated shipping rates, the option to charge duties and import taxes and more API calls.

Alternative solutions

Starter

In case you don’t require a fully standalone online store and just planning to sell products on an existing website or sell through social media platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp or Facebook, go for Shopify’s Starter plan with only $7 AUD per month. This works great if you already have an existing site and want to add just the ecommerce functionality.

Even if the Starter plan represents one of the cheapest ways to sell products online, like other Shopify plans, you still get unlimited products, blogging features, a free SSL certificate and other features. You will get access to all essential features to start selling right away. Embed an unlimited number of products on any alternative website via a ‘buy button’.

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is aimed not at small business owners but at large-scale ecommerce enterprises. Prices start at $2000 per month. This enterprise-grade solution offers all the features available in the Advanced plan alongside other additional features as well. Some of the advanced features include security, automation, checkout optimisation, multi-currency support, third-party software integration and more.

How to save up to 25% on Shopify?

Simply purchase an annual Shopify subscription in order to reduce your costs significantly. If you are just starting, you might be wondering if there is any discount code or offers available that can let you save extra on the price. Luckily, now Shopify is offering 25% discounts on the yearly Basic, Shopify and Advanced plans.

Here is the list of the pricing before and after the discounts.

So, go on the one-year plan and save up to 25% respectively. However, the percentage of discounts keeps changing periodically. So, to find the latest offers, check the pricing section of the Shopify website periodically.

Use Shopify payments to save more

Shopify Payment is a safe payment service provider that enables you to accept payment immediately after having signed up. It is free of charge and comes as an integrated tool with each Shopify subscription plan. While a fee of 2.0% (Basic), 1.0% (Shopify) and 0.5% (Advanced) applies on each sale for using a third-party payment gateway, the good news is that there are no transaction fees if one uses Shopify payments.

Additional Shopify costs

Beyond the basic website plan, there are some other expenses that will affect your Shopify website cost. Here are some extra add-ons or charges that are almost constant to get your Shopify store off the ground.

Email Hosting

You can use Shopify’s email hosting templates to manage your email campaigns straight on Shopify. You can send up to 10,000 emails per month completely free of charge. Then you need to pay a minimal fee of $1 for each additional 1000 emails.

Domain name

As Shopify includes domain names as part of all its plans, it does not require one to host their own domains. But if you are going for a custom domain name, you need to pay. However, purchasing an additional domain name is not required if you already have a registered domain name.

Premium theme, apps or plugins

You can choose over various free and premium Shopify themes that come with tools to let you customise your website’s colour, style and layout. Also, Shopify has over 300 apps that you can utilise to include features not offered by Shopify.

Transaction fees

Depending on the Shopify plan you subscribe to, you will be charged transaction fees if you don’t use Shopify’s own payment gateway.

Shopify POS payments

If you like to receive in-person payments, you have two options open Shopify POS Lite and Shopify POS Pro. You get POS Lite on all the available plans, and for POS Pro, you need to pay an extra cost of $89 per month and per location.

Conclusion

So, when considering a Shopify website, it’s necessary to understand the cost involved. With all the information given above, I hope you are feeling confident in understanding how much it might cost you to use Shopify.

And in order to turn your Shopify store genuinely unique, find the Shopify developer in Melbourne who can help you with everything from implementing the advanced searching and filtering algorithm to customising your checkout to meet your niche requirement. If you are still on the fence, remember it might take you a lot of time to set up your online store without expert help.