"I'm thinking of setting up an e-commerce website with Shopify."
"I would like to know about Shopify's pricing plans for launching an e-commerce website."
"I want to understand Shopify's payment fees and other charges before deciding to implement it."
This article is for such people. Shopify is an e-commerce website creation platform that has attracted attention worldwide and has a very high market share. In Japan, the number of e-commerce websites using Shopify continues to increase year by year.
When introducing Shopify, many people may want to know about pricing plans and sales commissions.
In this article, we will thoroughly explain Shopify's pricing plans. We are also a certified Shopify Plus Partner and will provide you with a detailed explanation.
Key points of this article
- Learn about Shopify's fees, costs, and payment fees
- How to choose a Shopify plan becomes clearer
- You can also find out the procedure to follow if you ever need to cancel your Shopify subscription.
Shopify Pricing and Costs
Shopify pricing chart
Shopify offers three regular plans and the highest plan, "Shopify Plus." First, let's take a look at Shopify's pricing table.
| Basic Plan | Standard Plan | Premium Plan | Shopify Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | $33 USD ($25 USD if paid annually) | $92 USD ($69 USD if paid annually) | $399 USD ($299 USD if paid annually) | From 2,000 US dollars |
| Domestically issued cards | 3.4% | 3.3% | 3.25% | 3.15% |
| Overseas issued cards/AMEX | 3.9% | 3.85% | 3.8% | 3.75% |
| Additional fees when using a third-party payment provider | 2.0% | 1.0% | 0.5% | 0% *1 |
| Number of staff accounts | 2 | 5 | 15 | Unlimited |
| Number of products that can be registered | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| 24-hour support | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Free SSL Certificate | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Abandoned cart prevention | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Gift Cards | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| E-commerce Automation | × | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Reports | ◯ (Basic) | ○ (Standard) | ◯ (Premium) | ◯ |
| External service automatically calculated shipping | × | × | ◯ | ◯ |
| Customs and import tax calculator | × | × | ◯ | ◯ |
*1: If Shopify Payments is connected. If not connected, the charge will be 0.15%.
Shopify has no upfront costs for any plan. You can upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time. There are no limits on the number of visitors or products you can register.
Plan fees can be paid monthly or annually (paid in advance every year), and for the Basic, Standard and Premium plans, paying annually is approximately 25% cheaper than paying monthly.
Basic Plan
The basic plan costs $33 per month and is a beginner-friendly plan for those just starting out with an e-commerce website.
This plan is recommended for those with monthly sales of up to 5 million yen. You can create up to two staff accounts in addition to the owner account, so if your site is small enough to be run by 1 to 3 people, choose the basic plan.
Standard Plan
The Standard Plan has a monthly fee of $92 USD and has lower credit card and transaction fees than the Basic Plan.
The target monthly sales is around 5 to 25 million yen. If you are running an EC site as a team, you should choose the Standard Plan.
In addition, the standard plan includes support for e-commerce automation using the app "Shopify Flow," which can help improve and streamline operations.
Premium Plan
The Premium Plan has a monthly fee of 399 USD. Credit card fees and transaction fees are set even lower than in the Standard Plan, and this plan is recommended for those with monthly sales of 25 million yen or more.
The Premium plan allows you to create more advanced reports than the Standard plan.
For example, you can analyze traffic from Google Ads and other sources, and it is also possible to report on "royal customers" and "at-risk customers."
This plan is ideal for those who want to work with a larger group and put more effort into marketing.
In addition, the premium plan allows you to set complex shipping fees, including detailed shipping fees to remote islands. It also comes with a calculation function for customs duties and import taxes, so it is recommended for those considering cross-border e-commerce.
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is a plan for stores with high transaction volume and large businesses that goes beyond the three regular Shopify plans mentioned above.
Shopify has a wider range of capabilities than most shopping cart systems, but there are some things that the standard plan cannot do, and this is the highest-level plan that covers that.
Monthly fees start from 2,000 US dollars.
Below are some of the things you can only do with Shopify Plus:
- Checkout screen and function customization
- Site time limit setting (reflecting reservations)
- Development of social login function
- Functions specialized for building B2B stores
- Shopify POS Pro can be used without a separate contract
- Lifting the limit on the number of API calls for credit card payments (a measure to deal with concentrated payments)
- Up to 10 sites can be opened for free per contract (limited to the same store)
In addition to the above, there are some things that can only be done with Shopify Plus compared to the regular plan. We also have a Shopify Plus dedicated service, so if you run a store with a high transaction volume, please refer to the following page.
[Related] Shopify Plus store building service
What is the Starter Plan that allows you to easily start using it from just US$5 per month?
In fact, there is a starter plan that is even cheaper than the three regular plans, so I'll briefly introduce it to you.
The "Starter Plan" is a plan for selling products by embedding links to products on social media, email, SMS, WhatsApp, etc. without building an e-commerce website.
The fee is just US$5 per month.
The main difference with other Shopify plans is that it does not include an e-commerce site itself, and only allows use of the admin screen for registering products and managing orders.
Small business owners who want to sell products on social media etc. using only Shopify's cart function may want to consider this option.
[Reference] Shopify Starter Plan
Shopify payment fees
Shopify's payment fees vary depending on the plan, but also on the type of credit card you use and whether or not the payment method is Shopify Payments.
Payment Fee List
| Basic Plan | Standard Plan | Premium Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee (if paid monthly) | 33 US dollars | 92 US dollars | $399 |
| Domestically issued cards | 3.4% | 3.3% | 3.25% |
| Overseas issued cards/AMEX | 3.9% | 3.85% | 3.8% |
| Additional charges if you use a third-party payment provider other than Shopify Payments | 2.0% | 1.0% | 0.5% |
Payment fees when using Shopify Payments
"Shopify Payments" is a payment method provided by Shopify.
By registering for "Shopify Payments", you will be able to accept payments with various credit cards through Shopify, eliminating the need for any other payment processing account.
It can also be linked to "Apple Pay" and "Google Pay," simplifying the process of completing a purchase.
The fees for each payment method are based on the "Shopify Payments" rate. The fees for using "Shopify Payments" are as follows:
| Basic Plan | Standard Plan | Premium Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestically issued cards | 3.4% + ¥0 | 3.3% + ¥0 | 3.25% + ¥0 |
| Overseas issued cards/AMEX | 3.9% + ¥0 | 3.85% + ¥0 | 3.8% + ¥0 |
As you can see from the table, if you use Shopify Payments, there are no costs other than credit card fees.
In addition, there are various external payment services other than "Shopify Payments," the most common of which are "PayPal," "Amazon Pay," and "Convenience Store Payments (KOMOJU)."
Payment fees when using PayPal
PayPal is a payment service that can be used from the start when you open a Shopify store. It is not widely used in Japan and has a low priority, but it is widely used overseas and is essential for cross-border e-commerce.
Supported brands : Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, UnionPay, etc.
Payment fee : 3.6% + 40 yen (domestic standard rate: varies depending on monthly transaction volume)
Transfer fee : 0 yen (250 yen per transaction for withdrawal amounts under 50,000 yen)
[Related] PayPal accepts JCB cards and bank transfers!
Payment fee when using Amazon Pay
Amazon Pay is a service that allows you to make payments using your Amazon account.
For users with an Amazon account, it is a very convenient payment method because it allows you to shortcut the process of registering payment information and entering your address, making shopping easy. However, there are some points to be aware of when implementing it, so please also see the related article below.
Supported brands : Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB
Payment fee : 3.9% (non-digital content), 4.5% (digital content)
Transfer fee : Free
[Related] How to implement Amazon Pay on Shopify (with notes)
Payment fee when using mobile carrier payment
Shopify makes it easy to introduce "mobile carrier payment." Mobile carrier payment is a service that allows you to pay for the purchase of products together with your mobile phone bill. In Japan, it is available with docomo, au, and SoftBank.
In addition to making payments easy, it also allows you to reach users who don't have credit cards.
*The following is fee information for "docomo digital."
Compatible carriers : DOCOMO, au, Softbank
Payment fee : 6.4% (non-digital content), 15% (digital content)
Convenience store payment (KOMOJU)
KOMOJU is a service that allows you to add convenience store and bank transfer payment methods to Shopify. Convenience store payment is one of the most popular payment methods in Japan. There are cases where sales have increased by several tens of percent since introducing convenience store payment.
The convenience store payment fee is 2.75%. KOMOJU can also be used for Pay-easy and digital money payments.
Supported brands: JCB, Visa, MasterCard, Diners, American Express
Payment fee : 3.6% (Visa, MasterCard), 3.85% (JCB, Diners, American Express)
Transfer fee : 220 yen (transfer fee within Japan when the transfer amount is less than 30,000 yen. 410 yen when the transfer amount is 30,000 yen or more. 2,500 yen for overseas transfers)
How to Choose a Shopify Plan
Now that we've covered Shopify's pricing, how do you decide which plan to choose?
Here are some suggestions on how to choose a Shopify plan.
How to choose a plan1. Decide the plan based on the transaction amount
One way to choose a plan is based on your monthly e-commerce transaction volume.
Specifically, the details are as follows.
- Basic: Monthly sales of 5 million yen or less
- Standard: Monthly sales of 25 million yen or less
- Premium: Monthly sales of 25 million yen or more
These numbers are just for reference, but please use them as a benchmark.
How to choose a plan 2. Decide on a plan based on the management structure
Each Shopify plan has a different number of staff accounts available.
Specifically, the details are as follows.
- Basic: 2 accounts
- Standard: 5 accounts
- Premium: 15 accounts
With Shopify, you can restrict the functions that each account can access. You can set up staff accounts that only manage products, or staff accounts that only process orders, etc.
When designing the management system for your e-commerce site, one way to decide on a Shopify plan is based on the number of accounts you need.
How to choose a plan 3. Decide on a plan based on features
At Shopify, the features available for each plan are different. The main differences are as follows:
- Basic: Basic package for selling products online
- Standard: E-commerce automation features (operational optimization, function customization, etc.)
- Premium: Supports complex shipping settings for detailed remote islands, etc. Includes a function to calculate customs duties and import taxes
If you are just starting out in EC, the Basic Plan is sufficient at the beginning, but when your sales start to grow and you want to optimize your operational flow, switch to the Standard Plan. If you need complex shipping settings, such as temperature ranges for delivery (room temperature, refrigerated, frozen, etc.) and a free shipping line, or if you want to set shipping fees to remote islands, you should consider the Premium Plan. Deciding on a plan based on the supported features is also one way to go.
We hope the above information will help you choose a Shopify plan.
With Shopify, you can change your plan even if your e-commerce business grows
I think this is another reason why Shopify is so great. With many other ASPs, as your EC business expands, meaning more customers and more sales, you have to switch servers and ASPs.
As a business expands, it becomes necessary to add various functions, but individual ASPs often do not provide these functions.
Naturally, switching ASPs will incur costs and effort (including dealing with problems).
In that respect, Shopify does not require such expenses or worries. You can simply change the plan as your EC business expands. This is because you can add functions by utilizing Shopify's apps or by customizing it yourself.
This will be very good news for e-commerce merchants.
Therefore, when choosing a Shopify pricing plan, you can use the above as a reference and choose based on your feeling of "this might be the one for you."
Other fees and costs incurred by Shopify
Other fees and costs that may be incurred by Shopify include:
- Shopify Themes
- Shopify Apps
- Shopify third-party payment providers
- Shopify Customization
There are a variety of Shopify themes available, from free to paid. If you choose a paid theme, it will cost you.
Shopify also offers a wide range of apps that can help you run your e-commerce site more efficiently and are convenient for your customers. These apps range from free to paid, so you may have to pay for them.
If you sign up for an external payment service that allows you to use convenience store payments or installment payments, fees will be incurred.
In addition, if you request customization from a production company, etc., costs may be incurred.
[Related] Shopify App Store
[Related] Comparison of payment services available on Shopify and how to set them up [Explained by a company certified by Shopify Experts]
What if I ever want to cancel my Shopify subscription?
This section explains how to cancel Shopify and what charges you will incur when you cancel.
How to cancel Shopify
Step 1. Log in to Shopify as the store owner Step 2. Click "Settings" in the admin screen. Click "Plan" Step 3. Click "Deactivate store" Step 4. Click "Deactivate store" (the part that says "I need to get plenty of rest.") Step 5. Select a reason from the drop-down menu and click "Continue" Step 6. Enter your password
This completes the Shopify cancellation process.
Go to your Shopify store URL and if your store is no longer listed, your subscription has been cancelled.
About charges when canceling Shopify
If you have an outstanding balance on your account, you must pay your outstanding fees. If you have no outstanding balance on your account, you will not be charged when you cancel Shopify.
However, if you were using any subscription-based apps or external services other than Shopify when running your Shopify store, you will need to uninstall the apps or take the necessary steps to avoid being charged separately.
[Summary] Learn about Shopify's fees and costs and choose the best plan for you
In this article, we've covered Shopify pricing.
Summary of this article
- Shopify offers three main plans (as well as a Starter plan and a top-tier plan called Shopify Plus):
- The plan you choose should depend on the current status, scale, and management structure of your EC site/business.
- There are also other things such as Shopify themes and apps that incur fees, so if you cancel your Shopify subscription, you will also need to cancel these.
Shopify, which is popular all over the world, is expanding its influence in Japan as well, dramatically changing the market share of e-commerce site creation in Japan.
You can try Shopify for free for the first two weeks, so use this article as a reference to get started.
*This article is current as of February 2023. Due to future updates or changes to Shopify specifications, it may not be possible to set up exactly as described in this article.
