Shopify increases Shopify Plus fees by over 25% and restricts key services in other versions

Shopify Plus is rolling out a significant increase in its fees. Starting from April 2024, Shopify Plus customers will see their minimum monthly costs increase by 25% or more, moving from $2,000 to $2,500 per month, with the option to reduce the increase to $2,300 monthly if a three-year commitment is signed.

The variable charge based on sales will also increase from 0.25% to 0.40%, representing a 60% increase. If the variable charge exceeds the $2,500 fixed payment, only the variable charge will apply. In summary, the increase in most cases will be closer to 60% of the variable charge than to the fixed minimum charge.

Current Shopify Plus users have the option to avoid this increase if they sign a three-year agreement before April. Additionally, new users can also reduce the impact of the increase if they commit to three-year contracts as well, though in this case the increase would be 15% on the fixed charge ($2,300) and 40% on the variable (at 0.35% per transaction).

It is estimated that 1% of Shopify online stores belong to the Shopify Plus category, however, these are the largest on the platform, the enterprise level for which Shopify is striving to position itself as a benchmark. This is the first change of this magnitude since 2017, according to Shopify.

Restrictions in the Rest of Shopify’s Plans

It is important to note that not all changes in Shopify’s pricing are direct increases. The Basic and Starter plans will not have changes in their monthly fees, which will continue to be $29 and $79 respectively.

However, clients of these plans will need to consider the new costs associated with adding additional markets. Previously, you could add up to 50 different markets even in the Basic plan. Now, all plans have a limit of 3. If you want more, you need to use the Advanced plan and pay an additional $59 per month for each additional market, up to 50 markets.

Among other changes in the rest of Shopify’s plans, both positive and negative, we can find:

• The $1 trial plan will decrease from 90 to 30 days. If you’re starting your Shopify store, you can take advantage of the 3-day free trial. Additionally, you’ll pay only $1 for the first month of the payment plan you choose. The $1 offer used to be valid for three months.
• All plans have access to more than 60 reports that are part of the standard analysis. Previously, the Starter and Basic plans did not have access to sales, profits, customers, and four out of five marketing reports. This is changing for all merchants, including existing ones, so if you’re on Basic, you should see all the new reports in your Analytics/Reports section.
• No staff accounts for Starter and Basic plans (previously had 2). Additional staff accounts are no longer available for Starter and Basic plans. Before, you could add 2 additional staff members to your online store.
• Enhanced chat support for the Advanced plan. Merchants using the Advanced plan have access to priority chat support. Basic and Shopify plans continue to have access to standard live chat 24/7.

Justification for the Price Increase

Shopify has justified this price increase through the constant improvements they have made to their platform. Among the more than 100 changes the company announced will be ready for this winter of 2024 are:

• Smarter search that better understands customer intent: Shopify has introduced the Semantic Search feature, powered by artificial intelligence, which goes beyond simple keyword matching to better understand the intent behind a customer’s search. This feature allows customers to use more natural words and phrases and get more relevant and complete results. This feature is exclusive to Shopify Plus.
• Combined listings from Shopify: Now, products that come in multiple colors or styles can be shown from a single main listing, with each variation having its own description, multimedia gallery, and URL. This feature is exclusive to Shopify Plus.
• Rich attributes for each product category: The update of Shopify’s taxonomy assigns to each standard product category a series of associated attributes, making it easier to create, classify, and organize products, as well as automatically generate variants. This improvement is also exclusively available on Shopify Plus.
• APIs that support up to 2,000 variants per product: Shopify has launched new product APIs that unlock up to 2,000 variants per product to offer better support for more complex catalogs. This functionality is available in preview for developers and for certain select businesses in 2024.
• Shopify Subscriptions: Option to make purchases by subscription activated.
• Pre-orders with discounts
• New types of discounts
• New single-page design in Shopify Checkout
• Ability to save payment methods in stores