Is Shopify good for small businesses?

The short version

Yes. For most small shops, Shopify is a good place to sell online.

You get a store on the internet where people can pay with a card. You can add products, pack orders, and sell at a market with the same login, and you do not need to know how to code.

Shopify is not free, and it will not find your buyers for you. If you only sell a few things in chat, you may not need it yet.

What Shopify is

Shopify is a tool that holds your shop on their computers, so you do not rent a server or keep a website from falling over.

You log in, add photos and prices, pick how people pay, and the shop can take real orders. You can also sell in person at a stall or a small store, with a phone or a card reader. Online sales and in-person sales land in the same place.

Why small shops like it

It is ready to take money. The page where people pay is already built, and that is the hard part of a shop. Shopify has spent years making that page fast and trusted.

You can start small. A Basic plan is enough for one person. You can move to a bigger plan later and keep the same shop.

Help is easy to find. Shopify says millions of shops use it in more than 175 countries, so if you get stuck, someone has already written the answer. There is also a big list of apps for extra jobs like reviews or email.

You can run it from your phone. You can check orders, change a price, or refund a buyer without sitting at a desk all day.

What it costs

The plan is the number people look at first, but it is not the whole bill.

On Shopify’s pricing page, Basic is $39 a month, or $29 a month if you pay for a year. Grow is $105 a month ($79 if you pay yearly). Advanced is $399 a month ($299 yearly). Those are US prices, and your country may show a different number.

New shops often get a short free trial, and some then pay $1 a month for the first three months. Offers change, so read the page before you sign up.

Then come card fees. On Basic, if you use Shopify Payments in the US, you pay about 2.9% plus 30 cents on each online card sale, which is about $3.20 on a $100 order. If you use a different card company, Shopify adds an extra cut, and on Basic that extra cut is 2% right now.

Apps, a paid theme, and your shop name (your domain) all cost extra.

A simple first year looks like this: the Basic plan, card fees on what you sell, one domain, and maybe one paid app. That is a real bill. Ten apps on day one is how shops get a shock.

When Shopify is a good fit

Shopify fits if you sell physical things like soap, shirts, coffee, or jewelry, and you want a shop with your name on it, not only a stall inside Amazon or Etsy. It also fits if you might sell at markets or in a small store, and you do not want to hire a developer just to open the doors.

When to wait

Wait if you sell five things through Instagram messages and you are not sure people will keep buying, or if you already have a shop that works and moving would cost you a month of work. If every extra dollar of fees would wipe out your profit, do the math before you pick any paid shop tool.

Etsy and Amazon can still make sense if you need their traffic first. Shopify is the shop you own, and a marketplace is a stall you rent. Some people use both.

Shopify will not find your buyers

This is the part ads skip.

Shopify gives you a shop, but ads, posts, email, and word of mouth are what fill it. If nobody knows you exist, a pretty shop still sits empty. Save some money for that. A $39 plan with nothing left to get people to the shop is a quiet month.

Two things that go wrong

Too many apps on day one. Shopify can already take orders, take payments, and send a basic email, so add an app when you have a real job for it. Wait on reviews until you have reviews, and wait on bundles until people start buying two things together.

A paid theme before you have sales. Free themes from Shopify are enough to launch. Spend money on the look later, when you know what you sell and what feels slow.

A simple picture

Say you sell candles you make at home. Friends buy them, and you want strangers to buy them too.

You could build a website from zero, which takes time and a person who codes. You could sell only on Etsy, which is fast, but Etsy also takes a cut and the buyer often remembers Etsy more than they remember you.

You could open a Shopify shop. In a weekend you can have a page with your name, a way to pay, and an email when an order comes in. You still have to tell people the shop exists. The shop itself is the easy part.

That is the whole test. If you can take an order and pack it without a headache, Shopify is doing its job.

Where this comes from

Plans and fees move. If a number here does not match what you see, trust what you see in Shopify and the pricing page over this post.

• Shopify pricing — plans, card fees, and the extra cut if you do not use Shopify Payments.
• Shopify — millions of shops, in more than 175 countries.

You do not need a big plan to start. You need five products, a free theme, and one real way to pay.

If you later want better tracking pages or product sets, OSS Commerce builds Shopify apps for that. You do not need them on day one.

Common questions

Is Shopify free for small businesses?

No. You pay a monthly plan plus a cut of each card sale. New shops often get a short free trial, and some then pay $1 a month for the first three months before the normal price starts. Check Shopify's pricing page, because offers change.

How much does Shopify cost a month?

Basic is $39 a month, or $29 a month if you pay for a year, and that is the plan most new shops pick. Grow is $105 a month, with card fees on top. On Basic in the US, a $100 online card sale costs about $3.20 if you use Shopify Payments.

Does Shopify bring me customers?

No. Shopify gives you a shop, but ads, posts, email, and word of mouth are what fill it. If nobody knows you exist, a nice shop still sits empty, so plan money for getting people to the door, not only for the plan.

Can I sell in person with Shopify?

Yes. You can take payments at a stall or a small store with a phone or a card reader, and those sales land in the same place as your online orders. That is a big reason small shops pick it.

Is Shopify better than Etsy?

They do different jobs. Etsy can send you buyers on day one and takes a cut. Shopify is the shop with your name on it. Many people start on Etsy, then open Shopify when they want their own site, and you can use both.