“Shocked But Not Surprised”: Shopify Hikes Prices By 34 Percent — Retail Boss
Shopify has announced it has increased all merchant plans in a press release, obtained by our media team, “When Shopify was started in 2006, it was a novel product with a novel idea: to provide the best Commerce tools in the world to all merchants of all sizes, to make Commerce better for everyone,” said Kaz Nejatian, Shopify’s VP of Product and Chief Operating Officer. “A lot has changed since then, but a few things haven’t: why we do it and who we do it for. Today, after much deliberation, we’re announcing a change in favor of better serving our mission and our merchants: We are updating our pricing for Basic, Shopify, and Advanced plans.”
The Shopify merchant plans and subsequent immediate changes are listed below for new subscribers (as of Jan 25, 2023), all current subscribers will see the price increase automatically to their billing starting in 3 months, on June 1st, 2023.
The Basic plan $29 per month is now $39 per month
Shopify plan $79 per month is now $105 per month
Advance plan is $299 per month is now $399 per month
“Existing merchants won’t see a price change for three months. The updated pricing is now in effect for new merchants. Existing merchants can switch from monthly to yearly terms to keep their current monthly price before new prices take effect on April 23, 2023.”
We asked existing Shopify merchants for their opinions on the price increase and if they felt it was fair or unfair, the general consensus is that the price increase was a shock when Shopify announced the new fees, but many businesses weren’t surprised that the plans are increasing in price.
Unlikely Pear
Ms. Porter currently owns two Shopify sites and says she’s facing being double hit by the pricing change. “Read the news yesterday in my email. It’s par for the times, but still was a shock. I hope they let us keep the same rate if we pay yearly going forward, not just for 2023. And I do think the amount of notice was reasonable.” said Becca Porter, Owner of An Unlikely Pear & The Luxury Pear. “It would be nice if Shopify would do something for those of us with multiple websites too.
Glow Village
“Got the email yesterday and was horrified! Without rushing into another platform that may not be as efficient, I’m switching to yearly to keep the rate I have before exploring other platforms,” said Mama Serwaa, CEO of Glow Village.
Sauipe Swim
“It’s worth it, and it’s a solid platform. It is reliable, easy to use and safe. Moving sites from/to anywhere is very costly too, especially in implementation time, testing, etc. if one factors all that, the increase in their rates is still a better deal. As for apps, we invested a little in custom code, much less than the cost of apps over time. That freed us from monthly app fees. Also, too many apps are bad for the performance or the site. Back to topic, we will pay the yearly upfront. Not going anywhere anyway,” said Marcia Hacker, Owner and Designer of Sauipe Swim.
Anna Quartz
“I was pretty sad when I heard the news. I’m nervous to see what the apps offered on shopify will increase too. Shopify has a LOT of improvements to make within their own software. I’m spending $150 per month on apps because shopify lacks a lot of basic feature needs, so this all increasing is so hard for small businesses,” said Bri S., Anna Quartz.
Kiwis Boutique
“I was sad when I heard this story about the increase on top of everything that is raising we as small business owners are in a tight situation. Now we have to increase our cost of goods even more.” said Chiquita White, Owner of Kiwis Boutique.
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Originally published at https://retailboss.co on January 26, 2023.
