Shopify

Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce platform for building and running an online store. It handles the website, product catalogue, checkout, payments, inventory, shipping, taxes, marketing and in-person sales, so a business can go from idea to taking orders without stitching together separate tools or managing hosting.

It's the default choice for most new online stores and many large brands. Shopify says merchants have collectively made more than $1.1 trillion in sales on the platform, and its app store is the largest commerce ecosystem available, which means almost any feature you need — subscriptions, reviews, loyalty, advanced email marketing — can be added.

Shopify has also built AI deeply into the product. Sidekick is a commerce-focused AI assistant included on every plan, the website builder can spin up a store from a prompt, and every plan includes an allowance of AI tokens. Shopify now also lets merchants sell inside AI chat assistants through its Catalog, with a free Agentic plan for businesses that only want to sell in AI channels.

How Shopify works

A typical launch looks like this:

1. Start a trial, choose a theme or generate a store from a prompt, and add your branding.
2. Add products with descriptions, photos, variants and stock levels.
3. Set up Shopify Payments (or another provider), shipping rates and taxes.
4. Connect a custom domain and publish the store.
5. Market it: email campaigns, abandoned-checkout recovery, discount codes and social and marketplace channels.
6. Fulfil orders, track inventory and use reports and Sidekick to see what's working.

Key capabilities

Online store and themes — A full-featured store with themes and templates, unlimited products, unlimited hosting, a custom domain and free SSL.

Checkout — Shopify says its checkout converts 15% better on average than other platforms; Plus adds full checkout customisation.

Shopify Payments — Built-in card processing with built-in fraud analysis, local payment methods and local currencies; using another provider adds a third-party transaction fee.

Sidekick and AI features — A commerce AI assistant, an AI website builder and millions of AI tokens on every plan.

Sell everywhere — Social channels and marketplaces, AI chat channels, the Shop app, B2B (up to 3 catalogues, unlimited on Plus) and in-person sales with a phone or card reader.

Inventory and orders — Inventory management across up to 10 locations (200 on Plus), returns, and Shopify Collective for sourcing products from other brands.

Marketing — Unlimited contacts, customer segments, email campaigns, pay-per-send SMS, marketing automations, abandoned-checkout recovery, discount codes and gift cards.

Global selling — Translate your store, show local currencies and payment methods, assign local domains and collect duties and taxes with Shopify Markets.

Taxes — Automated sales tax calculations, tax liability tracking, and VAT validation, exemptions and invoicing.

Analytics — More than 200 real-time reports plus custom analytics.

Finance tools — Shopify Balance, Shopify Capital funding, a Shopify Credit card and Bill Pay, depending on country.

App Store — Thousands of apps and integrations to extend the platform.

Shopify plans explained (UK)

UK prices are shown monthly, with yearly billing paid upfront at a lower monthly rate.

Basic — £25 a month, or £19 a month billed yearly. For solo entrepreneurs; online card rates from 2% + 25p; no extra staff accounts.

Grow — £65 a month, or £49 a month billed yearly. Up to 5 staff accounts; online card rates from 1.7% + 25p.

Advanced — £344 a month, or £259 a month billed yearly. Up to 15 staff accounts, live third-party shipping rates and region-tailored stores; online card rates from 1.5% + 25p.

Plus — from £1,800 a month. Unlimited staff, fully customisable checkout, unlimited B2B catalogues, up to 200 POS Pro locations and priority 24/7 phone support; online card rates from 1.3% + 25p.

Amex and international cards cost more (from 3.1% + 25p on Basic), and Klarna from 4.99% + 30p. In-person card rates start at 1.7% on Basic. If you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee of 2% (Basic), 1% (Grow), 0.6% (Advanced) or 0.2% (Plus). POS Pro for physical stores is £69 a month per location.

Shopify plans explained (US)

Basic — $39 a month, or $29 billed yearly; online card rates 2.9% + 30¢.

Grow — $105 a month, or $79 billed yearly; 2.7% + 30¢. Shopify has also shown some visitors a higher yearly price of $89 in a price test.

Advanced — $399 a month, or $299 billed yearly; 2.5% + 30¢. The same price test showed some visitors $359 billed yearly.

Plus — from $2,300 a month on a 3-year term, or $2,500 on a 1-year term; 2.25% + 30¢.

International cards add 1%. In-person rates start at 2.6% + 10¢ on Basic. The third-party transaction fee is 2%, 1%, 0.6% or 0.2% by plan, and POS Pro is $89 a month per location.

Trial and starting out

New stores usually get 3 days free, then pay £1 or $1 a month for the first 3 months on the standard plans before full prices apply. You need a paid plan before customers can check out. The Agentic plan is free and charges only card fees when you sell through AI channels.

Who Shopify is for

New online stores — the fastest way to a professional store with payments and checkout built in.

Growing brands — a clear path from Basic to Plus, with more staff, lower card rates and more locations.

Businesses selling online and in person — one inventory and customer list across both.

Anyone who needs specific features — the App Store almost certainly has them.

Getting the most out of Shopify

Use Shopify Payments if it's available in your country, to avoid the third-party transaction fee.

Start on Basic and move to Grow when you need staff accounts or your card volume makes the lower rate worthwhile.

Budget for apps: many stores' real monthly cost is the plan plus several paid apps.

Pay yearly once you're confident — it's noticeably cheaper than monthly billing.