Shopify Plans Compared: Find the Perfect One for Dropshipping

If you are planning to launch a dropshipping store on Shopify, you might be confused about which Shopify plan is best for dropshipping stores.

In this post, we will compare Shopify pricing plans, discover the capabilities included in each plan, and then help you make an informed decision that aligns seamlessly with your business goals.

Stay ahead of the curve as we delve into the best Shopify plan for dropshipping business.

Why Choose Shopify for Dropshipping?

Before answering which Shopify plan is best for dropshipping, let’s tackle what makes Shopify ideal for this business model. Basically, Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms that provides a one-stop solution for building an online store. It equips the store owner with the advanced and user-friendly tool suite to create, set up, launch, and grow the online store, whether it’s dropshipping or other business models, with zero tech skills. From the Shopify admin dashboard, you can effortlessly manage everything in your dropshipping store, including your store look, products, orders, payments, marketing performance, analytics, and reports.

Starting dropshipping with Shopify is great because you can sell without the inventory burden or shipping responsibility. Instead, Shopify allows you to integrate seamlessly with dropshipping suppliers like Alibaba, AliExpress, Sprocket, and many more, who will handle the fulfillment and shipping for you. It means, when a customer places an order on your Shopify store, the system will automatically forward it to your supplier, and they have to prepare, package, and ship the product directly to your customers. Therefore, instead of handling the A-Z process of selling products and fulfilling orders, Shopify dropshipping lets you focus on what really matters for your business – choosing great suppliers and products and marketing them effectively, and expanding your dropshipping store.

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Moreover, Shopify enables you to access customizable themes, integrate multiple payment gateways, and third-party apps to leverage your online store with its incredible intuitive interface. Combining with the highest security and assurance level, it is undeniable that Shopify is the perfect choice for both beginners and professional dropshippers.

Shopify Plan Comparison for Dropshipping

Basic Plan

With the Shopify Basic Plan, you can build a mobile-friendly and professional online store where you can showcase your catalog and attract potential buyers. This is a great starting point to kick off your dropshipping business with minimal operational cost, and the essential e-commerce tools.

What you get with the Basic Plan:

• Two staff accounts
• Basic reporting
• 10 inventory locations
• 24/7 support
• Free SSL certificate
• Abandoned cart recovery (limited)
• Discount codes and gift cards
• Up to 77% shipping discounts

Costs and fees:

• Subscription Plan Main Price: $19 per month for annual payment or $25 per month for monthly payment
• Transaction fee: 2% per transaction value
• Credit Cards rate: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction processed by a third-party payment provider.

Read more: How Much is Shopify a Month? Everything You Need is Here

Shopify Plan

The Shopify Plan is the upgraded version of the Basic Plan. Beyond all features included in the Basic Plan, the Shopify Plan expands the number of staff accounts to 5, lets you work with designers and staff to monitor your campaign, and manage your products, orders, and customers. In addition, this plan includes fraud analysis, which protects you from the harmful transactions that can lead to data loss or financial risks. Thus, consider the Shopify plan if you want to enhance your operation as your business expands.

What you get with the Shopify Plan:

• 5 staff accounts
• Professional sales, customers, and performance reporting
• 10 inventory locations
• 24/7 support
• Free SSL certificate
• eCommerce automation
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Discount codes and gift cards
• Up to 88% shipping discounts
• Advanced fraud analysis

Costs and fees:

• Subscription Plan Main Price: $49 per month for annual payment or $65 per month for monthly payment
• Transaction fee: 1% per transaction value
• Credit Cards rate: 2.6% + 30¢ per transaction processed by a third-party payment provider.

Advanced Plan

The Advanced Plan is a powerhouse for businesses that generate up to $1 million annually in sales. Advanced Shopify unlocks a powerful feature set including advanced reporting capabilities, real-time carrier shipping, and switching between different site versions for each country… which are essential for dropshipping stores that aim to go global. Plus, you can also enjoy the lowest credit card rates and transaction fees, minimizing cost and maximizing profits.

What you get with the Advanced Plan:

• 15 staff accounts
• Professional sales, customers, and performance reporting
• 10x checkout capacity
• Regional pricing
• Real-time carrier shipping
• Automatic tax and duty calculations
• Custom reporting tools
• Enhanced live chat

Costs and fees:

• Subscription Plan Main Price: $299 per month for annual payment or $399 per month for monthly payment
• Transaction fee: 0.6% per transaction value
• Credit Cards rate: 2.4% + 0.3¢ per transaction processed by a third-party payment provider.

Plus Plan

This is the highest tier of plan, so choose it only when your dropshipping business grows or you experience a steady stream of large volume orders and need serious customization and support. With the launch engineer’s assistance, you are able to print shipping labels, track items on-site, automate payments, and more. You also receive access to Shopify Launchpad and Shopify Flow, which is an automated platform for sales and promotions.

What you get with the Shopify Plan:

• Unlimited staff accounts
• Customizable checkout
• 200 inventory locations
• 40x checkout capacity
• Advanced APIs
• Sell wholesale/B2B
• Priority 24/7 support by phone or live chat
• Localized global selling (50 markets)
• Up to 200 POS Pro locations
• 25 custom storefront

Costs and fees:

• Subscription Plan Main Price: $2300 per month on a 3-year term
• Transaction fee: 0.2%  per transaction value
• Credit Cards rate: Competitive rates for high-volume merchants

Which Shopify Plan is Best for Dropshipping?

The best plan available for beginners is Shopify Basic, thanks to its affordability and comprehensive primary tools and features package to start dropshipping products and establish your Shopify store. The transaction seems high, but even as your annual revenue reaches $200,000, the transaction fee is not your burden.

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On the other hand, the Shopify plan is the favorite choice of most small businesses because of the advanced marketing ability and measurement tool, which enhances your brand visibility and manages your store effectively by working with experts to tweak different parts of the site. You will likely be doing >$ 1 million in sales on the platform.

Shopify Advanced only makes sense to invest in if you are making over a million dollars in sales and want to grow further. By this, it allows you to sell literally in different markets, outside of your home country. You will also have a collection of collaborators and a select few full-time employees handling your marketing, design, and development tasks.

Furthermore, few dropshipping businesses would require to have Shopify Plus. To be on Shopify Plus essentially means you are doing so many orders at any one time that you likely cannot keep a tab on them manually. That’s where automation tools are useful.

But then again, the best Shopify plan for dropshipping is the one that meets your business goals.  Every business is unique. Your business needs are different depending on where you are in your dropshipping journey. Make sure the plan you decide upon meets both your current needs and your future aspirations for your business, as you want to have the ease of scalability of your plan as your business grows.

So, still, it’s smart to think about your current and future plans for your business to make sure you succeed at getting set up a Shopify store, and in finding a plan that can fit your budget.

Additional Costs to Consider

Besides the upfront cost for your subscription plan and the transaction fees, there are some extra expenses that can be incurred during your operation process.

Domain Name

Shopify offers a free domain name for all stores. However, if you want to spread your products, it is required to have a custom domain name to make your store look professional and set you apart from the other competitors. The cost of a domain name is not fixed but depends on the domain hosting suppliers like Shopify, Google Domains, DreamHost,…and the top-level extension you choose. You can pay for a domain name annually or monthly.

Themes

Everyone wants to build a store that is visually appealing and reflects the brand’s voice to attract potential customers and increase the conversion rate. This is when choosing a mesmerizing theme makes your desire come true.

Shopify Theme Store is a huge library of both free and paid themes for stores of all niches and industries, from clothing & fashion, F&B, electronics, and home and lifestyle to art & digital cameras and so on. If you choose a free theme, there is no additional cost you have to pay. However, free themes might have some limitations in features and functionalities. This makes paid themes favored for those who seek more advanced ecommerce features to optimize the customer experience. The prices of Shopify premium themes range from $100 to $500 for one-time payments.

The Shopify theme store is not the only place where you can find visually appealing and high-performance themes. Another suggestion is ThemeForest, a platform with multiple attractive and beautiful Shopify themes and ecommerce web templates at a relatively lower price, from $16 to $119.

Apps and Plugins

To maximize your dropshipping store’s performance, add-ons and integrations are indispensable parts that empower your store with advanced functionality. Shopify also provides its users with an extensive collection of free and premium third-party plugins that help you with specialized tasks on the Shopify App Store. Each app or plugin has its own pricing plans, ranging from a few dollars to thousands of dollars per month. Some of them even support a free trial or a free plan for you to experience their functionality before committing to a premium plan for more advanced features.

Marketing

Without marketing, there is no traffic to your store, so even the best products will not sell. It is difficult to figure out the exact amount of marketing and advertising costs needed for a dropshipping store since it is determined by the channel you approach, the frequency, and many other elements. Here are some of the key marketing channels for your dropshipping Shopify store and their estimated costs:

• Social media ads via Facebook, Instagram, TikTok: at least $5 a day for over a span of six days; the average cost-per-click on Facebook is $0.94
• Influencer marketing: The cast for influencers depends on their social presence, the number of followers, and the conversion rate they create. The cost can vary from $10 – $100 per post for nano-influencers to $ 10,000+ per post for mega-influencers with over a million followers
• Email marketing: Popular marketing tools like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and Hubspot require you to pay $10 to $50 per month, depending on your needs and email list size.

Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Shopify Plan for Dropshipping

Budget

Every business should have a specific budget for each aspect to monitor your profit margins. Choose a plan that fits your budget while still ensuring the capabilities and functionality you need to run your business. If you have a tight budget and require minimum eCommerce features, the Basic Plan is still the best option for you to start.

Sales Volume

The higher the sales volume, the higher the transaction fee you will pay. So, analyze your expected sales volume to choose the plan that offers you the best transaction rate for your store without cutting your profit margins. For example, the Basic Plan requires the lowest entry point, but the transaction fee for each order in this plan is the highest (2.9% + $0.30), which can lead to a significant number of transactions if your store handles a lot of orders. The Advanced Plan with that fee is 2.4%, which is a great choice for stores with high-volume sales or expensive products.

Features Needed

Inventory Management and Product Range

A less expensive Shopify plan can work well with fewer products and a smaller inventory size. In fact, the Basic plan allows for a maximum of 500 products and 10 inventory locations, which is a good fit for newbie dropshippers who partner with one to two suppliers. If you want to partner and manage multiple suppliers, the Shopify plan offers detailed inventory tracking and low-stock alerts, making it easier for you to control stock levels from different suppliers. Hence, in case you want to diversify your product catalog, choose the Advanced plan, which lets you add unlimited products from all suppliers while keeping your stock updates.

Analytics and Reporting Tools

To make good decisions, it is essential to analyze data from your dropshipping store. Fortunately, Shopify provides store owners with reporting tools, from basic to customized and advanced, in all plans.

If you are a beginner, the Basic plan is enough for you with a comprehensive report about sales, orders, and traffic. The Shopify plan comes with professional customer behavior reports, which help you to identify which items are converting best or are the most popular among customers to maximize potential sales.

Additionally, Shopify Plus and the Advanced plan offer the statistics you want if you’re managing a larger business. These plans enable you to customize reports to meet your unique requirements, from marketing ROI to inventory planning. For enterprise-level analysis, Shopify Plus even connects with programs like Google BigQuery.

Marketing and SEO Capabilities

Marketing and SEO tools are equipped in every Shopify plan, but the capabilities are in different tiers.

• The Basic plan offers standard SEO features such as customizable product descriptions, metafields,… to optimize your initial product catalog.
• Shopify comes with additional marketing features like gift card creation and email marketing integration to automatically send emails to your segmented customers.
• The Advanced and Shopify Plus Plans let you access Shopify Audiences to generate custom lookalike audiences for advertising.

FAQs

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