This is certainly the big news of the day received by email for many merchants, more than 2 million at the last news, Shopify has decided to increase its prices.
And the least we can say is that it will not please everyone! This is because Shopify's rate increases are between 30-50% depending on the subscription plans.
In addition, some interesting options such as a biannual and triannual subscription are disappearing. We review all the changes together.
Prices do not change for current customers for 3 months
First news: already, prices remain at the same level for all subscriptions for all existing customers for the next 3 months. The price increase announced today is therefore to be taken into account but it does not affect you if you already have a current Shopify plan.
- The basic Shopify plan remains at $29 for the next 3 months
- Shopify Intermediate plan remains at $79 for the next 3 months
- The Shopify Advanced plan remains at $299 for the next 3 months
What are the new Shopify prices?
The new prices apply as of today for new customers, i.e. if you do not yet have a subscription to Shopify, this is the case for example if you are doing or have planned a migration to Shopify or the creation of a Shopify e-commerce site.
New customers taking a subscription from today will therefore pay more for their Shopify plan, here are the new prices:
- Basic Shopify plan drops to $39 right now
- Shopify Intermediate Plan Stays at $105 Right Now
- The Shopify Advanced plan remains at $399 right now
Here are the conversions in euros:
- The basic Shopify plan is now €36
- The intermediate Shopify plan remains at €105 from now on
- The Shopify Advanced plan remains at €384 right now
The increases are therefore not discreet or sensitive, here is the percentage of Shopify's price increases:
- Basic Shopify Plan Takes 34% Increase
- Intermediate Shopify Plan Takes 33% Increase
- Shopify Advanced plan takes 33% increase
So we have an average increase of 33% for all Shopify plans. Unheard of for 13 years. Indeed, you should know that Shopify prices have been the same since 2009!
An unprecedented increase for more than 13 years.
So why this sudden price increase? and of course, we are not going to put everything on the back of the war in Ukraine as for the increase in the price of agricultural products, but there are basically several possibilities:
- Rising Operating Costs: Operating costs like salaries, rent, and servers have increased, which may require price increases to cover these increases.
- Inflation: Inflation of course! It leads to a general increase in the prices of services, including those in B2B like Shopify. We are of course thinking of the increase in electricity prices all over the world, partly due to the war in Ukraine, so we come back to that.
- Improvement of products or services: This is an undeniable point: 13 years of increasing the functional scope without a price increase, the improvements made to Shopify had to be paid for one day or another. Customers are willing to pay more for higher quality products That's what we'll see.
- Increase in demand: With more than 2 million online stores and one of the largest theme and application marketplaces in the world, Shopify is right to take advantage of its strong position to raise prices.
- The stock market also, Shopify is a company listed in New York and the action has lost quite a bit for a few months. increasing the profit margin means increasing the company's value in the medium term.
And how will the competition react to these new Shopify prices?
There may be additional reasons, but on the Shopify side, this price increase is, in my opinion, also due to a glaring lack of such massive competitors.
Nobody has the communication power of a Shopify on the subject of E-commerce. Adobe with Magento could do it but does not and Salesforce, which communicates a lot, is still aiming for bigger ones.
BigCommerce has a playing card but they also need to raise money and increase margins. Will they take advantage of this to also increase their prices?
On the Prestashop side, the upcoming release of 1.8 will not change the business model, so nothing to expect from that side.
For other solutions like Wizishop, Vtex , Bigcartel , Intershop or even Wix , this is not likely to influence them at first.
However, it can certainly be noted that the phase of acquisition and expansion at all costs is ancient history for American startups. Let's hope that future price increases do not concern payment solutions or payment in installments.
But then, how to lower your Shopify bill?
It is always possible to “almost” benefit from current prices by subscribing for one year. And that's the whole advantage of Shopify! The No. 1 e-commerce solution on the market will indeed be able to “lock” its users to annual contracts by offering them a more attractive price. Basically, this will not change much, but on the “stock market” side, it changes everything!
Churn will go down, loyalty will go up, revenue per customer will continue to grow. In short, e-merchants need Shopify and Shopify e-merchants, so the result risks, for those who are pre-cut by the finance part, to fall back on the annual subscription to maintain an attractive price.
Of course, this also represents a risk for Shopify because in this tense period when everyone is looking for margin, e-merchants will be more demanding of Shopify.
Some small bugs or some functional lack may no longer be forgiven. It is therefore up to Shopify to adapt and adapt the roadmap by refocusing innovations and advances on the heart of the product: namely the commercial part.
This could take Shopify's logistics warehouse projects in Europe, for example, away from them by a few years.
But the price of Shopify Plus does not change?
Did you notice it too? There's no price increase on the Shopify plus plan, Shopify's $2,000/month plan. Is it an oversight ? No, of course. All of the focus of 2023 at Shopify is turning to Shopify Plus.
This is the solution that is likely to be the most talked about this year. For many reasons :
It pays big at Shopify and has just mechanically benefited from a “perceived price drop”. And yes, if the advanced version is at $400, it is close to the plus version without having all the advantages. This therefore narrows the hole in the racket a bit between Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus. The number of merchants wondering about Shopify Plus is likely to be even greater.
It is the most complete solution on the market in total competition with a Magento or a Salesforce Commerce Cloud .
It can manage up to 10 sites of the same brand: ideal for attacking the international market once you have succeeded in a country.
Many new features of Shopify have been exclusive to it for a few months: B2B, changes to checkout, exclusive applications
Its price remains indecently low compared to other solutions on the market.
What future for Shopify?
This price increase can also restore the image of Shopify which for a lot of people still remains anchored on small sites, which has been false for about 10 years.
But it is also a window open to competitors, perhaps Webflow or Mailchimp, to come and acquire small Shopify customers and build a base for growth if wordpress does nothing.
In short, Shopify continues to grow and will therefore be able to offer an increase of almost 5 to 10% of its turnover in 2023 almost solely based on organic growth. At a time when all US companies, even tech, are seeing big dark clouds arriving, Shopify is securing its revenue lines. Even with these price hikes, I still find Shopify extremely inexpensive relative to its power. It is now up to them to justify that this price increase is in the interest of merchants and to continue to innovate and allow e-merchants to do the same: develop their activity in 2023.
And you, what do you think of these price increases from Shopify?
