Shopify Basic Plan Review

In this Shopify Basic Plan review, I’ll share insights from launching multiple online stores across diverse niches. As Shopify’s entry-level paid tier, the Basic Plan packs a surprising punch, offering a robust toolkit that supports both new entrepreneurs and established businesses expanding online. Despite WooCommerce’s larger user base, Shopify’s blend of powerful features and competitive pricing makes it a top choice for many sellers. I’ll examine the plan’s key features, pricing, and how it compares to alternatives, helping you decide if it’s the right fit for your e-commerce goals.

The e-commerce landscape is crowded, with an estimated 12-24 million stores vying for attention. Amazon’s 37% market share looms large, making it crucial for smaller players to differentiate themselves. This is where Shopify truly shines, providing the tools and flexibility to help your store stand out.

I’ve personally used Shopify to launch successful stores in niches ranging from handmade jewelry to dropshipping tech accessories. Each time, Shopify’s robust feature set has proven invaluable.

I’m a big fan of Shopify. In my Shopify review, I have covered all the key features and pros and cons of this industry-leading eCommerce software. Here, I will zoom in on their Basic plan (from $29/month).

Shopify doesn’t just offer top-tier selling tools. The platform boasts an impressive array of customization options and integrations. This flexibility allows you to create a unique store that captures attention and drives sales.

While the Basic plan is Shopify’s entry-level offering among its main tiers, don’t let the name fool you. In my experience, it provides more than enough firepower to build and grow a thriving online business. Let’s break down what you actually get.

Key Takeaway: Shopify’s Basic plan delivers exceptional value. It grants access to Shopify’s core features and robust ecosystem at a competitive price point. Whether you’re just starting out or running an established business, this plan offers the tools needed for success.

For those on an extremely tight budget, Shopify does offer a Starter plan at $5/month. However, based on my work with various clients, I typically recommend the Basic plan for its significantly expanded feature set and growth potential.

What is the Basic Plan?

Shopify is one of the world’s largest platforms for running an e-commerce business and has been around since 2006. The company came to be because a snowboarding company couldn’t find an e-commerce platform that suited their requirements, so instead of giving up, they decided to create their own.

Since then, Shopify has expanded exponentially and now has a 19% global market share and boasts over $4.6 billion in revenue. In other words, Shopify is massive.

Shopify managed to establish itself as a main player because it actually listens to what its customers want. And that means creating plans to suit e-commerce business owners’ needs.

Shopify is a powerful eCommerce platform that empowers businesses to create a seamless online shopping experience. Whether you’re an established eCommerce business or just starting out, Shopify allows you to build your online store with ease. With features like customizable themes, a built-in payment gateway, and high-end security, Shopify provides everything you need to run a successful eCommerce business. If you already have an existing website, Shopify makes it easy to integrate your store with your current site.

Their eCommerce functionality is top-notch, allowing you to easily manage your inventory, track sales, and more. The robust eCommerce builder makes creating an online store a breeze, even for those with little to no experience. With Shopify, businesses across countless industries can leverage the power of an eCommerce platform that delivers real results.

The platform has a number of plans available, but the most popular is the Basic plan. Believe it or not, this isn’t Shopify’s cheapest or, indeed, most basic plan. That title goes to Shopify’s Starter plan. 

However, if you want full use of the platform and all its features, the Basic plan is where you’ll get them for the most affordable price.

What’s Included in Shopify Basic?

Let’s dive into the core features that make Shopify Basic a powerhouse for online sellers:

• Online Store: A fully-featured website with blogging capabilities.
• Unlimited Products: No restrictions on your catalog size.
• 24/7 Support: I’ve found their customer service to be responsive and knowledgeable.
• Abandoned Cart Recovery: A feature that has consistently boosted sales for my clients.
• Discount Codes: Create targeted promotions to drive conversions.
• SSL Certificate: Essential for customer trust and security.
• Manual Order Creation: Useful for phone or in-person sales.

In my experience, these features provide a solid foundation for most e-commerce businesses. The unlimited product listings, in particular, offer significant value compared to some competitors who cap this on lower-tier plans.

Basic Plan Pricing

The Shopify Basic plan is available via a monthly or annual subscription fee:

• Monthly: $39 or;
• Annual: $29/month (billed annually)

Paying annually saves you 25% compared to paying monthly.

You can also try the platform for free for three days, and after this time period is up, you can pay a single $1 and use the platform for a further three months before paying a full subscription rate.

Since you can try the platform for over three months for next to nothing, you do not get a money-back guarantee.

Ready to give the Shopify Basic package a go? Sign up now for free.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Full use of the platform and features for an affordable price
• Sell unlimited products and have up to 1,000 inventory locations
• Integrate with thousands of apps for a truly customized experience
• You get a stable, fast, and secure platform upon which to grow your business

Cons

• Transaction fees on sales are higher than other plans
• Integrating with third-party apps may incur additional costs

Features at a Glance

There’s a good reason why Shopify is the best. Just look at this raft of features you get for your Basic plan subscription fee:

• Free three-day trial and three months for $1
• Unlimited products
• Basic reporting and analytics
• Two staff accounts
• Up to 1,000 inventory locations
• All-in-one point-of-sale system
• Easy and intuitive dashboard
• World-class checkout and payment system
• Inventory and order management
• Automation tools
• Free (and paid) Shopify templates
• Drag-and-drop customization tool
• Seamless app integration
• Email inbox
• Customer chat box
• 24/7 customer support

Why Choose the Basic Plan?

Aside from Shopify being a world leader in e-commerce solutions (although that should be enough to convince you), here’s what I feel stands out about the platform.

Themes and Custom Site Builder

This is probably the most exciting aspect of creating your first Shopify store. You get to pick a theme and totally customize the look so your store is unique to your products and brand.

Shopify themes are essentially templates for your e-commerce website and give you a foundation upon which to build your store. Shopify provides 11 themes for free, or you can opt to splash out on one of the many paid themes.

Once you have selected your theme, you can go ahead and make use of the sophisticated drag-and-drop editing tool, and I tell you, it really is a breeze to use.

I’ve created Shopify sites in the past and have always been blown away by the sheer number of customization options to hand. Those with zero coding knowledge can also breathe a sigh of relief because absolutely none is required here – it’s all done for you.

You don’t even have to come up with your own images. Shopify has a library with tonnes of beautiful images that you can use for your store, along with a wide choice of design elements, fonts, animations, and more.

Creatives will get lost in all the options and go to town. Non-creatives will be relieved it’s so easy to create a beautiful-looking store.

Unlimited Products Everywhere

One thing that irks me is the limits that platforms place on what you can do. And typically, you need to pay more to get increases to those limits. It’s annoying.

Shopify frees you from this hassle because it allows you to set up unlimited product listings and sell to your heart’s content. Yes, that’s unlimited products even on the Basic plan, so you don’t have to worry about having to upgrade once you’re into the swing of things.

Furthermore, you can sell to anyone, anywhere in the world, whether in-person or online. Shopify lets you have up to a whopping 1,000 inventory locations. So if you want a warehouse in Warsaw, a depot in Durban, or a store in Seattle, you can have it all.

If you can’t deal with inventory but still want to sell, Shopify is fully optimized for dropshipping and print-on-demand.

Essentially, whatever you want to do, you can do it on a nearly unlimited basis.

Connect With Business Apps

Now, when I said Shopify was big, I meant it. So much so that it has direct integrations for over 8,000 apps, including:

• Social media
• Drop shipping and print on demand
• Orders and shipping fulfillment
• Marketing, conversion, and SEO tools
• Store management, such as customer help, chat, loyalty programs, and more
• Extra design features

In fact, if you can’t find what you want on the Shopify platform, I can guarantee there will be an app for it in the Shopify app store.

This takes the customization aspect to the next level and provides you with every tool you could ever wish for to move your business forward in a seamless manner.

World Class Checkout System

Shopify’s checkout is unbeatable. Saving you the hassle of connecting with third-party payment providers (although you can do this, too), the platform lets you take payments directly.

The Shop Pay tool is four times faster than standard checkout tools thanks to the “one-tap” nature of completing the transaction, which provides up to a 91% higher conversion rate for mobile and email-based shoppers.

Make use of Shopify’s sophisticated integration capabilities and include upsells, order bumps, coupons, donations, and more. Increase the quality of your customer contact lists by incorporating additional data collection and use the editing tool to customize the checkout to fit your brand.

Add flexible shipping options, pre-orders, subscriptions, express checkouts, and more into the mix, and you have one of the best and most comprehensive checkout systems in the world. It’s truly powerful stuff.

Automation Tools

Automation is everywhere, no matter where you look. So it stands to reason that Shopify has embraced this technology.

It’s not as complicated as you think, either. Use no-code building blocks to create automated workflows for inventory management, loyalty and retention, fulfillment, fraud prevention, and more. You also get templates for commonly used automation flows, so all you need to do is plug it in and press “go.”

Automation takes a load of admin off your hands and gives you back time that you can spend on growing your business.

Here’s a little Shopify fact for you; during Black Friday, the platform performed 562 million automated workflows, and over one billion Shopify decisions are automated monthly.

Automation is useful and is a vital tool in helping you scale your business.

About Shopify

Shopify Pricing Plan

There is a range of Shopify plans to fit the needs of businesses of all sizes. Shopify basic plan is perfect for those just starting out, providing everything needed to launch an online store, including customizable templates and a built-in payment gateway.

Alternatively, their Shopify Advanced and Shopify Starter plans offer additional features like more advanced reporting and lower transaction fees. Shopify’s pricing plans are designed to meet the needs of businesses in any industry, with pricing that is competitive and affordable. The main

Shopify pricing plans include their Shopify basic, Shopify advanced, and Shopify starter plans, all of which offer unique feature sets to suit different business needs. While there are some additional Shopify costs to consider, such as transaction fees and Shopify fees, these are typically minimal and offset by the benefits provided by Shopify’s eCommerce platform.

Shopify General Features

One of the primary reasons for Shopify’s popularity is the platform’s impressive range of features. For retailers with brick-and-mortar locations, Shopify POS is an excellent option that allows you to manage both your online and in-person sales seamlessly. Additionally, their POS pricing is very competitive and comes with a vast range of hardware options to suit different budgets and needs.

Shopify’s advanced and Plus plans offer businesses of all dimensions a broad range of features, including enhanced reporting tools and sales channels, as well as access to various Shopify apps and extensions. Businesses that want to customize their site’s design can leverage Shopify’s theme store, which offers a diverse range of templates to choose from or can be customized to produce a unique feel.

In addition, Shopify provides features like discount codes and abandoned cart recovery that makes it easier to turn browsing potential customers into paying customers, resulting in a more profitable eCommerce business.

Shopify’s extensive list of features helps businesses achieve their goals, whether they want to optimize conversions, increase revenue, or both.

Shopify Payments and Transactions

Shopify’s payment and transaction features are one of the platform’s key strengths. Shopify Payments, Shopify’s built-in payment gateway, offers an easy way for businesses to accept credit card payments, without having to work with a third-party payment gateway provider.

Use Shopify Payments to avoid pesky transaction fees that other payment gateways can charge.

Shopify’s transaction fees, which are charged for each sale, are also reasonable compared to other eCommerce platforms, and its per-transaction pricing ensures that businesses pay depending on the number of transactions they make.

Though there are credit card processing fees involved, Shopify’s transparent pricing structure ensures that businesses know exactly what they are paying, with no hidden fees or surprise costs.

Our Verdict ⭐

The Shopify Basic plan is a powerhouse for e-commerce entrepreneurs, from newcomers to seasoned pros. After extensively testing it against competitors, I can confidently say its feature set is unmatched at this price point. The intuitive interface strikes an impressive balance, making it accessible for beginners while offering the depth seasoned sellers demand. At $29/month per year, it delivers exceptional value.

For those on a tight budget or testing the e-commerce waters, the Starter plan at $5/month is worth considering. While it offers fewer features, I’ve seen clients use it successfully to validate product ideas before scaling up. It’s an ideal low-risk entry point.

That said, my experience with hundreds of online stores has shown that the Basic plan’s robust toolkit often pays for itself quickly. Its advanced features like abandoned cart recovery and professional reporting have consistently boosted sales for my clients, often justifying the cost within the first month.

Ready to launch your e-commerce venture? Based on my hands-on experience, the Shopify Basic plan offers the ideal combination of power and affordability for most online sellers. Take advantage of their free trial to see the difference for yourself.

Our Website Builder Review Methodology

Our review process goes beyond surface-level feature comparisons. We thoroughly test each platform, replicating real-world usage scenarios to provide insights that truly matter to business owners. Here’s a breakdown of our key evaluation criteria:

1. Customization: We assess the flexibility of template designs and the ability to incorporate custom code. In testing Shopify, I was impressed by how easily I could tailor themes to match specific brand aesthetics without diving into complex CSS.
2. User-Friendliness: We evaluate the intuitiveness of navigation and tools like drag-and-drop editors. Shopify’s interface, in my experience, strikes an excellent balance between simplicity and power.
3. Value for Money: We analyze free trials, plan features, and overall cost-effectiveness. Shopify’s Basic plan consistently outperforms competitors in terms of features-to-price ratio.
4. Security: We examine built-in protections for both store owners and customers. Shopify’s robust security measures, including PCI compliance and SSL certificates, have given my clients peace of mind.
5. Templates: We assess the quality, variety, and modernity of available themes. Shopify’s theme selection is diverse and regularly updated, allowing for unique store designs across various industries.
6. Support: We test the responsiveness and effectiveness of customer support channels. In my interactions, Shopify’s 24/7 support has consistently provided quick, knowledgeable assistance.

This comprehensive approach ensures our recommendations are grounded in practical, real-world usage. For a deeper dive into our evaluation process, check out our detailed review methodology.