Are you a business owner? Do you want to reach more people? Yes, then it is time to take your business online. Thanks to advanced technology, the internet has evolved. So has people’s relationship with the internet. It is impossible to imagine a day without a smartphone. From work to shopping everything can be done with smartphones. Between busy schedules and work commitments, people don’t have time to go around and shop. So they are naturally leaning more towards online shopping.
If you want your business to be successful and reach more people then it is time for your business to go online. You see it is common that all the stores have a physical store. But with the internet and smartphones, you can now reach more people. Simply put, you can reach your targeted audience in any part of the world.
So an eCommerce store of yours will reflect your physical store. As you see more and more businesses are open to the idea of opening an online store. If you want to have a competitive advantage then your business must evolve with time. That is the only way for you to stay in business for a long time.
This brings us to the question, how to create your own online store? What do you think that is quite a job and takes a lot of your time and effort? Stop, put a break right there. Nothing is impossible and it doesn’t take a lot of your time and effort because with Shopify it is just a matter of minutes. Yup, you heard it right, it just takes a few minutes to take your business online and create an online store. Sounds cool, right.
But here today you will not be learning how to make an online store using Shopify. But you will learn everything else about Shopify. From their business model to how they make money our team has done the research and compiled all the details for you to understand.
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Shopify business model
If you want to understand the Shopify business model. First, you must understand what Shopify is. As you must have already understood, it is an online service that provides users with all the necessary tools that will help them in creating eCommerce stores. It is a user-friendly interface that is quite simple and easy to use. Within no time you can create a professional online store even if you have no prior coding knowledge.
In simple words, Shopify is a website builder that helps users in building an eCommerce website that comes with domain names and web hosting. It also provides users with a shopping cart service. You can also print labels also without relying on any third party services.
So this brings us to the question. What is the business model of Shopify? Shopify’s business model is the platform business model approach. It helps businesses connect with their customers and sell their products online. It focuses mainly on small and medium businesses.
The store owners have to pay a sum of subscription fees to keep their store running. So in case, a user wants to close a store they can easily close it, no issues. Shopify is subscription-based. So you can keep your store running. And based on your plans you choose you will have advanced features that will help you in creating professional stores.
So now that you have understood the business model it is time to know their most important users.
Important partners of Shopify
These are the key partners that help Shopify work.
Investors
Every business needs investors to stay in the business for a long time. Shopify also integrates with other sites and platforms. It has integrations with Amazon and Facebook making it easy for its users to list their products on these sites in just a few clicks.
Payment Gateways
Also, Shopify has its own gateways and apart from that, it supports many other payment gateways. Simply put, it is providing users with different options to choose from. The payment gateways include Amazon pay, PayPal, Stripe, Worldpay.
Blogs
Shopify also has its blog and it provides a lot of information on how to use the platform. Also apart from that it also depends on the acquisition of companies such as Oberlo, Handshake, etc.
As you have learned about all these details aren’t you curious about how Shopify makes money.
How does Shopify make money?
So now that you have understood about the Shopify business model. It is time to learn about how Shopify makes money. There are different sources of revenue for Shopify. So in this article, you will learn about the different revenue streams of this platform.
Subscription
One of the mainstream of revenue for Shopify is its subscription plans. Yup, you heard it right. Shopify is a website builder that provides different plans for a user to choose from. Based on the plans the features and tools offered also vary. So the users should make a decision based on their needs and requirements. The majority of the revenue of Shopify comes from the subscription plans.
Shopify offers three different subscription plans. They are basic, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify. Basic Shopify offers users with basic features and tools they require to create their eCommerce store and maintain it. It is particularly suitable for small businesses or individuals. If you want a better point of sales features then you must choose the Shopify plan. Advanced Shopify is best for businesses and merchants who have a large clientele.
Apart from these they also have two subscription plans i.e., Shopify Plus and Shopify Lite. Shopify Lite is mainly for people who are looking for ways to sell their products on Facebook. And Shopify Plus is truly best for high volume businesses and traders. The prices may change, for the latest prices refer to their website.
Basic- $29/month
Shopify- $79/month
Advanced Shopify- $299/month
Shopify Plus- $2000/month
Shopify Lite- $9/month
Gateway fees
Apart from monthly subscription fees the other important source of income for Shopify is through payment gateways. These platforms provide different gateways options for users making it comfortable for them. So it charges fees if they are using any payment gateway other than Shopify. The fee will change based on the plan they have chosen.
For the basic Shopify plan, this platform charges 2% percent for every transaction done using payment gateways other Shopify.
In the case of the Shopify plan, it charges 1 percent of transactions done at other payment gateways.
Lastly the advances Shopify charges 0.5 percent every transaction done using other gateways.
In all three subscription plans, the advanced Shopify plan has a low transaction fee.
Merchant Solution Fees
As you already know Shopify has its own payment gateway and this is one of the primary sources of revenue to the Shopify platform. It usually charges different fees based on different plans. So it charges the user for using Shopify payments based on their subscription plans.
For the Basic Shopify plan, they charge 2.9% plus 30 cents for each payment processed through Shopify Payments.
In the case of the Shopify plan, they charge 2.6% plus 30 cents for each transaction processed through Shopify payments as a fee.
Lastly, Advanced Shopify charges a fee of 2.4% plus 30 cents for each transaction processed via Shopify payments.
Basically, the users have to pay a fee whether or not they use Shopify Payments.
Point of sale
Another important revenue stream for Shopify is Point of sale. This is a software service provided by the platform that helps them track the transactions and sales that happen in their physical store. It provides the store owners with combined analytics of both online and in-store sales. Also, one of the most important things that users have to note is that the point of sales features change based on subscription plans. More and more people use this service as it provides them unified analytics. One can say that it is definitely an important income source for Shopify.
Miscellaneous
Apart from the above-mentioned methods, there is another method that is also part of the revenue stream for Shopify is Miscellaneous. One of the main reasons behind the popularity of Shopify is because more people are interested in the themes it offers. No matter what your brand or store is about you will find a theme here. Shopify earns money by selling themes too. It has a theme store where it offers themes. People who are looking to customize their stores can buy themes here. Shopify is offering a wide range of products. From Single products to Large Catalogs you will find everything along with different layout styles. Not only themes you will also find integrations for different sites and add-ons for a fee. Add-ons that will make your store bigger and better you can find in their store.
Investments
As you see every business has an important revenue stream that is investments from investors. Shopify is nowhere less when it comes to investments. To date, it has received total funding of $122.3M. With seven investors this business has received good funding to realize its business ideas. Since investment also brings money into the business you can say that it is also an income stream for them. The last funding is received by Shopify in 2013. It is a series c funding of $100,000,000. Shopify has certainly made some big waves with all the investment it received.
Wrapping up
There is no doubt that Shopify is currently a go-to platform for e-commerce building. Even people with no prior experience can clearly create a store on this platform. This includes people who have no experience with coding. It provides users with all the necessary tools and features you need to customize your site as you want. Not only subscriptions payment gateways also bring in a good amount of cash for Shopify. Hope you have more information regarding the Shopify business model and understand more about the income streams of this platform. Want to know more about other business models? Then check out other articles in the Zeen business model section.
