While digging through the Shopify pricing packages, we encountered the Shopify Starter plan, which was a pure surprise. At that time, many questions popped up in our minds, like “What does the Starter plan do?” and “Is it really profitable?”

If that’s your concern, too, let’s walk through this Shopify Starter review with LitExtension – #1 eCommerce Migration Service. After over 5 months of working with this special plan, we have come up with this detailed article to help you answer these questions:

Without further ado, let’s dive right in!

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Understand the Shopify Starter Plan

What is Shopify Starter Plan?

Don’t have time and resources to open and maintain a fully functional eCommerce website? Shopify Starter plan is the go-to option for you. It allows e-merchants to add and sell products directly from their social media platforms.

After diving into all the features, we have concluded both the pros and cons that come with this Shopify Starter plan. By doing this, you will gain an overall look at the pricing option:

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Who is Shopify Starter plan for?

There are specific scenarios where the Shopify Starter plan proves to be the most suitable option. For instance, here are the cases you should sign up for Shopify Starter:

You have already established websites and sell intermittently and in small quantities.
Creators or influencers whose primary audience resides on social platforms can leverage Shopify Starter through Linkpop.
Businesses aim to test the products and markets to ensure the most effective result for their investment.

You can refer to Steve Roeenfeldt’s successful case study. He is a YouTube cocktail creator who has utilized the Shopify Starter plan to turn his dream into a profitable business. Steve opted for the plan to pre-sell his book “Steve The Bartender’s Cocktail Guide”, citing its ease of setup and online sharing capabilities as the perfect match for his needs.

Because of its minimal features, Shopify’s starter plan may not be the optimal solution for every merchant. For rapidly expanding businesses, upgrading to other Shopify pricing plans is highly recommended as it offers many benefits.

Shopify is a great place to start your online business. Uncover its key features with us in this detailed Shopify review!

Shopify Starter Plan – Pricing Breakdown

Formerly referred to as Shopify Lite, the Starter Plan was initially priced at $9 per month. However, over time, Shopify has not only reduced the cost of the plan but also enhanced its features to better assist merchants in their online selling endeavors.

At present, Shopify Starter only charges merchants $5 per month, which continues to prove it to be the most budgeted Shopify pricing plan. Unlike other plans, there are no hidden fees or extra options to think about. It’s an easy and cheap way to add online shopping to your website or to sell on social media.

You can try out the Shopify Starter plan in 3 days for free. Throughout the trial period, you have full access to all Starter Plan features without any restrictions, except for payment processing through a payment gateway. After that, you will pay the subscription fee as normal.

Additionally, it’s important to note that payment processing with the Shopify Starter plan incurs a transaction fee, set at a flat rate of 5% per transaction through Shopify Payments. Although this rate is considered more competitive than many rivals, it remains more expensive compared to higher Shopify pricing plans – with an average rate of 2.9%+$0.30.

Shopify Starter Plan – Features Review

Now that we’ve covered everything you need to know about its pricing, it’s time for the most important question. Is Shopify Starter good for beginners?

In this part of our in-depth Shopify Starter plan review, let’s discover how this package can assist you in increasing your sales volume.

Ease of use

As part of the Shopify ecosystem, selling with the Starter plan is just a piece of cake. It’s even easier for eCommerce newcomers since it eliminates the burden of building a full-fledged website. During our testing time with this subscription tier, we don’t have any difficulty customizing and selling with the Starter plan.

Shopify Starter plan allows you to upload your product images, add descriptions, set a price, and that’s it! No need to worry about transferring a domain to Shopify, creating landing pages for different purposes, and managing your own store.

Therefore, the Shopify Starter plan, as its name suggests, is perfect for “starters” who have just taken their first steps in the eCommerce world. This platform is also an ideal solution for those who already have a social media page and want to sell directly from this channel.

Themes & customizability

We are quite disappointed that the Shopify Starter plan is only equipped with ONE default theme called “Spotlight”. Unfortunately, you can neither switch to another template nor make changes to the theme. This website template comes as it is and cannot be edited.

This is one of the biggest drawbacks of the Shopify Starter plan. If you want to take advantage of 100+ sophisticated and well-designed templates on the Theme Store, it is recommended to upgrade to Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify pricing plans.

Social commerce

Not every merchant has enough resources to open and maintain a fully functional eCommerce website. They might look for a simple yet secure solution to sell on social media platforms, and this is when Shopify Starter comes into the picture.

Have something to sell? Shopify Starter allows you to upload product images, write descriptions, set the prices, and you are ready to go. Feel free to link these product pages on your social media channels (like Facebook, X, Snapchat, etc.).

On the other hand, you can use Shopify Starter and monetize the links in your bio. With the help of Linkpop, you will be able to design customizable landing pages and create shortened links that can be pasted into your social media bio.

Moneytize your link in the bio — Monetize your link in the bio

When a customer clicks on your link, they are redirected to a Shopify subdomain. There, they can add more products to their shopping cart and make a payment. Everything will be handled by Shopify, so you won’t be burdened by the weight of maintaining a whole eCommerce system.

On top of that, the Starter plan also creates seamless communication between merchants and their online visitors. This pricing option integrates well with several messaging apps like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Thus, you can answer any questions customers might have or provide more information about your products through chatting.

Performance tracking

When it comes to monitoring your performance, this budget Shopify pricing plan only offers basic functions, including:

Analytics
Finances reports
Product analytics
Live View

Acquisition reports
Inventory reports
Marketing reports

With that being said, we believe that for small businesses, these tracking tools are enough to provide you with valuable insights into customers’ behavior.

Shopify Starter internationalization

Selling beyond borders with Shopify Starter has never been easier with the help of Shopify Markets. It is a cross-border management tool that assists you in identifying, setting up, launching, optimizing, and managing international markets, all from a single store.

This feature centralizes all of the features in one single dashboard. Therefore, you can manage localization, shipping, duties, and compliance without having to switch between different stores and locations.

On top of that, it allows you to design customized online shopping experiences for various buyer segments. You can accomplish this by developing marketplaces that are focused on particular nations or areas, or you can combine nations and regions to streamline your expansion efforts.

In-person selling with POS Lite

Besides selling online, you can also provide in-person payment options via the Shopify POS Lite. Simply install the Shopify POS app on your smartphone or tablet to conduct in-person sales. You can swiftly process payments by utilizing Tap to Pay on an iPhone or by purchasing one of the card readers offered by Shopify.

From our research, Shopify POS has a plethora of robust features that you can’t miss out on. For more retail features, you can upgrade to the Shopify POS Pro version. Check out our Shopify POS hardware review for more details!

Customer support

As part of the Shopify ecosystem, users opting for the Starter plan can take advantage of its extensive customers’ support system, including:

Online documentation: This platform provides a vast collection of articles and tutorials on their Shopify Help Center that cover a wide range of topics, from setting up your store to managing your inventory and shipping orders.

Community forum: Shopify has an active community forum where users can ask questions and share their experiences with other users. This is a great resource for getting help from other users who have already gone through similar issues.
Email and chat support: Users can contact their support team directly via email or live chat for assistance with specific issues or questions.

Security

As a hosted eCommerce solution, the Starter plan is highly secured. It has been taking several measures to protect its users’ data and prevent security breaches, including:

PCI compliant: This platform is PCI compliant, meaning that it meets the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) for securely handling and processing credit card transactions.
SSL certificates: Shopify Starter uses SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates to encrypt data transmitted between the user’s browser and the Shopify server, providing an additional layer of security for sensitive information such as credit card details.
Two-factor authentication: This function adds an additional layer of security to protect your store from unauthorized access.

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Shopify Starter vs Basic Shopify Plan – Which One is For You?

Based on the reviewed pricing and features above, you might be wondering whether the Shopify Starter plan is for you since there are still more expensive pricing options to choose from. Let’s take a quick look at the two pricing options between Shopify Starter vs Basic Shopify:

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As you can see, apart from the pricing difference, Shopify Starter and Basic Shopify offer a distinct set of features. Thus, opting for the Shopify Starter plan enables you to commence online sales without the necessity of a website, offering minimal costs.

However, if you’ve progressed to a small business stage, the Basic plan might be more advantageous. This is because small businesses typically require multiple inventory locations to facilitate global sales. In addition, with marketing automation features included in the Basic plan, they can gain a competitive edge over rivals.

Shopify Starter Plan – FAQs

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Final Words

And that brings us to the end of this Shopify Starter plan review. In conclusion, Shopify Starter is an ideal solution for eCommerce beginners who want to start small. This pricing plan lifts up the burden of building and maintaining a complete Shopify store. Therefore, e-merchants can solely focus on growing their business and get sales.

If you want to connect to thousands of eCommerce gurus to gain more insights and grab more eCommerce tips & tricks, let’s check out our LitExtension blog and join our dynamic eCommerce Facebook community.