Does Shopify Get a Percentage of Sales? A Guide to Your Margins

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Does Shopify Take a Cut of Every Sale?
3. Breaking Down the Shopify Plans and Percentages
4. Transaction Fees vs. Payment Processing Fees: The Critical Distinction
5. Why Does Shopify Charge These Percentages?
6. Offsetting Fees with High-Margin Digital Products
7. The Tevello Advantage: Predictable Costs, Unlimited Growth
8. Case Study: Boosting Retention and Revenue
9. Practical Scenario: The "Barista Basics" Strategy
10. How to Reduce the Impact of Shopify Fees
11. The Importance of Owning Your Data
12. Navigating Currency and International Fees
13. Is Shopify Worth the Percentage?
14. How to Get Started with Tevello
15. Conclusion
16. FAQ

Introduction

Imagine you are a specialty coffee roaster. You’ve spent months sourcing the perfect beans from high-altitude farms, perfecting your roasting profile, and designing packaging that pops on the shelf. You launch your Shopify store, the first order rolls in, and you celebrate. But as you look at the payout, you notice the numbers don't quite match the checkout total. You quickly realize that in the world of e-commerce, every sale comes with a small "toll" that pays for the digital roads your business travels on. For many merchants, the first time they ask "does shopify get a percentage of sales" is during that initial moment of reconciliation.

Understanding your margins is the difference between a hobby and a sustainable business. In the creator economy, where physical products often carry high overhead—shipping, storage, and raw materials—knowing exactly how much your platform takes is critical for pricing and profitability. This blog post will dive deep into the mechanics of Shopify's fee structure, from monthly subscriptions to credit card processing and third-party transaction fees. We will also explore how to maximize your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and offset these costs by introducing high-margin digital products, like courses and memberships.

At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. We believe that once you understand the percentages Shopify takes, you can strategically introduce products that carry no shipping costs and zero inventory risk. Our goal today is to give you a transparent look at Shopify's costs and show you how to build a more resilient, high-margin business within the Shopify ecosystem. By the end of this guide, you will have a clear blueprint for navigating fees and leveraging our "Native Shopify Integration" to keep your customers right where they belong: on your brand's website.

Does Shopify Take a Cut of Every Sale?

The short answer is yes, Shopify does take a percentage of your sales, but the "how" and "why" are more nuanced than a simple flat fee. Shopify generates revenue through two primary channels: recurring subscription fees and merchant solutions (transaction-based fees).

When you sell a product on Shopify, you are typically encountering two distinct types of charges:

1. Payment Processing Fees: These are the costs associated with the financial institution processing the credit card transaction.
2. Transaction Fees: These are additional fees Shopify charges if you choose to use a third-party payment gateway instead of their native solution, Shopify Payments.

Think of Shopify fees like the infrastructure of a physical mall. You pay rent for your storefront (the monthly subscription), but there are also costs associated with the security, lighting, and maintenance that keep shoppers coming through the doors. Shopify handles the hosting, the SSL security, the CDN for fast image loading, and the fraud prevention tools that protect your revenue. These small percentages are what fund the constant innovation and stability of the platform.

However, for a merchant focused on growth, these fees represent a challenge to profitability. This is why many savvy business owners are looking for ways to sell products that aren't weighed down by physical logistics. If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses.

Breaking Down the Shopify Plans and Percentages

Shopify’s pricing is tiered to accommodate businesses at every stage of their journey. As you move up the tiers, your monthly fixed cost increases, but your variable costs (the percentage Shopify takes) generally decrease. This creates a "break-even" point where upgrading your plan actually saves you money on every transaction.

The Basic Plan

Designed for solo entrepreneurs and new businesses, the Basic plan is the starting point for most.

• Monthly Cost: Approximately $39 USD (billed monthly) or $29 USD (billed annually).
• Online Credit Card Rate: 2.9% + 30¢ USD per transaction.
• Third-Party Transaction Fee: 2% (if not using Shopify Payments).

On this plan, a $100 sale would result in $3.20 going toward processing fees. While this is the highest percentage, it allows new merchants to get started with very low upfront risk.

The Shopify Plan

Often referred to as the "mid-tier" or "Grow" plan, this is for established businesses with consistent monthly volume.

• Monthly Cost: Approximately $105 USD (monthly) or $79 USD (annually).
• Online Credit Card Rate: 2.6% + 30¢ USD per transaction.
• Third-Party Transaction Fee: 1%.

The reduction from 2.9% to 2.6% may seem small, but on $10,000 of monthly sales, that’s $30 back in your pocket every single month—nearly covering half the difference in the subscription cost.

The Advanced Plan

For high-volume merchants who need advanced reporting and the lowest possible transaction rates.

• Monthly Cost: Approximately $399 USD (monthly) or $299 USD (annually).
• Online Credit Card Rate: 2.4% + 30¢ USD per transaction.
• Third-Party Transaction Fee: 0.5%.

For businesses doing $50,000 or more in monthly volume, the Advanced plan is almost always the most cost-effective choice because the savings on processing fees far outweigh the higher monthly subscription fee.

Shopify Plus

The enterprise solution for brands doing millions in annual revenue. This plan starts at roughly $2,300 per month and offers custom-negotiated rates. Shopify Plus is where the "native" feel of the platform becomes most apparent, offering deep customization and dedicated support for massive scale.

Transaction Fees vs. Payment Processing Fees: The Critical Distinction

One of the most common points of confusion for new merchants is the difference between a processing fee and a transaction fee.

Payment Processing Fees are unavoidable in the modern world. Whether you use Shopify, another platform, or a standalone card reader at a craft fair, banks and credit card companies (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) charge a fee to move money from the customer's account to yours. When you use Shopify Payments, you are paying these fees directly through Shopify.

Transaction Fees, on the other hand, are specifically a "platform fee." If you decide you don't want to use Shopify's native payment system and instead want to route payments through a third-party gateway, Shopify charges an additional 0.5% to 2% (depending on your plan). This is because Shopify has built a highly secure checkout environment, and when you use a third-party provider, they still maintain that environment but don't receive the processing revenue to offset the costs.

At Tevello, we always recommend using Shopify Payments whenever possible. Not only does it eliminate that extra transaction fee, but it also provides the most "Native Shopify Integration" experience for your customers. This keeps them on your domain and uses the payment methods they already trust (like Shop Pay or Apple Pay), which drastically improves conversion rates.

Why Does Shopify Charge These Percentages?

It is easy to look at a 2.9% fee and feel like the platform is eating your profits. However, it is helpful to look at what that percentage actually provides. In the early days of e-commerce, a merchant had to:

1. Pay for a web server (hosting).
2. Purchase and install an SSL certificate for security.
3. Hire a developer to ensure the checkout was PCI compliant.
4. Manually integrate a payment gateway.
5. Deal with complex fraud detection systems.

Shopify bundles all of this into their fee structure. They provide "level 1 PCI DSS compliance," which is the highest standard of security for credit card processing. They offer 24/7 support and ensure that even if you have a massive surge in traffic (like a Black Friday sale), your store stays online.

Instead of seeing the percentage as a loss, think of it as an outsourced operations team. You are paying for the peace of mind that your store is secure, fast, and always open for business. This allows you to focus on what matters: creating products and building community.

Offsetting Fees with High-Margin Digital Products

One of the most effective ways to protect your margins against Shopify’s percentages is to diversify your product catalog. Physical goods often have a "cost of goods sold" (COGS) that accounts for 30% to 60% of the price. When you add Shopify fees and shipping on top of that, your net profit can feel thin.

Digital products, however, change the math entirely. Once a course or a membership site is created, the cost of selling an additional unit is essentially zero. There are no shipping boxes, no warehouse fees, and no raw materials to repurchase.

For example, let’s go back to our coffee roaster. If they sell a bag of beans for $20, their profit might be $8 after COGS, shipping, and Shopify's percentage. However, if they also offer a "Mastering the Pour-Over" video course for $40, their profit on that digital sale is nearly the full $40 (minus the processing fee). By generating revenue from both physical and digital goods, a merchant can significantly increase their overall store margin.

This is where Tevello shines. We enable you to offer these high-margin digital products right alongside your physical inventory. Because we use a native integration, your customer buys the coffee beans and the course in a single checkout experience. This reduces friction and increases the likelihood of a higher Average Order Value (AOV).

The Tevello Advantage: Predictable Costs, Unlimited Growth

When we designed Tevello, we looked at the landscape of "course builder" apps and saw a recurring problem: many apps mimic Shopify’s fee structure by charging "success fees" or per-student fees. We believe that's the wrong approach. If you work hard to grow your community, you shouldn't be penalized with higher fees as you succeed.

That is why we offer The Unlimited Plan at $29.99 per month.

With Tevello, we charge 0% transaction fees. You already pay Shopify a percentage of your sales; we don’t believe your course app should take a "cut" too. Our pricing is designed to be a flat, predictable expense, allowing you to scale from 10 students to 10,000 students without your Tevello bill changing.

Our Unlimited Plan includes:

• Unlimited courses and students.
• Unlimited video hosting and bandwidth.
• all the key features for courses and communities such as member directories and social feeds.
• Drip content scheduling and quizzes.

By choosing predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees, you can accurately forecast your profits. You know that for $29.99/month, you have the infrastructure to sell as much as your marketing can handle.

Case Study: Boosting Retention and Revenue

To understand the power of combining a great Shopify setup with digital products, we can look at how brands are using these tools to drive repeat business. One of the biggest challenges in e-commerce is the cost of customer acquisition. It is much cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to find a new one.

Consider a fitness equipment brand. They sell a set of resistance bands. That is a one-time purchase with a set margin. However, by adding a membership community or a library of workout videos, they turn a one-time buyer into a long-term subscriber. We’ve seen brands generating over €243,000 by upselling existing customers on digital add-ons that provide value far beyond the initial physical product.

This strategy doesn't just increase immediate revenue; it builds brand loyalty. When a customer logs into your store to watch a workout video or participate in a community discussion, your brand becomes a part of their daily routine. This leads to driving 50% of sales from repeat course purchasers, as these engaged users are the first to buy your next physical product release.

Practical Scenario: The "Barista Basics" Strategy

Let’s apply this to a real-world merchant. Imagine a small business selling high-end espresso machines. These are high-ticket items, but the margins are often tight due to manufacturer pricing and heavy shipping costs.

The merchant decides to use Tevello to create a "Home Barista Masterclass."

1. The Hook: They offer the masterclass for free with every machine purchase. This justifies a higher price point for the machine and differentiates them from big-box retailers.
2. The Community: Inside the course area, they have a member directory where espresso enthusiasts can share recipes.
3. The Upsell: Within the course modules, they link back to their Shopify store for coffee beans, grinders, and cleaning kits.

Because they are digital products that live directly alongside physical stock, the customer never feels like they are leaving the store. They don't have to create a new login for a third-party platform like Teachable or Kajabi. They use the same Shopify account they created when they bought the machine.

From the merchant’s perspective, the "percentage" Shopify takes on the espresso machine sale is now offset by the high-margin, recurring sales of coffee beans and the added value of the digital content. This is how you see how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses while maintaining a lean, efficient operation.

How to Reduce the Impact of Shopify Fees

While you can’t eliminate processing fees entirely, there are several strategic moves you can make to minimize the "cut" Shopify and banks take from your revenue:

1. Use Shopify Payments

As mentioned, this is the #1 way to save. By avoiding the third-party transaction fee, you instantly save 0.5% to 2% on every single order.

2. Monitor Your Volume for Plan Upgrades

Don't just set your plan and forget it. You should be comparing plan costs against total course revenue and physical sales every quarter. If your monthly sales are consistently over $15,000, moving from the Basic plan to the Shopify plan will likely save you more in fees than the increase in the monthly subscription.

3. Encourage Lower-Cost Payment Methods

While you shouldn't restrict how customers want to pay, highlighting "Shop Pay" can sometimes lead to smoother transactions and better data integration within the Shopify ecosystem.

4. Focus on Digital "No-Cost" Products

Every time you sell a digital product through Tevello, you are making a sale with zero COGS. This increases your net profit margin across the entire store. Even if Shopify takes their 2.9%, 97.1% of that digital sale is "found money" compared to the 20-30% net margin you might see on a physical product.

The Importance of Owning Your Data

At Tevello, a core part of our philosophy is that merchants should own their customer data and brand experience. Many third-party course platforms act as a middleman. When you send a customer to an external site to take a course, you lose control over the tracking pixels, the branding, and the "URL real estate."

By seeing how the app natively integrates with Shopify, you ensure that every interaction happens on your domain. This is vital for several reasons:

• SEO: More time spent on your site signals to search engines that your content is valuable.
• Retargeting: Your Facebook and Google tracking pixels can see which course modules a customer is viewing, allowing you to send highly targeted ads.
• Trust: Redirecting a customer to a different website after they've paid can feel jarring and unprofessional. Keeping them on your URL builds brand authority.

Our ecosystem allows physical products, digital courses, and community engagement to live side-by-side. This holistic approach is what transforms a simple "store" into a "digital learning powerhouse."

Navigating Currency and International Fees

It is also worth noting that if you sell internationally, Shopify may take an additional percentage for currency conversion. This usually falls around 1.5% to 2% depending on your location.

To manage this, Shopify Markets allows you to set localized pricing. If you know that international sales carry higher fees, you can adjust your prices for specific regions to ensure your margins remain consistent globally. For digital products sold through Tevello, these conversion fees are much easier to absorb because the product itself has no manufacturing or shipping cost. This makes digital courses an ideal way to expand into international markets without the headache of global logistics.

Is Shopify Worth the Percentage?

When you look at the total cost of ownership, Shopify remains one of the most cost-effective ways to run a professional e-commerce business. While competitors might lure you in with "no monthly fee" or "lower percentages," they often hide costs elsewhere—charging for basic features, offering poor security, or having a checkout that converts poorly.

Shopify’s "percentage" is an investment in a high-converting, secure checkout. By using an app like Tevello, you are simply maximizing the utility of that investment. You are taking the same customer who was already going through that secure checkout and offering them more value through memberships and education.

Instead of asking "How do I pay Shopify less?", the more productive question is "How do I make every transaction worth more?" By increasing your AOV and focusing on high-margin digital goods, the small percentage Shopify takes becomes a negligible part of a much larger, more profitable picture.

How to Get Started with Tevello

Ready to turn your Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse? We’ve made the process as simple as possible. Because we are a native Shopify app, you don't need to learn a new dashboard or manage a separate set of customer accounts.

1. Install: Head to the Shopify App Store and add Tevello to your store.
2. Build: Use our intuitive builder to create your first course or membership area. You can upload videos, create quizzes, and set up drip schedules.
3. Trial: We offer a 14-day free trial, so you can build out your entire curriculum and see how it looks on your store before you ever pay a cent.
4. Launch: Once you're ready, simply add your course as a product in Shopify and start selling.

Remember, on our Unlimited Plan, we never charge transaction fees. You keep 100% of your earnings from your digital products (after Shopify's standard processing). Whether you are a fitness coach, a craft enthusiast, or a software educator, our platform is built to scale with you.

install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today and begin diversifying your revenue streams.

Conclusion

Understanding "does shopify get a percentage of sales" is the first step toward mastering your e-commerce finances. Yes, there are credit card fees and potential transaction fees, but these are the costs of using a world-class infrastructure that keeps your business running 24/7. By choosing the right Shopify plan for your volume and utilizing Shopify Payments, you can keep these costs to a minimum.

More importantly, by integrating digital products into your store, you can create a high-margin revenue stream that offsets the costs of selling physical goods. At Tevello, we are committed to providing you with the tools to do just that. Our Unlimited Plan at $29.99/month with 0% transaction fees ensures that your growth is always profitable and your costs are always predictable.

You deserve to own your brand experience and your customer data. Don't send your community to a third-party platform when you can host them right on your own Shopify store. Build your "powerhouse" today and start seeing the benefits of a truly integrated e-commerce and e-learning business.

To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.

FAQ

Does Shopify take a percentage of my digital course sales?

Shopify treats digital products exactly like physical products. If you sell a course through your Shopify checkout, Shopify will take their standard credit card processing fee (e.g., 2.9% + 30¢ on the Basic plan). However, unlike other course platforms, Tevello does not take any additional "success fees" or transaction fees. You keep everything else.

Can I avoid the 2% third-party transaction fee?

Yes! The best way to avoid the extra transaction fee is to use Shopify Payments as your primary payment gateway. This is available in most major countries and ensures that you only pay the credit card processing fee, with 0% in additional platform transaction fees.

Is there a limit to how many students I can have on the $29.99 plan?

No. At Tevello, we believe in supporting your growth. Our Unlimited Plan ($29.99/month) allows for unlimited students, unlimited courses, and unlimited video hosting. Your price stays the same whether you have 1 student or 100,000.

Do I need a separate website to host my courses?

No. One of the biggest advantages of Tevello is that it is a native Shopify app. Your courses live on your existing Shopify domain (e.g., yourstore.com/apps/courses). This means your customers use their existing store account to log in, and you manage everything from your Shopify admin dashboard.