How Much Does Shopify Take Per Sale? Understanding Fees

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Does Shopify Take a Percentage of Each Sale?
3. The Tiered Reality: Fees Based on Your Shopify Plan
4. Hidden Costs That Squeeze Your Margins
5. Strategies to Reduce the "Shopify Tax"
6. The High-Margin Solution: Digital Learning and Tevello
7. Practical Scenario: The Upsell Strategy
8. Transparency in Costs: The Tevello Advantage
9. Case Studies: Real Growth on Shopify
10. Setting Realistic Expectations for Your Store
11. Checklist: Managing Your Shopify Selling Fees
12. Building for the Long Term
13. Conclusion
14. FAQ

Introduction

In a digital landscape where the creator economy is estimated to be worth over $250 billion, every percentage point of your revenue counts. For many merchants, the initial excitement of launching a store is quickly met with the reality of "fee fatigue." You see a sale for $100, but only $96.80 hits your bank account. Where did that money go? Did it vanish into the void of the internet, or is it the cost of doing business on the world's most powerful e-commerce platform?

Running an online business requires a shift in mindset from "selling" to "managing margins." Understanding exactly how Shopify calculates its cut is not just a bookkeeping exercise—it is a strategic necessity. Whether you are selling handcrafted physical goods or high-margin digital courses, these transaction and processing fees dictate your pricing strategy, your marketing budget, and your ultimate profitability. If you don't account for them, you are essentially giving away a portion of your hard-earned profit before you even cover your inventory costs.

The purpose of this guide is to demystify the Shopify fee structure. We will explore the difference between payment processing fees and transaction fees, break down the costs associated with each subscription tier, and identify ways to keep more of your revenue. Furthermore, we will discuss how pivoting into digital products and memberships can help you offset these "platform taxes" by creating high-margin revenue streams. Our thesis is simple: While Shopify does take a percentage of each sale to maintain its infrastructure, savvy merchants can optimize their setup—and their product mix—to maximize every dollar earned.

Does Shopify Take a Percentage of Each Sale?

The short answer is yes. However, it is rarely a single "cut." Instead, it is a combination of two distinct types of fees that merchants often confuse: payment processing fees and third-party transaction fees.

Payment Processing Fees

These are the most common fees you will encounter. Regardless of whether you use Shopify, every time a customer swipes a card or enters their digits online, a financial institution has to verify the funds, prevent fraud, and move the money. Shopify Payments (powered by Stripe) handles this for most merchants. The fee is typically a percentage of the total transaction plus a small fixed fee (e.g., 2.9% + 30¢). This covers the "plumbing" of the financial world.

Third-Party Transaction Fees

This is the fee Shopify charges you for the "privilege" of using a payment gateway other than their own. If you choose to use an external provider, Shopify loses out on the processing fee, so they charge a transaction fee ranging from 0.5% to 2% to compensate. This is effectively a penalty for stepping outside their ecosystem. The good news? If you use Shopify Payments, this fee is waived entirely.

The Tiered Reality: Fees Based on Your Shopify Plan

Your monthly subscription does more than just grant access to the dashboard; it determines the "toll" you pay on every order. As you move up the tiers, Shopify reduces the percentage it takes from each sale. This creates a "break-even point" where it actually becomes cheaper to pay for a more expensive monthly plan to save on transaction volume.

Shopify Basic: For the Emerging Brand

The Basic plan ($39/month or $29/month billed annually) is where most creators begin. It offers a robust set of tools but carries the highest per-transaction costs.

• Online Credit Card Rate: 2.9% + 30¢
• In-Person Rate: 2.6% + 10¢
• Third-Party Transaction Fee: 2% (if not using Shopify Payments)

For a merchant selling $2,000 worth of goods a month, these fees are manageable. However, as volume grows, that 2.9% starts to sting.

Shopify "Grow" Plan: The Scaling Phase

At $105/month (or $79 annually), the mid-tier plan is designed for businesses that have found product-market fit.

• Online Credit Card Rate: 2.6% + 30¢
• In-Person Rate: 2.5% + 10¢
• Third-Party Transaction Fee: 1%

By dropping the online rate by 0.3%, a merchant doing $20,000 in monthly sales saves $60 per month just on processing. When you add the lower transaction fee, the plan pays for itself.

Shopify Advanced: High Volume Optimization

The Advanced plan ($399/month or $299 annually) is for the heavy hitters.

• Online Credit Card Rate: 2.4% + 30¢
• In-Person Rate: 2.4% + 10¢
• Third-Party Transaction Fee: 0.6%

At this level, you are comparing plan costs against total course revenue or product sales to see where the margins sit. Merchants at this stage often use advanced reporting to track exactly how these fractions of a percent impact their bottom line.

Hidden Costs That Squeeze Your Margins

While the headline percentages are clear, there are several "quiet" fees that can erode your profitability if you aren't paying attention.

1. International and Currency Conversion Fees

If you sell to a customer in the UK while based in the US, Shopify doesn't just charge the standard rate. There is often an additional 1% to 2% fee for international credit card processing, plus a 1.5% to 2% currency conversion fee. For a global brand, a "2.9% fee" can quickly balloon to nearly 6%.

2. The Flat 30-Cent Fee

For merchants with low Average Order Values (AOV)—such as those selling $5 stickers or digital downloads—the 30-cent flat fee is a margin killer. On a $5 sale, 30 cents represents 6% of the revenue. Combined with the 2.9% rate, you are losing nearly 9% to fees before you even consider the cost of the product.

3. App Subscriptions

Most successful stores rely on a handful of apps for email marketing, SEO, or upsells. These monthly costs are "indirect selling fees." If you are paying $200 a month for various apps, that is money that must be recouped through sales. At Tevello, we believe in a different approach. Instead of a "success fee" that takes more money as you grow, we offer a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses to keep your tech stack predictable.

Strategies to Reduce the "Shopify Tax"

You cannot avoid processing fees entirely—the banks will always want their cut—but you can certainly optimize your setup.

• Use Shopify Payments: This is the easiest win. By using the native gateway, you immediately eliminate the 0.5%–2% third-party transaction fee.
• Audit Your Plan Tier Monthly: If your sales volume has spiked, do the math. If the savings from a lower processing rate exceed the jump in the monthly subscription cost, upgrade immediately.
• Increase Your AOV: Since the 30-cent fee is per transaction, not per item, selling a $50 bundle is much more profitable than selling ten $5 items separately. Encouraging customers to add more to their cart reduces the relative impact of the flat fee.
• Diversify into Digital Goods: Physical goods have high overhead (COGS, shipping, storage). Digital products like courses or memberships have virtually zero overhead after the initial creation, making the Shopify fee much easier to absorb.

The High-Margin Solution: Digital Learning and Tevello

One of the most effective ways to combat the erosion of margins is to change what you sell. When you sell a physical product, a significant portion of your revenue goes to the manufacturer, the shipping carrier, and the warehouse. When you add digital products to the mix, your margin on those specific items is nearly 100% (minus the Shopify fee).

At Tevello, our mission is to "turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse." We believe that merchants should own their customer data and brand experience. This is why our solution focuses on keeping customers at home on the brand website. Instead of sending your customers to a third-party platform that might charge its own "success fees" or transaction percentages, we allow you to sell courses and memberships directly on your Shopify store.

The Power of Native Shopify Integration

The secret to reducing friction (and abandoned carts) is a unified login that reduces customer support friction. When you use Tevello, your courses live side-by-side with your physical products. Your customers use the same account and the same checkout they already trust. This "Native Shopify Integration" ensures a seamless experience while keeping your financial data consolidated in one place.

If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses.

Practical Scenario: The Upsell Strategy

Consider a merchant who sells premium coffee beans. Shipping physical bags of coffee is a low-margin business once you account for the beans, the packaging, the Shopify fees, and the shipping costs.

To increase profitability, the merchant creates a "Home Barista Masterclass" video course using Tevello.

1. The Physical Sale: A customer buys a $20 bag of beans. After COGS ($8), shipping ($6), and Shopify fees (approx. $0.90), the merchant nets about $5.10.
2. The Digital Upsell: At checkout, the customer adds the $40 masterclass. Because it is a digital product, there is no COGS and no shipping. The only cost is the Shopify processing fee (approx. $1.46). The merchant nets $38.54 on that digital add-on.

By adding a digital component, the merchant has more than quadrupled their profit on that single customer without increasing their inventory risk. This is the power of generating over €243,000 by upselling existing customers. By focusing on driving 50% of sales from repeat course purchasers, you can build a stable, recurring revenue stream that makes the standard Shopify fees feel like a small investment in a much larger machine.

Transparency in Costs: The Tevello Advantage

Many Shopify apps use "success fees" or tiered pricing that gets more expensive as you become more successful. We find that model counterproductive to the merchant's growth. If you have 10,000 students, you shouldn't be penalized for that success.

Our pricing model is built for transparency:

• The Unlimited Plan: $29.99 per month.
• 0% Transaction Fees: You keep 100% of your earnings (after Shopify’s standard processing). We never take a cut of your course sales.
• Predictability: Whether you have 10 students or 10,000, your cost with Tevello stays the same.

This allows for securing a fixed cost structure for digital products. When you aren't worrying about an app taking an extra 2% or 5% of your sales, you can reinvest that money into ads, content creation, or product development.

Case Studies: Real Growth on Shopify

We have seen firsthand how merchants transform their businesses by leveraging the Shopify ecosystem correctly. For example, look at how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses. By using strategies for selling over 4,000 digital courses natively, they were able to scale rapidly without the technical headaches of managing a fragmented system.

When you keep everything within Shopify, you aren't just saving on external platform fees; you are building an asset. You own the customer journey from the first click to the final lesson. This ownership is what increases Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and provides the recurring revenue stability that every business owner craves.

Setting Realistic Expectations for Your Store

It is important to remember that tools like Shopify and Tevello are amplifiers. They will not generate "six figures in your first week" out of thin air. Building a successful brand takes consistent effort in marketing, community engagement, and product quality.

However, by choosing the right infrastructure, you ensure that as your effort pays off, your profits aren't being siphoned away by inefficient fee structures. A robust tool should work for you, not against you. By seeing how the app natively integrates with Shopify, you can begin building your curriculum today, knowing that your technical foundation is solid and your costs are fixed.

Checklist: Managing Your Shopify Selling Fees

To ensure you are keeping as much of your revenue as possible, follow this monthly checklist:

1. Gateway Check: Confirm you are using Shopify Payments. If you aren't, calculate if the third-party fee (0.5%–2%) is worth the alternate provider's benefits.
2. Tier Calculation: Multiply your monthly sales by the difference in processing rates between your current plan and the next tier up. (e.g., $20,000 x 0.003 = $60). If that number is close to the subscription price jump, it’s time to move up.
3. App Audit: Review your Shopify billing. Are you paying for "zombie apps" you no longer use? Are you paying for a platform that takes a percentage of sales when you could be using a flat-rate solution like Tevello?
4. AOV Review: Look at your average order value. If it is under $15, the 30-cent fee is taking a massive bite. Consider bundling products to push that average higher.
5. Digital Mix: Identify one digital asset you can create this month—a guide, a mini-course, or a community access pass—to introduce a high-margin product into your catalog.

Building for the Long Term

The goal of every merchant should be to build a business that is not only profitable but also sustainable. Relying solely on physical goods means you are always at the mercy of supply chains and rising shipping costs. By integrating digital learning and community engagement, you create a "moat" around your brand.

When a customer buys a course from you, they aren't just buying information; they are buying into your expertise. This builds a level of trust that a simple physical transaction cannot match. And when that course is hosted natively on your store, the customer stays in your environment, seeing your latest physical products every time they log in to learn.

Install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today to see how easy it is to start this transition. You can build your entire curriculum during our 14-day free trial before you ever have to worry about a subscription fee.

Conclusion

Understanding "does Shopify take a percentage of each sale" is the first step toward true e-commerce mastery. Yes, the platform takes a cut, but that cut is the price of a secure, scalable, and world-class engine that powers your dreams. By navigating the different tiers, utilizing Shopify Payments, and incorporating high-margin digital products via Tevello, you can effectively minimize those costs and maximize your take-home pay.

At Tevello, we are committed to helping you turn your Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. We provide the all-in-one ecosystem you need to manage courses, communities, and digital goods without hidden fees or "success taxes." Our $29.99 Unlimited Plan is designed to scale with you, ensuring that as your community grows, your costs remain predictable and fair.

To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from. Focus on the long-term benefits of recurring revenue and brand loyalty, and let our tools handle the technical heavy lifting.

FAQ

Does Shopify take a cut of my digital course sales?

Shopify charges its standard payment processing fee (e.g., 2.9% + 30¢) on every transaction, including digital courses. However, if you use Tevello to host those courses, we charge 0% transaction fees. Unlike other platforms that might take an additional 5% to 10% of your course revenue, with Tevello and Shopify, you only pay the standard merchant processing rates.

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

Yes, the most effective way to avoid this extra fee is to enable Shopify Payments. When you use Shopify's native gateway, they waive the additional transaction fee that usually applies to external processors like third-party gateways. This is one of the quickest ways to improve your margins immediately.

What happens to the fees if I refund a customer?

When you issue a refund on Shopify, the platform typically returns the total sale amount to the customer. However, the credit card processing fee (the percentage + 30¢) is generally not refunded to you by the payment processor. This is why it is vital to have a clear refund policy, especially for digital products where consumption can happen quickly.

Is there a limit to how many students or courses I can have?

On many platforms, you have to pay more as you gain more students. With Tevello’s Unlimited Plan, there are no limits. You can host unlimited courses and unlimited students for one flat monthly price. This ensures your costs stay predictable even as your community goes viral or your marketing efforts scale.