Understanding How Much Shopify Charge Per Sale to Boost Your Profit

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Anatomy of a Shopify Transaction
3. How Much Shopify Charge Per Sale: A Detailed Breakdown by Plan
4. The Strategy of Native Integration
5. Digital Products: The Key to Higher Margins
6. Why Tevello’s Pricing is Different
7. Moving from Fragmented Systems to a Unified Storefront
8. How to Calculate Your "Real" Cost Per Sale
9. Technical Advantages of Staying "Shopify Native"
10. Setting Realistic Expectations for Growth
11. Actionable Checklist: Lowering Your Shopify Costs
12. The Future of E-commerce is Hybrid
13. Summary of Shopify Fee Tiers
14. Maximizing Your Free Trial Period
15. Conclusion

Introduction

Did you know that in the physical product world, a merchant is often lucky to walk away with a 15% net profit margin after accounting for COGS, shipping, and storage? For many store owners, the realization of how much inventory truly costs—and the risk of that inventory sitting stagnant—is a constant source of stress. In contrast, the digital learning market is projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the decade, offering margins that physical goods simply cannot match. However, to truly capitalize on these margins, you must first understand the foundational mathematics of your platform. A common question for every entrepreneur entering this space is: exactly how much shopify charge per sale?

The purpose of this blog post is to pull back the curtain on the multi-layered fee structure of Shopify. We will explore subscription costs, payment processing fees, and the often-misunderstood "transaction fees" that can eat into your bottom line if you aren't careful. Furthermore, we will discuss how to optimize these costs by integrating digital products—specifically courses and memberships—into your existing storefront. Our mission at Tevello is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse, and doing so requires a clear-eyed understanding of your overhead.

By the end of this guide, you will have a comprehensive roadmap to Shopify’s pricing, a clear strategy for reducing unnecessary expenses, and a vision for how to leverage digital products to increase your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). Understanding the cost of doing business is the first step toward building a sustainable, high-growth brand where your physical and digital ecosystems thrive side-by-side.

The Anatomy of a Shopify Transaction

To answer the question of how much shopify charge per sale, we must first break the "charge" into its constituent parts. Shopify doesn't just take one flat percentage; rather, the cost is composed of three distinct layers: the subscription fee, the payment processing fee, and the platform transaction fee.

1. The Subscription Fee (The Fixed Cost)

This is the monthly or annual price you pay just to keep the lights on. Whether you make zero sales or ten thousand sales, this fee remains constant. Currently, Shopify offers three main tiers:

• Basic: $39 USD/month (or $29/month billed annually).
• Shopify (Grow): $105 USD/month (or $79/month billed annually).
• Advanced: $399 USD/month (or $299/month billed annually).

2. Payment Processing Fees (The "Credit Card" Fee)

This is what the "bank" or the payment processor charges to move money from the customer's account to yours. These fees are unavoidable in modern e-commerce. If you use Shopify Payments (Shopify’s native payment processor), these rates are clearly defined based on your plan. For example, on the Basic plan, you typically pay 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction. As you move up to the Advanced plan, this rate drops to 2.4% + $0.30.

3. Platform Transaction Fees (The "Third-Party" Penalty)

This is the fee that often surprises new merchants. If you choose not to use Shopify Payments and instead use a third-party gateway like PayPal (as a standalone), Stripe, or Authorize.net, Shopify charges an additional fee for "using" their platform to facilitate that sale. This ranges from 2.0% on the Basic plan down to 0.6% on the Advanced plan.

How Much Shopify Charge Per Sale: A Detailed Breakdown by Plan

To build a profitable business, you need to know your "break-even" point and how your margins shift as you scale. Let's look at how these fees manifest across the different plan levels.

The Basic Plan: Starting Your Journey

The Basic plan is the entry point for most entrepreneurs. It provides all the essentials to start selling, but it carries the highest per-sale percentage.

• Online Credit Card Rate: 2.9% + $0.30.
• In-Person (POS) Rate: 2.6% + $0.10.
• Third-Party Transaction Fee: 2.0%.

If you sell a $100 digital course on the Basic plan using Shopify Payments, you would pay $2.90 + $0.30, totaling $3.20. Your net take-home (before other costs) would be $96.80. However, if you used a third-party gateway, you would pay that gateway's fee plus an additional $2.00 (2%) to Shopify.

The Shopify (Grow) Plan: Scaling Up

As your volume increases, the monthly subscription cost of the "Grow" plan becomes a savvy investment because it lowers your per-sale charge.

• Online Credit Card Rate: 2.7% + $0.30.
• In-Person (POS) Rate: 2.5% + $0.10.
• Third-Party Transaction Fee: 1.0%.

The 0.2% difference in credit card rates might seem small, but on $10,000 of monthly sales, that is an extra $20 in your pocket. More importantly, the third-party fee drops by half.

The Advanced Plan: For High-Volume Powerhouses

The Advanced plan is designed for merchants doing significant volume. The high monthly fee is offset by the lowest available transaction rates.

• Online Credit Card Rate: 2.4% + $0.30.
• In-Person (POS) Rate: 2.4% + $0.10.
• Third-Party Transaction Fee: 0.6%.

For a merchant selling $50,000 a month, the shift from the Basic plan's 2.9% to the Advanced plan's 2.4% saves $250 per month on credit card fees alone—nearly covering the price difference of the subscription itself.

The Strategy of Native Integration

At Tevello, we believe merchants should own their customer data and brand experience. This is why our "Native Shopify Integration" is so central to what we do. When you look at all the key features for courses and communities that we offer, the most important one is that everything happens within your Shopify ecosystem.

By staying native, you ensure a seamless checkout experience using the payment gateways you already trust. This means that when a customer buys a course, it is processed exactly like a physical product. You don't have to worry about "double" transaction fees or sending customers to a messy third-party URL. We advocate for keeping customers at home on the brand website because it builds trust and keeps your data clean.

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

Digital Products: The Key to Higher Margins

When merchants ask how much shopify charge per sale, they are usually trying to figure out how to increase their net profit. The most effective way to do this isn't just by cutting costs; it's by changing what you sell.

Physical products come with "hidden" costs:

1. Manufacturing/Sourcing: 30-50% of the retail price.
2. Shipping: 10-20% of the retail price.
3. Storage/3PL: Monthly fees + pick/pack fees.
4. Damages/Returns: 3-5% loss.

Digital products, such as courses, memberships, and community access, have a high upfront "creation cost" (your time) but a near-zero "marginal cost" (the cost of selling one more unit). When you sell a digital course through Tevello, you are still paying the Shopify credit card processing fee, but you have eliminated the COGS, the shipping, and the storage. This turns a 15% profit margin into an 80-90% profit margin.

Practical Scenario: The Coffee Roaster’s "Barista Masterclass"

Imagine a merchant selling high-end coffee beans on Shopify. Their physical margin is tight due to the weight of shipping beans and the cost of sourcing. By using Tevello, they can create a "Barista Basics" video course.

• The Physical Sale: A $30 bag of beans might net $5 after all fees and costs.
• The Digital Upsell: A $50 "Home Brewing Masterclass" nets approximately $48 (after Shopify’s ~2.9% + 30c fee).

The merchant has doubled their profit on that customer without needing to ship a second box. You can see how merchants are earning six figures by implementing exactly this type of hybrid model.

Why Tevello’s Pricing is Different

Many "course platforms" operate on a "success fee" model. They might charge you $99 a month and then take an additional 3% to 5% of every sale you make. When you add that to Shopify’s existing fees, you could be losing 10% or more of your revenue before you even pay for marketing.

We find that model to be unfair to growing businesses. That is why we offer The Unlimited Plan for $29.99 per month.

Crucially, we charge 0% transaction fees. We believe you should keep 100% of what you earn (minus what you owe to Shopify/the banks). By providing predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees, we allow you to scale your community from 10 students to 10,000 students without your software costs ballooning out of control. We focus on a flat-rate plan that supports unlimited members so you can focus on your content, not your bill.

Moving from Fragmented Systems to a Unified Storefront

One of the biggest drains on a merchant's time and money is a fragmented tech stack. If your shop is on Shopify, but your courses are on a third-party platform, you are likely dealing with:

• Manual Customer Syncing: Trying to make sure someone who bought a product gets access to the course.
• Login Friction: Customers forgetting which password goes to which site.
• Data Silos: Not knowing if your best physical product customers are also your best digital students.

We have helped many merchants overcome these hurdles. For instance, consider the experience of migrating over 14,000 members and reducing support tickets for a brand that was struggling with a disjointed system. By solving login issues by moving to a native platform, the merchant was able to provide a single-login experience that significantly boosted customer satisfaction.

How to Calculate Your "Real" Cost Per Sale

To truly understand how much shopify charge per sale, you should use a simple formula for your "Net Per Sale":

Net Sale = (Gross Sale Amount - Shopify Payment Fee - Fixed Per-Order Fee) - App-Specific Costs

If you are selling physical goods, you then subtract COGS and shipping. If you are selling digital goods via Tevello, your "App-Specific Cost" is effectively $0 per sale once you've covered your $29.99 monthly subscription.

Let's look at a merchant doing $5,000 a month in digital sales.

• Platform A (Competing App): $99/mo + 3% transaction fee ($150) = $249 total.
• Tevello: $29.99/mo + 0% transaction fee ($0) = $29.99 total.

The choice becomes clear when you look at the long-term impact on your margins. We are committed to success stories from brands using native courses because they prove that simplicity and fair pricing lead to better business outcomes.

Technical Advantages of Staying "Shopify Native"

When we talk about "Native Shopify Integration," we aren't just using a buzzword. It has real-world technical implications for how much you pay and how your store performs.

SEO and Brand Authority

When you host your courses on a third-party subdomain (e.g., yourbrand.otherplatform.com), you are giving all that SEO "link juice" to the other platform. When you use Tevello, your courses live on yourbrand.com/apps/tevello. Every time a student logs in or shares a link, they are boosting your domain authority.

Security and Trust

When a customer sees the Shopify "Secure Checkout" badge and uses their saved Shop Pay credentials, the conversion rate is significantly higher. Redirecting a customer to an external checkout page often leads to "cart abandonment" because the visual style changes, leading to a loss of trust. By seeing how the app natively integrates with Shopify, you can see how we maintain that trust through the entire journey.

Customer Support Reduction

A major "hidden cost" per sale is the cost of support. If a customer can't find their login or their course access doesn't trigger, you have to pay someone (or spend your own time) to fix it. Because Tevello uses Shopify's native customer accounts, if they can log into your store, they can access their course. There is no "syncing" delay.

Setting Realistic Expectations for Growth

While digital products offer incredible margins, they are not a "get rich quick" scheme. They require the same dedication to quality and marketing as any physical product. However, the benefits of this business model are undeniable:

• Diversified Revenue Streams: You are no longer solely dependent on supply chains.
• Increased LTV: A customer who buys a physical item and then joins a paid community is far more valuable than a one-time purchaser.
• Recurring Revenue Stability: Memberships provide a "floor" of income that makes planning for the future much easier.

Our app is a robust tool designed to amplify your existing efforts. Whether you are reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from to see our technical specs or just getting started, the goal is consistent, sustainable growth.

Actionable Checklist: Lowering Your Shopify Costs

If you feel like your "charge per sale" is too high, follow this checklist to optimize your store:

1. Enable Shopify Payments: If it's available in your region, this is the easiest way to instantly remove the 0.6% to 2.0% platform transaction fee.
2. Audit Your Apps: Are you paying for multiple apps that Tevello could replace? Our Unlimited Plan includes community features, video hosting, and quizzes.
3. Switch to Annual Billing: Shopify offers a 25% discount on subscription fees if you pay for the year upfront.
4. Incorporate High-Margin Digital Goods: Offset the costs of shipping physical products by bundling them with a digital course.
5. Monitor Your Plan Tier: Once you cross a certain threshold in monthly sales (usually around $15,000 - $20,000), it is almost always cheaper to move to the next Shopify plan tier to get the lower credit card rates.

The Future of E-commerce is Hybrid

The most successful brands of the next decade won't just sell "things." They will sell "results." A fitness brand won't just sell dumbbells; they will sell a 12-week transformation course. A craft supply store won't just sell yarn; they will sell a community where people learn to knit together.

By understanding how much shopify charge per sale and then building a high-margin digital layer on top of your store, you are future-proofing your business. You are moving away from being a mere "vendor" and becoming a "mentor" to your customers.

We invite you to start your 14-day free trial and build your first course now. You can build your entire curriculum, set up your community, and see how the native integration feels before you pay a single cent in app fees.

Summary of Shopify Fee Tiers

Keep in mind that while these are the standard rates for the United States, they may vary slightly by country. Always check your local Shopify settings to confirm the exact percentages.

Maximizing Your Free Trial Period

When you install Tevello, you get a 14-day free trial. This is the perfect time to experiment with your pricing strategy. Since we charge 0% transaction fees, you can run a "beta" version of your course or community to your existing email list. Any revenue you generate during this period is yours to keep, helping you validate your digital product idea without any financial risk.

Use this time to explore the community features, set up your drip content scheduling, and upload your videos. With our unlimited video hosting and bandwidth included in the plan, you don't have to worry about external hosting costs like Vimeo or Wistia.

Conclusion

Understanding how much shopify charge per sale is about more than just knowing your expenses; it’s about mastering the economics of your brand. While the various percentages and fixed fees can seem daunting at first, they are simply the "rent" for using the world’s most powerful e-commerce ecosystem. By strategically choosing your plan tier, utilizing Shopify Payments, and incorporating high-margin digital products like courses and memberships, you can significantly increase your net profit.

At Tevello, we are proud to provide the tools that help you turn your expertise into a thriving digital business. We believe in transparency, which is why we offer a simple, flat-rate plan with no hidden success fees. Your growth should be celebrated, not taxed. Whether you are looking to add a single upsell course or build a massive membership community, our native integration ensures that your brand stays front and center.

Take the next step in diversifying your revenue and building a loyal community of learners. You have the knowledge; now you have the platform to share it.

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

FAQ

Does Shopify charge a fee for every item I sell? No, Shopify charges a "transaction fee" or "credit card processing fee" based on the total value of the order, not per individual item. However, there is usually a fixed fee (like $0.30) plus a percentage for each processed payment.

Can I sell courses and physical products in the same checkout? Yes! One of the biggest advantages of using a native app like Tevello is that your customers can have a physical t-shirt and a digital course in the same cart. They checkout once, and access to the digital content is granted automatically.

What happens to my fees if I use PayPal instead of Shopify Payments? If you use PayPal as your payment gateway, Shopify will charge you a "Third-Party Transaction Fee" (between 0.6% and 2.0% depending on your plan) in addition to whatever fees PayPal charges you. To avoid this, it is recommended to use Shopify Payments as your primary gateway.

Is there a limit to how many students I can have on the Tevello Unlimited Plan? No. Our Unlimited Plan ($29.99/mo) allows for unlimited students, unlimited courses, and unlimited video hosting. We do not believe in charging you more just because your community is growing.