Shopify Raises Monthly Seller Fees by 34 Percent

by: COVID-19

Oh noes! Whatever shall we do?!

by: GetAGrip

Next up Fleecebay

by: Rexford

Greedflation at its finest.   Sellers are better off paying someone to build their platform or go with a "free forever" platform such as Joomla.  Do doubt that Shopify is a great platform with a lot of bells and whistles but once you are there they are your landlord and if they raise your rent you can either pay it or move out.

If one is an individual it takes countless hours to add inventory and build a store so once you are hitched to a site it is not easy to move on. The "landlords" know this.

by: GetAGrip

@Rexford

Thanks but no thanks. I will stay with fleecebay. Those so called other sites are nothings. They have no traffic and a lot of people have never heard of them. I've been on fleecebay for 23 years and the only problems I've had with them is of my own making. By the way when they raise prices its a no brainer I pass the raise on. Sorry

by: gregtoys

This makes sense. Their biggest competitor (bigcommerce) refocuses on enterprise and this happens almost immediately afterwards? Competition kept prices lower. This is purely a monopolistic move.  

by: The End

This is exactly why I have MY OWN WEBSITE.
I'm not hobbled at the whim of some nare-do-well CEO.
Seriously : Find the software it takes to make YOUR OWN eCommerce site.
Anything else is purely UN American.

by: toolguy

I've never bought anything from Shopify

Never even been to the website, do they sell used tools?

by: Stone Cutter

*** Yet, many say...Shopify can no longer compete ***

I heard an interesting commentary on CNBC this past summer. Analysts are saying that shop owners who use e-commerce sites like Amazon and Etsy, have a greater chance of being found while having greater success stories.

The reality, there are way too many sites on the ‘net, while it’s becoming more difficult, everyday, to be found via “search”. Even a site like eBay, who continues to have a huge customer base, will have customers who continue to search on EBay for everything.

Recent data says that 50% of all internet searches start at Amazon, first. It’s hard to compete within a huge sea of internet websites.  

by: Whatever

the best tools in commerce? Not really

Sounds to me their building up for another Twitter sell-off

by: Tinysaur

Prices have remained unchanged for 12 years because service remains unchanged. The fee is essentially for hosting. Any utility is paid for in site load speeds (read: google demerits) and monthly fees for extensions.
On top of that, corporate tells their shareholders the total number of user accounts that they have ever served, not the active ones generating revenue. You can't fully delete a Shopify account. There are ghost tentacles for years to keep the lie going. The SEC should really look into them, but, of course, they're Canadian.

by: Whatever

"This makes sense. Their biggest competitor (bigcommerce)"

Been on B/C since the photo snafu in ? 2008? Yes it is hard to compete with the big 3 BUT item specific searches on google ALWAYS pull up my item on page one - it can be done - just have to work as hard for yourself as I used to do for eBay

by: Clark7371

To the ones, who said they have never purchased on Shopify, I say you probably have and didn't know it. You don't go directly to a Shopify website. Instead many small businesses set up their online store on their website using Shopify.  

by: AngrySeller

There are a lot of misconceptions about what Shopify is. Tool, Shopify is not a marketplace. They don't have a site that you  the buyer would visit. Rather, what they do is provide the tools and the monthly hosting to enable you to build and run your own website.

I have been with them for nearly 4 years now, since leaving E-bay for good in April 2019. Prior to that I had been with E-bay for nearly 5 years trying to get my fledgling stamp business off the ground. No matter what I did, I could never get my sales above $3,500 a month on E-Bay. Eventually, I figured out what E-bay was doing to manipulate seller visibility on its platform, and I came to the conclusion that it was time to leave.
I won't say Shopify was easy. It was incredibly tough - because that is how building a real business in the real world actually is. Building a brand takes time. Building customer loyalty takes time. And money. Since being with Shopify, I have seen my business take off and become a going concern, employing two full time staff. My weekly auctions can now gross as much as 8 or 9 grand, but average 5 grand a week.
The great thing about Shopify is that they do not  in any way interfere with your business. They leave you alone.
So why the sudden increase? I have a theory: Shopify was more or less an overnight success story, with so many people signing up and building websites, because they thought it would be easy, and didn't understand what they were getting themselves into. Tobias probably shouldn't have taken the company public when he did, but he is a Millennial, and he was riding high on that early success. What he didn't understand was that eventually, when reality set in for a lot of his customers, he would see a lot of stores and websites go bust or fall by the wayside, and thus would see revenue drop. This, of course would cause the stock price to fall.
The problem with that of course is that once you go public, you have to think about all your key people, whose compensation is largely tied up I'm stock, and you have to think about the institutional investors - the pension funds that have invested in the stock. If the stock price drops and does not recover, it will spell trouble for Tobias.
So, my guess is that this increase is an attempt to raise the stock price back up by raising monthly revenue, to compensate for all the sellers who gave up for one reason or another. Had he waited until this point to take the company public, he might not have had to do this.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. Another possibility is that they are trying to incentive people to sign up for yearly plans, to improve cash flow.
Whatever the reason is though, it is important to view these fees in perspective: the fees paid to shopify are some of my lowest monthly expenses now. I pay twice as much to Facebook to advertise on their platform, as I do to Shopify. I do feel sorry for those businesses that are where I was 3 years ago, because at that point every dollar is critical, and this makes it more difficult  for sure.
But, Shopify is a MUCH better option in the long term than any of the marketplaces. They are just too manipulative to allow you to build a real brand, and they want to own your customer base, even after you already paid them for it. On these platforms you don't have customers. What you have are buyers. There is an important difference between the two. Buyers have no loyalty. They only care about price, and so they don't care if they buy from you or another seller. Customers on the other hand choose to do business with you because they like and trust your brand. So, once you successfully build a small core group of loyal repeat customers, who can generate enough to pay the bills, then you can start scaling by focusing on adding one new customer every week, or month. That is how you build a business.

by: Rexford

"Thanks but no thanks. I will stay with fleecebay. Those so called other sites are nothings."

GetAGrip, I am still on eBay.  I am also on four other sites plus my own web site that I own (no third party).  My own site is not a "nothing" site, it is a "something" site that makes sales.  I sell a niche product and my product sells despite the fact that I do not pay for ads. I do use Pinterest but I do not pay Pinterest.  My site's products are easily found on the first page of search when a buyer searches for what I sell.  When someone is on my site they see some of my other products that are not niche products and those products also sell. The End's comment above is exactly why I took the time to build my site.

by: The End

Forgot to mention :
Shutting down ALL other traces of my stuff on the web, leaving only My Website remaining, will insure I survive.
Just need the courage to shut 'em down.

by: The End

I am a brand.
I don't need to compete with myself.

by: Dea

I've had a Shopify store (it is nothing more than a shopping cart - they are not a venue) since 2011 and Etsy since 2007.  There are good and bad in both.  While Shopify gives you more freedom to run your shop the way you choose and is easier about 'breaking the rules' like a copyright infringement, but not so good about shutting your payment down for silly things, if you do a shopify store I suggest you get your own credit card processor and link it to your shopify store,  plus you have to bust your butt to bring traffic to your store, and pay far more in apps, email services, ads and a host of others, my profit is certainly higher on Etsy - I work a minimum of 20-25 hours a week just on marketing and social media for my Shopify store.  I do maybe 5 hours a week on etsy because I have built in traffic and sales, yet Etsy's rules seem to get more rigid every single day.  A copyright infringement, open case, late shipping, not answering emails in 24 hours can all get your shop closed, or you just wake one morning and your shop is gone because etsy made a 'mistake' and it takes 3 months to get your store back, if ever  (you see it in the etsy forums everyday).  Etsy's customers are theirs not ours, Shopify are ours and we can work on getting them on email lists, and retargeting through social media and ads where we can.  I have always felt that having 3 sources of income is best.  I tried Amazon Handmade for a bit, and it was not a fit for my high end jewelry, plus my concerns about the way their terms of use are written allow them to copy our product, slap their name on it and sell them.  My attorney advised me not to sell there after going through their terms and he spoke to one of the Amazon attorneys about this, who said this wasn't true, yet the terms were reviewed by 2 other attorney in addition to mine and yep they can do this! and have, google it.  I paid the bucks to get certified copyrights from the USPTO on my designs.  I really know nothing about ebay because haven't sold there in years.  There is the good and bad and if you sell on either you just take both.

by: Stone Cutter

***Latest economic data ***

So far, quarterly reports for U.S. companies are mixed. The consumer continues to spend money, however, they continue to spend heavy on experiences...i.e...travel, concert events, and restaurant spending. General retail, not so good for jewelry, home furnishings, apparel, etc.- as inflation begins to put stain on consumer savings accounts.

I have no doubt that Shopify’s fee increase is on the back of recent bad retail data. An increase of fees will help Shopify to pad their books, given a deteriorating retail environment, AND, as U.S. companies are now reporting layoffs.

Shopify’s earnings report will be in the middle of February. It will be interesting to hear what their future guidance will be.

Many believe the U.S. is headed into a recession.  

by: Snapped

Informative, insightful, and shrewdly reasoned, Angry Seller.  Continued fortune from your hard work.

by: toolguy

Shopify has a market cap double what eBay does, but eBay makes 60x the money Shopify does!