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Is the Shopify Starter Store Worth $7/Month? My Experience.

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Thinking about starting an online store but worried about Shopify’s monthly costs? 

The Shopify Starter plan offers e-commerce capabilities for just $7 per month, but does it deliver enough value to build a successful business?

I’ve spent four years working with various e-commerce options, from third-party marketplaces to online stores, and three months testing every aspect of the Shopify Starter plan, including setting up Instagram shops, managing product listings, and analyzing customer data. 

In this episode, I'm sharing everything I've learned to help you decide if the Shopify Starter plan is the best option for your business. We'll cover:

  • the Shopify Starter plan's features, benefits, and limitations,
  • social media integration tips, 
  • analytics insights from my store so far, and 
  • when to adopt the Starter plan versus the Basic plan. 

My own business is in the Print-on-Demand space, but the findings I've shared here can be applied to almost any business model that involves selling products online.

Key takeaway: The Starter plan serves as an effective testing ground and social commerce platform, but understanding its strategic role in your business growth timeline is essential for success. Listen in for all the deets!

Do you love this kind of practical, experience-based content? Then subscribe for more content on content creation, social media strategy, and eCommerce.

Video Links
As I mentioned in the video, other creators have already covered the benefits and drawbacks of Shopify (in general) as a platform for Print-on-Demand (specifically) versus third-party marketplaces such as Merch by Amazon and TeePublic. So in this video, I focused more on what I could contribute based on my individual experience with the Shopify Starter versus the Basic Plan.

For the "Pro" Shopify view, see Meg Heckman, "Shopify + Printify is the Only POD Setup I Trust." For a more favourable view of third-party platforms, see Greg Gotfried, "Shopify Print on Demand vs. Other Platforms."

Also, be sure to check out my online Store.😉 If you're seeing this episode, use the code MYTOGBLOG4 for a $4 Discount on your first or next order, in celebration of Season 4. Offer is good until October 10th! One use per customer.

Disclaimer: Note that this episode is for information and entertainment purposes. It is not intended to replace the need for one's own due diligence when considering any business model or decision. 

Thanks for listening! Do you have a comment or question about a topic or episode? I'd love to hear that. Feel free to contact me via Instagram or the Contact Us page, and check out our merch for content creators.

[00:00:00] Tim: If you've ever dreamed about launching a global e-commerce brand, then you may have also wondered about the Shopify Starter plan.

[00:00:06] It's a basic plan that's available right now for $7 a month Canadian. What this is gonna allow you to do is launch a scaled-down beta version of an e-commerce website, in addition to which you can add a shop to your Instagram profile and sell through that as well as other social media sites.

[00:00:23] But even with all that, we still may wonder if Shopify's the right option versus the many other possibilities that are out there. And that's what I'm gonna talk about today.

[00:00:32] Hey Everyone, my name's Tim, and in addition to being a content creator, I also have four years of experience working with different e-commerce platforms. I've had accounts with Merch by Amazon, eBay, Etsy, tea Public, and most recently Shopify.

[00:00:49] And this video I'm gonna take you through the pros and cons of a Shopify Starter plan, which I've had for about three months now. We'll talk about what it can do, what it can't do, and how it might fit into a broader e-commerce strategy for your business. I'll also show you the Starter store that I built so far so you can get a sense of what it actually looks like to be inside the plan and create something using that platform.

[00:01:13] So if that sounds good, then let's get into this.

[00:01:16] 

[00:01:20] Tim: Okay, so let's start with what a Starter store can do for you. And I think one of the best things it can do is to allow you to sell products directly on social media. Consumers already spent close to 700 billion on social commerce in 2024, and that figure is set to reach over a trillion by 2029. So this is an opportunity to tap into a huge potential market.

[00:01:41] Facebook and Instagram are the two largest social commerce platforms, and a Shopify Starter store makes it easy to sell on these sites. I was able to set up my Instagram shop within a couple of hours of having my Shopify account.

[00:01:53] Now, there's not a lot of customization you can do with your shop on social media, but that's okay in this case because the point is to make sales directly through feed posts or to drive traffic to your online store.

[00:02:06] And the neat thing I found with my Shopify Instagram shop is that you can add product links to posts, not just stories. And you can also tag products and posts or in your stories. That allows you to streamline the funnel from discovery to purchase, and it also makes things very convenient for your customer. In addition to that, it lets you reach customers without spending advertising dollars, although you can do that as well.

[00:02:30] In this example, I was able to reach customers in an organic way by integrating product placement into a regular feed post. I did that by creating a post about product photography using one of the mugs from my shop. Then I added a product link to the mug in my store, and then you can see how customers can just click the post to make a purchase right from there. In this other example, I'm showing people my creative process for specific designs and then again, linking those reels to these specific products within my shop.

[00:03:00] The theory is that if you do these types of posts consistently and you have a good brand story and good products, you're gonna make sales.

[00:03:07] The other cool thing about the Shopify Starter plan is it's not just about sales through social media; you can also sell through other channels like the Shop app, which is essentially a shopping app with a marketplace of Shopify stores.

[00:03:20] It's kind of like Amazon, but not as big. However, it's still a huge platform with millions and millions of monthly visitors. I think it's pretty cool. And this is what my own store looks like on the shop app, to give you one example.

[00:03:32] And in addition to that, you also get a basic online store, which is separate from the store in your shop app and from the social media stores that you might have. This is a great feature because it gives you your own website that can almost become like an online portfolio for all of your products. So with the online store, you could like create a post on Blue sky, add a link to a product page, and then when customers click on that, they'll be taken right to your store.

[00:03:58] You can even get your products to show up on Google Search and Shopping. So this is a shirt from my store right here, and you can see it's ranking number one in the Google Shopping search for "video creator heartbeat t-shirt." Now, that took some doing, but you gotta admit that's pretty cool.

[00:04:14] However, the online store is where we start to see some of the shortcomings of the Starter plan start to become apparent, especially when compared to the full Basic store. So you can see that the website itself is pretty basic, and you can't add much in the way of graphics or visuals beyond what's connected with the products themselves. There's also no about page, but you can add a short description at the bottom of the main page.

[00:04:37] You also can't create collections of products that group together similar products to improve navigation on your store, nor can you use the Forms app to create a pop-up or email opt-in form. That, in turn, really limits the ability to collect emails and participate in email marketing, which, as we know, is an important e-commerce channel.

[00:04:56] So there are definitely limits to what you can do with the Starter plan. But before we get to the verdict, I want to talk a little bit about some other aspects of the Starter plan, because I think these are essential in order for us to see where the Starter plan fits into a wider e-commerce strategy, as well as how Shopify may or may not be the right option for your business.

[00:05:18] And a big thing is the massive ecosystem of apps that's available within Shopify. There are more than 8,000 apps in all covering everything from sales channels to store design, to suppliers, marketing, conversion, and more.

[00:05:35] In my case, because I'm in the print-on-demand space, I've integrated my Shopify store with Printify. This allows me to use this one supplier interface to upload all my designs and create all kinds of different products using their extensive catalog. And I can also manage all my product listings from this one space. So when I update things there, it updates my online store, my social media stores, and my shop app store, all with one.

[00:06:02] But if you're not into print-on-demand, you can also look at a wide range of different drop shipping apps that can connect with a Shopify Starter store. Now, I haven't tested any of these myself, but I would think that the better ones should have a similar level of integration as what I've described with Printify.

[00:06:19] I mean, the whole point of Shopify is that it's an e-commerce marketing and management platform. And the good thing about the Starter plan is that it's not very hard to get one and test this out for yourself.

[00:06:31] And if you're into analytics, you're also gonna love what's available inside the Starter plan. For example, I can look at sessions by locations, by social refer, or by any other kind of referral method. And I checked this out and there's over 153 different metrics you can look at, even within the Starter plan. So it's an amazing way to gather relevant data before you scale up to the full store. So for my store, an interesting insight was that Facebook was a major social refer, which is weird 'cause I don't even go on Facebook that much, I just cross-post from Instagram, but there's something to build on for the future. I also thought it was neat to see that the store already does get some traffic from all over the world, and that's without really doing much of anything in terms of sales, promotions, or advertising.

[00:07:19] But to get your store indexed on Google and get even more visibility and traffic, you will need to upgrade to the Basic plan. That brings us to where Shopify fits in with a larger e-commerce strategy. I mean, it takes a lot of time to research and create designs, stock your store with products, and learn all of the intricacies of developing and managing an e-commerce store.

[00:07:41] And I tell you, do not believe the people who say that it only takes a few minutes to set up a Shopify store, or any kind of e-commerce platform, and start earning like a hundred K per year. That's not reality. A properly configured, well-optimized store takes a lot of time and effort to build.

[00:08:00] And for me, this is what the Starter store buys you - it buys you time. Because with the Starter plan, you can do a lot of the initial work that's involved in setting up your store and stocking it with products without paying the full price of the Basic plan. That's a significant savings, and it takes a lot of the pressure off when you're setting up the store, especially if you're doing this part-time and you can't take huge chunks of time to work on this all at once.

[00:08:24] In addition to that, it gives you time to test things out, see what you like to create or sell, and see what resonates best with your target audience. It's literally meant to be a trial run so that by the time you do launch your full store, you've got one that's well stocked with good products that have been tested to some degree within the market.

[00:08:41] Of course, with the switch to the Basic plan, you'll still have things that you need to do, like adding the about page and more attractive visuals and pop-up forms for email marketing and all of those more advanced features, but at least the main foundation will be there and it gives you something to build on rather than starting from complete zero once you're paying the full price for the basic store.

[00:09:04] What about other less expensive online store platforms, such as Fourth Wall, Ecwid or others? Well, I can't say I have a lot of experience with these other platforms, but in the research I did into Shopify, I can say it seems to be one of those times where "you get what you pay for" applies. So other less expensive platforms tend to have less features and less scalability.

[00:09:28] So if your ultimate goal is to scale your store up, why not start with something that gives you the best features and most scalability, long term? Last thing you wanna do is set your business up somewhere else and then have to migrate it later once you've grown it. That would be a huge pain and a big cost. Plus, in the larger scheme of things, the cost of Shopify is not that much greater at the basic level than a lot of those other options, especially when you consider the long-term scalability aspect and with the fact that you can start with a Starter plan that bridges the gap between Shopify and these other options even more.

[00:10:06] In the print-on-demand space, you might also ask about the difference between Shopify and third-party marketplaces, such as Merch by Amazon or TeePublic. Well, that topic's been covered extensively by other creators, and I wanted to keep this video focused on my experience with the Starter store and what I could contribute there. So I haven't covered those other platforms here. However, I've added a link in the description where you can check out both sides of that debate. Long story short: Shopify is more for building a long-term business and third-party marketplaces are better for low-effort, low-stress dabbling.

[00:10:46] I hope this episode provided you with some insight into the benefits of the Starter plan. As the name implies, I think it's a great way to get started in the e-commerce space, and it offers a relatively low-cost, low-pressure way to test things out and build up the inventory of the store, as well as your experience working with the platform, before investing in the full basic plan.

[00:11:09] I probably will flip over to the basic plan at some point, but for now, I'm happy to get started with the Starter plan. If you wanna see what I built so far, check out the link in my description. Thanks for watching, and hope you have a great day.