Hi Shopify,
I recently received an email that the store subscription fees are going up by 25% because the current business model was not sustainable. I typically check a businesses socials to check legitimacy and see that the last post update was 23 June 2022. I tried to contact Shopify support but phone support was not available and could only use that chat function.
Should I be concerned about Shopify?
Hello, @Andytaylor .
I can confirm that this email is legitimate and there has been an increase in our subscription fees. We have an official blog post here for more context on this decision if you would like to read it.
I can understand that any kind of price increase can be difficult, a possible workaround that may work for you if you were on monthly Shopify Basic, Shopify or Advanced plans - if you switch to an annual billing cycle, you will be paying the same rates as you were previously. Ex: If you switch to Annual Basic from Monthly - with the new price changes you will pay $348 USD or ($29/mo) - which is the same as what you would be paying before. I trust this helps, thank you.
Sound advice. I wasn’t so much concerned with the legitimacy of the email, more that Shopify’s explanation that their currently model was unsustainable, so this seems more of a cash grab.
Thanks Ivy. It would seem that if Shopify is in fact keeping the same fee for annual as it was the monthly fee, this would appear to be more a cash grab as opposed to finding a more sustainable solution. Possibly a better solution would be to support growth in the retailers and in turn it would significantly increase its return. The 1.6% (ish) on a larger proportion of sales would surely be a better and more sustainable strategy for both Shopify and the retailer as opposed to increasing the base subscription.