Lesson 1 of 2 · Your Own Online Store
Decide Whether Shopify Fits Your Business Yet
Use your own marketplace costs, a Shopify fixed-cost estimate and an honest traffic answer to decide whether to stay, add a store, switch, or wait.
- 15 min
- Beginner
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By the end you will be able to
- Calculate what your current marketplace actually costs you, from your own orders rather than a headline percentage
- Estimate Shopify's fixed and variable costs and the order volume that covers them
- Work out what you can afford to pay for a customer, and decide on that basis
How this lesson runs
- Cost your current channel
- Estimate Shopify's costs
- Find the order break-even
- Name the traffic source
- Write the decision
Why this matters
The usual version of this decision compares fee percentages and concludes that the cheaper one wins. That comparison leaves out the thing you're actually buying on a marketplace, which is demand. A store with a lower cut and no visitors earns nothing. The calculation that matters is what you'd have to pay to replace the traffic — and it's usually a much smaller number than people expect, which is what makes it decisive.
What this lesson is and isn't
What a marketplace fee actually buys
On a marketplace, a share of every sale goes to the platform. In exchange, buyers arrive who were already searching for something like your product. You didn't find them and you didn't pay to reach them individually. On your own store, the percentage is smaller and there's a subscription instead. Nobody arrives unless you bring them. That's the trade in full. Everything else — branding, control, customer relationships — is real but secondary to it, because a store nobody visits doesn't get to benefit from any of it.
Step one: what your current channel really costs
Don't use a headline percentage. "Etsy takes about 10%" is close enough to sound right and wrong enough to distort the decision, because the actual figure depends on your order value. Etsy's costs are a listing fee charged again each time a listing renews after a sale, a 6.5% transaction fee on the whole order including shipping, and payment processing that is a percentage plus a flat amount and varies by country. Two of those three are flat, so they weigh more heavily on small orders.
Your real marketplace cost per order
listing fee + (transaction % × order total) + (processing % × order total + flat fee)
Work it out at your actual average order value, not in the abstract. Add any advertising fee on orders it applies to. Then divide by your average order value to see the true percentage — it will usually differ from the number everybody quotes.
Step two: what a store would cost
Shopify's costs split into fixed and variable, and the split is what makes the comparison interesting. A marketplace has almost no fixed cost and a high per-order cost. A store inverts that.
The two kinds of Shopify cost
| Fixed — payable whether or not you sell | Variable — per order |
|---|---|
| Plan subscription | Card processing (a percentage plus a flat amount) |
| Custom domain, if you buy one | Shopify's additional fee if you use a third-party gateway |
| Any app subscriptions | Payment provider differences by region |
| Paid theme, if you buy one (usually one-off) | Anything you pay to acquire the customer |
Step three: the number that actually decides it
Most people compare fee percentages and stop. That comparison answers the wrong question, because it silently assumes the same number of orders happens on both channels. It won't, unless you can bring the visitors. So the useful calculation isn't "which takes less per order" — it's **how much can I afford to pay for a customer before the cheaper channel stops being cheaper?**
Break-even customer acquisition cost
the most you can pay per order on your own store before it earns less than the marketplace did
Take your contribution per order on each channel — price minus product cost minus that channel's fees. Work out how much the store's higher contribution is worth across your monthly orders, subtract the store's fixed costs, and divide by orders. That gives the maximum you can spend acquiring each customer before you're worse off. It is usually startlingly small, and it is the whole decision.
Four outcomes, none of them automatic
There's no universal right answer here, and specifically no threshold at which a seller becomes ready. Figures like "once you're doing $1,000 a month" or "once you're paying $300 a month in fees" circulate widely and aren't traceable to anything. Nor is "start on Etsy first" a rule — a business that already has an audience, offline customers or wholesale relationships may have no reason to.
Marketplace: Fixed: ≈ none Per Order: listing + transaction % + processing Store: Fixed: plan + domain + apps Per Order: card processing (+ gateway fee if applicable) Note: The crossing point is usually low. That is not the decision — acquisition cost is.
Marketplace
Store
Inputs: Contribution per order on the marketplace; Contribution per order on your store; Store fixed costs; Monthly orders Output: Maximum you can pay per customer Test: Is your realistic acquisition cost below that number? Outcomes: Stay; Add alongside; Make it primary; Postpone
Inputs
- Contribution per order on the marketplace
- Contribution per order on your store
- Store fixed costs
- Monthly orders
Outcomes
- Stay
- Add alongside
- Make it primary
- Postpone
Worked example
What can this seller afford to pay for a customer?
An illustrative US seller doing $3,000 a month on Etsy: 75 orders at a $40 average order value, with a $16 product cost per order. Shopify figures are illustrative — a $39/month plan and a domain costed at $1.50/month, with card processing at 2.9% + $0.30. No apps. Check your own country's pricing page for real figures.
| Line | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| — Current channel — | ||
| Etsy cost per order | $4.25 | $0.20 listing + 6.5% ($2.60) + 3% + $0.25 ($1.45) |
| As a share of a $40 order | 10.6% | Close to the quoted 10% here — but it moves with order value |
| Contribution per order | $19.75 | $40.00 − $16.00 product − $4.25 fees |
| Monthly contribution, 75 orders | $1,481.25 | |
| — Own store — | ||
| Fixed costs | $40.50/month | Illustrative plan $39.00 + domain $1.50 |
| Card processing per order | $1.46 | 2.9% of $40.00 + $0.30 |
| Contribution per order | $22.54 | $40.00 − $16.00 − $1.46 |
| Orders to cover fixed costs | 2 | $40.50 ÷ $22.54 = 1.80, rounded up |
| — The decisive number — | ||
| Break-even acquisition cost | $2.25 per order | Above this, the store earns less than the marketplace at the same volume |
| Same 75 orders, zero incremental acquisition cost | $1,650.00 | $168.75 better than the marketplace — a scenario, not an assumption |
| Same 75 orders, $12 incremental acquisition cost | $750.00 | $731.25 worse than the marketplace |
Two orders a month cover the subscription. At the same order volume and under these assumptions, the store produces more contribution than the marketplace only while incremental acquisition cost stays below $2.25 per order.
$2.25 is this illustrative seller's maximum incremental acquisition cost, at this margin, this order value and this volume. It is not a benchmark and it is not a claim about what advertising costs — we have no verified figure for that, and yours would depend on your product, market and channel. What you do with the number is compare it against your own evidence: what you have actually observed, tested, or would conservatively budget to bring in one more order. If that figure is above $2.25, the switch costs you contribution at this volume. If it is below, it gains you some. The zero-cost row is a scenario, not a prediction. Orders can arrive with no incremental cash cost — repeat buyers, referrals, direct visits, organic search — but that has to be demonstrated rather than assumed, and traffic can cost time, content, discounts, commissions or prior audience-building work even when no money changes hands. A pre-existing audience may lower your incremental cash cost; it does not guarantee orders. The prototype version of this lesson said switching would "save $174 a month". At zero incremental acquisition cost the figure here is $168.75 — nearly the same answer, from an arithmetic that was never the problem. The assumption was. The number that carries the decision is the $2.25 ceiling.
Assumptions: Every Shopify figure is illustrative — plan price, domain cost and processing rate all vary by country, plan and billing term, and must be read from Shopify's own pricing page. Etsy figures use the verified current fee structure for a US seller. Assumes one price point and no advertising on the Etsy side; adding Offsite Ads fees would raise the marketplace cost and therefore the break-even acquisition cost. Assumes identical order volume on both channels purely to isolate the cost difference — that assumption is exactly what the lesson tells you not to make in reality.
Illustrative figures for teaching only — not a benchmark, average or guarantee.
Do it with your own numbers
Find your own order break-even and acquisition ceiling
Before you start, have ready
- Your average order value and monthly order count from your current channel
- Your real per-order marketplace cost, taken from your own statements over a few months
- Your product cost per order
- A plan price and processing rate from Shopify's pricing page for your country, on the billing term you'd actually choose
- Any app or domain costs you'd genuinely incur
Open the Shopify Break-Even Calculator
You will produce: The orders and revenue needed to cover your store's fixed costs, which you can then extend into a break-even acquisition cost.
Then ask yourself: The fixed-cost break-even is usually low and usually reassuring — don't stop there. Take the contribution figures and work out the most you could pay per customer before the store earns less than the marketplace at the same volume. Then compare that ceiling against your own evidence for what an order costs you to bring in — something you have observed, tested, or would budget conservatively. Not a figure from an article. If you have no such evidence yet, that is itself informative: it means the ceiling is currently untested rather than met. You can model a zero incremental cost scenario for orders you expect from repeat buyers, referrals or organic search, but treat it as a scenario to be demonstrated. Traffic that costs no money can still cost time, content or discounts.
Common mistakes
Comparing fee percentages and stopping
It assumes the same orders happen on both channels. They won't unless you bring the visitors, and that's the cost the comparison leaves out.
Instead: Calculate the break-even acquisition cost, then ask what your traffic would actually cost.
Using a headline marketplace percentage
The real figure depends on order value, because two of the three Etsy fees are flat. It also misses advertising fees and currency charges.
Instead: Total your actual fees over a few months from your own statements and divide by orders.
Budgeting from a promotional plan price
Introductory rates end. A model built on a promotional month understates the cost from month four onward.
Instead: Build the model on the standard rate for your country and billing term, and treat any promotion as a bonus.
Believing Shopify Payments makes payments free
It removes Shopify's additional fee for using a third-party gateway. Card processing still costs money on every order, and Shopify Payments isn't available everywhere.
Instead: Model card processing as a real per-order cost, and check whether Shopify Payments is available and you're eligible.
Closing the marketplace before the store works
Marketplace fees buy demand. Removing them removes the demand too, and a store with no visitors earns nothing regardless of its cost structure.
Instead: If you're adding a store, run it alongside until it has demonstrated it can bring its own customers.
Treating "do both" as the safe default
Two channels means duplicated inventory, policies, listings and customer service. It's a real workload, not a free hedge.
Instead: Decide on your capacity as well as your numbers, and count the operational hours as a cost of the decision.
Illustrative Beginner Scenario
Mark, moving off a marketplace
- Situation
- Mark was doing steady monthly sales on Etsy and resented the fees, which felt like a large amount leaving every month for nothing tangible. He closed the shop and moved everything to a new store to keep the difference.
- What went wrong
- He'd compared the fee percentage against the subscription and concluded he'd be better off. What he hadn't costed was where the orders would come from — the marketplace search results had been supplying them, and he had no audience of his own, no email list and no search visibility.
- What changed
- After a very quiet first month he reopened the marketplace shop and kept the store as a second channel. He then did the arithmetic properly: contribution per order on each channel, fixed costs, and the maximum he could pay to acquire a customer. It was a small number, and he had no tested figure of his own to compare it against — which told him the ceiling was untested rather than met.
- Result
- He kept both, used the marketplace for discovery and the store for people who already knew him, and started building an email list with proper opt-in so the store would eventually have a traffic source of its own. Whether the store grows is still open — what changed is that he stopped treating the fee difference as savings.
- Lesson
- Marketplace fees are the price of demand. You only save them if you can replace what they were buying, and the number that tells you whether you can is your break-even acquisition cost.
This is a composite teaching example, not a guaranteed result.
Try it yourself
Make the decision on your own numbers
- Pull your last three months of marketplace statements and calculate your real cost per order: total fees divided by total orders.
- Work out your contribution per order on that channel — average order value minus product cost minus that fee figure.
- Open Shopify's pricing page for your country and note the plan you'd need, on the billing term you'd choose, at the standard rate rather than a promotional one.
- Estimate your store's fixed monthly cost and its per-order processing cost, and calculate contribution per order there.
- Divide fixed costs by store contribution to get your fixed-cost break-even in orders.
- Work out the maximum you could pay per customer before the store earns less than the marketplace at the same volume.
- Name one realistic first traffic source and estimate what a customer from it would cost — in money, or in hours if it's unpaid.
- Write your decision in one sentence — stay, add, switch or postpone — with the reason.
You end up with: A written channel decision supported by your real marketplace cost, your store's fixed and variable costs, an order break-even, a break-even acquisition cost, and a named traffic source.
Confidence check
Before setting anything up, check you can answer these:
- Do you know your real marketplace cost per order, from your own statements?
- Can you explain why a headline fee percentage misleads at different order values?
- Can you state your store's fixed monthly cost and what's in it?
- Do you know the difference between card processing and a third-party gateway fee?
- Can you state the most you could pay to acquire a customer before the store is worse off?
- Can you name where your first store visitors would actually come from?
Your next small step · 12 minutes
Calculate your real marketplace cost per order from your own statements, then work out the most you could afford to pay to acquire one customer on your own store.
The first replaces a quoted percentage with your actual number. The second is the figure the whole decision turns on, and almost nobody calculates it.
Related on SimpleLifeCalc
Guides
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Decisions
Comparisons
Other lessons
Questions people ask
Is Shopify cheaper than Etsy?
It depends on your order value, your volume and — decisively — what it costs you to bring visitors. Shopify's per-order cut is generally smaller but it carries a monthly subscription a marketplace doesn't, and it supplies no marketplace demand. A store can have a lower fee percentage and still earn you less at the same volume, once the cost of bringing those orders is counted. Calculate your maximum incremental acquisition cost and compare it against your own observed or conservatively budgeted figure, rather than comparing fee percentages.
How much does Shopify cost per month?
There's no single answer to quote. Plan pricing varies by market, currency, plan and billing cycle, and it changes — Shopify renamed one of its plans during 2026. Basic on Shopify's own localized pricing pages: US $39/month monthly or an effective $29/month yearly; Nigeria US$27 and US$19; Canada CA$49 and CA$37; UK £25 and £19. Card rates move with the plan too — on the US page Basic carries 2.9% + $0.30, Grow 2.7% + $0.30 and Advanced 2.5% + $0.30. Open Shopify's pricing page for your own country, and build your model on the standard rate rather than any promotional one.
Does Shopify Payments mean no transaction fees?
No. Two different charges are involved. Card processing is what it costs to take a payment and is always payable. Shopify's third-party gateway fee is an additional amount Shopify charges when you use a different payment provider — using Shopify Payments removes that one. Shopify Payments is also only available in supported countries and subject to eligibility.
When am I ready to move to Shopify?
There's no revenue threshold or fee level that makes a seller ready, despite figures like "$1,000 a month" circulating widely — none is traceable to anything. What decides it is your own evidence: your real marketplace costs, whether you have demand from somewhere you control, your margin, what a customer would cost to acquire, your store's fixed costs, and your capacity to run another channel.
Should I keep my Etsy shop if I open a Shopify store?
That's a decision about your traffic and your capacity, not a rule. Marketplace fees buy demand, so closing that channel removes the demand along with the fees. Running both diversifies you against a single platform's rule changes, and it also means duplicated inventory, policies, listings and customer service. Count the operational work as part of the decision.
Do I own my customers on Shopify?
You have a more direct relationship and better first-party order data than on a marketplace, which is genuinely valuable. But someone buying a product hasn't agreed to receive marketing, consent has to be given separately, and holding customer data carries privacy obligations wherever you are. A direct store gives you a closer relationship — not an automatic mailing list.