Shopify was originally founded in 2004, by friends Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake. Frustrated with existing platforms, they decided to build their own in order to sell snowboarding equipment.
In 2006, that platform launched in its own right as Shopify, filling the niche for exactly the type of product its founders once sought.
Today, there are close to 6.8 million live Shopify stores as of 2025, spread across the globe, according to Craftberry. Shopify is considered the fourth-largest e-commerce marketplace globally, holding an estimated 10% market share, while in the United States it leads the digital commerce sector, capturing around 30% of the US e-commerce platform market.
Shopify has grown into a powerful ecosystem that has over 16,000 apps in its marketplace. Shopify reported full-year revenue of $11.6 billion, a 30% year-over-year increase, and crossed $378 billion in Gross Merchandise Volume in 2025.
The platform is available in more than 175 countries, and notable brands using it include Gymshark, Meta, and Supreme. Closer to home, South African Shopify stores include major retail names such as Ackermans, Edgars, and PEP. It has evolved from a simple store builder into what its leadership calls a full commerce operating system, handling everything from storefronts and inventory to payments, shipping, and marketing.
But for South African merchants, the experience of using Shopify looks a little different from what you might read in international guides and it’s important to understand how it works within the South African landscape.
What Is Shopify?
Shopify is a hosted e-commerce platform that lets you build, manage, and scale an online store without needing to know how to code. It’s an easy-to-use system that allows you to manage your products and inventory, and your website is completely cloud-based, so you never have to worry about upgrading or maintaining web servers or software.
Shopify Plans: What You’ll Pay as a South African
Shopify offers five main plans in South Africa: Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus. Most small businesses start with Starter or Basic and upgrade as they grow.
All plans are priced in US dollars and the basic plan starts at $25 per month excluding VAT. This means your monthly cost fluctuates with the Rand/Dollar exchange rate.
Another important thing to note when it comes to costing, is transaction fees. Shopify payments isn;t available in South Africa, which means Shopify charges an additional transaction fee on every payment made through your store. Transaction fees start at 2% on the basic plan, and go down to 1% on the Grow plan. These transaction fees are charged over and above your payment gateway’s transaction fees.
The Pros of Using Shopify in South Africa
Easy to set up. Store designs have been optimised by professional designers, popular Shopify themes include: Dawn, Prestige and Horizon. These are pretty much plug and play and give your store a professional look and feel, and allow your customers to easily browse and checkout.
Local payment and delivery integrations that work. South African merchants are well catered for when it comes to both getting paid and getting products to customers. Popular payment options inlcude PayFast, Ozow, Paystack and Yoco. On the delivery side, popular couriers including The Courier Guy, Pargo, Dawn Wing, Fastway, and Aramex all integrate with Shopify via tools like uAfrica, Bob Go, or ShipLogic for automation, tracking, and rate calculation.
Built-in inventory and stock management that keeps you in control. Shopify includes solid inventory management tools as part of every plan. You can track stock levels across multiple product variants, such as size and colour, set low-stock alerts, and view inventory history. If you sell across multiple channels or locations, Shopify lets you manage all of it from a single dashboard.
Analytics and reporting that tell you what’s actually working. Shopify comes with a built-in analytics dashboard that tracks key metrics like total sales, average order value, returning customer rate, and traffic sources. Higher-tier plans unlock more detailed reports including product performance, customer behaviour, and sales by region. For a South African business owner making decisions about which products to push, when to run promotions, and where to focus marketing spend, having this data built directly into your store, without needing a separate analytics tool, is a meaningful time and cost saver.
API integrations that connect Shopify to the rest of your business. Shopify offers a well-documented and robust API, meaning it can connect to a wide range of external systems and software. This includes accounting platforms like Xero and QuickBooks, email marketing tools, CRM systems, ERP solutions, and custom-built internal tools. Developers can also build custom integrations if your business has specific requirements that off-the-shelf apps don’t cover.
A massive app ecosystem that grows with your business. By 2025, Shopify’s app store had grown to over 16,000 apps, meaning there is almost always a solution when you need to extend your store’s functionality. South African Shopify merchants benefit from apps supporting local payments, delivery tracking, and regional marketing.
It scales with you. One of Shopify’s biggest advantages is that you don’t outgrow it quickly. A solo entrepreneur selling handmade jewellery and a high-volume fashion brand can both run on Shopify, just on different plans. As your business grows, upgrading is straightforward, and the platform is designed to handle increasing product ranges, traffic spikes, and more complex operations without breaking.
Good security and uptime. Shopify is reliable and offers great security, so your site won’t go down unexpectedly. For a South African business owner who can’t afford to lose sales due to a crashed website, this is genuinely valuable peace of mind.
The Cons of Using Shopify in South Africa
No Shopify Payments means you’re paying fees on every transaction. This is the single biggest limitation for South African merchants. Shopify has its own built-in payment processor, Shopify Payments, which, where available, reduces transaction costs significantly. It is not available in South Africa. This means you pay both your payment gateway’s own transaction fee plus an extra Shopify fee, because you’re not using Shopify Payments. On the Basic plan, that Shopify surcharge is 2%. Add it to a typical local gateway fee of around 2.5%, and you’re looking at close to 5% in fees per transaction. For lower-margin products, that can impact margins.
Currency flexibility is limited and the workarounds don’t fully work. Because Shopify Payments isn’t available locally, your currency options are restricted. You can price in Rands and accept payments through a local gateway, or price in an international currency and accept PayPal, but you cannot do both simultaneously. The Shopify Markets feature, designed to let merchants configure international regions and currencies, is essentially unavailable in its full form for South African stores. Currency converter apps can display prices in different currencies on your storefront, but at checkout your customer will always be charged in Rands. That disconnect, seeing a price in Dollars or Pounds, then checking out in Rands, creates friction at the most critical point in the buying journey and can cost you sales.
Advanced analytics are locked behind higher-tier plans. While the Basic plan includes a dashboard with core metrics, more detailed reporting, such as customer behaviour breakdowns, detailed product analytics, and regional sales data, requires upgrading to a more expensive plan. For a small South African business trying to make data-driven decisions from the start, this can mean either paying more than you’re ready for or working with limited insight until your revenue justifies the upgrade.
The app costs add up. While the app ecosystem is a strength, it’s also a trap many new Shopify merchants fall into. Many essential functions, advanced email marketing, subscription billing, product reviews, loyalty programmes, require paid third-party apps on top of your monthly plan. What looks like an affordable entry-level plan can become significantly more expensive once you’ve added the apps your store actually needs to compete.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: A South African Perspective
No article about Shopify in South Africa would be complete without addressing the platform that most local merchants compare it against, WooCommerce. Understanding why, and whether Shopify is the better choice for your specific situation, comes down to a handful of key differences.
For a South African entrepreneur who is technically capable and cost-conscious, WooCommerce is often the smarter long-term choice, particularly given Shopify’s additional transactions fees. For someone who wants to get online quickly, have everything managed for them, and is willing to pay a premium for that convenience, Shopify delivers an excellent experience.
Neither platform is universally better. The right answer depends on your budget, your technical comfort, and what you’re selling.
Who Should Use Shopify in South Africa?
Shopify makes the most sense for businesses primarily selling to South African customers in Rands, where the currency limitation is a non-issue. It suits merchants who want a polished, scalable platform and are comfortable absorbing slightly higher transaction fees in exchange for ease of use and reliability. It’s also a strong choice for businesses that need to connect their store to existing accounting or business management tools via API, or those planning to expand regionally across Africa.
It’s a harder fit for businesses selling primarily to international customers who expect to pay in their own currency, or for very thin-margin sellers where combined transaction fees significantly cut into profitability.
The Bottom Line
Shopify is a genuinely powerful platform with an impressive track record, from a snowboard shop in Ottawa to powering millions of businesses across 175 countries. But it was built with markets like the US, UK, and Canada at the centre of its product decisions, and that gap shows in payment processing, currency flexibility, and local billing for South African merchants.
Go in knowing that you’ll be working with third-party payment gateways, that your transaction costs will be higher than international merchants on the same plan, and that multi-currency selling isn’t yet a realistic option. Factor in the exchange rate exposure on your monthly subscription, and be realistic about the app costs you’ll accumulate as your store grows.
If you can work within those parameters, Shopify remains one of the most capable, beginner-friendly, and scalable platforms available. If those limitations feel like deal-breakers for your specific business model, WooCommerce is a mature, proven alternative and no platform transaction fees.
Either way, the most important step is getting your business online, and making sure the foundation you choose sets you up for growth.
Not sure whether Shopify or WooCommerce is the right fit for your business? At WebStitch Design, we help South African small businesses choose the right platform, build it properly, and connect all the tools you need to start selling. Contact us at vic@webstitchdesign.com
