Article summary – Best Shopify discount code?
There is no Shopify discount code. How do I know that? Because when I opened my own Shopify account and paid for my subscription there was no place to enter one. Shopify gives their best discounts, which is ~25% with an annual subscription, to everyone. No code needed. The reason some sites are advertising a "Shopify discount code" is because they are trying to trick you into signing up through their affiliate link and make money that way. If you want to thank me for this information, feel free through to sign up through my affiliate link (lol). You pay exactly the same for your Shopify subscription but I get paid a commission if you continue as a Shopify customer after the free trial + 3 months for $1/month period. Open your Shopify account.
Step-by-step instructions for getting a Shopify discount in a picture format
How much can you save with the Shopify discount?
If you were to pay for the “Basic”-plan without a discount the monthly price would be $39. If you use the discount the price drops to $29/month. Thus with the discount you save $120/year.
If you choose the “Shopify”-plan the monthly price without a discount is $105. With the discount the price goes down to $79/month. Thus in a year you would save $312.
If you opt for the “Advanced”-plan the normal monthly price is $399. However, when using the discount the price goes down to $299/month. So, by using the discount you save $1,200 in a year.
Are there any risks in using this promotional offer?
The biggest risk would likely be that, you come to the conclusion that you don’t want to run your online store for at least the duration of your, already paid for, subscription length and thus don’t get the full value of what you paid for. However, it is worth mentioning that if you are opening an online store you really should view it as a long-term commitment, as building a loved brand, for example, takes a good amount of time. Seeing it as something that you plan to do for a good amount of time is important also because businesses tend to have the highest profit margin on returning customers and getting those can take time.
The potential risk mentioned above is obviously significantly reduced by the fact that Shopify offers its customers a 3-day free trial – that 3 days should be enough time to get a good idea of if Shopify is the right e-commerce platform for you.
It is also nice to know that per information from Shopify’s customer service, for the first 30 days (or so) you are eligible for a refund if you decide to cancel or downgrade your annual plan. So in other words, you might in practice get up to 33 days of testing time to decide if you are ready to commit to Shopify.
Are there benefits other than the discount in choosing a longer than monthly subscription?
One clear benefit is that when you have paid for a full year in advance, you don’t have to worry about making sure that the monthly subscription fee gets charged and your store stays online – one less cause of stress when running an ecommerce business.
Additionally, when you choose the yearly payment you should have less reason to worry about Shopify raising its subscription prices than someone paying on a monthly basis might have. Although, as Shopify raised its subscription prices somewhat recently, it is not highly likely that they would raise them again in a near future.
Can you get a discount on the “Shopify Plus” -plan or on Shopify Starter?
Earlier on this page, we discussed the monetary discounts you can get when choosing “Basic”, “Shopify” or “Advanced” as your Shopify plan. In addition to those plans, Shopify also has two somewhat different plans. One of them is called Shopify Plus and the other one is called Shopify Starter.
Getting a percentage discount for the Plus plan can be a bit complicated as it can be priced on an individual basis. The prices of it start from $2,000/month. It is good to note that, if you are interested in the Plus plan and are discussing with Shopify the possibility of buying it, it might a good idea to bring up the discounts for the three other plans, as it might make Shopify more open to giving you a good deal on the Plus plan.
When it comes to Shopify Starter, it doesn’t seem to be a possible to get a discount for it. The $1/month promotion is, however available also for this plan.
How does Shopify compare to other ecommerce platforms?
As getting the discount presented on this page requires a bit of a commitment to Shopify, you might be wondering how good Shopify is when compared to other popular ecommerce platforms. And I am happy to say that at least in my opinion Shopify is currently the best ecommerce platform.
How about the cost of a Shopify membership? Is Shopify a cheap ecommerce platform?
Shopify is not the cheapest ecommerce platform, but it is among the cheapest. And it is quite possible that out of all the ecommerce builders on the market, Shopify’s membership offers by far the best value for money.
Is it possible to get discounts in the Shopify theme store or on the apps?
Many Shopify’s customers choose to upgrade to a paid theme from using one of the free themes. However, unfortunately it does not seem to be possible to get discounts on the theme purchases done through Shopify. Luckily though, the prices of the themes are not too bad when you think about how small the cost of a theme is likely to be when considered on a per month basis, e.g. if you buy a $200 theme and use it for 3 years, you are in a way paying less than $6 for every month that you use the theme ($200/36 = $5.55…).
It is also worth keeping in mind that it is often very much possible or even likely, that you can easily recoup the $180 to $360 investment made on a paid theme thanks to the increased volume of customers and orders the nicer looking theme brings. It is also nice to know that you can actually find paid Shopify themes priced at less than $100 from 3rd party theme marketplaces.
In addition to many Shopify users buying a premium theme, many also buy apps / plugins for their store. That is understandable, as there are many ways in which those apps can be used to improve your store and the customer experience it provides. A high percentage of Shopify plugins have either a free trial or a completely free version (with limited features), but unfortunately there does not seem to be any general promo code that can be used to get a discount on the plugins that do require you to pay for them.
How to invest your savings into your ecommerce business:
There is obviously nothing stopping you from taking the above-mentioned savings and putting them somewhere else, but as you are building an online store, you might want to consider investing them in your ecommerce business. And if you do decide to invest the savings into your business, it is nice to know that there are at least a couple of good options on how to spend the money in order to try to get the maximum boost for your business.
Maybe the most obvious choice would be to spend the money on advertising your store. Traditional advertising on television and/or radio can be quite expensive, but there are plenty of rather cheap options when it comes to online advertising. You might want to consider, for example, using Google AdWords or targeted Facebook ads.
In addition to considering spending the saved money on advertising, you might also want to consider spending it on buying a bit wider selection of products for your store. The odds are that if you are selling at least quite cheap items, you can probably add at least one new kind of product to your store for the savings you get with the discount.
One more natural option on how to spend the money would be to buy a premium store theme from Shopify. While the free themes available via Shopify look quite nice, the paid themes that cost up to $360 can add a level of prestige and credibility to your store. Alternatively or in addition to that, you might also want to consider buying an ecommerce app / plugin from Shopify’s app store, as it might help you to generate more sales and/or save you time when running your store.
Common question: Is it possible to enable discount codes in my own store?
Yes. While Shopify itself doesn’t have a discount code, you can use them when running a store created with Shopify. Best of all creating promo codes for your own Shopify store is extremely easy – you can find the option for creating them directly from the main menu of your store’s admin panel. For what it’s worth, running your own discount promotion with the money you saved by using the 25% discount when opening a Shopify account can be a pretty solid idea, as it can help you to start gaining some traction for, in practice, no cost.
Shopify discount and plans FAQ
Does Shopify offer a student discount? It seems that Shopify does not offer a special discount for students. However, the Shopify discounts mentioned on this page are obviously available also for students.
Why is there no need for a Shopify plan discount code in order to get the savings when paying for your subscription? Shopify appears to be a company that wants every one of its customers to feel like they are treated equally and fairly. And it might not feel very fair if you paid the full price for your Shopify subscription and later on found out that someone else got a significant discount by finding a special discount code. As such, every Shopify customer has the chance to get a discount without a code.
Is it possible that Shopify might introduce a coupon code for plan discounts sometime in the future? It is obviously at least theoretically possible, but given how successful Shopify has been with its current discount policy, I would say that it is unlikely. So, the odds are that there is no point in waiting with opening a Shopify account because of the hope that some special coupon code would suddenly appear.
Can I trust Shopify with my money? I believe so: based on everything I know Shopify is safe, so there shouldn’t be a risk of them disappearing with the money you paid for your long- or short-term plan.
Can the same person get both the free trial offer and the plan discount?
Yes, you can start with the 3-day free trial and then if you feel that Shopify is the right choice for you (as a lot of people do), you can choose your plan and pay for it while getting the plan discount.
Can I get the discount if I have already opened my Shopify account?
Yes. As you don’t have to activate this discount by using some special promo code when you are opening your Shopify account, it is available also for existing accounts.
Can I use the discount multiple times?
There isn’t currently any indication that it wouldn’t be possible to use this discount multiple times, which makes it especially good if you plan to or hope to be able to have a Shopify store for a long time. However, it is obviously possible that at some point in the future Shopify stops offering the discount deal.
Which Shopify plan should I choose?
In terms of value for money, the best Shopify plan for most users is Shopify Basic. However, especially if you expect to generate a lot of sales or need more reports than you get with the Basic-plan, you should consider the plan called just “Shopify” or the Advanced-plan. This question has been explored in more depth in our Shopify review.
Do I need a credit card for the Shopify free trial?
No. You can start your free trial simply by giving some basic information that is needed to get you started.
How can I pay for my Shopify subscription?
According to Shopify, they accept credit cards and PayPal for paying for your own subscription. And additionally, they do also appear to accept debit cards, even though they are not explicitly mentioned on Shopify’s website.
The information presented on this page was checked when writing and/or updating this page. Shopify can make changes, for example, to its pricing. It is always a good idea to double-check the price before paying for your subscription.
Ready to open your Shopify account? Go to Shopify.
