What are the real costs of running a Shopify store?

The platform is the smallest line. Payment processing, apps, advertising, shipping and returns together dwarf the subscription, and the app bill is the one that grows without anybody deciding to grow it.

What decides it

Audit the apps quarterly against what they actually changed. A store paying 400 dirhams a month for apps installed during a problem that was solved a year ago is not unusual, and the money comes straight off the bottom line.

The part that gets skipped

The number that decides whether a store works is not revenue, it is what is left after the cost of the goods and the cost of getting the customer. Plenty of stores with impressive revenue make nothing.

Repeat customers are the whole game. Winning a customer costs money; selling to them again costs almost nothing.

Most of the money in ecommerce is made in unglamorous categories bought regularly, not in the ones that photograph well.

Where an app fits

This is where an app earns its place — it exists to make the second and third purchase easier, which is where the profit is.