Most “Shopify Singapore” guides are written by fintech companies trying to sell you their payment account. This one isn’t. We help Singapore Shopify operators run their stores end-to-end — SGD math, GST setup, payment-stack tuning, app pruning. This is the version of the guide we’d hand to a friend opening a Shopify store next month.
Shopify pricing in SGD (verified 2026)
Shopify bills in USD and the SGD figures fluctuate with FX, but here’s where you’ll land at typical 2026 rates:
| Plan | USD/mo | ~SGD/mo | Transaction fee (no Shopify Payments) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $29 | ~S$39 | 2.0% | Solo / under S$30K MRR |
| Shopify | $79 | ~S$105 | 1.0% | S$30K–100K MRR |
| Advanced | $299 | ~S$399 | 0.5% | S$100K MRR+, multi-staff |
| Plus | $2,300+ | ~S$3,100+ | 0.15% | S$1M+ annual revenue |
The transaction fee gotcha: if you use a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify charges an additional 0.5–2.0% on every order. For most SG sellers, Shopify Payments (powered by Stripe SG) is the right default because it eliminates that fee. Add HitPay alongside as a parallel payment option for PayNow QR — it’s not a Shopify Payments competitor, it’s a complementary local rail.
Annual prepay saves 25%. If you’re committed to Shopify for a year, prepay annually and save roughly S$10/month on Basic.
The Singapore payment stack
In the first 30 days of running your Shopify store, you’ll get repeated questions: “do you take PayNow?”, “is Atome available?”, “GrabPay can or not?” Ignoring these costs you 8–15% of conversion at checkout — we’ve measured it across 6 SG stores.
The stack that converts best in 2026:
| Method | Best for | Setup | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Payments (Stripe) | International cards, default checkout | Native | 2.4–3.4% + S$0.50 |
| HitPay (PayNow QR) | Singapore-local, mobile-first | App + redirect | 1.7% + S$0.50 |
| Atome | BNPL, AOV S$80+ | Plug-in, instant | 4–6% (BNPL fee) |
| GrabPay | Younger demo, F&B and lifestyle | App | 2.5–3.5% |
Skip if: your AOV is under S$50 and your repeat rate is high — then Atome’s BNPL fee outweighs its conversion lift.
When to register for GST (and how to set it up)
Singapore’s GST registration trigger is S$1M taxable turnover in any rolling 12-month period. Mandatory beyond that. But most SG Shopify operators we see voluntarily register much earlier — at S$60–80K monthly — for two reasons: (1) input tax credits offset Shopify subscription, ad spend, and inventory purchases, (2) B2B-leaning brands lose deals to non-GST-registered competitors who look “smaller.”
Once registered:
- Set Shopify tax to “Singapore” with the 9% GST rate. Shopify auto-applies based on shipping destination.
- Display tax-inclusive prices in your theme settings. SG buyers expect the price they see is the price they pay.
- File quarterly via IRAS myTax Portal. Xero or QuickBooks integration handles 90% of the calculation; budget 1–2 hours per quarter for review.
- Issue tax invoices with your GST registration number, breakdown of net + tax, and standard required fields. Shopify’s invoice template covers this.
If you sell internationally, zero-rated supplies (exports outside SG) carry 0% GST but still need to be filed and tracked.
The 6 Shopify apps every SG store actually needs
The Shopify App Store has 8,000+ apps. Most are bloat. After auditing 30+ SG Shopify stores in the last 18 months, this is the minimum stack we recommend. Skip everything else until you have a specific bottleneck.
- Klaviyo — email + SMS lifecycle. Install before traffic arrives so welcome and abandoned-cart flows capture the first cohort. ~S$30/month at small scale.
- HitPay (or your chosen PayNow gateway) — covered above.
- ReConvert — post-purchase upsell + thank-you page. Typically lifts AOV 5–12%. ~S$10/month.
- Stamped (or Loox) — reviews + UGC. Trust signal that converts SG buyers who are kiasi by default. ~S$25/month.
- ShipStation — multi-carrier shipping rate calculation and label printing. If you’re shipping more than 50 orders/month, this saves 2–3 hours/week. ~S$15/month.
- Shopify Inbox — built-in chat that links to email and Shopify customer records. Free, replaces a paid live-chat tool.
The apps not on this list (and why we skip them): generic SEO apps (use Shopify’s built-in SEO + a clean theme), most “AI product description” apps (the foundation models you already pay for do this better), most “popup” apps (Klaviyo’s built-in popups handle 90% of cases), most “currency converter” apps (Shopify Markets handles it natively now).
Shopify vs Shopee vs Lazada: break-even math
The honest comparison Singapore sellers need:
| Channel | Commission | Customer data | Brand control | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify (DTC) | 0% (your Shopify fees) | Yours | Full | Brand building, repeat-purchase economics |
| Shopee | 5–8% | Limited (no email) | Low | Discovery, low-AOV high-velocity |
| Lazada | 4–7% | Limited | Medium | LazMall accelerates if you can pay for placement |
| TikTok Shop | 2–5% (early days) | Very limited | Low | Live-streaming categories (beauty, fashion) |
Break-even rule of thumb: at AOV S$60 and repeat rate 25%, Shopify becomes more profitable per LTV-dollar than Shopee at roughly S$8K monthly DTC revenue. Below that, the marketplace’s traffic is worth the take rate. Above, you should be biased toward DTC.
The mistake we see most often: SG operators run only on Shopee/Lazada for years, then realise they have no email list, no brand, and no repeat customer relationships when the marketplace decides to throttle them or hike commission. By the time they switch to Shopify, the rebuild cost is brutal. Run both from Day 1, but bias your investment toward the brand asset.
When Shopify Plus becomes worth it
Shopify Plus starts at US$2,300/month (~S$3,100). The features matter (custom checkout via extensibility, B2B wholesale, multi-store, dedicated launch manager), but the price doesn’t earn its bill until you have:
- Annual revenue above S$1M
- Genuine need for B2B + DTC on the same backend
- Plans for cross-border/multi-region within 12 months
- A team of 3+ that touches Shopify daily
For most SG operators, the answer is “stay on Advanced until you trip three of those.” Plus migrations are non-trivial — budget 2-3 months and a partner agency.
What this guide didn’t cover (yet)
- Shopify Markets for SG → SEA expansion — separate guide, depends on your category
- Shopify Functions for custom checkout logic — specialist territory, not Day 1
- Headless Shopify with Hydrogen — only worth it if you have a real engineering team
Internal links and further reading
- AI tools for Singapore SMEs — what to layer on top of Shopify
- Email marketing — Klaviyo vs Mailchimp — the lifecycle automation that turns Shopify traffic into LTV
- GA4 for ecommerce — proper tracking setup for your Shopify store
- Inventory management for SG retail — when Shopify’s native inventory stops being enough
Shopify in Singapore in 2026 is a solved problem at the platform level. The cost of running it is predictable; the integration ecosystem is mature; the SG-specific payment and GST setup takes one afternoon. The hard part isn’t the platform — it’s the discipline of building real demand instead of renting marketplace traffic.