Understand ShopBase fee & charge

ShopBase is required to charge certain fees in order to keep your store working seamlessly. In this article, we will explain all types of fees and charges on ShopBase, and details of each.

Based on your ShopBase packages and billing cycles, your bill will show several charges and fees in US$.

A. Subscription fees

The recurring charge for using ShopBase is called a subscription fee, and it varies depending on your package. ShopBase offers 4 package options (Fulfillment Only, Basic Base, Standard Base, Pro Base) and 2 billing cycles (monthly and annually). You can find out the pricing here for each plan. Quarterly and Annual billing cycle goes with a discount on the subscription charge amount compared to monthly one. You can get cheaper price when purchasing annual subscription fee.

Currently, the subscription fees are paid via the store's Balance.

Stores that choose package plan during their free-trial won't be charged immediately. They will pay the fee when the subscription starts after free-trial period.

If the transaction for the first subscription fee collection fails (right after the free-trial period ends), the system will charge you again 1 day later by default. If the payment hasn't been made successfully after 1 recharge, the store will be frozen at the time of the first recharge.

Starting March 4, 2025, ShopBase charges a $5/30 days fee for the Fulfillment-Only Subscription (with a 10% discount for annual plans). This package provides full access to ShopBase features and fulfillment services, but the storefront will remain unavailable.

Check and upgrade/downgrade your plan

From your ShopBase admin, go to Settings > Account.

In Account overview section, you can see your current plan. To change your plan, click Compare plan or Upgrade plan. You will be directed to select your new plan.

Confirm your change of plan.

Subscription change when plan is changed

When you upgrade or downgrade your plan, the remaining days of your subscription will be recalculated and deducted from the new subscription that you are charged immediately from your Balance.

If the recalculated subscription fee is equal or above the new subscription fee, the exceeding amount will be changed to additional subscription days, and you won't be charged until these days are used up.

B. Transaction fees

Transaction fee (or payment processing fee) is charged for each transaction when you use a payment provider integrated in your ShopBase store to receive customer payments for successful orders.

The transaction fee rate depends on which package you selected. The transaction fee is waived if your store has less than 50 orders and is in free trial period.

Who are payment providers?

Payment providers are services that help to process your customers' payments to you with an amount of transaction fee charged. For example, Stripe allows your orders to be paid by major cards or mobile apps.

At the moment, you can connect various payment providers to be your store's payment gateways, including our built-in payment gateways: ShopBase Payments and ShopBase Marketplace Payments. Please refer to this article for more information on payment gateways.

Calculate your transaction fees

The transaction fee is calculated using the following formula: [(Cost of products - Discount) + Shipping fee] x Rate

Every day, ShopBase generates an open invoice for each shop that includes all transactions of transaction fees occurring from 00:00:00 UTC +0 to 23:59:59 UTC +0 on that day. This open invoice will be charged the following day at 0:00 UTC +0.

The transaction fee is added to the open invoice after an order is successfully placed and paid.

For orders that have been placed but been requested for refund, the transaction fee will be deducted, if only it has not been charged successfully.

C. SMS fees

These are charged for each Abandoned Checkout SMS sent from ShopBase to your customers.

This fee is determined by the recipient’s region as follows:

North America (including United States, Canada): $0.02/SMS sent. Starting February 1, 2025, each shop must lease a toll-free number and verify business information to send SMS messages to the US and Canada. The number leasing fee is $2.15/month.

South America (including Nicaragua, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Barbados, Venezuela, Panama, Paraguay, Haiti, Bermuda, Grenada, Aruba, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Anguilla, Suriname, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines): $0.08/SMS sent.

Europe (including France, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Ireland, Turkey, Finland, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus, Serbia, Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Georgia, Luxembourg, Albania, Greenland, Iceland, Macedonia, Armenia, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Faroe Islands, Andorra): $0.12/SMS sent

The number leasing fee is charged immediately after choosing to lease a number for US/Canada SMS.

Every day, ShopBase generates an open invoice for each shop that has sent SMS messages. This invoice includes all SMS fee transactions occurring from 00:00:00 UTC +0 to 23:59:59 UTC +0 on that day. This open invoice will be charged the following day at 0:00 UTC +0.

After an SMS was sent, the SMS fee is added to the open invoice and held in your Current available balance until the open invoice is charged. You cannot request a payout or use this hold amount to pay for other ShopBase services.

If the SMS fee fails to be held, no transaction will be created, and the abandoned checkout SMS service will be interrupted for the store immediately.

D. What happens when the charge fails

The transaction is considered failed when ShopBase can't charge your fees. In that case, there will be a warning on your ShopBase admin page. The following actions will be taken on your store depending on the type of transaction:

Subscription fee: If the first charge is failed, the system will collect the fee by default after 3 days (since the first charge). If the payment hasn't made after 6 recharges (each 3 days apart), the store will be frozen at the time of the sixth recharge payment.

Others: If the first charge is failed, the system will charge you again 1 day later by default. If the payment hasn't made after 6 recharges (each 1 day apart), the store will be frozen at the time of the sixth recharge payment.

E. Negative balance

When your balance reaches below $0.00, our system will automatically top-up the balance. The amount is withdrawn from your card connected to your account. For more information, please refer to our article here about ShopBase Balance.

F. Troubleshooting - Credit card is declined

When you top up your balance or when an invoice is charged directly from your credit card, there are instances where the request may be declined for the following reasons:

Transaction Not Allowed: Your bank declined the transaction for unspecified reasons, possibly due to an issue with the card itself. You will need to contact your bank for more information or use different payment methods (another credit card or wire transfer).

Invalid Transaction: Your bank declined the transaction, typically because the card in question does not support this type of transaction – for example, an FSA debit card is used for a non-healthcare related purchase. You will need to contact your bank for more information or use different payment methods (another credit card or wire transfer).

Processor Declined: Your bank is unwilling to accept the transaction. The reasons for this response can vary. You will need to contact your bank for more information or use different payment methods (another credit card or wire transfer).

Declined: Your bank is unwilling to accept the transaction. You will need to contact your bank for more information regarding this generic decline or use different payment methods (another credit card or wire transfer).

Insufficient Funds: Your account did not have sufficient funds to cover the transaction amount at the time of the transaction – subsequent attempts at a later date may be successful.

Invalid Credit Card Number: You entered an invalid payment method or made a typo in your credit card information. Have you correct the payment information and attempt the transaction again – if the decline persists, you will need to contact your bank for more information.

Do Not Honor: Your bank is unwilling to accept the transaction. You will need to contact your bank for more information or use different payment methods (another credit card or wire transfer).

Gateway Rejected: risk_threshold: The transaction or verification request did not meet certain settings or rules of the payment gateway, resulting in rejection. We suggest using alternative payment methods (another credit card or wire transfer).

For more details on how to top up via wire transfer, please refer to this article.

In some cases, you will encounter other reasons. For more details, please refer to the Braintree document provided.

G. Billing cycle

A billing cycle is the interval at which ShopBase bills your plan fees and charges.

Monthly: 30 days

Yearly: 365 days

You cannot choose the date that you get charged on, but you can extend your billing cycle to a longer interval (one, two, or three years) to earn a discount.