Ecommerce guide
Shopify Philippines: the complete 2026 setup guide
What Shopify really costs in pesos once the fees are added up, how an owned store compares to a marketplace, and how to launch one in a day or two, written for Filipino sellers who want to own what they build.
Can you run Shopify in the Philippines? Yes, fully. You can price in pesos, accept GCash and Maya through PayMongo, and connect local couriers like J&T, LBC and Flash Express. Because Shopify Payments doesn’t operate here, a transaction fee of 0.2–2% applies per order depending on your plan, on top of your gateway’s fee. A working store can go live in one to two days.
You’re already selling online, or you’re about to start. Sooner or later you hit a question the dashboard can’t answer for you: what are you actually building here, and who owns it at the end? This guide walks through the decision and the setup. What Shopify costs in pesos once the fees are added up, how an owned store compares to a marketplace, then the step-by-step launch, the payment gateways that work here, how to connect couriers, and which themes to start with.
Shopify in the Philippines, by the numbers
What Shopify is, and why sellers here care
Shopify is a hosted commerce platform. You sign up, pick a theme, add your products, connect a payment method, and you have a working store. You can sell from a website, your phone, social media and a physical counter, and run products, inventory, payments and shipping from one dashboard. It all runs in the browser, and Shopify handles the hosting, the security and the uptime, so you’re not patching a server at midnight.
The part that matters most for sellers here is ownership. The customer list is yours, the data is yours, and so is the checkout. The brand sits with you, not with the platform renting you space. For anyone who’s spent years building a following on a platform they don’t control, that’s the real shift. Shopify now powers more than 2.54 million live store domains worldwide as of 2025.
What Filipino Shopify stores look like
Some of the brands you already buy from run on Shopify. According to BuiltWith’s live tracker, 4,438 Shopify stores are operating in the Philippines as of June 2026, with names like Penshoppe, Titan22, Payless PH and Sunnie Studios among them, mostly retail, fashion, sports and lifestyle brands using Shopify as their main storefront. (If you’re still weighing the market itself, start with why ecommerce is booming in the Philippines.)
The ones doing well share a habit: they treat the store as a CRM, not a sales page. Every completed purchase adds a buyer to the email list. The packaging carries a QR code to a signup offer. A discount code, early access or a small gift on the second order nudges repeat buyers toward ordering direct.
A social following is rented from whoever owns the feed. An email list, you keep.
Shopify vs selling on a marketplace
You have two real options as a Philippine seller: sell through a marketplace that brings its own traffic, or build a store you own and bring the traffic yourself. Both make money. What they don’t do is build the same asset.
| What you get | Marketplace (Shopee, Lazada, TikTok) | Your own Shopify store |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic | Built-in, instant | You build it: ads, search, social |
| Per-order cost | Commission on every sale | Plan + gateway fee, no commission |
| Customer data | Stays with the platform | Yours: email and order history |
| Best for | Reach and first orders | Margin and repeat purchases |
For most sellers the honest answer is both. Use marketplace listings for reach and that first wave of orders, and run a Shopify store for the owned relationship and the repeat purchases. If you’re starting from zero, validate first on a Shopee store or a Lazada store, then bring the proven demand home. Our neutral build guide walks through choosing the channel mix.
The honest pros and cons
What you gain, and what it costs
Where Shopify works well
Setup is quick. With product content ready, a store with a custom domain, a catalogue and a working gateway can go live in a day, and the basics need no developer. The checkout holds up well on mobile, the data stays with you, and the app ecosystem covers most of what a Philippine seller needs without code: PayMongo for GCash and Maya, Shipmates for couriers, plus reviews, abandoned-cart recovery and post-purchase upsells.
Where it costs you
Shopify Payments doesn’t operate here, so a Shopify transaction fee lands on every sale unless you’re on Plus, on top of your gateway’s own fee. The subscription is billed in US dollars, so your base cost moves with the exchange rate. And nobody sends you traffic. The reach a marketplace hands you for free, you now have to create. None of these are dealbreakers; they’re the trade you make for ownership.
What Shopify costs in the Philippines
Shopify bills in US dollars. Your storefront shows pesos, but the subscription itself arrives as a dollar charge. Because Shopify Payments isn’t available here, the Shopify transaction fee applies on every plan except Plus, so the plan you pick changes how much of each sale you keep.
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly | 3rd-party gateway fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | US$25 (≈₱1,450) | US$19/mo (≈₱1,102) | 2% |
| Grow | US$65 (≈₱3,770) | US$49/mo (≈₱2,842) | 1% |
| Advanced | US$399 (≈₱23,142) | US$299/mo (≈₱17,342) | 0.6% |
| Plus | from US$2,300 | custom | 0.2% |
Verified against shopify.com/ph/pricing, June 2026. Peso figures approximate at ₱58/USD. Annual billing saves about 24%. First 3 months at US$1/mo on select plans.
Which plan to pick. Basic is fine for validating a new store. With current pricing, the moment your monthly sales clear about ₱175,000, moving to Grow pays for itself: its 1% transaction fee versus Basic’s 2% saves more than the extra subscription costs. Advanced only starts to make sense much higher up, around ₱3.6 million a month, where its 0.6% fee finally outweighs the bigger plan price. Below that, Grow wins. Once the store is validated, pay annually.
What does a sale actually cost? Take a ₱500 order paid by GCash on Basic:
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Shopify transaction fee, Basic (2%) | ₱10.00 |
| PayMongo GCash fee (2.23%) | ₱11.15 |
| Per-sale fees | ₱21.15 + plan spread |
Now add the subscription. On the Basic yearly plan (≈₱1,102/mo), 100 orders a month spreads the subscription to about ₱11 an order, so a ₱500 sale costs roughly ₱32 all in, or 6.4%. On monthly billing (≈₱1,450/mo) that’s about ₱36 a sale, or 7.1%. Push volume to 200 orders a month and the yearly plan drops to around 5.3%. Set that against your current marketplace commission and the math usually makes its own case. For a gateway-by-gateway breakdown, see our Shopify payment methods guide.
One to two days, in order
How to set up your store, step by step
- 01
Start the trial and pick a plan
Go to shopify.com/ph and start the 3-day free trial. Shopify is currently running the first 3 months at ₱58/month (US$1), so test before you pay full price.
- 02
Set your currency to PHP first
Settings → Store Details, before you add any products. Switching currency later can leave inconsistencies in your pricing records.
- 03
Choose and set up a theme
Start with a free theme. Upload your logo, set colours and fonts, and arrange the homepage sections in the drag-and-drop editor.
- 04
Add your products
Titles, descriptions, images and variants under Products → Add Product. Clear price and return information from the start.
- 05
Connect PayMongo
Install it from the Shopify App Store and verify your merchant account with DTI or SEC registration and a bank account. GCash, Maya, GrabPay and cards then appear at checkout automatically.
- 06
Set your shipping zones
Settings → Shipping and Delivery. Create at least two zones, Metro Manila and the rest of the country, and assign a rate to every province, or buyers can’t check out.
- 07
Install a courier app
Shipmates connects J&T, LBC, Ninjavan and others in one place. Run a full dummy order (product, checkout, payment, waybill) before you go live.
- 08
Connect your domain and launch
Settings → Domains. Buy through Shopify or point an existing domain, then remove the store password under Online Store → Preferences.
Payments
Payment gateways: GCash, Maya, and what works
Every gateway here is a separate third party, each with its own merchant account, payout schedule and fees. The good news is the local options are solid and the integrations are clean. PayMongo is the standard pick; keep Dragonpay, cash on delivery and PayPal as the supporting cast.
Myth to skip: you don’t need a separate “GCash for Business” or “Maya Business” wallet to accept GCash and Maya through PayMongo. PayMongo is the acquirer: the customer pays from their own GCash and the money settles to your bank. All you register with PayMongo is your DTI or SEC and a bank account.
PayMongo
The official Shopify plugin and the default choice. Covers GCash, Maya, GrabPay, Visa and Mastercard, BillEase for buy-now-pay-later, and over-the-counter through 7-Eleven, M Lhuillier and Cebuana.
Dragonpay
Bank transfers and over-the-counter through Instapay, PESONet and Bayad Center. A good second option for buyers who avoid e-wallets: older customers, provincial buyers, and anyone whose bank isn’t well connected to GCash or Maya.
Cash on delivery
Not a gateway, just a setting in Shopify; your courier collects the cash and remits it, usually weekly. Returns and cancellations run far above prepaid, commonly 20–40% for fashion and lifestyle, so offer it where your margins can absorb that.
PayPal
Worth turning on if you sell to buyers abroad, or to Filipino buyers who already use it. It plugs straight into Shopify and adds a bit of trust on cross-border orders.
Delivery
Connecting couriers to Shopify
You connect couriers through third-party apps, either a multi-courier aggregator or a plugin from the carrier itself. Routes vary enough across the country that no single carrier handles everything well, so most sellers run more than one. Our Shopify shipping 101 guide lists every courier you can integrate.
GoGo Xpress
One of the more complete integrations among local couriers. Handles COD natively, includes free parcel pick-ups and real-time tracking, and can collect COD payment at checkout. Strongest for Metro Manila and nearby areas.
Flash Express
Free door-to-door nationwide pick-ups, 365-day service and free pouches once you’re affiliated, with a free Shopify plugin. A good fit if you want a direct carrier relationship without an aggregator in the middle.
Lalamove
Built for same-day and on-demand delivery around Metro Manila, with instant fee quotes, booking and live driver tracking at checkout. Run it alongside a provincial carrier like LBC or J&T, not instead of one.
Local playbook
Selling online in the Philippines: what’s different here
A Shopify store here runs into a few things international guides skip. Four worth building in from the start:
Offer COD, but selectively
A real share of Filipino buyers still expect cash on delivery, especially in the provinces. If your category and margins can absorb the 20–40% return rate that comes with it, offer it. If not, limit COD to Metro Manila, where remittance and returns move faster.
Speak your buyers’ language
Consider Filipino product descriptions, or at least a Tagalog announcement bar or FAQ. Shopify’s Markets feature supports more than one language on a single store, and buyers respond to a brand that talks the way they do.
Social is your main discovery channel
Filipino shoppers find products on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok well before they search Google. Shopify connects to Facebook Shop, Instagram Shopping and TikTok Shop, so set those up before you spend on paid traffic.
Plan around the buying calendar
11.11, 12.12, the Christmas run (which starts around September here) and the payday weekends near the 15th and 30th are when buyers are most active. Build campaigns around those dates, not ordinary weeks.
Free Shopify themes for Philippine stores
A theme is the design framework for your store, and it decides how the store behaves on a phone. You pick one, drop in your brand assets, and you have a presentable store without writing code. Themes come in two kinds, free and paid, and every one is mobile-responsive out of the box and editable in the drag-and-drop editor.
Shopify builds and supports a small set of free themes. Dawn is the right starting point for most stores: it’s fast, mobile-first, and scores well on Core Web Vitals, which feeds into SEO. The free themes are fully functional, and most sellers launching their first store never need to pay for one. Paid themes (roughly US$100 to US$430) add merchandising features the free ones leave out, like sticky add-to-cart and bundle builders, worth it only when those would otherwise mean paying a developer. If you’d rather not touch the theme code at all, LOKAL can design and build the store, and Shopify POS extends the same catalogue to a physical counter.
How LOKAL helps
LOKAL is a certified Shopify Partner agency. We build stores and then stay on to maintain, manage and market them, instead of handing over a login and walking away. If your store has to perform after launch and not only look good at handoff, that’s the difference that matters. Thinking about launching or rebuilding? Talk to LOKAL about your Shopify project. We handle the whole build, from setup and payments through to SEO and ongoing performance. You can start a Shopify store today; it takes less time than spending another week deciding whether to.
FAQ
Common questions
Does Shopify work in the Philippines?
Yes. Shopify is fully available, supports peso pricing, connects to local gateways like GCash and Maya through PayMongo, and integrates with Philippine couriers. Shopify Payments isn't offered here, so you use a third-party gateway, which adds a Shopify transaction fee of 0.2% to 2% per order depending on your plan (2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus).
How do I accept GCash on Shopify in the Philippines?
Install PayMongo, the Philippine gateway with an official Shopify plugin. Once it's installed and your merchant account is verified, GCash appears at checkout automatically, alongside Maya, GrabPay and cards. Buyers approve the payment in their GCash app and return to your confirmation page, and funds settle to your bank in about 3–5 business days.
How much does Shopify cost in the Philippines?
The Basic plan is US$25/month, or US$19/month (about ₱1,102) on annual billing, plus a 2% Shopify transaction fee and your gateway fee on every sale. On a ₱500 GCash order at 100 orders a month, the all-in cost works out to roughly ₱32, or about 6.4%. Shopify bills in US dollars, so your base cost moves with the exchange rate.
Should I offer cash on delivery on my Shopify store?
Selectively. A real share of Filipino buyers still expect COD, especially in the provinces, but return and cancellation rates run far above prepaid, commonly 20–40% for fashion and lifestyle. Offer it where your margins can absorb that, and consider limiting it to Metro Manila where remittance and returns move faster.
Is Shopify worth it for a Filipino seller just starting out?
Only if you already have a product that sells and an audience to send to the store. Starting from zero, validate on a marketplace like Shopee or Lazada first. Once you have steady sales and want to own the customer relationship, that is when Shopify earns its keep.
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